Blue Mountain in Bankruptcy

[Chris Murphy]

How do I know? They owe me money for doing some display walls, and when it took a while to get paid I did a Google search, and found out they declared bankruptcy in Canada about 2 1/2 weeks after we did the work for them. When I pressed the US side of the co. for the money, they finally acknowledged the bankruptcy. Nice folks.

So, don't work for them, and tell your customers not to order from them (generally, customers wouldn't get stuff from them directly, but I wouldn't trust any connection to them, except maybe by credit card, where you can get charges back). Their goods were always the worst, so I guess it's just as well.

[Lillian]

Wow Chris, I hate to hear this. The Industry takes another hit.

[Chris Murphy]

To heck with "the industry;" I'm tired of taking hits from the unscrupulous manufacturers- which includes most of the mass marketers.

Blue Mtn. is a private company, so finding info on them isn't easy (without paying for it). But, this looks to me like a move to shed debt, meaning, they don't want to pay certain bills and contracts, and are willing to have a judge 'protect' them from their creditors. The lose some control, but get to leave other things they don't want to deal with behind. This may not be the first time they've pulled this.

I sincerely hope the judge sees through this and puts them out of business. They make lousy goods, with lousy service, staffed by lousy people. Consumers still have all space they want to decorate; here's to hoping that legitimate, creative and ethical companies fill the vacuum left by Blue Mtn.

[My-T-Fine]

This happen to me once with a company that went completely belly up right after I completed the job. It was a spanish decorating tv show down in Miami. Only job in 22 years where I never got paid. How can you have a conscience to hire a hard working one man operation knowing they probably will never get paid..I'm with Chris..to hell with all of them..I'll spread the word in my community..

[Jeff Evans]

Thread bump. Pay the man....

[Lillian]

I've had a hotel to file on us right at the end of the job. I was out over 9 grand on that job. Never got my money..
No one plans to go into Bankruptcy. Least of all Blue Mountain.. They are just one in a line of companies trying to stay afloat in these hard times. If the mid range wallpaper companies go out of business, so will a lot more of us. We install a lot of Blue Mountain wallcoverings in several regions of the country. Blue Mountain acquired several other companies that had problems. I feel it is very tragic when anyone has to file bankruptcy. I'm seeing more and more of it. These are very hard times for everyone.
Several companies are going out of business. Lots of folks are without jobs.

[ProWallGuy]

I've had a hotel to file on us right at the end of the job. I was out over 9 grand on that job. Never got my money..
Did you contact a lawyer? File a lien? I don't like working for free, for anybody.



No one plans to go into Bankruptcy. Least of all Blue Mountain..
I have to disagree with this statement. Nobody wakes up one morning and says "Oh 5hit, we're broke!" Especially not a big company who has accountants and bookkeepers on staff. When large corporations file bankruptcy it is a well crafted execution devised by lawyers and accountants to save the wallets of the top management.

[Chris Murphy]

I've had a hotel to file on us right at the end of the job. I was out over 9 grand on that job. Never got my money..
No one plans to go into Bankruptcy. Least of all Blue Mountain.. They are just one in a line of companies trying to stay afloat in these hard times. If the mid range wallpaper companies go out of business, so will a lot more of us. We install a lot of Blue Mountain wallcoverings in several regions of the country. Blue Mountain acquired several other companies that had problems. I feel it is very tragic when anyone has to file bankruptcy. I'm seeing more and more of it. These are very hard times for everyone.
Several companies are going out of business. Lots of folks are without jobs.

Bankruptcy may not be a business model, but yes, absolutely yes, bankruptcy is planned for: when to do it, who to pay, who to stiff is all planned for. They didn't just wake up that morning and decide to hire attorneys, a trustee and schedule a hearing in front of a judge.

One of the main reasons the industry was faring so badly before the current economic crisis is that most of the goods available to residential consumers was junk: looked like crap, didn't perform as promised. Why do you think simple wood-pulp products from the UK are able to be priced about four times their price in their domestic market versus here? Simple patterns, plain paper: the US companies gave up on that right about 5 years before the industry here started its decline.

[Paul Sullivan]

One of the main reasons the industry was faring so badly before the current economic crisis is that most of the goods available to residential consumers was junk: looked like crap, didn't perform as promised. Why do you think simple wood-pulp products from the UK are able to be priced about four times their price in their domestic market versus here? Simple patterns, plain paper: the US companies gave up on that right about 5 years before the industry here started its decline.

I Paul, have no tears to cry :rant:

[Chris Murphy]

Got a call this week from the display company that built the walls for Home Depot, which Terry M. and I hung for Blue Mountain- and for which we were not paid. They asked for a bid on about 150' of 17' high walls of digital murals. Nice folks, too, nice big shop, very accomodating and easy to work with.
When I told them we hadn't been paid they were bothered by that, but when I mentioned that their rep had gone to our convention saying that I was a liar( he claimed that I had, Indeed!, been paid), my contact said, "It's just unbelievable what some people will do, isn't it?" Yeah, it sure is.

[Chris Murphy]

Got notice this week that Blue Mtn.'s trustees have put out plans for we, the Unsecured Creditors, to vote on. Canada's bankruptcy laws differ from the US's; i've never seen this amount of inclusion in the US. Blue Mtn. will pay $3 million to the holders of $28 million of their debt (and, they somehow 'excluded' another $8 million). The good news, for me at least, is that I stand to get paid about 75% of what they owe me. The bad news is that if I vote to get that money, I can't then vote for the company to be liquidated out of its (and everyone else's ) misery, as the voting choice is one or the other.

[Jeff Evans]

So, Murph, what's the deal with this? This story enrages me, and if all the details I've heard are actual facts (like a Blue Mtn rep at OUR convention expressing indignation at YOU for bad mouthing them- for not paying you- and then saying you had been paid), then where's the ethics charge? And more to the point, where is the outrage by members, who could have easily been in Murph's shoes?

[Chris Murphy]

The Atlanta Chapter is outraged. After all we (and me personally) have done for the organization, to be slandered like that is unacceptable.

And then we are asked to put on a workshop. Uh, yeah, right, we'll get right back to you.

[knockaert]

I am outraged also. What can we do about this? Ethics charges? Brought on by whom and what would the penalty be?

[Chris Murphy]

Thanks, Jeff.

The unsecured creditors voted for the plan that would pay each up to $1500 CDN ($1448.45 US). However, there is one creditor that Blue Mtn. refused to recognize- I don't know any of the particulars- so there is yet another hearing, today, if I remember right. The checks were to go out within 30 days of the court agreeing to the plan. Their limit of payment is OK by me- the amount would pay me 80% of my invoice, but it sure is better than what they tried to get away with ($0)- but some of the creditors are owed hundreds of thousands, and plenty others look to be small shops like myself and they are owed sums much larger than mine. The company really deserves to go out of existence. We should not allow an entity that behaves like they have to be in our organization, and indeed our Code of Ethics claims that we have ideals that would rule them out as members:


To protect the public and fellow members from materials not meeting our high standards.
To faithfully fulfill all contracts.
To conduct ourselves in accordance with the highest of professional standards.

[Chris Murphy]

Apparently the plan to pay the unsecured creditors was OK'ed by the court. There is a pot of $3 million to pay claims of $28 million, and that should be released next month. As far as how the settlement treats me, I get about 75% of my original invoice. Other companies are owed far larger amounts, and are not receiving much relative to their claims. This legal action allows Blue Mountain to remain "in business," and while I personally doubt the wisdom of such an outcome, I also have to ask just who the heck would do business with them now? All their main suppliers and shippers got stiffed out of huge amounts of money.

[Chris Murphy]

Proof that I'm living right: persistence paid off.
By the way, this is the maximum payout of the 'reorganization' fund. Some creditors were (are) owed hundreds of thousands of dollars.

[HangingInThere]

Wow!! Congrats Chris...somebody upstairs is definitely looking out for you! Chances of getting paid on this deal?? Well, let's say, if I was a betting man...I'd owe somebody money! ;)

[Chris Murphy]

Yeah, it took constant vigilance to get paid. At one point, I sent a 50-page fax to both Blue Mtn. and the trustee, consisting of all the emails that I had between I and a Blue Mtn. exec to do the job (I didn't get paid for the hand-holding, either; hard to put that in an invoice, although next time I'll try), to prove to the trustee that I had, indeed done the work and was owed money. My phones started ringing off the hook with"Stop! Stop the faxes!," calls, presumably because the volume was clogging their lines. Tough, I say. I put the same diligence into the chase for the money as I put into their job. They should have recognized I was determined, and thorough.

[cgreene]

Chris, I love the way you tell it the way it is and let people know you are not one to be reckened with. My husband and I both own and run our own business and we have been stiffed by low lifes hiding behind bankrupsies. It is always the little guys who get ripped off. Because we are very low on the list.
kudos!

[Jeff Evans]

I wonder if our intrepid BOD ever considered ethics charges against Blue Mtn., prior to your getting paid? Somehow I can imagine if you had instead done something untoward in YOUR dealings with THEM, rather than vice versa, you would have been called on the carpet.

This case, much like the current case vs Bill Archibald, is exhibit A as to who the Guild is working for these days. Like "relieving" the web committee (of unpaid volunteer paperhangers) of their duties, and trusting an outside entity to do the work on our website.

[Chris Murphy]

Well, I pointed that out in a previous post, but apparently no BOD member wanted to take up my "cause." As I posted about the current Ethics saga, an Ethics complaint against Blue Mtn. would not bring a solution to my grievance with them. However, the organization itself- represented by an elected Board- should have taken a look at who it allowed to be an Associate member, and how that Associate conducts business. To allow that co. to remain, not only for the problem I had, but for the years of shoddy goods, speaks to the NGPP's lack of an effective Ethics policy. It speaks of other things, and the meanings aren't pleasant. Maybe I'll add something, later, to that thread in the Members Only section.