10/13/2026
Is it a poor business decision or did the justice system fail me? Small business owners, I have a question for you: Do you consider emails and text messages from your customers to be written authorization for an order? If your answer is yes, as mine has always been, I want to share an experience that has left me questioning everything I thought I knew about protecting my business. After more than 30 years of owning my own business, I recently found myself in small claims court over an unpaid T-shirt order for an existing customer I had worked with for several months. The customer refused to pay, claiming the logo on the left chest was positioned too high near the collar. I had paid more than $1,800 in materials and invested approximately 40 hours of work into producing the shirts. I went to court prepared to explain industry standards and demonstrate that the logo placement fell within accepted production tolerances. But the case was dismissed—not because the judge determined whether the work was done correctly, but because I did not have a formal contract. I was stunned. The order had been requested and communicated in writing. This was an established customer who had placed orders with me through the same process before. I had always understood emails and text messages documenting an order to be a form of written authorization. Apparently, that understanding was not enough in court according to this judge. It left me asking: If a customer requests a product, I purchase the materials, invest the labor, and deliver the finished work, what protects a small business owner when that customer simply decides not to pay? Think about it this way: When you order a meal at a restaurant, you don't sign a contract before the kitchen starts cooking. You order, the restaurant fulfills your request, and you are expected to pay. If you have a complaint, there are appropriate ways to address it. Are business owner be expected to absorb thousands of dollars in expenses and hours of labor when a customer refuses to pay? Im not sharing this story to discourage anyone from pursuing what they believe is fair. Im sharing it because I don't want another small business owner to learn this lesson the hard way. My question to fellow business owners is this: Do you accept emails and text messages as written authorization for customer orders? Do you require a formal contract for every job, even with long-standing customers? What safeguards do you use to protect your business? After decades in business, I never imagined that an order documented in writing could leave me in this position. Maybe this was a poor business decision on my part. Maybe I misunderstood the legal protections available to me. Or maybe this experience highlights challenges within the court system that the laws are not always followed. I would like to hear your experiences and perspectives. If sharing my story helps even one business owner avoid the same outcome, at least something positive will have come from it.
