Earth Mobile Ceased Trading can anyone help

Silk

[QUOTE=eggchick64;35759099]"We have been told that Earth Mobile have not officially gone into administration. We have been told that they are currently meeting with their accountants to determine whether they have the funds to process the orders or whether they need to send the phones back"
[/QUOTE]
Thats interesting !

Has anyone been in touch with the accountants to see if they are still acting for them ?

My understanding of that scenario is that if any customers who didn't have their phone returned and had outstanding monies would be able to then claim the debt from the directors

helgawb

I also sent phones in worth £49 - have just phoned mobile number someone found for Russell Tilbury 07795 215299 - went to answerphone, and I left a message saying i was a customer and wanted compensation/payment - or phones back. Will be interesting to see if he gets back to me! I would suggest everyone phones the number and gets the message accross that we are not willing to accept this.

Silk

helgawb wrote: »

I also sent phones in worth £49 - have just phoned mobile number someone found for Russell Tilbury 07795 215299 - went to answerphone, and I left a message saying i was a customer and wanted compensation/payment - or phones back. Will be interesting to see if he gets back to me! I would suggest everyone phones the number and gets the message accross that we are not willing to accept this.

Why not phone the accountants and see whats going on instead ?

Archy4

Hi,

I have been pressuring Russell on his mobile in order to find out some more information. I have been calling and texting him for the last couple of days on his mobile: 07795215299

This was his reply this morning: "Further to your message, any handsets received will be held at our business address along with many hundreds of handsets that will need to be sorted in due course. Our offices are currently closed and all of my staff have been laid off. Whilst I can understand your anger, I am unable to help with individual requests whilst we are looking at our finances and the stark choices for Earth Mobile, should we go into administration or not we will make every effort to return all handsets received after our ceased trading announcement. I am trying to save you a wasted journey as I will not be able to access the office, and will not be paying anybody on my doorstep. There will be a further statement in the next few days and would advise that you wait until its released. Russell Tilbury."


Russell states here that our phones are stored at the business address, but I spoke to Dennis who owns: King Storage, 143e Arthur Road,Windsor, Berkshire SL4 1SE, 01753 830 558 – where Russell was renting some space. The gentleman who signed for my parcel told me that Russell has moved out totally and that no phones are left at the office.


I think he could be stalling for whatever reason!!!

laticsforlife

Archy4 wrote: »

Hi,

we will make every effort to return all handsets received after our ceased trading announcement

So any phones held PRIOR to the announcment are not intended to be returned (if we believe his statement at all).

I suspect my phone is long gone (and abroad so any lock is worthless), their turnaround must have been quick otherwise stock on hand would have just built up to unmanageable proportions.

Day 1 - receive phone test and validate
Day 2 - List phone on Ebay France
Day 3 - 10 Sell on Ebay
Day 11 - Post off to unsuspecting new owner of my bloody phone :mad:

Day Never - Pay for phone already sold on

Archy4

This is where the phones were going to. Russell was renting space or a room here. Dennis the person in charge of this building had been signing for the parcels, but says that there are no phones left.

I suspect Dennis could be saying this to stop people from going there to collect their phones.

Storage King House
143e Arthur Road
Windsor, Berkshire SL4 1SE
01753 830 558

UPDATE:

I have spoken to Dennis again this morning. He has advised me that Royal Windsor trading standards has been to investigate. I have emailed them all the information from this forum and all the information I have collected to help their investigations.

I recommend that we give them some time to look into it.

laticsforlife

The first I heard of Earthmobile going tits-up was that Quidco raised a query over the fact that they had ceased trading, and it was at this point I thought, oh yeah where's my cheque from about 4 weeks ago.

Needless to say I'm gutted at the prospect of my hard-earned going into the deep pockets of a no-doubt wealthy and well protected (from the financial implications) Director(s).

What is worse the timing is impeccible, as there must have been 100's of iPhone 3G's and 3GS's being traded just at this point and I really feel for those guys loss (my £73 pails into insignificance, even though it riles me personally).

It was only Quidco that made me choose Earthmobile over another trade-in Company, damn it.

Eildor

I contacted Consumer Direct regarding this and here is the response I received today:

Thank you for contacting Consumer Direct. I am sorry to hear of the problems you have experienced with Earth Mobile and your potential loss of £93.50. In these cases it can be very difficult to obtain any redress. You can write to their address and address the letter to the administrators (if there any). You would need to make a claim for the phone, or the money. In reality consumers are usually very low down on the list of creditors and receive little or no payment in many cases. I am sorry that the response could not be more positive.

I know it's not really helpful but I thought I'd post it here anyway.

becki1989_2

Hey,
I am yet another person who has been done by this company. It is only £40 which isnt alot compared to some unfortunate people , but still £40 out of my pocket and into some idiots.
Anyone got any suggestions of what to do??.. I have just contacted watchdog, who if alot of people complain to them, may go ahead and look at this problem???..

laticsforlife

Eildor wrote: »

Consumer Direct:

In reality consumers are usually very low down on the list of creditors

Well actually that's a poor quote - we are in the same position as every other unsecured non-preferential creditor.

What it really means is we are below the banks in terms of property secured loans, and behind the liquidators fees (set to some extent by law), but thereafter we all go into the 'pot' and get a percentage of realisable assets as sold (if there are any).

The whole problem is that in most cases, there are few assets to realise as the Directors have cleverly squirrelled them away beforehand, and the Creditors meeting rarely pushes the Director hard enough to answer questions about where the assets have gone.

NB It is also likely that the Company owes HMRC for VAT, CT, and probably PAYE, so those arrears will also go into the non-preferential creditors pool.

I remember when Empire Direct went bump, and VERY luckily my TV had a label on it, and they'd fixed it on the morning of the cessation, so I could collect it; I doubt we will be invited to search through 100's or 1000's of handsets in order to prove ownership, and in anycase it isn't worth a trip to Windsor for most people.

Its a dead parrot, it has ceased to be - suck it up and move on I reckon, there are more important things in life than money (did I really just say that :eek:)