Vespa stress

It's been a really, REALLY stressful week. I received a letter on the 23rd from a law office in Chicago stating that a few months after I purchased my scooter in April 2006, I disputed the charge on my credit card and the money was charged back to the merchant, Vespa of Chicago, and therefore the scooter has not been paid for and if I don't forward a certified check to Vespa of Chicago in the amount of $5056.39, the merchant would file suit against me.

Needless to say, I was surprised. Quite dumbfounded, in fact, that I've been riding around on a free scooter. Something didn't sound right...

Some of you may remember the trials and tribulations I went through with this merchant back then. Vespa of Chicago was, at that time, part of a Volkswagon dealership in Maywood that went belly-up about a month after I bought the scooter. I waited months to get my title and license plate, LONG after my temp one had expired, and ended up disputing $103 of the original charge because I had to reapply for these with the state. That was the only dispute I made, and certainly the only one I got.

The lawyer sent me a copy of a letter the merchant received from Discover card, and sure enough, it stated right there that the amount was disputed. Curious as to how this happened, I called DC to ask a couple of questions. Naturally, I was transferred from one rep to another (having to explain the entire story to each one), and finally got someone who knew her shit.

She investigated and found the merchant's account was never charged that amount, nor was I ever given a credit in that amount. My account showed that the only amount disputed was $103. She said the chargeback mentioned in the letter to the merchant never happened. Well, DUH! So I requested that someone send a letter to the lawyer stating this.

What DC sent was pathetic. It mentioned nothing except that my dispute was for $103 and the original charge was $5056.39. Of course, I got a letter from the lawyer stating this was insufficient (which I knew) and they would be proceeding with litigation. I ended up calling this poor girl at DC every day this week to try to get this straightened out, and she really was doing her best to help, but working with so many other departments there was making this whole thing an even bigger mess.

It seems so easy, right? All I need is a letter stating the dispute of the entire amount never took place and that the only amount disputed was $103 and that DC made a huge error in sending that letter to the merchant because it just simply wasn't true.

SO WHY THE HELL WON'T THEY DO THIS??!

I keep getting the runaround there. And I don't completely blame them--there's the merchant. This guy Sam is the scummiest of scum. A totally irreputable douchebag who is trying his best to extort money out of me that he's NOT going to get. He knows damn good and well that his merchant account was never charged back the amount, but he's trying this anyway almost 3 freakin' years later, possibly in the hopes there's no paper trail.

He hasn't won this and he won't. He doesn't know who he's dealing with. I'll bury the fucker.I got my statements in the mail today and I plan to write a letter to the lawyer proving I paid for the scooter. I have a plethora of paperwork to send him, so much so that it'll prove beyond any doubt that his client is a rat. I'll fax that first thing Monday morning and hopefully, this will all be put to rest.I hate that I've invested so much time, energy, and emotion into it. I know I'm in the right here but it burns me up that this pathetic excuse for a human is trying this. The only pleasure I get is in taking up as much of his lawyer's time as possible, thereby racking up a $$ tally that will make his lousy head spin.

In other news, I'm officially teaching 2 classes this semester, one face-to-face and the other online. The online one has already had a few minor glitches, and I expect more since it's my first time doing this. I have 7 students registered in the face-to-face class, and 5 in the online one. Not huge numbers, but I get paid the same so I don't really care. I LOVE smaller classes anyway. Less grading!! ☺

I'm glad it's almost February--one month down this year, only 3 more to go until scooter-riding weather! You know, the scooter I FREAKING PAID FOR!!!