letter from lawyer, missing last name etc

[jmacny78]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
Alabama

I have a friend (famous last words, I know)...but really is the nature of my question...

he had someone come to his house and perform sprinkler repair for him. The work was shoddy, around 20 minutes, and didn't fix the problem.
The man brought my friend an invoice and wanted close to $700 for his 20 minutes of crap work (he actually needed a new control unit and the guy replaced a union and one sprinkler head).

So my friend refused to sign for the work...and told the guy he wasn't paying for him to do such a bad job and not fix the problem..so the guy said something about a lawyer and left.

Well, over a year later, my friend receives a letter this week on Tuesday from a lawyer in Birmingham...
The letter *not certified...just regular mail*...was addressed to "Mr. Lalit"...and that's it. No last name..nothing but his first name only.
It said this was a letter attempting to collect a debt..blah blah the usual..
And asked for my friend to contact this lawyer in regards to the debt.

But..my friend wants to be sure he can ignore it.. before he just ignores it.
There has been no other contact. repairman doesn't even have a phone number to call to ask for money from my friend...

So what exactly can be done here?

 

[quincy]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
Alabama

I have a friend (famous last words, I know)...but really is the nature of my question...

he had someone come to his house and perform sprinkler repair for him. The work was shoddy, around 20 minutes, and didn't fix the problem.
The man brought my friend an invoice and wanted close to $700 for his 20 minutes of crap work (he actually needed a new control unit and the guy replaced a union and one sprinkler head).

So my friend refused to sign for the work...and told the guy he wasn't paying for him to do such a bad job and not fix the problem..so the guy said something about a lawyer and left.

Well, over a year later, my friend receives a letter this week on Tuesday from a lawyer in Birmingham...
The letter *not certified...just regular mail*...was addressed to "Mr. Lalit"...and that's it. No last name..nothing but his first name only.
It said this was a letter attempting to collect a debt..blah blah the usual..
And asked for my friend to contact this lawyer in regards to the debt.

But..my friend wants to be sure he can ignore it.. before he just ignores it.
There has been no other contact. repairman doesn't even have a phone number to call to ask for money from my friend...

So what exactly can be done here?

Your friend can contact the lawyer who sent the letter and arrange to pay the man who did the shoddy work, or your friend can contact an attorney local to him for a review of the letter he received. Your friend should have taken care of this long ago.

 

[TheGeekess]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
Alabama

I have a friend (famous last words, I know)...but really is the nature of my question...

he had someone come to his house and perform sprinkler repair for him. The work was shoddy, around 20 minutes, and didn't fix the problem.
The man brought my friend an invoice and wanted close to $700 for his 20 minutes of crap work (he actually needed a new control unit and the guy replaced a union and one sprinkler head).

So my friend refused to sign for the work...and told the guy he wasn't paying for him to do such a bad job and not fix the problem..so the guy said something about a lawyer and left.

Well, over a year later, my friend receives a letter this week on Tuesday from a lawyer in Birmingham...
The letter *not certified...just regular mail*...was addressed to "Mr. Lalit"...and that's it. No last name..nothing but his first name only.
It said this was a letter attempting to collect a debt..blah blah the usual..
And asked for my friend to contact this lawyer in regards to the debt.

But..my friend wants to be sure he can ignore it.. before he just ignores it.
There has been no other contact. repairman doesn't even have a phone number to call to ask for money from my friend...

So what exactly can be done here?

I guess your 'friend' is not aware that anyone can find out who owns the house at what address by looking at the publicly available tax records that many counties have online now (even the rural Bama ones have gone this route)? And since they already have the address....

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

He is not Mr, Lalit. I would mark it return to sender no such addressee. I know, too late, he could not stop the urge to open it.

 

[LdiJ]

Your friend can contact the lawyer who sent the letter and arrange to pay the man who did the shoddy work, or your friend can contact an attorney local to him for a review of the letter he received. Your friend should have taken care of this long ago.

I am not sure that I agree with you. My reaction to that kind of situation would have been exactly what the OP's friend's was (come on 20 minutes, no actual repair and a demand for 700.00?) Who would be dumb enough to pay that?

Now, a demand from an alleged attorney who doesn't even have a last name? On principal alone I would ignore it.

Over the years I have had both positive and negative experiences with service people. The one thing that I learned was to NEVER give any one any money until the job was successfully completed.

After a few experiences in my younger years where I was told that "we cannot repair it today because we do not have the parts" but you need to pay us for the service call" only to never hear from then again or be able to reach them again I learned to say "heck no, you are not getting paid until the job is complete".

Seriously?

 

[quincy]

I am not sure that I agree with you. My reaction to that kind of situation would have been exactly what the OP's friend's was (come on 20 minutes, no actual repair and a demand for 700.00?) Who would be dumb enough to pay that?

Now, a demand from an alleged attorney who doesn't even have a last name? On principal alone I would ignore it.

Over the years I have had both positive and negative experiences with service people. The one thing that I learned was to NEVER give any one any money until the job was successfully completed.

After a few experiences in my younger years where I was told that "we cannot repair it today because we do not have the parts" but you need to pay us for the service call" only to never hear from then again or be able to reach them again I learned to say "heck no, you are not getting paid until the job is complete".

Seriously?

Possibly seriously, yes.

Work was apparently done, shoddy or not. If the work was unsatisfactory, the matter should have been resolved with the worker at that time. Just refusing to pay an invoice is generally not the best way to handle a dispute over completed work and the billing.

A reason this is generally not the best way to handle a dispute is illustrated here. The friend of jmacny may find himself sued over the amount of the unpaid invoice, and if this winds up in court, it could very well come down to the worker's word against the word of the friend.

Certainly if this friend has some concern about the legitimacy of the attorney letter, he should have it looked over before paying or negotiating a fair settlement amount.

 

[single317dad]

In most any case of a disagreement between a customer and a service company, if a settlement cannot be reached outside court, the options are:

a) pay the bill and sue the service company
b) refuse to pay the bill (or the entire bill) and wait for the service company to sue you

Either way, prepare your case well, or hire a professional to do that for you. Good luck to your friend.