- Original Poster
- #1
I have a bit of a long story regarding this problem I currently have so sorry and please bear with me.
I was a 50% partner in my buisiness with my friend owning the other 50%.
We transport cars around Europe on a covered transporter.
My partner at the time accepted a job to deliver 2 cars from the UK to Spain, which he did with our truck and the job was invoiced and paid. When in Spain delivering the cars to the owner, the owner said he will want the cars returning to the UK in about 3 months. My partner said to email him when he knew dates and he would try and arrange coming back to pick them up.
Since this my Buisiness partner had a lot of personal problems and after a couple of weeks of him only helping the buisiness part time it was decided that he couldn't carry on and we negotiated a price for him to leave the buisiness and I took his 50% shares.
After this I received a phone call from the customer who's cars were in Spain asking why his cars had not been collected. It turns out he had come back and emailed my now ex-buisiness partner to arrange them to come back. I have seen the emails between them and the customer basically says the cars are ready to come back to the UK anytime from the 27th of August, my ex-buisiness partner only reply's to him saying that he is getting jobs and dates together to try and go out to Spain for the 27th and he will let them know.
Then there is another email from the customer to my ex-buisiness partner on the 02/09/19 asking for an update to see if he can collect the cars.
I then get involved on the 05/09/19 as I am now the sole director, I apologise for everything and look for solutions for the customer. He only paid a discounted rate to take the cars down to Spain as it was part of a round trip and he only wants to pay the same to bring them back, which doesn't come close to covering half the costs of the job.
I ask another transport company who regularly goes to Spain from the UK if he could bring them back for the owner and he gives me a price and rough dates he could have the cars collected, so I pass this onto the customer via email to say I cant collect his cars for the price he wants to pay but I have found a company that could if that was ok for him, to which he agrees.
Then the company didn't pick his cars up when they said so he got back on to me, I asked if I could fly out with another driver and drive the cars back and he tells me one of his cars has a fault showing it has a flat tyre on the dash so he would prefer it to be transported. I finally get hold of the other transporter company who apologises and gives another collection date. The owner of the cars is happy to wait another week.
When the cars come back into the UK on a transporter on the 16/10/19 they go to a different location than the owners house, he has trackers on them. so he asks me why and I say I don't know I don't have any control as its not my company or truck doing the job but I said I would make some phone calls to find out what is happening. I get no answer for a couple of hours.
I then get a call off the owner explaining that he has followed his tracker and one car is in a body shop and the other is in a farmyard covered in mud. He is obviously very annoyed and shouting and swearing at me down the phone, his last words to me were I'm suing you over this.
Now it turns out the company who said they could do the job actually asked another company to do it, this 3rd company admits they damaged a wheel, tyre and put a dent in the boot of one car that was in the body shop being repaired and the other car was in a farm yard as that is where he stores his trucks and he will be washing the car before it is returned to the owner.
Now on 10/12/19 I have received an email with 4 bills attached, one for a new wheel, one for 3 new tyre pressure sensors, one for 4 wheels to be refurbished and one for a brand new boot lid and all the costs to fit and paint it. and they want me to pay as the say 'the contract was with your company to collect the cars'
I'd appreciate any advice you can offer me as to who is responsible to pay these bills, 2 of these bills are not associated with any damage caused by the transporter so he is obviously not going to pay them and he has said he has already paid to repair the dent in the boot and the wheel etc
Also the customer has not paid any money for the return of his vehicles.
I was a 50% partner in my buisiness with my friend owning the other 50%.
We transport cars around Europe on a covered transporter.
My partner at the time accepted a job to deliver 2 cars from the UK to Spain, which he did with our truck and the job was invoiced and paid. When in Spain delivering the cars to the owner, the owner said he will want the cars returning to the UK in about 3 months. My partner said to email him when he knew dates and he would try and arrange coming back to pick them up.
Since this my Buisiness partner had a lot of personal problems and after a couple of weeks of him only helping the buisiness part time it was decided that he couldn't carry on and we negotiated a price for him to leave the buisiness and I took his 50% shares.
After this I received a phone call from the customer who's cars were in Spain asking why his cars had not been collected. It turns out he had come back and emailed my now ex-buisiness partner to arrange them to come back. I have seen the emails between them and the customer basically says the cars are ready to come back to the UK anytime from the 27th of August, my ex-buisiness partner only reply's to him saying that he is getting jobs and dates together to try and go out to Spain for the 27th and he will let them know.
Then there is another email from the customer to my ex-buisiness partner on the 02/09/19 asking for an update to see if he can collect the cars.
I then get involved on the 05/09/19 as I am now the sole director, I apologise for everything and look for solutions for the customer. He only paid a discounted rate to take the cars down to Spain as it was part of a round trip and he only wants to pay the same to bring them back, which doesn't come close to covering half the costs of the job.
I ask another transport company who regularly goes to Spain from the UK if he could bring them back for the owner and he gives me a price and rough dates he could have the cars collected, so I pass this onto the customer via email to say I cant collect his cars for the price he wants to pay but I have found a company that could if that was ok for him, to which he agrees.
Then the company didn't pick his cars up when they said so he got back on to me, I asked if I could fly out with another driver and drive the cars back and he tells me one of his cars has a fault showing it has a flat tyre on the dash so he would prefer it to be transported. I finally get hold of the other transporter company who apologises and gives another collection date. The owner of the cars is happy to wait another week.
When the cars come back into the UK on a transporter on the 16/10/19 they go to a different location than the owners house, he has trackers on them. so he asks me why and I say I don't know I don't have any control as its not my company or truck doing the job but I said I would make some phone calls to find out what is happening. I get no answer for a couple of hours.
I then get a call off the owner explaining that he has followed his tracker and one car is in a body shop and the other is in a farmyard covered in mud. He is obviously very annoyed and shouting and swearing at me down the phone, his last words to me were I'm suing you over this.
Now it turns out the company who said they could do the job actually asked another company to do it, this 3rd company admits they damaged a wheel, tyre and put a dent in the boot of one car that was in the body shop being repaired and the other car was in a farm yard as that is where he stores his trucks and he will be washing the car before it is returned to the owner.
Now on 10/12/19 I have received an email with 4 bills attached, one for a new wheel, one for 3 new tyre pressure sensors, one for 4 wheels to be refurbished and one for a brand new boot lid and all the costs to fit and paint it. and they want me to pay as the say 'the contract was with your company to collect the cars'
I'd appreciate any advice you can offer me as to who is responsible to pay these bills, 2 of these bills are not associated with any damage caused by the transporter so he is obviously not going to pay them and he has said he has already paid to repair the dent in the boot and the wheel etc
Also the customer has not paid any money for the return of his vehicles.
