.. to take a company to small claims court??

[amberatkins]

Do normal people do this?? Will it cost me a fortune to claim? Is it worth it to get back £100?? Or am I BU an just being pig headed???

Is it too 'Judge Judy'? The cases are real, the rulings are final, this is her courtroom...

amberatkins...I think it really depends on what the situation is as to weather it can be assertained AIBU? I think for our 'independant' jury of MNs to make judgement in this case we really have to know the full facts

costs about e7.50 in ireland. go for it, companies think they can rip off people for small amounts like 20-100 euro because they will assume it's not worth the time and effort to pursue and in the end they won't get it back. if you have a good case you will.
put it this way, if you owed them 100 pound they'd most certainly chase you down.

Often all it takes is the threat of small claims - firms know that you can really do this, so they get frightened. And worse case scenario, you go to small claims, it will not cost you much (I don't know the figures know), and if you win you'll get the small claims fee back.

We've threatened about 3 organisations (over the last decade), and have always got satisfaction without the hassle of going to small claims - when loads of letters/phone calls have just been ignored.

Depends what it's for.

FWIW we took a plumbing/heating company to small claims for about £2,000 a few years ago, and got the judgment, but never saw a penny. Enforcing the judgment once you've got it is the next step. The company in question for us hid behind name changes and PO boxes for this very reason.

Salsmum Sorry, I don't really want to post the details (nothing juicy I promise) just cautious of giving to much personal detail away on the web. But all the people I have asked in RL think I have a good case.

Was wondering how much it would cost really and whether its something real people do.

MajorQ You are totally right, if I owed them £100 they'd want it wouldn't they?!

Sorry for slow response, posting between sorting out DD.

Hello, we did it via small claims online. Their website is very prone to crashing though so allow yourself time and put your submission into an application like Word first.

It costs £35 to submit the claim. Once you've won, the amount is added to the judgement. If they don't pay up at that stage, you then need to acquire a warrant so they can send the court officers round to collect it. That's a further £55 for you to pay out - but again would be added to the amount they had to pay out.

LongTallJosie Thanks thats really helpful. I can't believe I might sue someone, it seems very weird, but am so pi**ed off with them! Grr!

I do this all the time for work (self-employed).

The thing to do is to send them a formal letter first, stating why they owe you the money and the steps you have taken to get them to pay (phone calls, letters etc). Then say "I must therefore inform you that if I do not receive payment in full of the outstanding amount within fourteen days from the date of this letter I will have no option but to commence legal proceedings against you in the County Court in order to obtain payment of the amount due."

Send the letter by recorded delivery so that you have proof they've received it.

Then give it three weeks just in case they're real brinksmanship merchants. If they haven't coughed up by then, launch a claim. I also use the moneyclaimonline website linked to above the fee varies according to the size of the claim you're bringing, and will be added to the amount they have to pay you. The website doesn't like Macs, so if you're a mac user, borrow a pc for the purpose. Most of the forms are pretty straightforward you are the claimant, they are the defendant. In the bit that asks for Particulars of Claim you just state the facts of the case, pretty much as you did in the letter you will have sent them. There are restrictions regarding how much you can say, and agree the website can be a bit clunky, but it's pretty straightforward. They have a helpful helpdesk as well if you get stuck.

Thanks, I feel more confident about it now. TBH it more about the principle rather than the money, they seem to think that they don't need to play by the rules and aren't even answering my emails now (very polite but firm emails I might add). So annoying really, I've got better things op do with my time, but I suppose thats what they bank on - that you won't be bothered to sue them.

I think that you can claim interest on the money owed also at about 8%. I took my old bank to court a few years back for bank charges and it was really simple to do. They ended up settling the claim before it got to the court date.

Oh, if the other party does not enter a defence to your claim you win by default.

hi amberatkins ,
we took an electrical company to small claims court last year , we bought a tv from them , it had to go back to them 3 times for repair & still they refused us a refund ,in the end it was still not working etc so we applied to small claims courts & it only cost us ?15euro , (ireland) in the end the case was settled out of court & we got our full refund turns out the company ha already been taken to court 6 times that same year & settled as soon as they received the summons . so go for it you have nothing to lose .

Thanks guys, I've called consumer direct and I know which letters I need to send etc and if they don't respond to those then I will submit a claim. They are still ignoring my emails so I've no choice really.

What is really annoying is that they are a (or a thought so) decent, established company - not some back yard organisation. If I told you who it was you'd all have heard of them. Thats what makes me even more annoyed. You buy things from a good, known brand because you think you can trust them. I could have bought what I wanted from a few other websites but I didn't know them and didn't want to be messed around... seems that backfired

My husband just threatened to take someone to small claims for £75 he had paid but not received goods for.

The vendor was procrastinating since January with every excuse under the sun.

DH threatened (v unlike him) two days later a cheque arrived in the post!

Well, the plot thickens. Have just spoken to consumer direct again to check what I was putting in my letter is correct and they think this company are breaching advertising regs. Consumer Direct are referring the case to trading standards as a criminal breach of the regs, think I might have got this company in trouble...