Some Farepak Help

marleyboy

I am very sorry you will struggle this christmas because of this awful situation - I have two very good friends who did not put their money with farepak but have lost their jobs with major companies in this run up to christmas - one of them may not be able to get another one because of his age although we keep our fingers crossed - I do not see campaigns to help them out - he wants a job simple as.

As you quote the OP has gone around asking on various forums for help, The only reason your freinds dont have a campaign to help them out is because nobody has started one, rather than complain about others misfortunes, I suggest YOU start your own campaign to help them out.

Unless like the majority of us Farepak victims, They havent asked for any in the first place. Lots of folk lose jobs, christmas or not, but I dare say the job wasnt stolen from them in the first place. I dont see any connection whatsoever between losing your job from a company, and getting robbed from one.

go4it

I dont see any connection whatsoever between losing your job from a company, and getting robbed from one.

Be careful about the terms you use. Robbed is probably not the correct term. You chose to give these people your money, they did not take it from you by force. They have failed to deliver you a service, but that is because they are in administration. You put money into a company which was not regulated by any financial association. Now these companies go bust, fact of life, and there is no gurantee you can get you money back.

LookingAhead

Scary huh? This country allows companies to start up....take your money....go into administration and you don't get a penny back.

Nice work for some.

Phoenix79_2

LookingAhead wrote:

Scary huh? This country allows companies to start up....take your money....go into administration and you don't get a penny back.

Nice work for some.

Ultimately its the individuals choice if they want to give their savings to a company that isn't bound by any financial regulatory body at all. Not that i'm saying its the peoples fault.....its just a very risky way of saving.

GingerSte

kazia1964 wrote:

Well i am also a Farepak victim, and all these paople on this forum are saying to save money in bank it is not that easy, when you have got money in a bank in mid july and your cooker breaks you think i will use that money and put it back later,(which never happens) so when it comes to christmas you havnt got the money expected for your presents.

I don't want to sound callous (my sister lost her savings in the Farepack scandal and I agree that those involved SHOULD get their money back), I do tend to worry about posts like the above. What if your cooker broke down and you didn't have enough money to get a new one because all your money was set aside for christmas? If it was me I would rather my kids were able to have a hot meal every day than a few extra toys at christmas.

While I can understand the motives of putting money into one of these schemes, I can't understand the logic of giving your money to a company in advance with no guarantees that you'll get anything back.

I can imagine the take up of next year's schemes will be a lot lower next year.

xpf

Not sure if anyones seen this but it may help some of you::

From HSBC website

Advice for Farepak savers
HSBC will help Farepak savers with several million pounds in refunds
HSBC reminds savers to contact their card issuers to exercise their 'chargeback' rights
Farepak Food and Gifts, a 'Christmas Hamper / Savings Club' organisation was placed in administration on 13 October 2006.

HSBC's relationship with Farepak
While HSBC was not banker to the company and had no involvement in the company's collapse, we have been concerned by the plight of genuine savers who have lost their Christmas funds.

What can HSBC do to help?
As merchant acquirer to the company (the processor of credit and debit card transactions), we are keen to ensure that savers take advantage of 'chargeback' rules that will help a large number of savers recover some of their lost money for goods and services not received.

We will contact all our own customers who can claim a refund and we urge other card issuers to do the same.

Indeed, we will refund anyone who gave money to Farepak using a Mastercard or Visa credit card or a Visa debit card.

How much will Farepak customers get back?
We have already returned £700,000 to thousands of Farepak customers. From our own investigations, we estimate we could incur a bill for savers amounting to several million pounds if, as we hope, the thousands of outstanding payments are claimed back.

We are making every effort to ensure that, where possible, the refund process is accelerated so that money can be returned in time for Christmas.

What should Farepak savers do?
Anyone who used a Mastercard or Visa credit card or a Visa debit card to make a payment to Farepak should contact their card issuing bank and ask for details of their 'chargeback' rights. Their banks will then contact HSBC to obtain refunds on their behalf – in many cases their bank may be able to refund them directly in lieu of seeking repayment from HSBC at a later date.

Those savers who made their payments via a local Farepak representative should contact them to check how the money was paid and whether the agent can claim a refund on their behalf.

How can we ensure Farepak customers get money they are due?
The majority of card payments to Farepak will have been made by local agents collecting funds from savers. It is crucial that these agents efficiently and carefully re-distribute any refunds they receive to savers.

What is HSBC doing to publicise this?
We are contacting all our own customers who can claim a refund. We will also contact every national newspaper to remind them of the 'chargeback' opportunities available to some savers, as well as contacting card issuing banks to discuss how refunds can be made as speedily as possible.

Not saying HSBC are the nicest of banks by any measure but hopefully some people will realise their rights from this.

chunkymunks

I am hugely disappointed in a few of the posts in the beginning of this thread. Some people seem to be happily congratulating themselves on their massive intelligence on staying clear of hamper companies and are proud to condemn anyone who tried to save for Christmas through a well tried route. I did not save this way but understand why other people would, people on a low income may find it easy to spend more than they should and this is their means of saving. At least they don't assume the state should pick up the tab. People are focusing on the £2000 vouchers but most customers didn't seem to amass this much, hundreds seems to be the norm so let's not get giddy. I think most of these posters should be ashamed of their smug attitude. When I joined this site it was about helping people not proving how much smarter/better we were. With regards to the crying children, yes that was massively over the top but at the end of the day these people paid money and were ripped off. This was not a loan shark but a perfectly respectable company and that is why people are so angry. Would you be happy if your bank/building society/pension fund/company closed and kept money you were owed? The people on this thread who have actually lost money seem to prove they are not asking for handouts but simply their own money back.

sideshow_matt

Might be the wrong place to post this, but I thought it was a nice story

http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=161818&command=displayContent&sourceNode=161644&contentPK=16062577&folderPk=88499&pNodeId=161375

astonsmummy

well said chunkymunks, it amazes me how many people take the 'i can beleive they didnt just open a bankaccount' attitude. which for some strange reason people STILL keep saying even though the reason ahs been pointed out a million times.
Not everyne has good budgeting and money skills which goes for most people on here before they joined.
And as far as regulations go, do you honestly think EVERYONE checks these things out or even kows about it all? I certainly didnt.

lilmiss

Hi

Not sure where to post this, so i'm going to post it here, and also the freebie Board. In the sun newspaper today, it says if you take your Farepack card into Argos. They will give you Money off Vouchers for shopping at Argos and Homebase. They have Leaflet's about it in store