Non performance and breach of contract

[michelo9650]

What is the name of your state? CO. On 1/17/2006 I hired a company out of Calif. to optimize my e-commerce website. I was emailed a contract stating all of the procedures that they would complete and a time frame that they would complete them in. I faxed the contract back to them and paid the complete contract price of $2,995.00 for them to begin their work. There was an additional charge to me for website maintenance which was $495.00 a month. All of this was paid on an AMEX card that was issued to me by one of the investors solely for the purpose of completing anything that needed to be accomplished to get the site up and running. I have an express permission document that give me this authority to use this card. I was told by the owner of the company that it would be an easy job and they could complete the work without any problems. I was contacted by his lead technician within a few days; I issued him a user id and password to access my site. Within a few days I was told by them that they couldn't change anything on my web site due to the proprietary software used to operate the e-commerce site. Evidently they didn't check this out prior to making the commitment to optimize my website. I hired another tech to move my site to another shopping cart so they would be able to make the changes to the site and optimize it as they had indicated in their contract. This process cost us $2,000.00 to have the tech change the site over. Again I issued them a new user id and password to access the site. I was then told that I would have to hire someone to make changes to the site so they could complete their optimization so I complied with their request. The tech and host of the website indicated to me that if they had looked at the site and saw any changes that would have to be made to the site that they would have to complete those tasks as they are the company that had been hired to do the work and that I was paying the tech and host to do the companies work. The company gave me one excuse after another why they hadn’t completed their work. This situation carried on for seven months with no work completed. I asked other reliable programmers to look at the site and tell me what had been done and all of them told me that the company I hired hadn't completed any of the work that they had stated in the contract that they would complete in addition to not doing the work they had been charging me $495.00 for maintaining the site for 3 months but they had not completed the first part of the contract so in fact they couldn't maintain the site because they hadn't completed anything on my site to maintain. I contacted the owner and told him I wanted a refund as it was evident that they were getting no where with their work and that it was costing me sales and revenue each day because they had failed to complete their work. He replied that I will see you and your principles in court and that was the end of the conversation. I contemplated if trying to get the money back was worth it. I just couldn't stand the thought of a person sitting at their computer and telling me "I will see you in court" and knowing that they hadn't even completed anything on my website per their contract. They are in Calif and I am in Co so I contacted small claims in Calif. and they told me that I could file a small claim suit against them but that I would have to appear in court. I accepted what they said a started to fill out the papers. I contacted the court house in my area and they said I should file a civil suit against the company in my jurisdiction so they would have to appear in court in my county. They cost of hiring an attorney is cost prohibitive to me so I decided to pursue it on my own. My question is do I sue him in small claims in Calif. or file a civil suit in my jurisdiction? I would like to see that the company that I work with will get the funds that they have spent on this process but I am confused as to which way to go with this process. Any input to this post would be gratefully appritiated.What is the name of your state?

 

[divgradcurl]

What is the name of your state? CO. On 1/17/2006 I hired a company out of Calif. to optimize my e-commerce website. I was emailed a contract stating all of the procedures that they would complete and a time frame that they would complete them in. I faxed the contract back to them and paid the complete contract price of $2,995.00 for them to begin their work. There was an additional charge to me for website maintenance which was $495.00 a month. All of this was paid on an AMEX card that was issued to me by one of the investors solely for the purpose of completing anything that needed to be accomplished to get the site up and running. I have an express permission document that give me this authority to use this card. I was told by the owner of the company that it would be an easy job and they could complete the work without any problems. I was contacted by his lead technician within a few days; I issued him a user id and password to access my site. Within a few days I was told by them that they couldn't change anything on my web site due to the proprietary software used to operate the e-commerce site. Evidently they didn't check this out prior to making the commitment to optimize my website. I hired another tech to move my site to another shopping cart so they would be able to make the changes to the site and optimize it as they had indicated in their contract. This process cost us $2,000.00 to have the tech change the site over. Again I issued them a new user id and password to access the site. I was then told that I would have to hire someone to make changes to the site so they could complete their optimization so I complied with their request. The tech and host of the website indicated to me that if they had looked at the site and saw any changes that would have to be made to the site that they would have to complete those tasks as they are the company that had been hired to do the work and that I was paying the tech and host to do the companies work. The company gave me one excuse after another why they hadn’t completed their work. This situation carried on for seven months with no work completed. I asked other reliable programmers to look at the site and tell me what had been done and all of them told me that the company I hired hadn't completed any of the work that they had stated in the contract that they would complete in addition to not doing the work they had been charging me $495.00 for maintaining the site for 3 months but they had not completed the first part of the contract so in fact they couldn't maintain the site because they hadn't completed anything on my site to maintain. I contacted the owner and told him I wanted a refund as it was evident that they were getting no where with their work and that it was costing me sales and revenue each day because they had failed to complete their work. He replied that I will see you and your principles in court and that was the end of the conversation. I contemplated if trying to get the money back was worth it. I just couldn't stand the thought of a person sitting at their computer and telling me "I will see you in court" and knowing that they hadn't even completed anything on my website per their contract. They are in Calif and I am in Co so I contacted small claims in Calif. and they told me that I could file a small claim suit against them but that I would have to appear in court. I accepted what they said a started to fill out the papers. I contacted the court house in my area and they said I should file a civil suit against the company in my jurisdiction so they would have to appear in court in my county. They cost of hiring an attorney is cost prohibitive to me so I decided to pursue it on my own. My question is do I sue him in small claims in Calif. or file a civil suit in my jurisdiction? I would like to see that the company that I work with will get the funds that they have spent on this process but I am confused as to which way to go with this process. Any input to this post would be gratefully appritiated.What is the name of your state?

If you file suit in Colorado, unless the CA company has an office in CO, the CA company will almost certainly be able to have the CO case dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. Further, even if you somehow obtained a judgment in CO, if the CA company has no assets in CO, it might be difficult to collect on the judgment (you would need to domesticate the judgment into CA).

If the amount is under or around the CA small claims limit ($7500), it's probably best to file in CA small claims court (in their county), serve the CA company, and then fly out for the day for the case, then if you win, collection should be relatively straightforward, and you can enforce the judgment against them if they refuse to pay up. Sure, it will cost something in airfare and hotel bills (if you stay over) that you can't recoup, but in the long run you will probably be better off.

 

[michelo9650]

Non performance and breech of contract

Thank you for your responce it is invaluable to me. If I could, can you tell me what information would make my case stronger. I have all of the email treads printed out with the owners and techs responce to my emails. I have the contract signed by me and all of the reciepts for the charges.

Thank you very much.

 

[divgradcurl]

Thank you for your responce it is invaluable to me. If I could, can you tell me what information would make my case stronger. I have all of the email treads printed out with the owners and techs responce to my emails. I have the contract signed by me and all of the reciepts for the charges.

Thank you very much.

If you have emails and receipts and the original contracts, that's probably all you will need. We don't know what kind of evidence they might have, or what defenses they might be coming up with, at least until you've filed your suit and they've answered, once you see their answer you might want to see if you have (or need) any further evidence to rebut any defenses they are mounting.

 

[michelo9650]

If you have emails and receipts and the original contracts, that's probably all you will need. We don't know what kind of evidence they might have, or what defenses they might be coming up with, at least until you've filed your suit and they've answered, once you see their answer you might want to see if you have (or need) any further evidence to rebut any defenses they are mounting.

Again Thank You, I will proceed with the project.