How to Solve Money Disputes Like a Multi-Millionaire | Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary

Hi there, Mr. Wonderful here. There's nothing more stressful than a money dispute, whether it's with a business partner or a family member, and in these extraordinary times, the stakes are higher than ever. But you know what? You don't need that stress. You don't need that heartache. You need resolution. So I'm here to give it to you, to be your bridge from conflict to peace. And with that, let's get started.

We've got a question for Jordan here, which is I think a question a lot of people are going to relate to. It's happening all over America.

"Hey Kevin, Jordan from New Jersey here. How are you? Huge fan! I am in a dispute with my gym. I spent $900 on training sessions and then this coronavirus happened. The gym's been closed for two months and they won't give me my money back. I'd be fine with a, 'We're so sorry, I know tough times, here's an extra four sessions when we reopen.' Fine, I would take it very happily. Instead, they just email me back saying, 'No, no, no, no, no.' But that is so nasty. I can't take when businesses take advantage of the situation and they're not customer-focused. Kevin, I need your help with this. I'm in a huge kerfuffle with this place, please help!"

Jordan, I can't stand nasty kerfuffles, as you call it, and surely there's got to be a resolution to this. Let's be pragmatic. The guy's running a gym operation; nobody could see the pandemic coming. I get that. You probably have no contract because this is really a relationship between a trainer and you in a gym, I'm going to guess that. So basically, this is about what's fair for the business proprietors and the trainers.

You've got to be fair; you've got to offer your time and service to your clients. They will not forget! Jordan’s not going to forget if you do that. They're going to make sure that they work with you going forward because you cared about them at a time when they couldn't work with you directly in a gym.

So I reached out to your gym, and they got back to me. Let me tell you what they said—it's good news, my friend! All clients have been offered the opportunity to train virtually with their trainer to use the sessions while closed, or they can use them in person when we reopen. They will get the service that they paid for, Jordan. That's a key!

We are hoping for an early June reopening. Hey Jordan, they didn't offer your money back, but they did offer the service. One way to resolve this thing is you simply ask for a couple more virtual lessons; that would seem fair to me. The point is, they're willing to meet in the middle, and that's a good thing. I think this is a good outcome.

Okay, I have a question from Jason here, and this one's a toughie.

"I'm a commercial landlord, but I only own two properties, so when tenants don't pay, it causes huge problems for me."

Yeah, I totally get that. Totally get that—it's cash flow.

"Well, one tenant is a gigantic nationwide chain—I wonder who that could be—and their corporate office just sent a letter stating that due to COVID-19, they're going to stop paying full rent as of June 1st. Hmm, I think it's insane that a huge corporation is trying to shift its burden onto a little guy like me. I know that if I take them to court, I'd most likely win, but I can't afford it. What do I do?"

Jason, my friend, I'm dealing with 51 companies. I'm an investor in 29 of which are in disputes with landlords. I'm seeing both sides of this issue every day and dealing with it; it's really hard. But let me give you some immediate advice here, having gone through it so many times. You have to be very genteel in how you deal with the situation.

Do you really want to bite the hand that feeds you? Think about it— they're basically asking you probably to defer the rent. In other words, they have no traffic; they have no income. If you were to negotiate with them and say, “Look, it's unfair to me to take on the entire economic burden, can I extend the lease for at least three months?” or, “What could we meet halfway?” Anything in between is better than saying, “I'm going to sue you.” Not a good idea if it's a national chain.

So in this case, here's what's going to happen. Number one, you're gonna write a letter back saying, “Thank you for informing me of this, but you're putting me under stress because I'm a small guy, and I've been a great landlord to you.” That's number one.

Number two, you're going to make a suggestion of where you meet in the middle. Number three, make sure you put in there that you've appreciated them as a tenant, and you look forward to better times. They'll understand what you're saying there; that is the right thing to do here. But don't just sit in silence contemplating litigation. Not a good idea. Don't sue the hand that feeds you—remember I said that, and good luck to you!

All right, I have a question in video from Suzanne on a very complex issue. Have a listen.

"This is my story: I have three products I developed—just me, no business partners, no rich husbands and Malibu financing—anything just me. My first product’s on the market, selling great. For the second and third products, I wanted to try and get a patent on, so I hired a patent attorney. She suggested—and it seemed quite common sense—to do a patent search to see, yes or no, would there be any reason on the market why these patents would be denied. So I did that, and the results came back saying it looks good, so let's do it.

Fast forward two years—both patent applications denied, rejected. This is what I found out: There is a law, a very small but important law that if any product is advertised or sold 12 months prior to a patent application, patent applications are invalid. They just deny it flat out now. You would think, as this has happened to me, she would know this and she would advise as legal counsel any people that she was representing. So I don’t know, she’s either a complete scam artist or completely incompetent. Either way, I would love my money back. I worked really hard for my money, and it's not a lot of money to a lot of people, but it's a lot of money to me. So please, how I write?"

Suzanne, very interesting case here. In a nutshell, you're telling me basically your attorney went and pursued a patent even though it would have been very easy to find out prior art or commercial as you said happened 12 months earlier. To me, that sounds like incompetence. It sounds like they tried to milk you with fees. That's what it sounds like. If what you've told me is correct, you've got a very interesting case here.

So here's what's going to happen: The only path you have, unless you want to spend a lot of time and money in litigation, which the outcome is never clear, is to simply write a letter that contains this. Detail in that letter exactly what you told me. On this date, I called you and hired you to pursue a patent. You told me you were going to do a prior art search, that's what it's called, and you blatantly missed a commercial product only twelve months old, which never happens. I feel that you have really taken advantage of me as a small business, and it's not right.

Then suggest what would make you happy and make you go away. As someone's going to be a combatant or complainant, I would ask for fifty percent of my money back and be happy if I got that. By the way, Suzanne, that's a three-paragraph letter. Don't make it any longer than that. It's that simple to put that out there and then call them up a week later and ask them what do they want to do because this is not right; it just isn't!

Mr. Wonderful here. Join me Wednesday for a special event when the next webisode of my new series streams live on YouTube. I'll do what I do best—solve your money disputes submitted by you! Like when I take on Neiman Marcus' girlfriend for two hundred thousand dollars worth of jewelry! You say, “What a mess!" and, oh yes, Mr. Wonderful’s calls always answer. Join me, and I'll be answering all your questions Wednesday at 2:00 Eastern. Go to cnbc.com/youtube live.

I have a question from Denise, and this is very interesting. I think you're going to have to follow me through the different levels of the onion on this one. Ready? Here we go; I'm gonna go slowly so you stay with me. This is about a golf cart:

"I feel I should inherit [it]. My mother-in-law, quote unquote, was dating my brother-in-law's dad. Brother-in-law's dad. Okay? But after she died and left behind her golf cart, my brother-in-law kept it because he said he put a new battery in it and was going to use it. That's the setup. He said she wanted to have it, but in fact, he hated her and always talked about her behind her back. I'm now not even speaking with my sister because of this. They're rich enough to buy 12 golf carts, and we are not. What is your advice?"

Well, I'm fascinated. I mean, there's a lot going on here. There's clearly family, there's a golf cart, there's capital expenditures in a new battery on the golf cart. But I understand fair is fair; you thought you promised the golf cart and now you have a family member that said no, I'm not giving it to you.

All right, let's try to put a value on this thing. It's a used golf cart with a new battery. What's that worth? If it was the Rolls-Royce of golf carts, maybe $2,500. In reality, on this one, $500 maybe? Is it really worth fighting about? I don't think so. This isn't a child; it's a golf cart.

I've got a video from Amy, and I've been getting so many just like this video. Oh my goodness, I feel for these people!

"Hi, my name is Amy, and I am a parent of a middle schooler here in Miami, Florida. The reason why I’m reaching out for help today is because on March 15, the students were supposed to take a trip to Washington, D.C. with a well-known nonprofit organization. Because of the virus—because of the virus—the trip was first postponed and then later on canceled. Now, this is an eighth-grade trip; the students will be moving from middle school to high school next year, so it's not a trip that we can reschedule. It's not really an option for us. Well, we are asking for a full refund of what we paid. In my case, I paid $1,555, but I know that there's some parents that ended up paying a little bit more than that. I think it's only fair and only right for the nonprofit organization to give us back 100 percent refund!"

Amy, here's the problem: This is not a for-profit business; this is a charity, basically, that's trying to make great experiences happen for kids in middle school. They're altruistic; they're not after you to make money.

What's probably happened here, Amy, is they've already spent money just organizing the trip. That money is gone. So here's what you're going to do. You're going to write a letter to every member of the board of that nonprofit, and because it's a nonprofit and it's public, you can get that information off their website. Everybody on that board is going to get the same letter, and they're going to know that everybody else got the letter.

You're powerful! A letter is power! You're going to explain right out of the gate that you wrote a check expecting to send your child to Washington, the pandemic happened, and it didn't. You don’t want a credit; it’s useless to you and the rest of the families because your children are moving on—they can’t use it.

So you understand, in the letter you're going to say that the nonprofit probably spent some money setting it up. You don’t expect that back; you’re willing to take less than a hundred cents on the dollar, but you want the rest. I think you're gonna find out they'll give you whatever cash is still there, and I think that's a fair outcome to this situation. Amy, good luck!

I've got a business question from a kid. His name is August; it's an email. Let's check it out.

"I'm a kid mowing lawns. I have a 50-50 partnership with the other kid next door, even though I do all the bookkeeping and everything else outside mowing. The problem is I want out. I have no control over our schedule because I always have to wait for him to finish baseball practice before we can mow. I want to be paid extra for the bookkeeping, but he refuses because he says he could do it all too—except he doesn't! Oh, I feel the tension! I want to be paid extra for the pickup truck I bought for the business, but he says it's my truck and has nothing to do with him. How do I end this thing? Just so you know, our estimated 2020 revenues are $20,000!"

Yeah, you got a business, kiddo, and you got problems with your partner. Let me explain something about partnerships, August. When you form a partnership with somebody—and this could be in business or in life, like your wife—maybe you are forming a bond. You are forming a relationship based on a 50/50 idea.

Now, what you’re complaining about is your partner's letting you down, not carrying half the weight. But that doesn't mean you can just walk away. If you want to end this thing with him, you've got to buy him out. You're making $20,000; maybe you're gonna give him five of it, and it's sayonara.

If he says no, you know what you do? Talk to his parents, explain the situation—that their son is not cooperating with you, but you wanted to do the right thing. Help them mediate a deal.

Your reputation is everything, August. Remember this: this kid is your next-door neighbor, so how you handle this is everything. He's not going away; he's living right beside you. You want to wake up the morning after you end the relationship in the business and still have him as your neighbor and a friend.

Once that's over with, go find another partner and build the business. You keep doing the books, you keep doing the marketing, and you hire other people to mow the lawns. Now that's what I'm talking about! I know you've got it, because you're already making $20,000. You're doing way better than the guy that used to deliver papers!

$20,000—you can make it $120,000. You can make it $250,000. You need to leverage yourself. You're an entrepreneur, my friend! I want you to go make it happen!

All right, I've got a video from Jory, and this is about love. Mr. Wonderful loves love; that's why I'm in the wedding business. You know, two times in life where you don't care about margins or price: when you get married and when you die. I'm in both businesses—love them!

Oh, well, let's hear from Jory.

"Hello Mr. Wonderful. I went and I bought a ring for my girlfriend to become my fiancée, and I'm trying to be quiet because she's right upstairs, so you know, 'Shh, don't tell her!' But, um, I went and bought a ring, spent $6,500 bucks on it. Jeweler claims he never got the payment; I have bank statements saying that it was taken—the check was cashed, accepted—$6,500 bucks! Make or break money, you know? Not to everybody, but it's the principle of me not being able to call my girlfriend my fiancée and just calling her my girlfriend. I hope you know how truly blessed I am to have this woman in my life, and I'd do anything to buy her a ring. If it's another $6,500 bucks I have to spend, I’d spend it every day of the week because I love her that much! But I wanted to send you this video letting you know what was going on, and I can't wait to hear a response from you!"

I love the fact you're putting love over money. There's only one time in your life where you can do that: when you're falling in love. It's so euphoric; it's so wonderful. I feel great for you on that.

Now let's talk about the dispute. Three things you’re going to do right now: sit your fiancée down, tell her the whole story. You know, great weddings have mystique and history to them. And you've got a heck of a story here!

You basically bought her a ring in good faith and never got delivery. I think that's going to be a story you’re gonna tell your grandchildren. It's fantastic—and still, you got married, and still, you're together! That's the hopeful outcome.

Number two, let’s talk about the money. You’re going to send a letter into their customer complaint department with all your information, including the canceled check, and say you've never received delivery. Some employee in there is going to try and figure it out, believe me! They don’t want to defraud people because you’re also going to say in that complaint, if you don’t get results within a week, you’re gonna go public with it, and you’re gonna start posting all over the place that this company basically stole from you.

That's fair to say! One way or another, you're getting your money back! It's just a matter of time. But really, what I hope is... this ends up in a "whoa, whoa, whoa!" I love love! That’s why they call me Mr. Wonderful.

Join me Wednesday for a special event when the next webisode of my new series streams live on YouTube. Join me, and I’ll be answering all your questions Wednesday at 2:00 Eastern. Go to cnbc.com/youtube live.