Ideas on how to claim money back for a service that now appears won't be provided

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Afternoon people,
I know we've got a lot of knowledgeable people on here so I've got a question about getting some money back from a company that was apparently sold a couple of days after a payment was made and the new owners have no record of the payment being received and when told that an email invoice exists to show payment they're just claiming that as the money was paid to the company under the old owner and the money has not been given to the new owners it's not their problem.

They money was paid by PayPal but unfortunately as it's for a service in this case a photobooth for a wedding raising a dispute is not possible.

My next idea was to go through the Visa Debit chargeback scheme, but just in case this is a no go for whatever reason as well what options are left?

It's for £400 so while not a massive sum in the overall cost of a wedding it's substantial enough to not want to walk away from.

The company is not a big well known provider it just appeared (before being sold) to be a husband and wife team who ran a company providing photobooths and sweet carts and the likes for events so they're not registered at companies house or anything like that.

If all else fails then the couple have insurance for things like this but I think we'd rather get the full amount back from these people without having to take a hit on the excess.
 
Your claim is against the company, which legally hasn't changed since you ordered the photo booth.

That's what I thought which has also been the point put across when contacting the new owners but they don't seem to grasp that if they didn't sort their purchase of the company out properly that's their problem not ours.
 
I suppose it depends on how the company was sold and what the terms of the sale were. It could be that the buyer simply bought the company name and equipment/contacts list as opposed to buying the company as a whole.
 
Was it a limited company?

Just saw the bit about husband and wife. Sounds like they were a sole trader/partnership. To be honest anything could be included in the Heads of Agreement.

In my opinion just go with the Visa reclaim route. It's simple and ultimately the correct party will fund the re-imbursement to you.
 
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They bought the company, that likely includes the liabilities and obligations of the company. Demand either they honour their contractual agreements or they refund you the cost.

Chargeback could cause issues with your paypal going into negative balance. You'd likely have to burn your bridges and ditch the account and start a new one.
 
That's what I thought which has also been the point put across when contacting the new owners but they don't seem to grasp that if they didn't sort their purchase of the company out properly that's their problem not ours.

You need to get your facts straight before asking for advice... is it a company or not? You refer to it as a company in the OP then say it isn't then refer to it as a company again... If its just some sole trader who's bought a machine/website/brand off some husband nd wife team who you sent money to then it isn't surprising they told you to do one... Who did you actually send money to - an account belonging to an actual company? A business account belonging to the previous husband nd wife team?
 
Dowie is on the money with this one I think. It doesn't sound like a registered company so your claim will likely not passed to the new owners.
 
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