Successful in disputing a CC charge - what now?

SummaryJudgment

So I just had an interesting thing happen - I disputed a charge on my Discover back in September, and I just got notice resolved in my favor.

I had a garage door company come out in September to fix my door which wouldn't open, and they told me I needed springs replaced. I signed a contract while their repairman was here to have them replace the springs, and he immediately commenced work. They replaced the springs and told me oh, surprise, you need a motor. At that point I decided I'd had enough and I paid on my Discover card for what they had already done, the springs, which was the extent of the contract. I emailed them after to say that I wasn't satisfied with their work, and that I wanted them to contact me to talk about options.

I got a couple quotes from local garage door places and they told me I'd been scammed - the replaced springs (which I kept after Company #1 tried hauling them away) did not need replacing, and they quoted me $180-200 for a similar job versus the $560 I'd paid. I submitted the quotes to Discover, called them and explained, and asked if it would be a good candidate for a dispute? I told Discover that I wasn't seeking a full refund, since I did receive the benefit of Company #1's work and the springs, but that the difference in price irked me on top of the door still being broken.

I tried calling back Company #1 and they started ducking my calls. Sure enough, I'm looking at my statement right now and Discover resolved the dispute in my favor since the company never responded to Discover's inquiry. Should I expect to be sued by the company at this point, or how does that function on the company's end w/r/t Discover revoking payment? Basically, I want to be vigilant about them submitting this to collections, or whatever.

HappylilElf

SummaryJudgment wrote: »

So I just had an interesting thing happen - I disputed a charge on my Discover back in September, and I just got notice resolved in my favor.

I had a garage door company come out in September to fix my door which wouldn't open, and they told me I needed springs replaced. I signed a contract while their repairman was here to have them replace the springs, and he immediately commenced work. They replaced the springs and told me oh, surprise, you need a motor. At that point I decided I'd had enough and I paid on my Discover card for what they had already done, the springs, which was the extent of the contract. I emailed them after to say that I wasn't satisfied with their work, and that I wanted them to contact me to talk about options.

I got a couple quotes from local garage door places and they told me I'd been scammed - the replaced springs (which I kept after Company #1 tried hauling them away) did not need replacing, and they quoted me $180-200 for a similar job versus the $560 I'd paid. I submitted the quotes to Discover, called them and explained, and asked if it would be a good candidate for a dispute? I told Discover that I wasn't seeking a full refund, since I did receive the benefit of Company #1's work and the springs, but that the difference in price irked me on top of the door still being broken.

I tried calling back Company #1 and they started ducking my calls. Sure enough, I'm looking at my statement right now and Discover resolved the dispute in my favor since the company never responded to Discover's inquiry. Should I expect to be sued by the company at this point, or how does that function on the company's end w/r/t Discover revoking payment? Basically, I want to be vigilant about them submitting this to collections, or whatever.

I don't see a lawsuit being on the table. Generally people who run sketchy business practices like this really don't like going to court.

I'd keep an eye out for any collections calls or notices but don't worry about it too much. Usually collection agencies know about scams like this and won't buy the debit even at pennies on the dollar because the odds of actually getting to collect on it are virtually non-existent.

Blarghy

Lawsuit over ~$300? Probably not. From what you've said, they still got partial payment at what appears to be fair market value, so 9/10's of the time they'll just keep looking for better suckers than you.

Hevach

If they wanted to fight you on it, they could have gotten the card dispute resolved in their favor easily - they gave a price for a job, you paid the price and they did the job. The credit card company doesn't care that the job sucked or the price was unfair, that's a matter for the courts. However they didn't respond, and having been on that end of a dispute like that the card companies aren't subtle about letting you know what to do and making clear that the customer wins if you don't respond.

Had they done the bare minimum, they would have gotten to keep the money. Except then you might sue, and as said above, they probably really don't want that.

zepherin

As was mentioned the credit card companies are not subtle about it. Usually the first thing they do is call the vendor in an effort to work it out.

My wife generally does 1 or 2 charge backs a year (mostly related to returns and rebates not being refunded). In every case except when my credit card was skimmed they tried called the business and talked to them about it, sometimes the business did the credit, sometimes they didn't answer and the cc resolved the issue in our favor.

SummaryJudgment

Thanks, all - apparently there is a 60 day appeal period for vendors after Discover confirms the initial chargeback, so now I'm waiting again. Given that they couldn't be bothered to respond the first time, I don't know if they're entitled to an appeal, but hey.

Best case scenario, I just found some PC upgrades for Christmas ;-)

khain

I would recommend you check your credit report after the 60 days and maybe again in half a year or so just to check that the company didn't try and report it as an unpaid debt. You can do it for free each year from each agency, so a total of three times per year.

zepherin

khain wrote: »

I would recommend you check your credit report after the 60 days and maybe again in half a year or so just to check that the company didn't try and report it as an unpaid debt. You can do it for free each year from each agency, so a total of three times per year.

You can also use credit karma which is free (as in beer) and they have up to date credit information.

SummaryJudgment

They're reporting me, so I think I'm off to file in small claims shortly.