Re: filmscanners: Polaroid Good As Gold Guarantee

[Terry Carroll <carroll@tjc.com>]

On Thu, 12 Jul 2001, Arthur Entlich wrote:

> Bankruptcy protection puts creditors on hold.  Bankruptcy puts creditors
> in line for any assets.

If you're returning a product to the company, you'd be a secured creditor.  
Assuming Polaroid actually filed for bankruptcy, Polaroid would owe you
money and the debt would be secured by the product you returned.  
Theoretically, this puts you ahead of the unsecured creditors, but I
suspect that the hassles in perfecting your security interest, registering
as a secured creditor with the bankruptcy court, and the constant
attention to the progress of the case would easily outweigh whatever
you're get back.  Theoretically, you'd get back at least the product if
they couldn't meet the debt, but don't count on it.

I returned a computer once to a company that then declared bankruptcy.  I
ended up without the computer and without ever getting any portion of a
refund.  To add insult to injury, the company had a bogus transaction that
they'd sold me a SIMM (which they hadn't) and I received periodic dunning
letters from the collection agency the trustee had hired trying to
collect.  I had to respond with a sternly-worded letter invoking the US
Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and pointing out their failure to
comply with it.  They went away.


-- 
Terry Carroll       |  "Denied."
Santa Clara, CA     |      Baltimore Ravens v. Bouchat, no. 00-1494,
carroll@tjc.com     |      (U.S. Supreme Court, May 21, 2001)
Modell delendus est |