photo: Linkedin/Christian Schmitt/S&N Metall bragged about a satisfied customer without paying for the wagons. "Not a serious partner," says its supplier
The owner of S&N Metall - Rail & Steel, Christian Schmitt, boasted on his LinkedIn profile about another satisfied customer and how they successfully completed another order. However, a comment popped up under the post accusing S&N Metall - Rail & Steel of failing to pay off invoices to its contractor, TT Trans, who fulfilled their part of the deal. So, what is really behind this seemingly brilliant business deal?
The editors of Rail Target, which frequently inform their readers and consumers about all major railway cases, therefore decided to contact both S&N Metall - Rail & Steel, specifically its owner, Christian Schmitt, and TT Trans.
Mr. Christian Schmitt gave our editorial team a short telephone interview on the whole matter. He confirmed that there was some disagreement between his company and TT Trans, even though at the very beginning of the cooperation seemed perfect and the two companies were even considering a long-term partnership.
At the same time, the owner of S&N Metall - Rail & Steel told the team of Rail Target that TT Trans had not paid all its invoices and that some were still pending. This confirmed the authenticity of the comment under his post. However, He argued that most of them got paid off.
He stated that he unsuccessfully tried to find a solution to deal with these unpaid invoices, but TT trans wasn't interested in proceeding with any given options.
Rail Target has therefore also contacted TT Trans. The owner of the company, Ján Hurek, answered the questions directly. "I can confirm that the company S&NM, for which Mr. Christian Schmitt is running, has not paid our company the full market price for the railcars that we completely turnkeyed for them last year and handed over in Germany in November 2020. They have deducted from the payment an alleged penalty, which perhaps should have been charged by their customer. However, we have fulfilled our obligations to S&NM properly and on time," Ján Hurek said in his introduction.
However, according to TT Trans, S&N Metall - Rail & Steel owner Christian Schmitt was primarily trying to secure exclusivity to sell similar vehicles to customers in Germany. He was to approach TT Trans with this proposal in the spring. This was before the delivery of the second group of 25 special scrap wagons, i.e., before the order that TT Trans placed for S&N Metall - Rail & Steel. "We had no reason to disagree, as he promised us immediate payment of the outstanding amount, which we urgently needed to make the second delivery. So, we sent him a proposal for an agreement, to which he did not respond and has not paid the debt to this day," added the owner of TT Trans, Ján Hurek.
The whole situation is likely to end up in court. What further steps do TT Trans plan to take if all the invoices won't get paid off? "First of all, we have to secure our assets. We will therefore demand that the customer of S&NM, the German steelworks, to which Mr. Schmitt has handed over the wagons for use to stop their operations.
And we will take S&NM to the competent court in Germany for breach of contract. This is an expensive solution for our relatively small company, and we have no idea whether we will ever get paid for the cars. But we have had many discussions with Mr. Schmitt over the past year and have heard so many times that he will pay the debt immediately that if he real he could have gotten ten more of these cars for them," added the owner of TT Trans on the whole case.
"Instead of promising international cooperation, disillusionment, and disappointment. "We are very disappointed with this cooperation. The assignment we were given to supply the wagons was clear. We agreed very quickly on the basic parameters of the deal - delivery dates and price. From a technical point of view, we managed the project perfectly together with the suppliers. There were no complaints about any of the fifty wagons delivered, and we already know that the end customer wants to order more wagons next year. The first problems emerged when S&NM had to pay the deposit, and they demanded to split the deal into two separate deliveries and were unable to provide a bank guarantee for the balance of the purchase price. We knew we were taking a risk, but we were still surprised that despite meeting all our obligations, that ended up by the customer ended up not paying us. I'm glad we didn't sign an exclusive agreement, and I don't think anyone would want to do business with such an unserious partner," Hurek concluded.
Linkedin/Christian Schmitt