Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Florida
Own a retail store. Customer made a purchase totaling $76.85. Debit charge did not go through but credit charge did. Customers bank charged him twice even though Debit was not authorized. I refunded him the Charge amount. In short I have not been paid and now attempts to contact customer are being ignored. Is there anything I can do legally?
2 Answers from Attorneys
It would appear that you are out of pocket unless your credit card processing company rules allow you to process the debit or credit card again.
Small claims allows you file against the customer with an attorney. If you send a Civil Theft letter, you will be entitled to 3 times the loss plus attorneys fees.
I addition, you may attempt to file a police report if you feel that the customer intentionally took payment on false pretenses. Most law enforcement do not want to get involved with petty amounts and may say its a civil matter.
I hope this was helpful.
While you might have some legal recourse, it's going to cost you much more than $76 in time and effort.
It is very unlikely that any attorney would take this case except on an hourly basis, which means you are going to have to pay the attorney first. The only way you are ever going to break even on the attorneys fees is if the Court awards the attorney the amount you paid him, or more. Plus, the other party has to pay - just obtaining a judgment isn't enough. In my opinion, though you may have an "airtight" case, it's a financial loser for you. The better option is to find out from other retailers, your bank, whomever, what you can do in the future to make sure this doesn't happen to you again.
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