Melinda Woolf Did not pay, continually lied Boulder Colorado (CO)

Melinda hired my company to move her last minute.  As much of my business has relied on the good nature and trustworthiness of people, I did not expect to encounter any difficulties.  In three and a half years in the moving industry, I have not had one person repeatedly evade paying the agreed upon fee.

We completed the move as promised at 11:30am on February 4th, 2017.  I was surprised to find that Melinda had not made arrangements to make payment at the end of the service.  When I told her the bill came to $185, she agreed to the amount and promptly sent me ONLY the front of her debit card.  I told her that I needed more information to process the payment, but I did not hear back from her.  

Today, April 14th, 2017, she has STILL not paid.  She has made one excuse after another- her phone was shut off, the emails were going to her trash folder, her ATM card never showed up, etc.  She has made repeated promises to pay, first- one week after the service, then again by the 15th of March, then by the 31st of March, then by the first Tuesday of April. Then she described how she has had difficult times in her personal life and asked to make payments of $50 until the balance was paid in full.  I agreed to that.  BUT, AGAIN she did not follow through.  

I have tried to be nice, understanding, and gentle, and although she has been polite, she has never followed through with what she said.  

Even when we arrived at the dropoff for Melinda's possessions, the person who was receiving her things showed great surprise at what Melinda was asking to be dropped off there; she said that Melinda told her that she only needed a place to put her bed, but Melinda had told us to drop off many other things like tables and a futon.  We ended up having to take the futon and other items to Salvation Army. Given the surprise of the person whose home we dropped the items off with, I'm guessing that Melinda had either miscommunicated or lied to her as well.   

I am now looking at taking her to small claims court to be compensated for the damages she has caused in addition to the amount she originally owed.