Can you haggle with an administrator?

[valiant]

As above really.

We bought a fairly expensive thing (for us at least) from a store (no names just yet ) that went pop soon after we ordered. It was a bespoke item and it did eventually arrive from whoever they sub-contracted the build out to and now a few months down the road the administrators for the bust company have finally made contact with us.

There are now question marks regarding the guarantee the store offered and a few freebies that were advertised as part of a promotion obviously never turned up and the amount of stress in wondering what would turn up, if at all, and the fact that it was late which caused no end of hassle at our end so is it worth offering or asking for an amount off for a quick full and final settlement and is it a done thing?

Might be worth mentioning that this isn’t some small company but a company that went bust owing hundreds of millions of pounds so no small trader.

Or am I on a hiding to nothing and should simply pay up in full?

[Countdown]

valiant said:

so is it worth offering or asking for an amount off for a quick full and final settlement and is it a done thing?

Yes it absolutely is.

IME (and honestly I don't mean you!) a lot of scummy people will do this because if the firm's already in administration then they think they might be able to get away without paying. However the Administrators will be trying to (and are legally obliged to) maximise the amount they can recover for the creditors. So they'll be focussing on the larger debtors rather than the smaller ones and they have to weigh up the time/cost of chasing debtors against the likelihoods of getting money from them. If it's a large debt or it's a crystal clear case then they'll chase you. However if you have a reasonable counter-argument and are willing to compromise then they will definitely listen.