A reader has asked, “Discuss credits and how to get back old ones. Can a company take a credit away from you or do they have to send it to the State as unclaimed?”
Unfortunately, the question does not provide enough information for me to give a clear response regarding how to obtain payment on a credit. There may be a variety of circumstances that result in a supplier granting you a credit, such as a delivery of goods having inadequate quality, broken parts, incorrect parts, or low quality, as well as subsequent warranty claims or restocking situations that may occur well after the original sale. The type of credit granted (e.g., immediate cash payment or a credit against future purchases from the supplier) will depend on the terms of the original sale. If there are no terms in the sales agreement, then the legal source document for credits is contained within Article 2, Parts 6 and 7 of the Uniform Commercial Code, which covers many aspects of breach of sales contracts and remedies. This information can be accessed through the Cornell Law Library at http://www.law.cornell.edu/ucc/2/.
Under no circumstances can a company take a credit away from you and pocket the proceeds, since the company has not issued any consideration in exchange for its commandeering of the credit. Instead, they must forward it to the local State government as unclaimed assets after a certain period of time, which varies by State.
You can file for reimbursement from the State government (usually its Treasury department), which tracks these assets. The National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators runs a national website at www.missingmoney.com on which you can conduct a free national search for missing assets (if you are searching for company assets, then list the company name in the “Last Name” field).
Will Yancey specializes in the area of unclaimed property. His web site (http://www.willyancey.com/unclaimed.htm) contains a massive number of links that will assist you in recovering unclaimed assets.