Selecting the right move – Woods Trade Supplies
Once an invoice exceeds its credit terms, a business typically has three options in order to recover the money it is owed.
The first is to continue to chase the customer for payment yourself, the second is to outsource the recovery process to a commercial debt collection agency and the third is to pursue legal proceedings. However, despite appearing to be the firmest approach, even the latter can fail to bring the desired result, as this case demonstrates.
After a number of his customers refused to pay invoices amounting to more than £30,000, Dave Wood, Partner at Woods Trade Supplies, opted to file County Court Judgments in an attempt to recover the monies owed. However, when the debtors subsequently became increasingly elusive, the Judgments proved difficult to enforce and payments had still not materialised several months later.
Mr Wood was recommended to Hilton-Baird Collection Services, whose knowledge and experience in these circumstances allowed a plan of action to quickly be implemented in order to locate the customers and recover the outstanding sums.
One customer in particular was proving to be extremely challenging to pin down. The first task was to establish his location before performing relevant background checks to understand the company’s ability to pay. These checks contradicted the customer’s suggestion that he couldn’t afford to pay at that time, particularly due to the owner’s possession of several assets of significant value, including a property valued at £1.5 million.
By advising the customer that the team were fully aware of his true financial situation, the owner provided £2,500 on the spot before settling the remaining figure just a week later, bringing a swift and successful conclusion to what had been a difficult ordeal for our client.
If your business is in a similar situation contact us on 0800 9774848 or collections@hiltonbaird.co.uk to see how we could help. Alternatively get a quick quote to find out what we’d charge should we successfully recover your unpaid invoices.
