What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California/Arizona
I am an Arizona business owner currently in a dispute with a California business/business owner.
I ordered and pre-paid for a product (about $8000) and was given an "estimated delivery date" which has long since come and gone.
Now, the business owner acknowledges that he owes me the product (all the paperwork, of course, documents everything), but is giving a sob story about personal problems, company financial problems, etc, and says very cavalierly that he will deliver the product "sometime in the future" when he sorts his problems out. He has also made it clear that in his opinion, I should be content with being told to wait.
I belong to an industry that is pretty tight-knit. In one of my emails to him, I threatened that in the event that I did not receive a refund or the product, to make it widely known the truth of my frustrations with him and his company in an effort to prevent others from being put in the situation as I and to ultimately damage his company and reputation. He then warned me against such a thing and promised to try to prosecute me for extortion. (Incidentally, some other people caught wind of my frustrations with this company and immediately contacted me to share their similar frustrations and mentioned that they created some bad publicity for the company and got immediate results).
I have been researching extortion and it appears that most or all of the people prosecuted for the crime are going after money or property that is not due them. This is clearly not the case with me.
Can anyone offer advice? If I were to make good on my threats, would I be making myself vulnerable to being prosecuted for extortion? Is there anything that I can do in the way of creating bad PR and feel safe from prosecution? I am only trying to get what is rightfully owed me.
Thanks.
I am an Arizona business owner currently in a dispute with a California business/business owner.
I ordered and pre-paid for a product (about $8000) and was given an "estimated delivery date" which has long since come and gone.
Now, the business owner acknowledges that he owes me the product (all the paperwork, of course, documents everything), but is giving a sob story about personal problems, company financial problems, etc, and says very cavalierly that he will deliver the product "sometime in the future" when he sorts his problems out. He has also made it clear that in his opinion, I should be content with being told to wait.
I belong to an industry that is pretty tight-knit. In one of my emails to him, I threatened that in the event that I did not receive a refund or the product, to make it widely known the truth of my frustrations with him and his company in an effort to prevent others from being put in the situation as I and to ultimately damage his company and reputation. He then warned me against such a thing and promised to try to prosecute me for extortion. (Incidentally, some other people caught wind of my frustrations with this company and immediately contacted me to share their similar frustrations and mentioned that they created some bad publicity for the company and got immediate results).
I have been researching extortion and it appears that most or all of the people prosecuted for the crime are going after money or property that is not due them. This is clearly not the case with me.
Can anyone offer advice? If I were to make good on my threats, would I be making myself vulnerable to being prosecuted for extortion? Is there anything that I can do in the way of creating bad PR and feel safe from prosecution? I am only trying to get what is rightfully owed me.
Thanks.