Depends how much money. Trespassing you off the property and making you have to go through all of the effort and expenses to win a judgment, only to be unable to collect without more effort and fees, is very unlikely to come out in your favor majority of the time.
It's unlikely to come out in the business' favor either. Turning the conflict into a lawsuit will increase costs for both sides, and may significantly eclipse the amount in dispute.
For a large corporation with a substantial legal team, that might make sense for many situations...they've already paid a baseline cost for the capability of near-continuous engagement with litigation of some kind. For many small/medium businesses, it can be a large additional cost. Then it becomes a question of "am I so willing to screw this person I owe money to, that I am willing to screw myself in the process?"
Showing up in person is a way of indicating you're willing to make it complicated and/or expensive to make you go away.
I still don't think people are appreciating the issue.
Let's say the business trespasses you. Now that's on your record. You take them to small claims court and win - but now need to spend more money and more time to collect any money from this business.
Let's say you finally collect, but incurred additional costs and lost much time during that process. How do you recoup those costs? Back to small claims court... it's circular, and the business can just drag their feet along the way.
You're ignoring the increasing costs the business will also incur by continuing to refuse to pay. Again, for large businesses, it may be possible for them to absorb this additional load with no issue. For quite a few small and medium businesses, this extra load can't be easily absorbed.
Keep in mind you don't have to actually have any intent of suing them when you show up. You can treat it like a poker bluff. It creates the impression you might go all the way, and that's often enough to change the business' perception of the costs and risks.
