Do not give up! hassle them as much as you can, call 3 times a day, go to the shop if still there, trace the owner be a nuisance to them, It worked for me few years ago when a bought safety screens for my house... at the end they gave me my money back to get rid of me. I traced the owner and gave him plenty! [}:)]

The general procedure is that if the shop has gone to liquidation there will be a liquidator appointed, generally an accountant.

You will need to lodge your receipt and details of goods owed with them. You are now a creditor of a liquidated business. Other people in the same position will be staff, suppliers etc.

Just talk to the liquidator, this is about all you can do. They will likely sell all goods and business assets and divide the money that remains to pay outstanding debts, like yours.

What CMC said. But if they've gone into liquidation, that doesn't necessarily mean the business has gone bust (although that's the most likely scenario). If you're lucky, the liquidator may decide that it's worth salvaging and either trade out of debt or else sell off the business.

A few years ago I paid a sizeable deposit to have an extension put on my house. Soon after, the business went into liquidation. Yuck.

Luckily for me, the staff decided they knew how to run the business better than the owner. They got together and bought it off the liquidator complete with all the orders on the books. I ended up getting my extension, although a year later than I expected. The staff were right - it's still trading.

Thanks for the advice Im talking to the liquidator

Also called the distributor of the furniture and they told me the shop doesn't owe them any money and didnt even know he had gone bust

The annoying thing is I can still see the store has display items in there. Originally i wanted to just buy those but was told I couldn't possibly take the store items, dispite the fact that 2 weeks prior they were quite happy for me to take some other items.

Firms go bust all the time but it's being lied to that I hate.

It's only 300$ so not worth throwing a brick thru the window to take what is mine :p

Does anyone ever think that the owner may have fallen on hard times such as illness or injury and has gone bust not by choice but due to the circumstances?

Giving a flat broke hell is going to get you know where at all. It may however get the **** kicked out of you! All though if u explained to the owner your situation in a nice manner he may be able to help you by instructing the liquidators to give you your goods prior to the liquidation of all his goods.

stamp said...

ok said...

Does anyone ever think that the owner may have fallen on hard times such as illness or injury and has gone bust not by choice but due to the circumstances?

that's still no way to run a business. the bottom line is the owner is trading beyond their means with money they obviously don't have or money that belongs to someone else.
even if you can't see the writing on the wall in time to get out, there should always be enough to pay your creditors if things go wrong.
its bad form to pass on your problems to an innocent party

Is'nt that called insolvent trading? and illegal?[}:)]

zippyblue said...
It's only 300$ so not worth throwing a brick thru the window to take what is mine :p

Probably not. But it's worth throwing a brick thru the window though.

Leave the window alone and use the brick to smash his face in. Murdoch needs one too

name and shame !

I'm a bit surprisd that in all these replies, nobody has mentioned,... DO NOT PAY FULL PRICE UP FRONT FOR ANYTHING!
Don't even pay a large deposit.

Pay 10% at the most, unless you have ordered something special that the shop doesn't normally stock and will have no hope of selling it if you change your mind.
It's fair to pay full price on delivery. You've got the goods, they've got the money.

When you pay full price on order, once you have coughed up the money the shop has absolutely no incentive to rush your order through.
It has already got your money so from that point on, you have lost all your leverage to get the item/s you paid for.
In fact their incentive is to not hurry with the order because so far the sale has cost them nothing. The entire sale price which they got off you up front is so far 100% profit.
Their piority goes towards filling new orders that aren't yet paid for so they can get in more cash, so if you've already paid, that won't be yours.

The same applies when you pay a large deposit, say 30% or more.
If their total profit is say 30% on the completed sale then when you pay that ammount, they have already got all they were going to make on the deal, so from that point on, the rest of the transaction is just work for nothing.
That's hardly an incentive to hurry your order up.

Reputable shops generally have at least 30 days to pay their suppliers after the goods are delivered to them so there is no reason they should be demanding money off you before they have paid anything to anyone.
If their suppliers ask them for money up front then it's only because they have a record of slow payment and are therefore considered a risky proposition.
If you pay up front then you are taking on the risk that their suppliers considered was unacceptable.
Often it works but also often, it doesn't.

If the operation is so doubtful that it needs your money up front then just tell them that if you can't pay cash on delivery then you will look elsewhere.
Be very polite but firm.
They almost always accept this but if they don't, you're better off going somewhere else.

Maybe I'm naive, but the goods in question are yours - it is not a matter of money being owed. If your goods are in their possession and they do not return them to you, it is theft - i.e. a crime has been committed. I'd gently remind people of that fact and suggest charges might be forthcoming

Sailhack said...

As CMC said...unfortunately the liquidators can be a nasty lot. I've chased money in the past & legal advice was "you'll throw good money chasing bad", but that could also be a bluff.

Yep they can be totally ruthless (to say it nicely) but if you are lucky enough to get a govt agency liquidator they may just give you your goods with proof of purchase. They dont have to - but sometimes they are 'real' people.
Unlike the scavanging bottom feeders that trawl the courts looking for bank accounts they can empty into their own koffers and not give the honest creditors any consideration at all.
One negotiation I was involved with once saw a Collins St Accounting firm pocket $48000 to settle the accounts which totalled 7 small creditors and 5 small debtors.
No debts collected and no creditors paid - my reckoning at the time was (being generous) it would have taken 5 hrs work - max. Dont know how some ppl sleep at night.

Sailhack said...

You'd probably find the director(s) of the company somewhere in the sun sipping lattes on their yacht.

Hmmm now where have I heard that before