Need advice: Wholesale account owes me $25K and keeps ghosting me

★★★ signal-strong r/smallbusiness · ↑ 78 · 💬 67 · 2025-11-19 · kw: reorder point · open on reddit ↗

Tool

none

Issue

Wholesale customer owes $25K with payments 2+ months overdue; accounting team ghosting; customer continues requesting new orders without paying previous invoices, creating cash flow crisis for small clothing brand.

Cost

$25,000

Recommendation

Stop fulfilling orders until past due is paid; place new orders on credit hold; enforce COD terms; consider payment plan negotiation or debt collection/legal action

Date context

2025-11-19; issue started year-to-date with escalation in current cycle

extracted with

anthropic/claude-haiku-4.5 · 2026-05-08

Body

I run a small clothing brand and have been selling wholesale for 2 years years. One of my bigger accounts has always been on Net30 terms. But starting this year, their payments have become extremely late—like months late. They currently owe me about $25K. I asked to switch them to COD because of the delays, but the founder/CEO personally emailed me asking to keep our usual terms. I trusted her, but here we are again. Payment is now over two months past due, and their accounting team has completely ghosted me. The wild part? Their buying team asked to reorder the style they sold out of… even though they haven’t paid for the first order. I reached out to the founder again, and she was apologetic and said she’d update me ASAP. It’s been days and still nothing. At this point I’m considering making a TikTok showing receipts/screenshots, or even threatening legal action. Has anyone dealt with this before? What would you do? If they file for bankruptcy, I will never see that money again!

Top comments (8)

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[score=246] PacoMahogany

Making a TikToc is an extremely immature thing to do. They likey don’t have the cash to pay. Call them up and see if you can arrange a payment plan.

[score=82] mgz09

Keep bothering them daily. Phone calls, emails, text. Tell them you are trying to close the books for this year asap

[score=142] castthestone

No to TikTok, hit them direct. Let them cut another PO then put the order on credit hold. If they’re desperate for your product to keep revenue coming in, they’ll likely prioritize current cashflow. Find leverage and use it.

[score=53] IllegalFunctionCall2

Don't send them more product until they pay what's owed. Period. The TikTok route could burn that bridge forever though, so lawyer letter first might scare them into paying faster. $25K is lawyer territory anyway, small claims won't cover that amount

[score=31] Defiant_Print_2114

The TikTok is an emotional response and not really a good one. Sounds like you have been generous but you can’t run your business if they don’t pay on time. I agree, accept a new PO and place order on credit hold. Remove all discounts and let them know who you use for factoring / debt collection should they continue to drag payments out. It’s not mean, it’s business. You have capital tied up waiting for payment. The longer you wait, the less return your capital makes. Good luck 👍

[score=16] BackDatSazzUp

They’re going bankrupt. When I exited my distribution business, my co-founder made a ton of bad ops choices that led him down the path to bankruptcy and this is exactly what he did to our vendors. If you get your money, do not fulfill another order without up-front payment.

[score=36] HamFiretruck

Do a tiktok about it? Are you 12 years old? Either stop sending them items for free and take them to court or send them more free items and take them to court