Paul Hynes design ltd - email says ‘now closed’
- Thread starter duckworp
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Heckyman
pfm Member
There’s a thread full of disgruntled folks on Audiophile style, seems the company was taken into liquidation...
John Phillips
pfm Member
On the home page: "An Insolvency Practitioner has been appointed to realise the company assets for creditor distribution."
For insolvency see many web pages such as: Who gets paid first when a company goes into liquidation? (begbies-traynorgroup.com)
I am assuming the home page is correct and the company is no longer a going concern, hence the creditor distribution statement rather than the possibility of re-structuring. If so, possibly you will have to make sure that the appointed insolvency practitioner has your claim on file. I am not a lawyer. But I have been on the end of a significant insolvency where I was in part a preferential creditor and in part an unsecured creditor.
EDIT: see How can I get my money back if a company goes bust? - Which?
simon g
Older, wiser but no longer retired
If you paid with a credit card or PayPal make contact with them and register a claim.
If you paid by bank transfer then things don't look so good. You'll be an unsecured creditor, which will be at the bottom of the list. You may get something back, depending on the finances of the company. Often as not it's a small % of the claim, if anything.
If you paid by bank transfer then things don't look so good. You'll be an unsecured creditor, which will be at the bottom of the list. You may get something back, depending on the finances of the company. Often as not it's a small % of the claim, if anything.
cctaylor
pfm Member
I'm afraid it's inevitable when business owners try trading to the bitter end. Of course there are many reasons why businesses fail and it would not be fair to comment or speculate on the reasons for this business being in liquidation.
sq225917
Bit of this, bit of that
That's exactly what they do. My first employer went to the wall with enough cash in the bank to pay all the staff their owed wages and all the suppliers. Insolvency Co appointed by the investors kept on a handful of management paid them and themselves, and everyone else got screwed out of their 7 year service payment. Cnuts.
John Phillips
pfm Member
I don't know how accurate or relevant to you this information is, apparently direct from Paul Hynes and suggesting he will continue at some point his custom build schedule.
Tony L
Administrator
If paid by credit card then issue a chargeback, failing that a Section 75 claim under the Consumer Credit Act. There is no way you won’t get the cash back in this case, you are legally protected, but start the process now. If paid by PayPal open a dispute immediately for non-delivered goods. Anything beyond that the money is almost certainly gone. Definitely do not wait for communication from the company. They are gone.
Many of us did the same with Onix, when they tried to screw us with non deliveries of amplifiers ordered in here.
Lucky most had prepaid with credit cards
Tony L
Administrator
That is a key reason I know how to deal with these things! Like many I ended up invoking a S75 claim and got my money back, though my existing amp was not returned, so effectively stolen by Onix. The whole thing cost me countless hours of unpaid time trying to clear up the company’s mess here too, weeks of work to be honest.
Sloop John B
And any old music will do…
There seems to be a bit of a theme emerging with the “pay fully upfront and then we build” business model fed into by “fans” on various fora.
.sjb
.sjb
LecsonQuad
pfm Member
I read this having never heard of Paul Hynes ... Looking at the closed down website the payment options are bank transfer or Paypal. That would ring alarm bells with me because if they can't get credit card co approval their finances will be questionable.
Good luck recovering your money.
Good luck recovering your money.
Stuart Frazer
pfm Member
At least with PayPal, you would have some protection. With a Bank Transfer, it would be very difficult to get refunded.
Yes, not the way to go about it. - It's a cottage industry 'business' model in some corners.
If the business activity continues pretty much along the same lines after taking people's money without delivering what they purchased I think we can safely dismiss good intentions. If property is stolen (a criminal act) that only reinforces a lack of good intentions. If the same type of activity has continued for many years it again reinforces a lack of good intentions. A problem seems to be that audiophiles are a softer touch than average for this type of thing because many have accepted, believed in, and trusted snake oil for decades.
If you are buying a standard off-the-shelf item rather than a custom item and asked to pay before manufacturing begins this is a significant red flag. This is not how reputable manufacturing businesses normally operate. If the manufacturer doesn't have a merchant account that is an even bigger red flag because it means there is no relatively safe way to pay upfront. A credit card company will return your money so long as you pay the manufacturer directly and not an intermediary like paypal. Paypal will likely return money in the event they can recover it from the fraudster otherwise the chances of getting it back with paypal footing the bill tends to be slim.
The number of people operating audiophile businesses from their garage/home seems to be increasing as the audiophile market declines. Some are honest, some snake oil merchants and some fraudsters. If honest people are opting to require upfront payment they will provide their customer's with a safe way to pay. This is part of being honest about business. There is of course nothing wrong with also offering relatively unsafe methods like cash, direct transfers, paypal,... but requiring payment upfront without a safe method to pay will be a large enough red flag for most prudent people not to do business. Honest people running businesses know this.
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