Texas
I work in retail and became friends with one of the stores loyal customers. We will call this friend by the name of Josh. Josh was in the automotive painting business. I had Josh paint several interior car pieces for me. I paid him up front, he was always loyal, honest, and had a very quick turn around time. I had him do jobs for me on 3 different occasions. The third time, I let him know that I was going to order a center console and have him paint it for me. About a month passed and I finally got around to ordering the console, but I lost his number. I found the Josh on an Internet forum and had him call me. We got back in contact with each other through text message and he told me that he had quit his job at the shop. He told me his friend had the tools needed in order to paint my console. Through text we agreed on a price ($250) to have the work done and he told me it would take twelve days. We agreed on a time to meet up (4:00) and he text messaged me when he arrived at the location. We exchanged the parts and money. I texted Josh a week later to get an update on the parts. It had been a wet month and it was very humid outside. He told me that the parts have only been sanded down, but not painted because of how humid it was. Thats fine, I was in no rush. A few weeks pass and I texted him for an update, but received no reply. I found out (through an online forum) that he wrecked his car. The following weekend I receive a text message saying, "say man I thought I'd tell you josh got in a wreck last week and totaled his car" I replied with, "I hope you are ok", he said "I wasn't with him. He scrapped his car and moved to Louisiana. I just got his phone charged and seen you sent 3 messages". This all sounded kind of fishy to me, so I did some research. I found some postings that he made on Craigslist and replied to them, he made it clear where he lived and what his phone number was, he did not know this was me asking the questions though.He has lied to me in order to try and scam me out of my parts and money. He has sent me numerous messages about how, "this is not Josh" and he was starting to get aggressive.
So my question is, what can I do about this? Is this something I can take to the small claims court? I have nothing on pen and paper, however, I do have text messages. All in all, the parts + the $250 that I gave him, adds up to over $800.
Thanks in advance for any help!
Cameron
I work in retail and became friends with one of the stores loyal customers. We will call this friend by the name of Josh. Josh was in the automotive painting business. I had Josh paint several interior car pieces for me. I paid him up front, he was always loyal, honest, and had a very quick turn around time. I had him do jobs for me on 3 different occasions. The third time, I let him know that I was going to order a center console and have him paint it for me. About a month passed and I finally got around to ordering the console, but I lost his number. I found the Josh on an Internet forum and had him call me. We got back in contact with each other through text message and he told me that he had quit his job at the shop. He told me his friend had the tools needed in order to paint my console. Through text we agreed on a price ($250) to have the work done and he told me it would take twelve days. We agreed on a time to meet up (4:00) and he text messaged me when he arrived at the location. We exchanged the parts and money. I texted Josh a week later to get an update on the parts. It had been a wet month and it was very humid outside. He told me that the parts have only been sanded down, but not painted because of how humid it was. Thats fine, I was in no rush. A few weeks pass and I texted him for an update, but received no reply. I found out (through an online forum) that he wrecked his car. The following weekend I receive a text message saying, "say man I thought I'd tell you josh got in a wreck last week and totaled his car" I replied with, "I hope you are ok", he said "I wasn't with him. He scrapped his car and moved to Louisiana. I just got his phone charged and seen you sent 3 messages". This all sounded kind of fishy to me, so I did some research. I found some postings that he made on Craigslist and replied to them, he made it clear where he lived and what his phone number was, he did not know this was me asking the questions though.He has lied to me in order to try and scam me out of my parts and money. He has sent me numerous messages about how, "this is not Josh" and he was starting to get aggressive.
So my question is, what can I do about this? Is this something I can take to the small claims court? I have nothing on pen and paper, however, I do have text messages. All in all, the parts + the $250 that I gave him, adds up to over $800.
Thanks in advance for any help!
Cameron
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