A question about : pay up or hold my ground !!?!?!?!
hi guys need a bit advice , i have a small car business that doesn't earn a particularly good wage, my one and only parts supplier whom my self and my father had been loyal to for over 18yrs went into administration a couple of months back ,
really dropping me in the sticky stuff with no notice at all !! any way they are chasing me for the final invoice but dont agree to the amount as i have lots of returns that were never collected , they have notified me that any parts supplied prior to closure have no warranty i am responsible for coughing up to my customers should a part fail , personally i feel this should be reflected in the invoice to as a failed part could potentially cost thousands of ЈЈЈs worth of damage,
not only that as luck or unluckyness would have it a new thermostat only 6months old failed on my own car ( from old supplier ) and has caused the headgaskets to go, its an old mg v6 so even to me its going to cost a good 600 to repair , normally i would claim this from the parts supplier but alas they claim no warranty its not thier problem!!!
they still want me to pay the disputed final invoice and are sending me final demand notices and warnings that they will send this to thier debt collection company who has bought out the companys debt .
they claim that i need invoices returns notes etc to prove everything but the problem is this would normally have all been done after they collected the parts not prior to .
do i pay or hold my ground !???? i know this is just bullying tactics but i dont want a black mark against my business as it will affect my credit later on , before anyone mentions staff payouts they have really done the dirty on those poor guys they have refused to pay thier wages and put an 8 weeks work ban on them some of them are friends etc.
so what do you reckon ???
Best answers:
- Not my area of expertise.
My gut feeling would be to tell them you'll see them in court, but that's just me. You need professional expert advice...it is unlikely anyone here would know since Business disputes and debts are different from consumer ones. - hi firewyrm , i sort of had a feeling i would have to do that ,but he disputed fee is Ј750 which expert advice would quickly amount to more than,
and i can hardly see them wanting to pay that for me , Ј750 may not seam much but my takings from the business average about 95p an hour for the last few years so its its quite a lot considering my income . - as much as i would really like to stick it to them i cant afford the bill to rise even more , i will see if there is anyone about here who does an intitial 30 mins it may be worth a go ,
thank you very much - What's an 8 weeks work ban
- I'm sure that was outlawed years ago.
I recall the case, which involved a dairy (I'm afraid I can't remember the name, but it was one of the big ones), who tried to sue some former employees, who set up as milkmen.
The court found in favour of the former employees, on 2 grounds.
1. It amounted to restriction of practice.
2. A contract of employment ceases to have effect, once you cease to be employed by the company. - parts were offered back pre-admin but nothing is on paper , it would appear the admin team does not have the full records from individual branches as they claim not to know about any warranty claims returns etc , they suddenly closed up locked the doors and cut the phones with no warning .
this particular company has the 8 week ban in place to stop its workers going to the rival business of which there are only 2 major players here , they can enforce it as they have 2 seperate companys under a similar name so the money is still there its just the director shafting the automotive side of his empire and offloading bad debt - My Oh's ex company are trying to make branch managers pay for credit notes which weren't supplied by an automotive parts supplier who has gone into administration!
Hi final wages weren't enough to cover these debits so they have issued a CCJ claim. He has counter claimed and I am looking forward to hearing the judgement.
If it should go against us then we have 28 days to pay, so presumably you could test it similarly should you wish? - Write to them, detailing the item costs of each reutnable part that they failed to collect. Deduct it from the final invoice and send a cheque in settlement of the balance.
Advise them that they may collect their parts from you within 28 days, to enable them to register them as assets of the business. State that you consider that matter closed and will dispute any further attempts on their part to make you pay for items that were scheduled for return.
If they take it to court, you have a paper trail demonstrating your attempt to reach a reasonable and amicable resolution. Make sure it is in writing, fully itemised and sent by recorded delivery. Box up the parts and clearly separate them for collection.
Good luck - ANTROBUS
i have pretty much already done all of that , i informed them that also as they did not have thier paperwork in order and that meant i had to spend precious labour time going through invoices and statements that i would be deducting my labour rate from the bill , they really reacted to that one claiming they would pursue me through court for it back ,
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