there are always two sides to a story... usually 3 or 4
in this case it's bad timing on my part. a response could be slow in coming as it is the american turkey day long weekend.
for the whole thing was principle. don't get me wrong, i would have loved to have the money back but it wasn't the prime motivator.
from my perspective as a customer the only one in the equation with any power was Mr. Tiarra. He has the power to hire and fire. What I thought would have been the right/moral thing to do would have been to go to the designer and say "I hear you stiffed a client. I don't employ dishonest people. Resolve the situation or you'll never work on another project of mine again.
A simple, easy, effective solution.