Well this is all new to me and i apologize in advance if this is the wrong section.
I live in California and in November I purchased a pool service business for 23,000 from a local company that has been around for a few years. I met the owner in his local office, contracts were signed, i received a list of accounts and my take over date is listed in the contract as January 1st. The contracts also listed the equipment i was purchasing and i paid in full. At the end of December I sent out letters to all the customers/accounts on the list I received on the day we signed the contracts. Shortly after that i began receiving calls from people saying they had cancelled with this pool company months prior, i also never received my equipment! I began calling, emailing and text messaging the owner of the company and received no response for 3 weeks until I finally threatened him saying I was going to press charges, it has been excuse after excuse and promises of tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow ever since. I have contacted the DA and was told that they go off of police reports so i needed to call the police department. I then called the police department and they told me NO CRIME HAS BEEN committed until he refuses to give me anything, how can that be, is a contract worth nothing, is it not fraud to take my money and give me a list of fake accounts? They told me its a civil case and i needed to speak to a lawyer. I spoke to an attorney yesterday and was told that it will probably cost me 3-5,000 to handle all of this over the course of a year, and when he is found guilty, there is no pressure on him whatsoever to pay up!? Am i missing something here? Any suggestions on where to go from here or do i need to just let this go as a learning experience?
Blake
I live in California and in November I purchased a pool service business for 23,000 from a local company that has been around for a few years. I met the owner in his local office, contracts were signed, i received a list of accounts and my take over date is listed in the contract as January 1st. The contracts also listed the equipment i was purchasing and i paid in full. At the end of December I sent out letters to all the customers/accounts on the list I received on the day we signed the contracts. Shortly after that i began receiving calls from people saying they had cancelled with this pool company months prior, i also never received my equipment! I began calling, emailing and text messaging the owner of the company and received no response for 3 weeks until I finally threatened him saying I was going to press charges, it has been excuse after excuse and promises of tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow ever since. I have contacted the DA and was told that they go off of police reports so i needed to call the police department. I then called the police department and they told me NO CRIME HAS BEEN committed until he refuses to give me anything, how can that be, is a contract worth nothing, is it not fraud to take my money and give me a list of fake accounts? They told me its a civil case and i needed to speak to a lawyer. I spoke to an attorney yesterday and was told that it will probably cost me 3-5,000 to handle all of this over the course of a year, and when he is found guilty, there is no pressure on him whatsoever to pay up!? Am i missing something here? Any suggestions on where to go from here or do i need to just let this go as a learning experience?
Blake
