Chapter 11

[Derek]

i cant be the only one who has had a client pull this to "protect" themselves?

1 of our largest quarterly accounts did so this past Feb. we figured we would never see any part of the $2k+ they owed (if only i had waited 1 more week to send them an invoice). we kept the account and have CC'ed twice for them since and been paid the $ owed for each.

so 2 days ago i get mail from some Liquidity company and they are offering us half of that 2k+. they say they can withdraw the offer at any time etc...

would you take it? or wait for a better offer?


what really ticks me off is i found out via Google that this company pulled the same thing not only 4-5 years ago (before we CC'ed for them). is there not a law that keeps places from doing this every so often???

 

[Brian R]

BKs are tough...take the money...what better offer do you think they will come up with?

A sure thing is a sure thing.

 

[Ernie G]

Yes Derek, we have had two this year, not as big as 2k, but it's frustrating when they order the work and they know their not going to pay you. One of my clients is a realestate agent, and pretty much thumbed his nose at us and stalled, and then said oh-well I've gone bankrupt. I'm not sure how some of these people sleep at night.

 

[Out of Character - 0]

I've never had that happen,

But I did have a local contracting company that owed us 3k, their attorney called and offered us a settlement of $1500 and stated that the other contractors are getting the same type of offers and we should take it. I agreed verbally with the attorney, then went to the contractor and explained a few reasons why they wouldn't want to do that to us, unless the are moving to another city. I got a separate check from them for $1000 with the understanding that we wouldn't tell the attorney.

The company that owes you 2k probably owes other much larger sums of money, if persuaded properly they may pay you.

Never threaten anything illegal

 

[rhyde]

I have a retailer into me for 8K since January I’m a kind and patent person I know they will come around and pay up, they are real stand up people :roll: …now if I could just remember where I put their 20K of rugs I have in my shop I really hate charging them 100.00 a month for storage …gosh I have to remember to look for them when I get to the shop. :| I'm still doing work for them COD they haven’t went bankrupt ..yet!

i've done this three times got my money all three times too

 

[Derek]

The company that owes you 2k probably owes other much larger sums of money, if persuaded properly they may pay you.

oh most def. they were formerly owned by Exxon/Mobil. they have a several HUGE plants around the country with hundreds of employees at our location. i don't think any amount of persuasion will work unfortunately. i am just a minnow to them.

i hope you find their rugs Randy!

 

[tracywalker]

I have lost a ton of money from another business I had. Take what you can get and move on. Eventually it is not worth worrying about. A year later I still am chasing people for about $5000 total. NEVER start an advertising business in a down economy!

 

[Desk Jockey]

Take it, you may not get anything else.

Years ago we has a hotel that owed us $8,000.00 from a water loss and dragged payment out for months, when they finally got back with us they offered the same deal 1/2 off the original bill.

We refused, we may have taken 80% but not 50%, 3-months later they went under and left no trail.

New owner didn't care about putting us in touch with the former owner, we probably would not have received anything had we gotten their contact information.

In hind sight we should have take the $4,000.00, he would have wrote it that day.

 

[Jeremy]

Tell them you'll take $0.80 on th $1... Otherwise you'see them in court and you'll be after interest & penalties.

 

[The Preacher]

give their dirty water back to them!!!

 

[steve g]

Take it, you may not get anything else.

Years ago we has a hotel that owed us $8,000.00 from a water loss and dragged payment out for months, when they finally got back with us they offered the same deal 1/2 off the original bill.

We refused, we may have taken 80% but not 50%, 3-months later they went under and left no trail.

New owner didn't care about putting us in touch with the former owner, we probably would not have received anything had we gotten their contact information.

In hind sight we should have take the $4,000.00, he would have wrote it that day.

MECHANICS LIEN BABY!!!!!!!

 

[Nate The Great]

Mostly likely that happened to my parents in the past. I haven't had that happen to me yet. I did have a close call though. 10k invoice gets paid just before 30days mark, the next week they filed Chapter 11. Which really sucked because it was going to be a quarterly contract cleaning.

 

[Greenie]

I wish I had an offer of $1K on a $2K debt in chap.11, I'd be on that in a heartbeat.

In this world, lots of people owe.

 

[Mike Draper]

Take it, you may not get anything else.

Years ago we has a hotel that owed us $8,000.00 from a water loss and dragged payment out for months, when they finally got back with us they offered the same deal 1/2 off the original bill.

We refused, we may have taken 80% but not 50%, 3-months later they went under and left no trail.

New owner didn't care about putting us in touch with the former owner, we probably would not have received anything had we gotten their contact information.

In hind sight we should have take the $4,000.00, he would have wrote it that day.

Has any of you guys ever considered filing a lien? I've sent the letter 2x stating a lien will be filed within 3 days + interest and a large filing charge. Payment was in my hands within hours of the letter arriving at their office. I look at it this way..." people don't pay their bills when they don't have the money".

 

[Derek]

forgive me, but how is a lien going to stop federal protection of filing for Chapter 11?



yes i did agree to the 50% and hopefully i will get it. we were shocked to be offered that much. i was just curious to see who else was thinking like me and was kinda regretting it. after Richard's post i am glad we jumped on the 50%

again, this isnt a mom-N-pop company. this is a place that bought out a division of exxon/mobil. attorneys? really?

 

[Askal]

I have never received a dime from a bankrupt customer. I would take 50% for sure.
Al

 

[dealtimeman]

i am sure you made the better call on taking the 50 percent k.p. would be proud of you! :mrgreen:

 

[Brian R]

:roll:

 

[Hoody]

It is my understanding that a lien is only good if filed BEFORE the bankruptcy. For instance; we had a flood loss. It was an 8k invoice, they were required to turn the payment from insurance over to us 3 business days after receiving the funds, per our contract. They were negligent in doing so. 15 days went by, and we filed a lien on the property. They filed bankruptcy 2 weeks after. We eventually got paid after everything went through the courts on the bankruptcy. We were one of the last the got paid, but still got paid our full amount.

From - http://www.uscourts.gov/bankruptcycourt ... ter11.html

An individual cannot file under chapter 11 or any other chapter if, during the preceding 180 days, a prior bankruptcy petition was dismissed due to the debtor's willful failure to appear before the court or comply with orders of the court, or was voluntarily dismissed after creditors sought relief from the bankruptcy court to recover property upon which they hold liens.

I believe you have to pay off your debts now once you file bankruptcy as well or atleast reach a settlement with your creditors on negligent accounts. You don't just get a clean slate anymore. But I'm probably thinking of Chapter 7.