The title of this post is
Ripped off by Realkingcobra anyone?
With all these posts, I haven't seen anyone answer, "Yep."
That's friggin amazing, right there...
Actually the person who started this thread has felt that way and while he may have been looking for corroboration it seems as if the question was more rhetorical in nature. Of course under civil law it's a contract dispute since the parties had agreed on some terms and a certain performance under those terms.
In practical terms however the table mechanic has deprived the customer of the use of his money for far longer than was expected and thus has effectively stolen that money and the attendant opportunities for that length of time.
To play a simple hypothetical;
Let us imagine that the person who has collected $3000 and is supposed to pay it to the person owed comes across a cue for $3000 and decides to use the money to purchase the cue. He then sells the cue a month later for $5000.
Unbeknownst to the mechanic the same cue was offered to the person who was owed the $3000 and he asked the seller to wait one week as he was expecting the money to be paid which he was owed. A week comes and goes and the money is not paid and the cue is sold to someone else.
In this simple exercise it is clear that the collector of the money has deprived the rightful owner of the opportunity to profit through the use of those funds.
Let us assume that the collector did not need the $3000 to purchase the cue. In other words he could have paid the $3000 and purchased the cue as well.
In this situation he has stolen the opportunity for the rightful owner of the money to have the same opportunity to purchase the cue and resell it at a profit.
If you went to the bank and deposited a check for $3000 and a week later the bank collected the money, the check was good, but they then did not credit it to your account, how would you take that? If they held your money for six months and despite your attempts to retrieve it they would not release it to you would you feel somehow cheated?
Ripped off?
The moral of the story is if you owe somebody something then try hard to pay it back in the fastest and quietest manner possible. Especially if you are just the courier.
And I have something to say to the table mechanic.
Sir, if you are the best in the business as has been attested to here almost universally and you are not making a very good income from the amount of time you spend on the road then you are either undercharging or severely mismanaging your income. Your situation is completely unknown to me but perhaps a good secretary/bookkeeper would be a welcome addition to your business.
