Please help! Broker won’t pay and wants me to pay customers labor costs

You can do this on your own but if you don't have experience in going to court, then get a lawyer.

Get the confirmation, BOL, carrier packet, emails, printed phone calls. Take it to your local court and file a civil claim. Add maybe $500-$1000 to the claim for loss wages in going to court.
Sue the broker, if that doesn't work, sue the shipper and then the receiver.

You'll get paid

 

All of that for$1300

All of that for $1300..........yup...that makes sense. OP needs to pay the $1300. Learn from the experience. Pretty cheap lesson in the grand scheme of things.

 

Naa, OP need to file a civil complaint to have the broker served. Have a judge decide who should pay what.

 

Have you ever dealt with our court system under "normal circumstances"? Crap gets tied up for months on end. In this current "Covid world" in which we now live, not a chance a of any resolution in sight. As an OO, the OP would be wasting his/her valuable time chasing after $1300.00. By the OP's own admission, there were screw up on his/her part. Time to move on. A single two day trip should net that $1300.00 compared to the nightmare litigation would surely entail. Just my $.02

 

Now we are cooking with gas .... or diesel

 

Don’t get down on yourselves. This can happen to anyone and often does. Did you know that when you sign the rate con you can cross things off the contract and you can add your own terms in the America’s contract. Yes you can and don’t be afraid to do it.

 

That's the longest sentence I've ever read. Mix in a period or a comma once in awhile!
So the rate con says you can only be charged a max of $500. Is that correct? If it is, then just suck it up and pay it. After all, YOU guys are the ones who failed, regardless of the circumstances. Chalk it up as a "cuddling expense".