How to Get the Raise You Deserve | Money Disputes With Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary

Hi there! It's me again, Mr. Wonderful, coming to you from the tumultuous world of money disputes. The stress, the bitterness, the heartache. I'm here to sweep all that baggage away by helping you find resolution. So let's do just that. I've got a video here from Dustin with a dispute, of course. Let's listen to what he has to say.

"Hey Kevin, my name is Dustin and I have a dispute with my business partner on a podcast that we shot. We started shooting and went from like 100 views to a thousand views to over 2,000 views, and then we got advertisers and sponsors. Almost as soon as the money started coming in, my partner kind of got greedy and then basically tried to fire me. I told him, I was like, you can't really fire your partner; you can buy me out or compensate me for my half, but you can't really fire me. And then he just went blank on me. Now I just want to get compensated for the time and the money that I put into the business, and I need your help."

"This is a really interesting situation. What Dustin has created, or co-created, could be very, very valuable, but I need more information. Like, is there a contract? Is there a real partnership?"

"I've got him waiting on video; it's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you as well. So, Dustin, keep it positive, hombre. What happened here?"

"So, he asked me to join the podcast just to get some traction. They couldn't get it off the ground, and so there was a meme of me, and you may have seen it, me and a girlfriend of mine at an Astros game, and it went viral multiple times with different sayings and stuff. So basically, the first show that I did went over 250 views, and that was just organic. He asked me to do it again, and the next show that we did, we got to about 500 views, and he asked me to be his partner, and we ended up finalizing it 45-55."

"Now, quick question right out of the gate. Everybody wants to know, including me: do you have a contract? Is there anything on paper or is it just two dudes with a podcast?"

"Pretty much just us guys with a podcast. There’s a lot of text messages back and forth, but no formal contract or anything like that."

"How do you feel about that in hindsight?"

"Like a complete idiot."

"I'm gonna try and help you, but when you form a business, particularly when revenue is gonna come in, you need something in writing. How much money in total have you put into it so far?"

"About three hundred and fifty dollars."

"Is there an amount of money, a dollar amount that if he wrote you a check and gave it to you and left your likeness there and just kept building the business that you'd be okay with?"

"Sixty-seven thousand dollars."

"Alright, Dustin, you put 350 bucks up, and now you want sixty-seven thousand back. Connect the points for me."

"So that's based on two advertisers, one that I brought to the company, to the show, that’s four hundred dollars a show advertised with us, which is eight hundred dollars a week. Eighty-three thousand dollars over two years, which if I was going to sell my business, I want two years of revenues and that's after the production fees, you know, fifteen thousand six hundred. So sixty-seven thousand dollars—that's not unreasonable."

"You're sounding pretty savvy now. I thought you might have been a little naive not to have a contract. At least you know how to value the business. The problem is you have no leverage right now. Without a contract, it's hard to fight the legal battle, and the courts are jammed up because of all the COVID stuff, and this is not big enough to get a lawyer, that's a contingency player involved; it's just not enough dollars."

"Alright, Dustin, you have an option here: you can send them a cease and desist letter, tell them to stop using your likeness and profiting from it without compensating you. You can use the leverage of that letter to show you're serious and then negotiate a settlement on what you're really owed in the equity piece of this. I think the number should be half; you know, fifty-five-forty-five. You could settle for forty-five percent of sixty-seven thousand and feel pretty good about it because he did do some work too. Would you take half of that?"

"I would. I think that's fair at this point."

"And lastly, maybe you just start from scratch and do it yourself and take all the ownership and control all the revenues and go where you want to with it. What about that idea?"

"I think it's a fantastic idea. If you can build up a franchise, podcasting is the future; it's a huge aspect of digital marketing now. I think you should get behind your own podcast."

"Thank you so much, Kevin."

"Take care."

I've got a question came in on the email transom from Elissa. Let's read it.

"Hi Mr. Wonderful, I work as a retoucher for an apparel company in LA making twenty bucks an hour. My boss asked me to model for a photoshoot, so I went ahead. But I did expect to be paid as much as the agency models they use. These models are paid twelve hundred dollars for an eight-hour, but after three photoshoots, I still haven't been paid anything beyond my regular hourly rate, which is twenty dollars. I remember that I enjoy modeling, but not for free. And again, I was originally hired as a retoucher. Should I not have agreed to do this in the first place? What do I do?"

"Oh hey, what a mess, ELISA. First of all, let me explain. Everybody, a retoucher is you're actually modifying photographs of clothes. That's a skill set; that's a talent. You're being hired to do that, and you're being paid 20 bucks an hour to do it. I get it. But you have a full-time job, and your boss has every right to ask you to do things as an employee. Nothing wrong with that. You know, listen, you got a problem; you've already done three shoots and you haven't even squealed about any of it; you haven't made any noise at all. So now you're in a bit of an under-leverage situation. Here's the answer. If you think you're worth more as a model, why don't you ask your boss for a bonus for saving him so much money? Ask him to give you two hundred of it. Start there, accept the hundred if he'll give it to you. It's five times, it's five hours of work for you and you're building a portfolio if you really want to pursue modeling. But I'm sorry; your boss doesn't owe you anything—not if you didn't bring it up. ELISA, you got to take this up with him. Open your mouth, start a dialogue, see where you can go. It's all about negotiating, my friend."

I've got a video that came in with a rather complicated dispute from Maria.

"Hey Kevin, we really need your help. I run my family jewelry business with my dad, an internationally acclaimed jewelry artist who's been named as one of the most innovative designers of our time. All of our jewelry is handcrafted in the heart of New York City, and we've been hit very hard with this pandemic, especially with our retail partner Neiman Marcus declaring Chapter 11. We currently have 80% of our inventory consigned with them, which amounts to $200,000 that we currently can't get back. We have tried to contact them and get our inventory back before they declare Chapter 11, but we're unable to. I would greatly appreciate any help and you getting back to me. Thank you."

"Look, this is completely unfair. I'll tell you why; it's $200,000, that's serious coin. And for her business, probably it means life or death. If she doesn't get that back and turn it into cash el pronto, that's gonna be a big problem. Now there's good news here and bad news right out of the gate. The good news is that inventory's on consignment, which means Maria still owns it; it's hers. She lent it to the store until they sold it. Bad news: this thing is mired in bankruptcy. Now what usually happens in situations like this is you start making calls; nobody answers; nobody cares. You're one of a thousand people screaming to get your money back out of a bankruptcy. This is where I can help. One of the great things about being Mr. Wonderful is everybody returns my calls. So I picked up the phone and I called Neiman Marcus and guess what? They returned my call. I told a nice man there exactly what happened and how Maria needed her inventory back because Neiman didn't own it; she did. And I also told him I want to put the two of them together to work it out and of course, I would be checking up in a couple days to make sure it all worked out. I want to hear the outcome of this."

"So to you, so I've asked Maria to come on. I've got her by video. Maria, good to see you. Look, I know 200,000 is huge dollars; I get it. Tell me what would happen if we didn't get this inventory back to your business."

"Well, it's 80% of our entire inventory, so we would have probably been in a lot of trouble and most likely out of business."

"I hate to hear that. Now I got you set up with the right person within the big box retailer. Tell me what happened."

"It's actually incredible. They asked me for all the paperwork and it was at my fingertips, so I emailed it to them right away. In less than a minute, the head of jewelry got in touch with me, apologized for not getting back to me earlier, and they said that they will make it right, and they will file the appropriate paperwork so that we can get our collections back within a few weeks."

"Well listen, I'm really happy I could help out here. This is a wonderful outcome. You know what we should say both of us here, Maria, is you were meticulous with record-keeping. Without that, I couldn't have helped you. That was the key. Great job tracking all this stuff and making sure you knew where it was; that was brilliant."

"I couldn't have. Thank you; I really appreciate that!"

"But I'm here to help; that's why I do this. We wanted to say a huge thank you to you and if you come to New York, we would love to see you at an art gallery in Times Square."

"That's very kind! That's very kind, Maria. Anyway, thanks a lot; I'm glad I could help. Take care, stay healthy, stay safe. See you soon!"

"Thank you so much, Kevin."

I have a video here from Corrales, which is an incredibly, I'd call it interesting and complex case.

"Hello, my name's Corrales. I'm a high school chemistry teacher and an entrepreneur in Tampa, Florida, and my money dispute has to do with having $18,000 in student loans taken out in my name without my knowledge or consent. It all started freshman year of college. I had a very close family friend that I've known for a very long time offer to pay for my college as a gift. I trusted this family friend, so of course, I said yes. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to live on campus and to have this person's help. Well fast forward a couple years; we had a huge falling out, a bad falling out with this family friend. So that's when I took over my expenses and then I discovered that $18,000 in student loans has been taken out of my name without my consent or knowledge. My signature was forged, and he took all the necessary stuff so that I would have been made aware of it. I had tons of contact with that family friend directly through text and call and never heard from them again. So that's when I went to file a police report, and then I waited for that investigation, and the case was closed because it went to my better man, so I pretty much lost hope. I'm still paying these student loans; with all the balloon and interest, it's $25,000 that I'm still paying. I still owe $25,000. I don't think it's fair because I never signed up for this, Kevin. Can you help me?"

"Well, there's just so many questions to ask him. I had to ask Corrales to join me; it’s a crazy story. Let's bring her on. Corrales, you there?"

"Yeah, I am."

"Very good listener; I got a million questions. Go back; tell me what happened there. I need to understand that."

"So I began college as a freshman, and I had 75% of my tuition already covered from scholarships. I did have some extra college expenses, and a close family friend said he'd take care of it."

"Now when you said—when he said ‘I'll take care of it,’ you assumed gift, he's gonna give you the money, right?"

"Right."

"You know, cheers, go buy! And we have a falling out with this family friend. So I took it upon myself to take care of my college expenses, and so I ran my first credit report and I discovered that I have eighteen thousand dollars in student debt."

"You what—you weren't in arrears?"

"No."

"So the original loan was eighteen and then the interest accrued up to twenty-five thousand; that's the new number."

"That's a serious chunk of change when you're just getting out of college. I make about thirty-five thousand a year, and it is going to take me until 2040—so another 20 years for me to pay off these loans, and I would have paid for it by 2040."

"2040? Whoa! We do not pay teachers enough; this is crazy!"

"So then I went to the police; I filed a police report that, you know, fraud. Like, I didn’t sign up for the student loans, and the case was closed because it went to my betterment. She wasn't the beneficiary; I was."

"So Corrales, I actually have the police report. Let me read it to you. This is what the detective said: ‘I contacted an assistant state attorney in reference to this incident. He advised that the statute for identity theft states that the identity theft must have been done for fraudulent means. You were the beneficiary of this. The case of identity theft does not meet Florida State statute criteria.’"

"There you have it. And at that point, I kind of just gave up, and I've been making payments because I don’t want to not pay them and then my credit be harmed. Can I ask you what you would have done? Because you only had 75% of your tuition paid for—would you have raised the eighteen thousand another way?"

"I don't think I even would have talked out those loans, to be honest. And I'm gonna have lived at the dorm. I mean, I slum it all the time just to be well-off. I wouldn't have lived at the dorm, and I would have hustled because I'm a hard worker, and that's what I did for the remaining of my college years."

"Right? I worked and I paid for it all."

"Alright, Corrales, what do you want, and what do you want me to do?"

"What I want is to not have this financial burden that I didn't sign up for. I want to be able to focus on me a little more because obviously, by the teacher's salary, like sorry, but I just didn't sign up for this. I have a passion to be a teacher, and we should be separate from the decision that someone else made for me."

"I mean, you wouldn't be knocking on my door seven years later if this thing really wasn't bugging you. He never told you who's taking these loans out, and he basically did this without any knowledge that you would now have to pay them back. That was unfair."

"Corrales, I'm gonna take a two-pronged approach. I've already reached out to Navient, the company that administers your loan, and they sent me back a statement. It's actually good news; let me read it to you: ‘We will be reaching out directly to the borrower. We take seriously any allegation of fraud and investigate fully.’ Talk about opening the door! I'm liking this!"

"But when you're dealing with such a crazy situation, you got to figure out what your options are. So I've actually got an expert, Barry Coleman, from the National Foundation of Credit Counseling. He's an expert on student loans; he'll tell us if there's anywhere for us to go with this. Barry, you understand the situation of this particular loan; you've seen the details. My question is, because she was the beneficiary of all this, is there any way to try and remedy this situation?"

"The one thing that's really bothering me, Barry, is by the time she finishes paying for this, she'll have paid $40,000—the majority of it in interest. It seems unfair when she didn't even know she had a loan for almost two years. What can we do?"

"Sure, it certainly seems unfair, and there is a provision related to federal student loans where a borrower may seek relief in these situations, and it's called discharge based on identity theft or forgeries by a third party. Now according to the regulations, a borrower seeking this discharge must certify that the borrower did not sign the promissory note."

"Corrales, you never signed anything; you never saw this form until years later; we're clean, right?"

"Yeah, that's because they never even knew about it."

"They must also certify that the borrower did not receive or benefit from the proceeds of the loan, which I know that's the case here. But in the second part, it says with knowledge that the loan had been made without the borrower's authorization. And so I think that's a key part of that particular point in the law that Corrales appears not to have knowledge that the loan was made and it was made without her authorization. Well, there's nothing to point that she was knowledgeable about it; there's no piece of paper that's a smoking gun."

"Yes, I would certainly encourage you to consider pursuing this discharge by contacting your federal loan servicer and taking the next steps. They have a form that you have to fill out in these situations, and then based on that form and any evidence that you can provide, they will investigate it and make a determination based on that."

"Barry, do you mind if I connect you directly with Corrales so you guys can work a little bit more in this case?"

"Absolutely; we'll certainly do all we can to assist you."

"Okay, Barry, you've opened the door. I can see the crack of light. I want to thank both of you. First, Corrales, for having the bravery to come forward and talk about this. Some people are embarrassed about things like this; they don't want them to resurface, not seven years later. They suffer in silence and pay all that interest. I guess that kind of a lost hope."

"Then I saw, you know, Kevin with money to you, and I was like, oh my goodness; maybe there's hope. And it was actually really hard for me to step out like this, but I just did it. I bit the bullet, and I'm like I'm gonna go for it and, you know, I appreciate y'all being here. Changes that we happened; I feel, and I do see the light."

"And Barry, the knowledge you've got, gave us that little crack in the door that maybe we can go solve this situation with. So I thank you for that."

"It's actually a complex world, and I would like to say that the NFC is a national nonprofit, and you know, we have FCC certified student loan counselors that are able to assist with developing plans to help individuals take a holistic approach to addressing their student loans."

"Barry, thank you so much. This is just the beginning of a journey; let's see what happens."

"Yeah, thank you!"

"People, this is why I do the work. Send a video to cnbc.com/moneydispute; tell me everything you got and watch me make it happen for you."

"Alright, I've got a dispute coming in from Ken. He sent in a video; very interesting situation. This one has leverage; I like leverage! I like it when you have a crowbar to start your dispute."

"Mr. Wonderful, SOS! Red alert! I need your help. In September 2017, I sold my home, and I signed a purchase and sale agreement for a new home to be constructed with a completion date of January 2018. I then moved my family, my wife, my two kids, and my two golden retrievers into an apartment. Well, the home was being constructed. Spoiler alert: things didn't go as planned. January 2018, February, March, April, May, June, July 2018—the house was not completed. At that point, I asked the builder for my thirty-four thousand dollar deposit to be returned to me, and plot twist: the builder said no. Since that point, in May 2019, he sold the house to someone else for more money than what I was even going to buy it for, so he's made out on the deal. Can you give me a strategy of how I can go about getting my thirty-four thousand dollar deposit back, as well as I've spent more than $15,000 at this point in litigation trying to get that deposit back? Can you help me?"

"You've come to the right place. Why? Because you have leverage, my friend! You have a contract, a purchase and sale agreement. You know, Ken, I'll let you in on a little fact: most people do not read their purchase and sale agreement. It's multiple pages; it's got a lot of fine print. But in this case, you're gonna have to do that because there's several attributes that may be built into there, like when the home isn't delivered by a certain date, he starts paying interest on the deposits you gave him or maybe other penalties. Also, sometimes they contemplate legal fees, like the $15,000 you've already paid. But you have to know exactly what's in that piece of paper; that is your leverage! That contract—he knows one day he's gonna have to write that check, so he's probably willing—and I'm talking about the builder now—to go somewhere in the middle."

"Let's do the quick math. You've already spent fifteen thousand dollars against thirty-four thousand; that means you're gonna burn all your profits away if you continue to litigate. You've got to get him to the table. Basically, call him and say, ‘Look, I'm gonna keep going; I got a purchase and sale agreement, but it's a hassle for you and me. Let's meet for a coffee; let's cut a deal!’ Music to the ears of somebody that's stuck under the leverage of a contract—you can't get away from that! That's how America runs. Instead of paying you back the thirty-four thousand, maybe you suggest twenty thousand—a lot less—and you'll take it now and sign away all the rest of your rights. And you walk away, leave this headache behind you; buy another house; buy another dog. No, don't buy another dog too—enough! But you get my point. That's the solution, and the only reason you might even have this option is the contract. When trust goes away, the paper comes into play. That's what they say. I love you've got some leverage to work with here."

"Good luck, my friend."

"Okay, we've got a dispute that was videoed in from Ben; let's have a look at this."

"Hi, my name is Ben. I'm a 35-year-old electrician, father of three young children and a beautiful wife. Basically, my dispute is I started doing side work for my direct boss, and we've been on a project, but we were gonna flip a house. I’m supposed to be paid $30,000 at the end of it; it was to take about four months. We're going on a year and a half now, and the money amount has changed. I'm afraid to bring anything up to him because in the past when I've done side work with him, I did bring up the money because the same type of thing happened, and it affected my pay at work and how many hours I get at work. So I don't know how to handle it. I'm basically—every spare hour I have is spent there, and I don't see my kids; I only see my wife, and it has strained our relationship, and I just, I guess I need some guidance."

"Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben! You've come to the right place; this is a mess! You, my friend, are working for free! Now, if you want to be in charity, that's fine, but this is not a charity. You're actually losing paid hours to go work for the guy that pays you for free at his own house. You know it's wrong; your wife knows it's wrong; your family knows it's wrong. It's got to be fixed, Ben. The only way that you can deal with this is come to a place in your head—and after having talked with your wife about this—that if you can't resolve this with your boss in a sit-down conversation, you are willing to walk away."

"People that are willing to walk away have a lot of power—it empowers you! You have to be ready to leave this ridiculous situation in what I consider an abusive relationship."

"Now here's what we're gonna do. Step one: confrontation with the boss has to be; it doesn't have to be negative; it's got to be the truth. You can't keep doing this! Tell them that you want to be paid for all your hours because he basically got a good electrician for free! Count your hours that you actually did all that work at! Take the same rate that you work for him—it’s a job!—and apply that to what you did at the house. I'd like to know what that number is, but you have to know if he doesn't give you any compensation at all for the work done in the private house, you can't stay there. The world is telling you to go get another job; that's exactly what's happening. So be prepared. Tell your wife you're gonna go talk to him. If he says, ‘go pound sand,’ I think the world would treat you well because you're a nice guy, and I'm going to make the assumption you're a great electrician—you just move on. Sometimes in life, you've got to take the risky, prickly path, and that's what this one is, Ben. Good luck to you; I really feel for you, my friend. You're a good guy, and this is just wrong."

"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, I say middle school 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 oh come on, a 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 which give us a full refund of what we paid. In my case, I paid a thousand five hundred and fifty-five dollars, 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 it's only right for a 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, Amy—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, it didn't happen. 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! 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 is $20,000."

"Oh 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—this could be in business or in life, like your wife—maybe you are forming a bond; you are forming a relationship and it's 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 got to buy him out. You're making twenty thousand dollars; 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 want to do the right thing, help them mediate a deal."

"Your reputation is everything, August; remember this! Kid, this is your next-door neighbor, so how you handle it is everything. He's not going away; he's living right beside you. You want to wake up the morning after and the relationship in the business and still have them 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, and 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. Twenty thousand bucks; you can make it a hundred and twenty thousand. You make it two hundred and fifty thousand! You need to lever yourself; you're an entrepreneur, my friend! I want you to go make it happen!"

"Alright, I've got a video from Joran, and this is about love, and Mr. Wonderful loves love! That's why I'm in the wedding business; you know two times in life when you don't care about margins or price: when you get married and when you die. I'm in both businesses; love ‘em!"

"Oh well, let's hear from Joran."

"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 in, bought a ring, spent $6,500 on it. Jeweler claims he never got the payment; I have bank statements saying that it was taken; the check was cash accepted. It's sixty-five hundred 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 sixty-five hundred bucks I gotta 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 when 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 gonna do right now since your fiancée is down. Tell her the whole story. You know, great weddings have mystique and mystery 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 gonna be a story you're gonna tell your grandchildren; that’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 got delivery. Some employee in there is gonna try and figure it out; believe me, they don't want to defraud people because you're also gonna say in that complaint that 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—lamode—whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! I love love! That's why they call me Mr. Wonderful!"

"We've got a question for Joran here, which 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 things are tough! Here's an extra four sessions when we reopen!’ Fine! I would take it! They just email me back; it is like, ‘No! No, no, no!’ Like that is so nasty! And 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 go fluffle with this place; please help!"

"Jordan, I can't stand nasty go fluffles, 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, the trainers—you got to be fair! You got to offer your time and service to your clients, and they will not forget! Jordan’s not going to forget if you do that!"

"They're gonna 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 we are 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, and 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 toughy! 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—that'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, well, you have to be very genteel in how you deal with this 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! And 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?’ or 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 going to 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 gonna make a suggestion of where you’d meet in the middle. Number three, make sure you put this in there—that you’ve appreciated having 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!"

"Alright, I have a question videoed 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 in Malibu financing, anything—just me! The first product's on the market, selling great. 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! And 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, the application is invalid! They just deny it flat out! Now, you would think as a patent attorney, 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, no way! But I would love my money back! I work 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!"

"Wow, 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, as you said, happened to 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 gonna 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: you 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 prior art search. That's what it's called. You blatantly missed a commercial—only 12 months old—which never happens! I feel that you have really taken advantage of me as a small business, and it's not right!’ And then suggest what would make you happy and make you go away as somebody that's gonna be a combatant or complaint—I'd ask for 50% 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!"

"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. 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 twelve 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.’ Alright, let's try and put a value on this thing—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!"

"You know, I love hearing from you about all and any financial conflict, and I want to keep hearing from you! So visit cnbc.com/moneydispute and please upload a video. I can't wait to see you, and until then, stay healthy and take care!"