So sorry to hear that. Losing a pet is so hard.
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Yesterday I learned that American ants can also jump on you. I wasn’t sure where they were coming from until I found they’d gotten into my leftovers. I have decided if ants get into food I was going to eat, I eat it anyway. Insects are a natural food source for humans, apes, and other primates. Regular old black ants don’t taste bad or anything, and you literally don’t even notice they’re there. Enter my food chain at your peril you little wretches 
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Here’s a Fuck Today that I’m looking for a little advice on.
First off, there’s an aquaintance…one of the first to order paintings when I began to have money trouble in September. We agreed on 3 small paintings, for $200 each, 1\2 down as deposit. He sent me $300 through PayPal as deposit. Honestly, I was surprised because I had been working for him for about a year prior to this and left because I felt I was being taken advantage of (but did not say it to his face). Incidentally, our fathers know each other. I figured a simple business deal couldn’t get screwed up, right?
Close to Christmas, I’m about 3 weeks behind but the paintings are done and ready to deliver, but I’m lacking the cash to cross the border, so I email him “Do you think you could send the remainder and I’ll drop them off at your store ASAP?” No answer. So I wait.
Finally, in January, I have a need to go to San Diego right near his business. I take the paintings there and drop them off with my card which has my email addresses. People have been rather patient with me, so I figure I’ll wait for the response. After a month, I start to wonder, but around this time you may remember my cellphone bit the dust, erasing all my contacts and info off the SIM card.
Once I got back to normal after buying a cheap tablet, I try contacting the store, but he doesn’t return my messages. His girlfriend follows my Instagram and Facebook, so I send a polite message, “Did X get my paintings? Were they liked?”
She sends a message back, “Yes, we got them, thank you.”
I write, “Okay. Where should I invoice X for the remainder?” (they have a side account for stuff not directly related to his business). No response.
So here I am, 3 months later, and I really could use the final $300 so I can pay my late rent and send out four paintings that should have been mailed a while ago. I have left my emails both with an employee and the answering service, but still no response. I hate to take the girlfriend route again, because I think that could be held up to scrutiny as harassment. Yet I can’t afford to go into San Diego randomly at $10 a pop just to catch him face-to-face.
Suggestions?
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Advice #1 would have been “Don’t deliver them until you receive payment,” but that’s obviously no longer an option.
Maybe apply pressure through the familial connection? It sounds like you were using the fact that either of you could lean on that relationship to make sure that the deal wouldn’t go south. Now that it has, you might want to follow through on that.
Final option is, if you have anything resembling a written contract, start documenting and making plans to file a small-claims case. Now, it may be that it’s not worth it to actually file the case, but, if worst comes to worst, you can always send them the documentation and say, “Look, pay up; I don’t want to take you to court, but with all of this proof, I’d have a slam-dunk win, so can we please do this the easy way?”
If neither of those options pan out, your decision basically comes down to actually filing a case, or writing the money off as lost.
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I have my PayPal and Google payment records because those are stored as company records. The original conversation via T-Mobile is lost I’m afraid, because they cancel your number if the majority of your calls and texts originate outside of the U.S. for three months. Not to mention a cellphone with a fried CPU.
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Damn that sucks!
I think @nimelennar’s advice pretty much sums it up. Do you have friends in San Diego who might be able to help? I don’t really mean the “Be too bad if something were to happen” kind of help, but perhaps embarrassment might be enough to light a fire under him.
Gee this makes my complaint seem rather trivial:
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Your complaint wasn’t trivial at all. That’s some next-level Mr. Pink kind of shit.
“I don’t tip. I steal tips.”
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Nope. Currently also having difficulty activating a new Tracphone in San Ysidro because I don’t have a spare to use while troubleshooting the problem. Tech support doesn’t have a workaround for that.
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That’s the thing, though. They put me up for six weeks while I waited for my passport renewal, though he thought I spent too much time watching TV (I had just ridden 1300 miles on a heavy-laden bicycle over 60 days to reach the coast). I’ve given him extra days on my job without pay. I’ve even babysat his dogs when one was going through some serious degenerative nerve issue, and swam around with her in the pool to do the physical therapy she needed.
He should know I’m not trying to jerk him around.
ETA: This shouldn’t even be a “I didn’t receive what I paid for” situation, because I have asked for feedback.
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That’s wasn’t what I was trying to imply; I just meant, as a matter of common practice, you don’t generally receive an item you’ve purchased until the vendor has been paid in full for it. If you’re going to be making a business of your artistic talents, you should treat it as a business, which, again, normally means that cash is either paid up-front or on delivery, unless a payment plan has been negotiated.
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I understand. Medievalist over at BB suggested I just drop an invoice off at the place of business. I’d need to get help printing it there from someone I know, though. If he doesn’t like that it invoices the business, I can always edit it in my Wave account.
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How much would it cost to send some kind of registered or “must be signed for” letter, as opposed to dropping it off?
At least that would create a paper trail (anything signed for at a business, by an employee of the business legally counts as received by the business) and show that you’re serious. Then, if you need leverage, they can’t pull the old “I never got anything” line.
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I think I’m still going to give him the benefit of the doubt.
I have enough to go there tomorrow and come back one more time. He tends to be out on sales calls. Occasionally he’s there, which might be awkward because I’m not good at asking for what I want or deserve, which is my own failing.
Best case scenario is 1) he’s there, and 2) he says “You’re right” and has the office manager pay me on the spot.
Probably best not to think the worst until I actually encounter it. Either way, there will be a paper invoice delivered, and it might help jog his memory.
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First day of class? Of course the printer isn’t going to work properly!
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And the upstairs microwave has grown legs and wandered away! WTF?
At least the tech got the file that was hung up out of the printer.
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So I set out for the store today, and guess what? The Compass kiosks for the MTS weren’t reading credit/debit cards today. I couldn’t go to an ATM, because I couldn’t cover the withdrawl fee, and I couldn’t get on the bus, so I had to turn around and go back home.
FUUUUUUCK!
I’m a little frustrated.
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This fucking sucks (@noahdjango) !
This place had great food, a great atmosphere, and it was a gay owned restaurant in a great location (I like Flying Biscuit, but frankly, Radial had better food). I’m supersad now.
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hmm. I mean, I knew it was a thing, but I only ever went there once. But it’ll get replaced with a phone store or some other nonsense owned by some square, which really does suck.
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they had a really good potato hash…
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I’m really going to miss Anthony Bourdain.
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