customer skipped town.... what's it worth?!

[Mike Kolb]

I had a customer leave a Yamaha FG-150 red label acoustic for repairs. It's been almost a year now and I just discovered the s.o.b. skipped town!  I've got about $150 worth of repairs in it (bone nut & saddle, fret dress, small crack fix, strings, clean & polish) and I'm about to take it into one of my client shops and put it on consignment for a 20% fee.

The guitar was made in Taiwan in the early 70's, has a laminate top but it sounds pretty good, all things considered. Functional chipboard case. The action is nice and everything's intact.  Ebay prices are all over the board, so that hasn't been a great help. Any clues as to what I should be asking, in order to get my $$ out, pay the 20% and still be in the ballpark?  

This doesn't occur often, so I'm not terribly concerned about collecting $$ up-front, but does anyone do that? Is it becoming more commonplace? 

[Mark Wallace]

Indiana's laws are similar to that of OH and Ky. Certified letter or some formal mode of notification and then a 30 day wait. I had an early 70's Martin 12 string that sat here for almost 2 years ($150 repair). I called the customer several times and I guess she was just busy with other things. When I had all but figured it was now mine she decided to come pick it up.

[Rob Mercure]

I know nothing of Indiana but OH and KY, as well as VA, can be covered by the initial work agreement thus precluding the repairshop from anything other than a single notice that the item is repaired and awaiting pickup.  A friend's sister who is a local judge in Virginia suggested the registered letter route or at least a formal notice that the item will be sold but legally it's not necessarily if prior language covers it.  Now someone who's "valued family heirloom" that you've sold's attorney will threaten bloody murder but legally that doesn't hold water under the Uninform Commercial Code (everybody in business should have one or at least know where to find it at the local library) - and one should have a glancing familiarity with the Contract Law (a contract being any agreement entered into voluntarily by two or more parties - other than real estate verbal agreements are not binding and extremely hard to enforce).  Having attorney friends who are judges, prosecuting attorney's (we call the "Commonwealth's Attorney" in Virginia) and public defender I can comfortably state that if you cover you crack with the initial agreement language and then stick to what you agreed to then a nasty's client's lawyer can scream bloody murder until they are blue in the face- just make sure to counterfile any motion that they may make cuz' if they claim that you are a three headed monkey brain eating space alien and you don't legally deny it then the monkey's of the world are more threatened than they were to begin with.  But it's only if you let them make at "statement" and don't defend yourself legally that they will win.

Rob