Urgent Opinions needed - especially from business owners

[Stoid]

Scene:

You have shares in a small private corporation with your partner. That corp is known as GDI, Inc. GDI is the actual owner of your income producing business, known as HetroHaunch.com Which has a very specialized sort of business with a small community of people as part of it.

You have afflliates who market HetroHaunch.

After legal wrangling, you buy HeteroHaunch from GDI, Inc. and keep running it the same as ever.

There is a receiver controlling the money now in GDI, Inc. Part is supposed to pay the affiliates from the time when GDI owned HetroHaunch. You still have the same relationships with the affiliates, etc, but you’ve been kinda quiet while this all gets worked out.

The receiver is controling GDI, Inc. It’s handling payments for GDI, Inc. HetroHaunch has nothing to do with that anymore and hasn’t for months, it’s all about the corporation as far as the legal stuff.

You find out that the receiver wrote a letter to the affiliates you still work with on December 18 (Dates are important to this question, note the deadline in the letter) that said (All the emphasis is mine except the words “no guarantee”, that’s in the original)

"HetroHaunch in in liquidation ; if you believe that you are owed any payments from 2/1/2001 to
6/30/2008, please forward us a valid detailed invoice no later then January 2, 2008. The judge
will review your invoices and if you are truly owed any funds we will do our best to compensate
you. Please note there is NO GUARANTEE of any reimbursements of funds owed to you.

You find out about this because after YOU email the affiliates to tell them payments are coming, etc., an alarming number of them respond by saying they thought you were bankrupt, had gone out of business, would never be paying anyone, had gone under, they were shocked you were still online, etc.

And on top of all that you learn there wasn’t sufficiient postage on the letter so a bunch of people never got it.

Now, the question I have for you is this. Where does this fall for you on the “Holy fuck are you kidding me this is an OUTRAGE and I don’t want that goddamn idiot coming anywhere NEAR my vendors agian in this life okay fine he can do X but I get to watch every step of the way holy FUCK are you KIDDING me that guy’s been doing this for TWENTY years? FUCK!” scale. Is it:

1. Oh, no big deal. Poor guy, probably busy that day, I can fix it . La dee da.

2. Well, I’m not happy but still, no sweat.

3. Hey. NOT cool. This is damaging. I’m not comfortable.

4. Wow. That receiver guy is grossly incompetent and he has defamed my bunsiness! I’m thinking hard about suing his ass!

5. I’m calling Guido. He’ll straighten that guy all the way out.
   Seriously. I want to know. Tell me.

[Quartz]

You need to consult a lawyer. This appears to be a factual inaccuracy which has caused you damages in lost sales and goodwill.

[Cheesesteak]

Somewhere between 4 and 5.

Curious, is GDI in financial trouble, resulting in there being no guarantee of them paying what the affiliates are owed?

[Jodi]

I don’t see how pegging your level of outrage helps you much. I don’t understand, if GDI is the owner of HH and GDI is in receivership, on what basis you would say the receiver would not have standing to liquidate HH. Or is the receivership for something other than bankruptcy?

If so, do a letter to your vendors, telling them that they may have received a letter telling them HH is in liquidation, this is incorrect it is NOT is liquidation, you intend to honor your commitments to them, you value your working relationship with them, etc.

But if it were me, and I were dealing with a receiver, I’d be a hell of a lot more worried that he was attempting to liquidate my business out from under me, than I would be about trying to decide precisely how pissed off I should be about it. Talk to the receiver. Ask him why he sent the letter. Find out what’s going on from his POV. Do it today.

[Stoid]

@Jodi

I don’t see how pegging your level of outrage helps you much. I don’t understand, if GDI is the owner of HH and GDI is in receivership

WAS the owner. Hasn’t been the owner for months.

,. Or is the receivership for something other than bankruptcy?

Bingo. Court appointed cuz we just can’t get along. (Actually court appointed because former partner lied to judge and begged for the business and receiver was compromise, but who 's counting?)

Ask him why he sent the letter. Find out what’s going on from his POV. Do it today.

Had ourselves a little ex parte in front of the judge. Like that ever helps.

Onward and upward, I have a newly revised judgment and statement of decision to object to…again… I chip away and chip away.

I’ve learned I’m a whole helluva lot tougher than I ever thought. That’s pretty cool.
Oh, and I was just looking to find out if my outrage was unreasonable by the standards of a self-selected group of Dopers.