You're Under Contract

[Food Lady]

and you're leasing a government-regulated piece of machinery...

So the man who called me was not the sucky one, not at all. I was very appreciative of him taking the time to call us to straighten this out. You see, he works for Company C, who just bought out Organization B, which is a subsidiary of Company A. A is the one who signed the contract in the first place. They should've worked out whether C was going to assume their lease or they were going to pay it off and return the equipment. They did neither. Instead, they defaulted. When the nice man from C called, he had to ask what the bills he was getting were for. Someone at B had gotten a letter demanding payment and the nice man from C called us. It's ridiculous. I had to send this to an organization that's specially designated to find and bring back these machines. I had to designate it lost because C is getting bills and has no idea where the equipment is and in fact just found out today that it even exists.

Way to go, Company A. *facepalm*

[Slave to the Phone]

Poor nice C man. This is going to be a problem that he is "married" to. And poor you, you might have just married this problem as well. What a cluster and its all caused by A.

[eltf177]

And I'll bet there's no way A can be held liable by B or C for this either...

[Food Lady]

It's usually not good for C in this situation, but in this case A still holds the contract, so methinks A will end up in collections. Meanwhile, we need to find that equipment or write it off.

[EricKei]

Not sure, but "Sale of Encumbered Property" might apply (if they treated the leased machinery as if they owned it outright). If your company has a legal department, perhaps send it up their way? This sounds like the sort of mini-Gordian knot that should be right up their alley (plus, you get the added benefit of liability protection).