Being cheated

ladyvampire · Post by **ladyvampire** » Sat, 07 Nov 2009 2:02 pm

I have a tuition agency and recently I have been unable to recover $500 of commission fees from one of my tutors.
She will not answer my calls/sms and when I use other numbers to call, she hang up upon hearing my voice.

I'm quite lost over here, is there any place/body I can go to?
One that protects businesses perhaps?

ksl · Post by **ksl** » Sat, 07 Nov 2009 2:17 pm

ladyvampire wrote:I have a tuition agency and recently I have been unable to recover $500 of commission fees from one of my tutors.
She will not answer my calls/sms and when I use other numbers to call, she hang up upon hearing my voice.

I'm quite lost over here, is there any place/body I can go to?
One that protects businesses perhaps?

Just get a lawyer to send her a letter, if its not paid within a reasonable time, interest will be added and she will be taken to the small claims tribunal to recover the debt. Providing you have them on contract it shouldn't be too difficult.

ladyvampire · Post by **ladyvampire** » Sat, 07 Nov 2009 5:03 pm

ksl wrote:
ladyvampire wrote:I have a tuition agency and recently I have been unable to recover $500 of commission fees from one of my tutors.
She will not answer my calls/sms and when I use other numbers to call, she hang up upon hearing my voice.

I'm quite lost over here, is there any place/body I can go to?
One that protects businesses perhaps?
Just get a lawyer to send her a letter, if its not paid within a reasonable time, interest will be added and she will be taken to the small claims tribunal to recover the debt. Providing you have them on contract it shouldn't be too difficult.

Would the cost be worth it? Getting the lawyer and stuff?

CNSGP · Post by **CNSGP** » Sat, 07 Nov 2009 6:13 pm

http://app.subcourts.gov.sg/sct/page.aspx?pageid=3948

The link above is to the Singapore small claims tribunal court.. process is pretty simple to get started & costs $10.00 from what I can tell. My understanding is that small claims tribunal court is easy to go through without needing to hire a lawyer.

Post by **sundaymorningstaple** » Sat, 07 Nov 2009 11:05 pm

Actually, you cannot use a lawyer at the SCT. If you bring one, they cannot say anything at all but just observe. (Unless it's changed in the past 4 years).

ksl · Post by **ksl** » Sat, 07 Nov 2009 11:14 pm

sundaymorningstaple wrote:Actually, you cannot use a lawyer at the SCT. If you bring one, they cannot say anything at all but just observe. (Unless it's changed in the past 4 years).

That's quite true, though a letter may just be enough to get the message over if it is prepared how it should be, with failure to clear the debit within a reasonable time limit. 50 to 80$ for a lawyers letter.

If the person doesn't pay within the time period stated by the letter, then the tribunal would be the next step! It wouldn't surprise me if the letters are not standard templates! So it's done within 3 minutes.

Post by **sundaymorningstaple** » Sat, 07 Nov 2009 11:30 pm

When's the last time you got a lawyer's standard letter done? We did some earlier this year and they're around $150 a whack now!

ksl · Post by **ksl** » Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:01 am

sundaymorningstaple wrote:When's the last time you got a lawyer's standard letter done? We did some earlier this year and they're around $150 a whack now!

Ouch! Surely you can pass the charge on, to the debitor? Yes I should say a solicitor is much cheaper, one doesn't really need a lawyer!

Better to have our own templates and official chop then

Post by **x9200** » Sun, 08 Nov 2009 7:45 am

ksl wrote:
sundaymorningstaple wrote:When's the last time you got a lawyer's standard letter done? We did some earlier this year and they're around $150 a whack now!
Ouch! Surely you can pass the charge on, to the debitor?

As far as I know for a regular court case you need a separate case to claim legal expenses. Do not expect to be different for SCT. This really sucks. And I doubt you can have here any compensation just for the waste of your time.

Pt coach · Post by **Pt coach** » Wed, 20 Jan 2010 9:51 pm

always pay in arrears this will be lesson 101
no nd for contract even verbal agreements are valid if reasonable

mitlan · Post by **mitlan** » Thu, 21 Jan 2010 10:09 pm

i would say treat it as a lesson learnt, don't waste your time with trying to get the $500 back. its pointless to go to anywhere to recover this amount of money. spend your time earning more money rather than mulling over this $500. i know it is money but i am sure if you put your effort into earning, you should be able to earn back. i have been to SCT, engaged lawyers, got debt collectors for sums ranging from a few thousand to even 14k. you go SCT if the tutor do not turn up, the judge will rule in your favor. but if she cant pay, are you going to pay the fees for a baliff to go watch u go to the person's house to recover anything from here property, that is if she has a property. the process of finding all the information and the time wasted to go to court and then waiting and waiting is pointless. Really, my personal opinion is to move on. you will find and earn more money if you spent the amount of time on work rather than go after this irresponsible tutor. send her a message asking her to keep it and wait for her turn when someone do the same to her. y avoid a person just because of a meagre $500? that person herself is really mad. cheer up, move on, there are opportunities waiting for you

jerm · Post by **jerm** » Thu, 18 Mar 2010 2:18 pm

Maybe it would be safer to collect the amount from the student or the parents, and not the tutor, unless you trust the tutor?

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