Farepak in administration: What to do? (Merged Thread)

Josie64

I have just quit being a kleeneze agent. Why? because until 2 weeks before Farepak went bust , it was part of a group of companies called European Home Retail, Kleeneze is (was) part of the same group of companies and we believe that Farepak customers money has funded Kleeneze expansion into Germany earlier this year , Kleeneze was bought out by findel just 2 wks before Farepak went bust and Kim Rawson left Kleeneze a few months ago...

the other day I was watching Watchdog on the BBC and there was a Farepak agents daughter on the programme and she said that the Farepak agents were asked to put extra money into Farepak before Oct 1st , that was about the same time that Kleeneze was having problems paying bonus's for Red Group.

I think it is wrong that major supermarkets should have to pay for hampers for Farepak customers who have lost everything , because there are some Kleeneze agents who are making a profit of £1,000 a day! , no that is not a mis-type and also there are some agents who are self employed and have been for the last 2 and 1/2 yrs and it has not been declared to the taxman!

I think that Kleeneze agents should pay for the xmas hampers , after all there are free BMW's given away by Kleeneze and trips to athens and budapest , is that where Farepak customers money has gone?
I personally only made £18 -£63 a week and out of that has to pay for petrol and buy catalogues etc. I have given facts here and if people still wish to continue to buy products from Kleeneze , that is their choice.

alwaysbusyMUM

Josie - your an angel, if all Kleeneze agents followed your suit, they'd get the message, just let me ask you this though, WHY????? join a company that not only charges you to join it, £130 the last time I heard, but also charges you for the catalogues, £15 per box of 50 - - - which without you cannot do the job & then on top of that they charge you to deliver the goods to your house.
I'm sorry, I just don't get it at all, and yes I do work for Betterware, Kleeneze's competition and yes we get car's holidays bonuses etc etc etc, but it is all totally free, the cat's delivery everything and you get exclusive area, so your not battling for orders form others agents.

Sorry I know this thread is about farepak, but I also lost £4000 thanks to Kleeneze, unfortunatly I didnt follow my gut instinct and get out when we heard Kleeneze was in trouble, if I had of my family & friends would not now be wondering WHY????

Check out the Betterware website if your still after earning extra cash.

islandannie

I have been watching this thread with increasing despair.

My heart goes out to all who have been treated so shabbily by this company,it is quite obvious that those who have lost money in this fiasco are the very people who can least afford it.

I have noted some of the critical posts about Hamper/Voucher schemes and suggesting that there are better ways of saving money,I don`t suppose many of those posters truly understand the circumstances of many people who would not be able to invest money in a way that they cannot access it.

For that reason I think that spreading the cost of Xmas throughout the year is both prudent and sensible.

Surely this site with all it`s resources could set up a scheme which some of the more fortunate members could contribute to a fund to help people at this very special time of year.

I am willing to start this off with a £50 donation how about it Mods?

WeeStephen

I have removed my post. As islandannie notes below it was a bit foolish. Apologies to all.

islandannie

WeeStephen wrote:

And my heart bleeds for them and you. If you really have lost everything pop round my house for Xmas and I'll show you how to stuff a turkey right u* y**r a**e!

You completely misunderstand the post and come across as a fool.

xxdougiexx

Okay here is how me and several others see it - HBOS please tell us if we are wrong !!! :beer:

If you look on EHR's website you see that information was in the public
domain on:
30th June- 'Farepak had exceeded their peak borrowing requirement and were
exploring all options to arrange additional finance'. NO WARNING TO AGENTS.
HBOS are fully aware of what is going on and continue to allow agents money
to be paid in to pay off their loans to EHR; i.e the money is swept away by
HBOS.

23 August- shares suspended. Very serious. They are in poo soup.
AGAIN NO WARNING TO AGENTS. HBOS are fully aware of what is going on and
continue to allow agents money to be paid in to pay off their loans to EHR.
i.e the money is swept away by HBOS.


Two offers are made to the company to save Farepak and HBOS must have
blocked these.
From June to Friday 13th October over £20m flows in from Agents to Farepak
to EHR to HBOS
From 23rd August to Friday 13th October alone (during which time the bank
must have blocked offers for saving Farepak) about £9m flows in from agents.
HBOS must have been laughing.

The Directors are getting all the blame. Yes they are very much at fault.
But HBOS are pulling all the strings in 2006.

All the time the company had been in trouble HBOS have chosen to steal the
agents cash that has come in rather than put it in a trust account. Legally
(pre regulation that may now come in ) they may be right; morally they aint.

ALL ALONG RIGHT FROM BEFORE 30TH JUNE HBOS KNEW EXACTLY WHAT THEY WERE
DOING: HERE WAS A BUSINESS (FAREPAK) THAT HAD A FEW EMPLOYEES AND LOTS OF
CASH POURING IN FROM THE AGENTS. THERE WERE NEGLGIBLE OUTGOINGS AND MASSIVE
INFLOWS OF CASH (HAS ANYBODY SEEN ANY ADVERTS OR STATIONERY FOR CHRISTAMS
2007? THEY HAD NO INTENTION OF CONTINUING TO TRADE). OCTOBER WAS THE
PERFECT TIME TO PULL THE PLUG BEFORE ANY OF THE CASH WAS SPENT.

THEY WAITED AND WAITED AND TOOK ALL THAT MONEY THEN COLLPASED FAREPAK (PUT
IT INTO ADMINISTRATION) WHILST ACCEPTING AN OFFER OF £34M FOR THE REST OF
THE GROUP FROM FINDEL AND REFUSING TWO OFFERS TO SAVE FAREPAK.

WHY DID THEY DO THIS: HBOS TOOK £74M: THE £34M PROCEEDS AND THE £40M PLUS
PAID IN BY AGENTS OF FAREPAK TO SQUARE AWAY THE MONEY THE COMPANY OWED THEM.

THEY MADE THIS DECISION BECAUSE THEY ARE RUTHLESS BANKERS WHO DONT GIVE A
!!!! ABOUT MORALS AND CERTAINLY DONT GIVE A !!!! ABOUT THEIR FELLOW SCOTS.
THEY THINK THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH IT.

THET ARE LAUGHING AS THE BRC LOOKS TO RETAILERS TO HELP OUT THE AGENTS AND
CUSTOMERS( what has it got to do with retailers?) . EVERBODY IS ON THE
WRONG TRAIL. THE ONLY PLACE THE AGENTS WILL GET THEIR MONEY BACK IS FROM
THE BANK. THE AGENTS SHOULD CAMP THEMSELVES OUTSIDE HBOS BRANCHES UNTIL
THEY DO. £40M IS A PITTANCE COMPARED TO THEIR £4.8 BILLION PROFIT.


SO I'M SORRY TO CONFIRM. THE GRINCH IS SCOTTISH AND THE TV AND EDITORS OF
NATIONAL NEWSPAPERS SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES FOR RUNNING SCARED AT
STATING THE OBVIOUS.

ITS THE HOUSES OF DENNIS STEVENSON, JAMES CROSBY AND ANDY HORNBY THAT THE
CAMERAS SHOULD BE OUTSIDE. POOR GUYS ONLY EARNED £4M BETWEEN THEM LAST
YEAR. BUT THEN AGAIN THEY ARE RUTHLESS BANKERS.

COME ON HBOS. COUGH UP THE MONEY AND TAKE A 'TINY' BAD DEBT TO YOUR P&L and
knock off £500 of each of the directors' bonuses this yearl



The daily Record and The Sun have been told about this in phone calls but
have chosen not to make much of it for some reason.
I think the DailyRecord is betraying the 20,000 Scots it claimed to
represent and betyraying their loyal readers. Are they scared because they
get advertisng revenue from HBOS? Has their editor blocked this story?

xxdougiexx

Quite a damming theory …. But hey in the light that HBOS has made (or made no attempt to) release a public statement on this issue…. We can only go by the information freely available online….

Come on HBOS… have you just knowingly helped rip off 170,000 Farepak customers over the last 5 months !!!!

As stated legally correct, morally wrong !!!

Well I will be closing all my accounts with you and will be asking my friends, work colleagues and relatives to do likewise….

Jennica28

My father-in-law had problems with Bank of Scotland years ago - he owned what was then a very successful hotel in Scotland.

His partner stole a load of money from the business & because of that BoS forced my In-laws to sell up etc.

He now refuses to have anything to do with them. I as of yesterday through reading some of the new updates didn't know Halifax were linked with BoS & today I shall be withdrawing the money out of my daughter's savings account with Halifax & closing the account.

I shall invest it elsewhere. I will also tell them why I am closing the account & taking our business elsewhere.

Maybe they have buried their heads in the sand thinking that with time, we'll all forget it & just accept whatever paltry amount the administrators will give us & shut up.

I won't. In fact I think we should cause as much damage to their pockets as possible by persuading anyone who banks with HBOS to change banks.

Total Bum-wipes who need to produce a statement & explain their actions to those of us who have lost money thanks to their badly timed decision.

xxdougiexx

Nice One Jennica - It's time the major players here were enlightened to how many people have been affected by this issue....
We are only asking for a public announcement...

Accounts are gonna be closed - HBOS money men beware - you need to react to the voice of the public...

Till then I (for one) will make no further subscription payments to your personal paradise !!!!

Natural_Born_Klingon

sandfacer wrote:

park hampers about 7 weeks ago tryed to buy out farepack this was refused guess by ....

Just out of interest, where did you get this info from? At the end of July and into August, Park were busy finalising the disposal of its HCC division. I haven't heard anything about it, but that's not to say the attempt wasn't made.

There was a crew from BBC2s Working Lunch at Park yesterday, so we're guessing that something will be on there this lunchtime.

edit: Just spoken to one of the guys who stayed at Park. Park DID attempt to buy Farepak, but it was well over four months ago. Farepak were very keen, but ... HBOS wanted more money ... There may well have been another offer after the HCC disposal, but its not "public knowledge" at Park.

Park have also been hit by the lack of confidence in the sector, and the staff there are worried, especially over any possible legislation that may come out of this. To be fair to Park, their Hamper division has always been profitable, and the directors have realised that it was beginning to suffer with their attempts to branch out, so they've begun to reconcentrate on it.