Man Tries To Stiff IT Employee On Payment, Gets Served Mechanics Lien

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mattstaff
Sep 18, 2021 10:00 AM EDT

Few things are lower in this life than refusing to make good on payment for services rendered. You get someone to spend their precious time working for you? You pay them. You pay them in a timely manner. You don't do what this Reddit user's client did — allow u/asanatheistfilms to go through the trouble of installing an entire computer server system and then lie that it didn't work in order to skip out on a payment. Did they think it was going to be that easy?

The original poster's response here is what really warms our cold hearts. Basically, our villain of the story ends up being served a righteous mechanics lien after refusing to make good on the payment that he owed, losing the equipment altogether. What's more? The OP wound up finding a way to charge this client $15,000 in cash to re-install it (because after all, they are professional) and earned the bonus satisfaction of counting it in front of their awful client. You really should never mess with IT. When are these people going to learn?

If this revenge story got you going, check out another recent pro revenge story that we ran about a mechanic who refused to do their job, so an act of pro revenge ensued.

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  • 01
    Font - r/ProRevenge u/asanatheistfilms • 4h + Join 3 1 1 Try to stiff me? Get a mechanics lien Hello, per prorevenge I will be using fake names for this story that happened to me about 7 years ago. The Job I was starting my side business doing IT work for businesses, and had some some successful jobs for a few companies. I found word of mouth was the best way to gain new clients because entrepreneurs tend to network with other business owners. Tony was one such client who had heard I had done so
    via u/asanatheistfilms
  • 02
    Font - to process payments, purchase orders, and billings/ receivables. He brought in an accountant to work a new product (pretty well known). They wanted a server to be accessible remotely, and had already paid their ISP for a static IP for the server but needed the actual server, redundancy UPS, and firewall device. I explained that for the product they had we could probably set up a workstation and not a server and it would run approximately $3500 total and would be easy but no the owner want
    via u/asanatheistfilms
  • 03
    Font - Overall the entire cost for the system would be $8000 not including a few other services that needed annual billing (VPN/Remote service). Equipment cost was $7500, my labor charge was $500. UPS was $1500, Server was $3800, and "refurbed" firewall (CISCO ASA) with programming by a 3rd party specialist was $1800, and a spare rack was $400. I got my contract signed, put an order with my distributor (I have net 45 setup with them) and the firewall specialist and got to work 1.5 weeks later wh
    via u/asanatheistfilms
  • 04
    Font - The AH Move I sent my invoice promptly on Monday. Left it as in, they had 1 week to pay. When I saw no reply, or payment after 4 days I messaged Tony and asked if they had received my invoice. To my surprised he replied the server was not working, and proceeded to call me and tell me that the whole thing was a total waste of money and I should have never done the job. I of course apologized and informed him I would be on the way to fix whatever the problem was. When I got there, they refu
    via u/asanatheistfilms
  • 05
    Font - The advice At this time I was pretty upset. 2.5 weeks had passed since I ordered my equipment and my distributor was needing to get paid within 45 days. I was getting very nervous and was thinking of taking it to small claims court until talking with a friend he informed me I could pull a mechanics lien. I informed him this was for IT, and he stated that mechanics lien where I live can actually be pulled on various industries and IT was one of them. So I started the process to fill out an
    via u/asanatheistfilms
  • 06
    Font - The Revenge After filling out the mechanics lien and serving him notice, I once again gave him the opportunity to the pay the $8000 owed. By this time I had spoken with my distributor and he switched my account from Net 45 to Net 90. He refused via phone call, and got him on text. I took the information I had and went to the local constables whom after seeing the mechanics lien, and proof set up an appointment to meet me at the place of business to take back my server, ups, and firewall.
    via u/asanatheistfilms
  • 07
    Font - been online for the entire time, no real changes were noticed and as far as I could tell no one had worked on it. Tony began to chuckle when I shut the server down, and says "how are you going to take the system when its BOLTED TO THE GROUND?! Bet you didn't think about that did you, you idiot!". He did not realize that rack mounted equipment is not permanently attached to the mount. I guess he thought he had me beat because it was all one system that you cannot take apart and not somethi
    via u/asanatheistfilms
  • 08
    Font - a bit he informed Tony that he needed to get out of his face and step back but when Tony refused to back down the constable undid his holster's safety harness and put his hand on his firearm. Tony's face was exquisite. Full of fear, and eventually a dawning sensation that this was going to happen one way or another. At first I did not understand why he was so riled up and now had a panicked face like his world just collapsed until a bit later. I wrapped up my server/ups/ firewall and left
    via u/asanatheistfilms
  • 09
    Font - It didnt take more than 2 hours before I got a call from him stating that he had talked to his attorney and he would be suing me for damages and I would be going to jail for traspassing. I informed him he did not pay for the equipment, his equipment was repoed thus there was nothing to sue for. As far as trespassing, I was servicing a mechanics lien with a law enforcement officer thus it is not trespassing. He then starts hemming and hawing about how he needs to bill clients because he ha
    via u/asanatheistfilms
  • 10
    Font - More advise and the real revenge He called me at least 50 times, I just silenced my phone and had a talk to my friend later that night, the friend whom had given me the advise. He then tells me why I was returning the equipment, if I had the ONLY copy that has EVERYTHING from client names, contacts, phone numbers, billings, receivables etc. He asked me how much revenue did the company generate, I informed him I was taking a wild guess but it was somewhere in the ball park of $58,678.21 fo
    via u/asanatheistfilms
  • 11
    Font - The following day I messaged Tony, I apologize for the way I behaved yesterday, it was not professional. Unfortunately your sh*t attitude and attempts to screw me over got the better of me. The server has not be wiped yet. I would like to reconsider a new arrangement so we can salvage this sour experience and turn it into sweet honey. Are you interested in working with me to get your equipment back, I must warn you it will be extra since I would be doing double the work. Let me know. Tony
    via u/asanatheistfilms
  • 12
    Font - I immediately informed him that I still have all the equipment, and in fact it would only take maybe 20 minutes to complete the job however I had a different idea in terms of the price. The new price was $15000 to be paid cash. He immediately starts yelling, and hollering. I keep talking and inform him he has 2 weeks to decide if being able to get paid by his clients was worth it if not the equipment was going back and that would be that. No hard feelings. I hang up.
    via u/asanatheistfilms
  • 13
    Font - About 2 days later I get a call from Tony informing me he agreed to new arrangement to please set it up and install it asap. I tell him I can go Friday but I would need to be paid $15,000 CASH before I even unload a single bolt from my vehicle. He agreed. I could hear a lady talking tell him he needs to get this resolved because they had not had revenue in nearly 2 weeks. This was on Wednesday. On Thursday I get a call from his daughter, whom is apparently the accountant and the lady whom
    via u/asanatheistfilms
  • 14
    Font - Sure enough Friday morning true to her words she and Tony were there with $15,000 cash. I counted it in front of her and Tony. She makes a comment saying that I was a life savor because they could not go back to the service they used before to get paid, and they urgently needed to get some PO's sent out. I placed it in my vehicle, locked the glovebox, and unloaded the equipment. True to my word it took me 20 minutes to place the server, firewall, and UPS inside the rack mount. Connect the
    via u/asanatheistfilms

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