Legal Question in Consumer Law in Oregon

I ordered a custom guitar effects pedal from a company online. this transaction was to take 30 days. After 3 months they finally sent me a pedal and it was the wrong one. not only that it didn't work properly. We came to an arrangement and I was to send the pedal back for repair and he was going to pay the costs of shipping and send it back the same day. The pedal was never sent back and the small business won't respond to my emails. i have been dragged around for 4 months and am out $208.30. What can i do?

I have filed a complaint through the BBB, tried to get the money through my VISA card (but do NACHA rules my claim was declined), and am now looking into going to small claims court. My question is, will he have to come to court here in Oregon where I live, or would I have to go to Missouri where he lives. This was an online transaction.

I have also been told that I should file a claim through the Kansas City, Missouri Attorney general. Should I go through theirs or locally?


Asked on 3/26/10, 5:14 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Daniel Meek Daniel W. Meek

The Attorney General of Missouri is not going to get your money back for you. You can file a complaint there, but it will not get you back your money. The BBB is not going to get it back for you, either.

You can sue the company in Oregon, provided you follow the rules for serving the summons and complaint on the company. That means probably hiring a process server in Missouri. It is very unlikely that the company will show up to defend the lawsuit, so you will most likely get a default judgment in Oregon. Then you have to register the default judgment in Missouri and probably hire a collections attorney in Missouri to try to squeeze the money out of the company. The collections attorney finds the company's accounts and property and puts liens on them. He then forecloses on the liens, which requires, for example, the bank with the company's money in it to turn over the appropriate amount of money to the collections attorney. Such an attorney is going to cost you hundreds of dollars. And the company is probably insolvent, anyway.

Bottom line is that it will cost you a lot more to sue the company for $200 than $200.

You can go to sites like yelp.com and epinions.com and sound off on what this company did to you. That will not get your money back but will at least warn others.

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Answered on 4/01/10, 4:06 pm


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