SOUTH CHINA — Linda Martin figures she’s probably out the roughly $800 she paid Pinkham’s Corner Fuel this winter for heating oil she didn’t get, but still counts herself  among the lucky ones.

“I know I’m not going to get the oil, that’s long gone,” Martin said of the oil she thought she’d get by making monthly payments to Pinkham’s Corner Fuel, a South China oil dealer that recently filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. “The money — I’m not holding my breath. I’d like to see some of it back. But I’m lucky enough to be in a situation where it’s not going to kill me.”

Company owner David F. Pinkham filed bankruptcy last week. His list of creditors includes more than 100 people, corporations and other entities. It is unclear how many of those creditors are customers. A Bangor attorney, Michael Haenn, has been appointed to act as the trustee of the bankruptcy.

He said his role is, in general, to liquidate the non-exempt assets for the benefit of creditors. Haenn said he is aware the company has customers who pre-paid for oil they didn’t get.

“They’re basically unsecured creditors,” he said. “They have the priority of an unsecured creditor. Which as you’d imagine is pretty close to the bottom of the food chain.”

Pinkham could not be reached for comment, although the telephone number for the business, at 196 Windsor Road, was still active recently.

His creditors include customers, suppliers, multiple banks, other oil dealers and the federal and local government.

His bankruptcy filing lists the Internal Revenue Service as a creditor owed $9,800 in federal income taxes.

Town of China records indicate he owes some property taxes but only a half-years worth, or $1,093, which was due in March.

He appears to owe tens of thousands of dollars to banks, with his home and business, a camp in Winn and trucks and other business equipment listed as collateral.

A meeting, at which creditors can question Pinkham is scheduled for May 8 in Augusta.

Martin, of Vassalboro, a customer of Pinkham’s for the roughly 10 years he’s been in business, was paid regular installments every month for oil. She said her contract states she had to make the payments whether she was burning as much oil as she was paying for or not.

She said the way it was supposed to work was, if she ended up paying for more oil than she used, she could either get the overpayment back or apply it to next year’s oil, which is what she usually did. She said Pinkham always treated her fairly.

Martin said late this winter she kept thinking it had been a while since the oil truck had come.

“Finally, I called up, curious that I hadn’t gotten oil and also to check my balance,” she said. “There was no answer. I never heard a word from him. Still haven’t.”

She called the town office and workers there told her they’d heard he was going out of business. She called the state attorney general’s office, who gave her the phone number of Pinkham’s Augusta-based bankruptcy attorney, Richard Goldman.

Goldman could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Martin said she has already made other arrangements to get heating oil.

Pinkham’s creditors include the Kennebec Journal newspaper, which, according to court records, is owed about $990.

They also include other oil dealers Fabian Oil of Oakland, $11,700, and Webber Energy Wholesale of Bangor, $19,500.

The bankruptcy filing indicates the business’ gross income was in a downward trend, from $846,500 in 2009, to $814,600 in 2010, $500,000 in 2011, and $70,000 in the first three months of 2012.