Chatterbox (merged threads)

cv65user

tahts exact same leter i got

happyhunter

Please note that over the years, we have paid well over £6million in cashbacks. Over many years, chatterbox.com has always acted ethically, morally, legally and has established a strong brand.

That's rubbish. When I was with them 3 years ago, I needed to threaten with legal actions before finally got paid 2 months late.

This model was based on the business assumption that only 40% of all customers would claim their cashback. This model, however, proved to be wrong as the redemption actually was approximately 80%. As a result, the company's financial resources were drained. We believe that the problem which we have faced has been caused by the large corporations which introduced the 40% model.

So they followed this model and failed. Now they are blaming large corporations for making this assumption.

They have put the blame on everyone except themselves for getting into this situation. And now basically telling all customers 'don't sue us or we'll go bust, just sit and wait indefinitely'.

michaels

If you sue will you get anything or just be 30+ quid down so looks like waiting will be the best (least bad) option.

Not being paid by an operator would obviously put a dent in cashflow.

Their arguement re redemptions makes no sense - with historic experience of redemptions they must have known that the 40% was unrealistic so why did they sell contracts on this basis, if they were really focussed on their customers surely they should have stopped selling contracts where they knew they would not be able to honour the cashback.

Sid_Harper

Disagree. I say get in there early and claim because they don't have any valid reason for coming up with the money later. Tou may as well be one of the first to claim and get it rather than wait until they go bust (which, based on their own 40%/80% admission, in my mind they undoubtedly will).

Quentin

Sid_Harper wrote: »

Tou may as well be one of the first to claim and get it

You can't get blood out of a stone!

They say they have no money now.

So even if you did go to the expense of issuing a claim, (which you would win), you still wouldn't get paid anything.

So making a claim would be just more good money going down the drain.

Sid_Harper

Yes but I wouldn't necessarily believe all that's in their letter. If they're not insolvent (which I don't think they are yet) then they have to cough up. Of course, they will end up in that state.

Quentin

But they don't have to cough up!

You have to make them do so, and a firm in this state has ways and means of avoiding their creditors who may try and enforce any judgements. (Though the Claimant has to pay the costs of enforcement as well as the court costs even though they never get a penny back from the Defendant).

By publishing their letter, they are clearly not too worried about their reputation, or future business - who would now want to do business with them?

So getting CCJs against their name won't worry them either.

g33za

If they go into liquidation then I think you become an unsecured creditor and will come bottom of the list after the Banks etc.

Very worrying situation.

trisontana

There is an article in today's Mirror about Chatterbox and their problems :-

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/investigates/2007/09/20/phoney-cashback-traps-customers-89520-19817817/

alnsv1000s

I was told a couple of years ago, the same thing by a very Senior employee of that company, about how i should base cashback deals on a 40% redemption. I never heeded these words and chose my own realistic offers.

At the time, they wanted and needed to connect quite a few more subscribers than they had, as they were a new Network, and were offering better rates of commission than anyone else.

This same network, now are making it out to be all down to the dealers, when they were pushing us to offer these cashback deals.

It was a clever move as they had the controlling hand, and once they had achieved what they wanted, they dropped commissions, and started to poach our customers 2 months before we could upgrade them, and threw money at the retention deals, that we could not match.

They also, now have got their own shop base up and running and want to open quite a few more shops of their own, and they have an aim of connecting most customers direct.