Eddy Tan
05-12-2009, 09:56 AM
I wrote a thread earlier in early April entitled:
" How Do We Get The Supplier to Pay For Returned Stocks". I did not get much input and couldnt go further.
I am raising it again in a slightly different way hoping to get help.
Here is my problem:
It has been more than 3 years now. We tried all the ways within our means and still no result.
In July 2005, WebTrends Inc asked for our stocks of their products to be returned immediately when they terminated our distribution agreement. The stocks were paid for. We not only returned the stocks but also paid for all outstanding invoices. [The termination was not due to sales performance. We over achieved in 2004 . Fact is that they recruited our channel partner.]
For the next 6 months, we wrote to different people at Webtrends asking after the payment. No one replied. We wrote letters to the CEO and owner of Webtrends and sent by registered mails. No one replied.
In Aug 2006, we engaged the local office of Dun & BradStreet. They asked for an initial fee for the court hearing in 2006. The case dragged on and upon my writing to the US head office on the delay in 2008, the local office wrote in to terminate their services and returned the money. No reply came from their head office. We insisted that they continued since they asked for the money and accepted it. They refused. I was very disappointed but was also very angry at oursleves for being a small guy. We lost two years!
While D & B was communicating with WebTrends legal folks, WebTrends maintained that under the agreement they had a right not to re-purchase stocks. True. Why did they ask for the stocks then? Why no one responded in the first 6 months and say so? Return us the stocks and we could have sold them off. Is it not a fact that their rights to refuse re-purchase had lapsed long ago? If yes, why dont they pay up. I can only think of one reason. They know we are a small company. We dont have the financial muscle.
We have been invoicing them using registered mails. Nothing came back.
Can someone please advise on what we can do to convince them to pay up? Is there any US govt agency that we can approach? Any useful forum to solicit help?
Thank you.
" How Do We Get The Supplier to Pay For Returned Stocks". I did not get much input and couldnt go further.
I am raising it again in a slightly different way hoping to get help.
Here is my problem:
It has been more than 3 years now. We tried all the ways within our means and still no result.
In July 2005, WebTrends Inc asked for our stocks of their products to be returned immediately when they terminated our distribution agreement. The stocks were paid for. We not only returned the stocks but also paid for all outstanding invoices. [The termination was not due to sales performance. We over achieved in 2004 . Fact is that they recruited our channel partner.]
For the next 6 months, we wrote to different people at Webtrends asking after the payment. No one replied. We wrote letters to the CEO and owner of Webtrends and sent by registered mails. No one replied.
In Aug 2006, we engaged the local office of Dun & BradStreet. They asked for an initial fee for the court hearing in 2006. The case dragged on and upon my writing to the US head office on the delay in 2008, the local office wrote in to terminate their services and returned the money. No reply came from their head office. We insisted that they continued since they asked for the money and accepted it. They refused. I was very disappointed but was also very angry at oursleves for being a small guy. We lost two years!
While D & B was communicating with WebTrends legal folks, WebTrends maintained that under the agreement they had a right not to re-purchase stocks. True. Why did they ask for the stocks then? Why no one responded in the first 6 months and say so? Return us the stocks and we could have sold them off. Is it not a fact that their rights to refuse re-purchase had lapsed long ago? If yes, why dont they pay up. I can only think of one reason. They know we are a small company. We dont have the financial muscle.
We have been invoicing them using registered mails. Nothing came back.
Can someone please advise on what we can do to convince them to pay up? Is there any US govt agency that we can approach? Any useful forum to solicit help?
Thank you.