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

karren

keeny wrote:

because i have council tax to pay,NI,Income tax,gas and electric bills,full time childcare to pay for,a car to run, a house to run so i wouldnt say im going wrong with my finances its just
1. i dont have hardly any money to put aside for christmas
2. its mad saving up all year for an event that lasts 1 day!
3. if i did then i would try internet banking (savings account)

thanks fot that, i too have all of the above but have juggled life to include being part time, hence the forward thinking to put money aside and hoped to make a little extra, so now have been conned for being careful. We all have our own way of living our lives, i chose not to go out drinking and not smoke but I live life to the full without being a burden on the state. and not sponging off other's I nwever asked for charity and take offense at people assuming i want to exploit others.

cuddles1429

keeny wrote:

to be honest i think its shocking that these farepak "Victims" are getting people set up charities etc when they obviously have alot of money to initially put it away every month like the lady with the 5 bed house in surrey on the news complaining she lost £4000, bigger fools for them.
lets look after the homeless children or the forces children whos dads/mum have been killed fighting to make this country what it is today?

WHAT IS IT WITH THESE PEOPLE,THIS FORUM IS FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE LOST WITH FAREPAK,AND TO KEEP EACH OTHER INFORMED,IF YOU AINT GOT ANYTHING NICE OR TO UPDATE PEOPLE ON THEN STAY OUT THE BLOODY WAY,IM SICK OF READING PEOPLES COMMENTS ON,HOW WE DONT DESERVE ANYTHING,ITS OUT FAULT WE PUT MONEY IN ETC ETC.
:mad: :mad: :mad:

dan3481

i paid farepak on my visa electron itried a charge back and have just recieved all my money back today

dan3481

ticketmaster4868 wrote:

Hi
I paid £76 per month via direct debit to my bank (Alliance & Leicester) and have therefore personally lost £684. I did contact my bank when the news first broke to see if I was covered by the dd guarantee but wasn't.
I've since emailed my bank to see again if anything can be done but haven't the foggiest of what I'd be quoting and how to kick up a fuss
Can anyone advise.
Thanks.

ring them again idid after being told there was nothing they could do i paid with my visa electon and after going through all my statments irecieved all of my money back good luck

twisteruk

keeny wrote:

[/B]

would i really want to read 44 pages of moaning people about how they lost thier money?

so good on u for reading 44 pages of moaning people .there lots of people moaning on here and have right to ,, and maybe if u sat and thought about it u would be doing the same if u lost money ,, so keep it up all us moaners give {keeny} something els to read tomorrow

bernardhesford

From the Findel discussion board on iii.co.uk

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It’s all about timing it seems.

On this Friday, 13 October 2006, before the Farepak story broke, Findel neatly announced that it had acquired “certain assets” from the Administrators or Administrative Receivers of European Home Retail Plc (EHR). What it amounted to was that these “certain assets” were effectively the WHOLE of European Home Retail except Farepak, the only other remaining item.

Because of the nature of Farepak’s customer base, hard pressed families trying to save for Christmas, this story will “run & run” and there’s a lot of unravelling to be done. Upwards of 150,000 families are affected (approx half a million individuals including the kids) and it looks like around £40m of their pre-paid savings in advance have “gone west”. How can this happen when no goods have been supplied?

Talking of unravelling, I point out some things here that ALL readers should be aware of, particularly investors in Findel and the sorry customers of Farepak. In point form for clarity (please pass onto your friends and post the content in the general forums on this issue – it’s quite revealing and thought provoking, raising so many more questions):-

1. It was only on Friday the 13th October that EHR (European Home Retail) announced that it had appointed an Administrator (RNS 4830K)

2. Miraculously, on that very same day Findel announced that it had effectively acquired all assets of EHR apart from Farepak.

3. Now, I’m not a mind reader but this is excellent timing and pretty nifty work indeed. Did the Administrator not want to “look around” to see who else might be interested – in order to get the best price? Seems not.

4. For Findel to be so quick on the uptake, one could be forgiven for thinking that they had some “inside knowledge”. Well, it turns out they probably did have. They had a joint venture with Farepak called Home Farm Hampers and Farepak owned 40% of this company. Amongst the “certain assets” Findel bought from EHR (aka the Farepak holding company) was the 40% stake in Home Farm Hampers – see https://www.homefarmhampers.co.uk for a profile of this outfit.

5. On looking at this website and the homepage message from Jonathan Sharp (MD), it reassures agents that theirs and their customers’ money is safe and “ring fenced”. Mr Sharp even says “that one of our competitors, Farepak Hampers, has suffered financial difficulties” … bla, bla, bla, don’t worry etc. For the uninitiated, one might be forgiven for thinking that Farepak had no connection at all with Home Farm Hampers?? Not so, Farepak owned 40% of it!! Could this be “spin” and “sharp practice” from Mr SHARP?

6. It is interesting to note that EHR was formerly known as Kleeneze Plc, probably remembered by many of us. Kleeneze was established in the UK in 1923 and has been trading successfully for some 80+ years!!. Also, Farepak Hampers has been operating successfully since 1981 for some 25 years. Home Farm Hampers, the jointly owned company between Findel (60%) and Farepak (40%) was established in 1986 and has been operating successfully for some 20 years. Whow, what could have gone wrong with all this pedigree??

7. After all, taking a vast amount of money in advance (ie it seems about £40 million) for goods and vouchers you will deliver later doesn’t quite seem a high risk business model … it’s not and that’s why the 5 major “hamper companies” in the UK have done so well and lasted so long. So, where did the £40m advance payments go?

8. As part of EHR, it seems that Farepak was being used to “provide” working capital (ie cash) for the rest of the EHR Group to keep it afloat. This was the advance payments of Farepak customers for their Christmas plan, the savings club business operated by Farepak/EHR. Now, Farepak only employed about 20 full time staff, so it’s “infrastructure” costs were relatively low and they got all this money paid in advance. That’s a nice business model and why they’d been operating successfully for 25 years.

9. Hence it seems, as commented by the Mail on Sunday/Financial Mail of 12 November, that this savings money had been diverted elsewhere. Where though and who allowed this to happen? Well, maybe we should look to the top first, namely the Chairman Sir Clive Thompson (for people who don’t know Sir Clive he was previously at Rentokil where he closed down the pension scheme for all but the executives and then, when he was moved on, got £390K compensation and a £690K pension – beggars belief doesn’t it – well, that’s his pedigree. He also went public at Rentokil decrying the increase in the minimum wage by 30p!!). So, HE PRESIDED over taking the liquid cash from Farepak customers and using it to “shore up” the holding company EHR.

10. So what was HER? It consisted of two parts – the Catalogue Home Shopping arm (Kleeneze and Farepak) and the Internet Retailing Business (relatively new, all the .com websites). Now, as I have said before, Kleeneze had been operating successfully for 80 years and Farepak for 25 years. So, could the problem have been with these “new fangled” Internet retailing businesses … eating up the cash to get them going/keep them afloat? Seems highly likely to me as an innocent observer. AND, Sir Clive Thomson allowed Farepak customers’ money to be diverted for this end. No “ring fence” there. Time for legislation I think for savings club funds to be ring fenced.

11. We then get Sir Clive, late last week, saying that it was HBOS, the company’s bankers, who were at fault for not standing by them. As I understand it, the final proposal which was rejected by HBOS was … “continuation of the existing facilities reduced by the sale of certain assets, the sale of Farepak and the provision of loan finance from various parties”. No wonder HBOS rejected this proposal, who wouldn’t? – a let us go deeper into “hock” proposal. This is borne out by the fact that Findel neatly then bought everything EXCEPT Farepak and yet Sir Clive was trying to sell it as art of his proposal?? Whow!! He’s just shifting the blame onto an easy target such as HBOS because they make money – don’t be fooled or part of this “rabble rouser’s” game. Sir Clive Thomson should be debarred from being a Director of any company again … FOREVER.

12. So, in summary. Findel miraculously bought all the assets of EHR, apart from the FarePak business, from the Administrator on the very day they were appointed, Friday the 13th. How did they know? BUT, why would anyone want to associate themselves which such a date and such a story to “blow up”. Well, maybe it was a “now or never” deal on Friday the 13th, get the deal done all in cash and the “horse has bolted” before the story breaks on the Monday, 16 October.

Oddly enough, as Farepak is now out of the UK “hamper company” equation (there are now only 4 in HITA – a worthless association shown to be meaningless out of this fiasco), Findel, via Home Farm Hampers, could do very nicely picking up these customers, an identifiable section of the UK population relying on such schemes. As Findel were inextricably “associated” with Farepak for over 20 years (joint venture established in 1986) they might “somehow be in the know” about Farepak’s customer base. That’s where any remaining “Farepak value” lies and do Findel now have this? This question must be asked and the transfer of such information CAN BE RIGOROUSLY audited.

Why didn’t the Administrators take due care and look at other offers for the EHR assets – to try to get the best for shareholders and Farepak savers?????

It looks like an “inside” fire sale to me … to people in the know. Also, the transaction was £34m cash and less than the apparent £40m lost by Farepak customers. Sounds like a “snip” for Findel. In their own press release of that very same day, Friday the 13th of October, Findel also stated they had acquired “and the infrastructure assets required for the Home Farm business”. It should be obvious to ANYONE that Findel knew what was going on and that they miraculously moved “light footedly” to acquire all of EHR apart from Farepak at £34m cash before the story broke.

There is DEFINITELY SOME UNRAVELLING TO BE DONE HERE and it remains to be seen exactly what part Findel played “as a player” in this sorry story for so many families in our country. DYOR

sandhabibi

Wow what a first post, It is clearer what has happened when it's all put together like that. Bet you have writers cramp now though lol

freebie_junkie

karren wrote:

dear freebie junkie, my reply was never intended for you, I apoligise if your offended, the point I was making was that all I myself wanted out of this is answer's I have given to charity all my working life, and like you I feel charity is for those whom need it for essentials, "farepak victims" is the title the press have made, remember that they want to sell thier papers so they will exploit situations, I just want answers about how this fraud has been allowed, please have my apoligy for any offence, I am not on here to offend. We did not ask for charity fund to be set up the govt and the admistrators asked for it, not the customer's we want the money that was taken under false pretences returned and the questions answered.

oh sorry, it looks liek i got teh wrong end of teh stick! i understand what youre saying about teh charity fund, youd rather be treeated fairly, get answers and get your money back. i was simply thinking of those people on low incomes who perhaps wont get any money back and i just wanted to do my bit to help them out. i know that if i had lost hundereds of pounds, id be knackered as im on a low income too. i hope that you get your answers and at least soem of your money back if not all of it. i dont pity you or see you as charity at all, i just dont like the idea of people liek myself and people with kids having next to nothing at christmas through no fault of their own.

sandhabibi

I've just had 4 monthly payments refunded by Abbey bank after putting in a indeminity claim about 3-4 weeks ago. I paid by direct debit!!!!!!!!:D

kate1976

sandhabibi wrote:

I've just had 4 monthly payments refunded by Abbey bank after putting in a indeminity claim about 3-4 weeks ago. I paid by direct debit!!!!!!!!:D

I paid by direct debit too (LloydsTSB account) so is this a route I could go down? I'm not well up on claims, etc. so any advice is gratefully received!