Dispatches on C4+1 now, Families Hit by Credit Crunch

StevieJ

dubsey wrote: »

I was made redundant last November (told on the 25th by phone), due to get paid on the 30th. But, luckily for me, I did the accounts and knew it was coming (even though he constantly denied it) so I had already paid myself up until the end of the month. On the phone he'd said how sorry he was and that he wouldn't be able to afford to pay me for that month or my month in hand or my holiday pay I was owed. So I can see how she could be stuck for money, but bus fares? She was shown driving a car, so why not use that seeing as she's out of work?

Class, I hope you paid your mates as well.

Lotus-eater

Crikey, bit harsh! I'd have done the same.

StevieJ

Lotus-eater wrote: »

Crikey, bit harsh! I'd have done the same.

You misinterpret me, it made me laugh.

StevieJ

Lotus-eater wrote: »

I had said anything about that family, but I thought the same. Indeed we did the same as Gracie, sure our house needed doing up, but we couldn't afford it, so we waited till we could. Sorry, they don't get alot of sympathy.
On the one hand she was complaining that they had to buy cheap food and it was difficult to get a nutritious meal. On the other, he complained that they had to pay to get a greenhouse removed in the garden, well if you put the two together...

Living above their means, no more than that.

Nutritious meals often cost less than the opposite e.g. Beans on toast V Big Mac,

Lotus-eater

StevieJ wrote: »

Nutritious meals often cost less than the opposite e.g. Beans on toast V Big Mac,

Not according to [STRIKE]poor[/STRIKE] underprivileged people being interviewed on tv " I had to buy this cheap Asda meat and potato pie, cos its all I can afford"
:rolleyes:

amcluesent

TBH that civil-servant was sailing close to the wind openly saying he was being chased by debt-collectors. The professional standards people are always on the lookup for those who may be tempted by a jiffy-bag full of cash to tide them over. Least ways, that's how it works for coppers, I understand.

Generali

2 recollections from the last recession:

1. I was working in an electrical shop. A man came in looking very despondant and asked if we sold cheap cookers. He then asked if unemployed people could get credit. I said no. He looked like life had beaten him as he walked out.

2. I had a job cold calling people to see if they wanted to take out exhibition space (I hated that job). I rang one bloke and he said, no. I was about to say goodbye and he asked me if I knew anyone that had any work for an IT contractor. I said no because I didn't. He told me he was going to be bankrupt the next day and then started crying.

fc123

Alan_M wrote: »

The Tiling firm are a good example of having all your eggs in one basket. They had large contracts with a hand full of very large operators.

These operators are notorious for paying and in many cases actively avoid paying in the hope the business goes bust and eventually they don't have to pay at all....

I call it the Tesco syndrome.

I had the opportunity to take a huge contract with one of the well know DIY chains, it was for enormous amounts of product, but the terms we such that I was required to finance it and ultimately all the risk was mine. If it went right I'd have personally made over six figures a year on top of my salary......I couldn't quite swing the financing and the deal went to a competitor...at the time I was gutted....now looking back, it would have been devastating. My competitor (who were a bigger company than mine" were wiped out overnight when the big chain simply changed their mind despite the contract.....

I'd prefer a 100 customers that spend £5,000 a year with me than one customer that spends £1 million.

The Danger of One Customer.

I've seen it kill off good businesses too.

Happening to me at this mo.
Very handy having no access to any credit to gear it up too quickly. Been there, done that...got the debt to prove it.

OH had to turn down a massive re-order 2 wks back worth 1000's...but we compromised and said a smaller one was possible.

They have a choice, as I see it, if they want your product, it has to be on both persons terms. Otherwise, it's not worth the aggro or the risk of going down the pan.

I can understand how it happens though.

I'm getting confused with programmes now, was this the one with the old lady and the rip off MEW? I thought that was really sad. If what goes around etc is true, then I hope thise guys ahve a horrid recession.

PasturesNew

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

The DTI pays it, don't they?

Not immediately. That takes 6-8 weeks.

So you go to work half way through the month and are told to clear your desk. You go home. At that point you have a dole claim you can put in and the DTI will sort out some final pay money for you in a couple of months.

But right now, unsure about anything, possibly not even knowing about the DTI, unsure what JSA claim you have .... you stop spending immediately.

PasturesNew

All my company closures have been planned/paid except one.

One was in 1987, I worked for a small/startup software company. I started making appointments for the salesman, then went out to train people on software, then was selling whole systems, then taking the spec for bespoke systems, then doing the support. Good whack too. £15k + company car. Even had a job title of Director (in name only, didn't count for anything, just looked posh on the cards).

The owner took on 2 new programmers, they were friends. They kept a copy of all the source code, then altered the stuff the customers had. It had a time-bomb in it. They both quit, took the real source code home and waited. They knew the date ... and a week later all our customers phoned in that their accounts/bespoke software no longer worked.

Boss worked out what had happened and sat and tried to rewrite everybody's software from scratch, from the old copies he had from when he had sole control of the source code. 10 days later the rogues phoned round all the customers "do you want software writing?" "No - we have some that's broken" "Oh, who did that?" ".... did" "Oh ... rogues, we could fix it for you. If we can fix it for free for you, will you be our customer instead?"

Cleaned up.

Company I worked for closed.

Instead of salary I took home an Amstrad PC1512 computer. I had that for about 8 years!

Oh happy days. Next job paid £6k.... but I'll save that story for another appropriate time. That one's about sexism and undelivered promises