Headlam – back in business and not a care in the World

A fortnight ago I wrote about how Headlam handled our Crucial Trading order, and why I don’t think anyone should trust them again. A quick recap for anyone who missed it.

We paid Crucial up front, on a pro-forma, in July. The carpet was pushed back twice and our client wouldn’t wait any longer, so we asked for our money back. Headlam agreed a refund of £3,385.88 in writing on 3 September. That was two days after they had announced they intended to appoint administrators, and nobody mentioned it. The refund never arrived.

Here’s what has happened since.

On Monday 28 September an email landed. It was a new account manager introducing herself. She would be looking after our Crucial Trading account, four ranges had been discontinued, and she looked forward to working with us and supporting our business.

Nothing about the money. Business as usual.

To be fair to her, she was pleasant. When I told her where our account actually stood, she went to the office that same afternoon. That’s more than anyone else at Crucial had managed in two months.

The office’s version: one piece was paid for and delivered, which is true. The second piece was cancelled, which is also true, because we cancelled it after it was put back twice. And they were still waiting on stock with no date. On the money we had paid for that second piece, nothing.

So I asked her to refer it upwards. I also asked whether, if the cash couldn’t come back during the administration, a credit could be set against future supply. The answer came back that it is in the hands of the administrators, Interpath.

We lodged our claim with Interpath on 16 September. We got an automatic reply promising a response within five working days. We chased them on 30 September. Nothing since.

Here is the reality for anyone in the same position. Money paid on a pro-forma to a supplier that then goes into administration is an unsecured debt. You join the back of the queue, behind the secured lenders, the administrators’ own costs and everyone else ahead of you. Our legal advice is that nothing will come of it. Meanwhile we have had to buy our client’s carpet again from somebody else.

And still the sales machine keeps running: a new rep, a list of discontinued ranges, and an open invitation to keep ordering. I don’t blame the rep. She is doing her job, and she has been more helpful than anyone else there. But the company behind her has some cheek.

So I told them, politely, our terms for any new business with Crucial or any other Headlam brand. Either we get our money back, or we get goods to the value of what we paid. Until one of those happens, we are not ordering.

If you have money sitting with Headlam, three things:

Lodge your claim with the administrators in writing, with your account number, order references and proof of payment. Then chase it.
Don’t send another penny on a pro-forma until you have confirmation the stock is physically in the warehouse.
Pay suppliers by card wherever you can. We paid by bank transfer, so we have no chargeback route. A card payment would have given us one.

Trust is earned by how a company behaves when things go wrong. We have seen how this one behaves.