Having just returned from GGPatrols Tambo weekend Id like to add a few comments which may add/clarify to my earlier post.
Firstly, in my first post (which I outlined my objections to giving any business anything other than a 10% deposit for any goods or service, which some have taken objection to either by post or by PM), I failed to make comment on my sympathy with those involved. This goes without saying, but to Luke 07 and Ranger Jules, you dont deserve to be going thru what you are now. I hope everything works out for you.
Secondly, I added the comment that having been in business, I knew what I was talking about. Some have taken this as some form of pi55ing contest, and other business owners have taken objection to this as their businesses rely on progress payments. I gave the example of buying a house, rather that building one, where progress payments are par for the course. My personal replies to these messages has been that if you build a house, you enter into a contract overseen and insured by an industry body, such as the HIA, where the purchaser is protected against non completion of a project.
Thirdly, the AMCTA Guild code of ethics has been posted up by others. Perhaps if this group was a professional industry body like the HIA where a prospective purchaser was indemnified and insured against project non completion if process payments were made and the end product not delivered the industry would benifit.
Forthly, there is probably another family under great stress here, the owners of Jimboona, who have probably put their heart and soul into their business, only to see it fail. When Trackabout had problems this forum actively engaged in support of the owner, whereas in this instance, the opposite appears to be occurring. Trackabout operated with integrity, we still dont know the facts surrounding Jimboona, but still, here is probably a family out there with it all on the line.
Fifthly, my comment of "knowing what Im talking about" because Ive been in a business seems to have been taken as some kind of Pi55 take. Having been in exactly the situation that the owners of Jimboona appear to be in: Ie, having lost a business, having lost a family home to cover business liabilities and having had a three figure tax liability to cover, now nearly cleared after 7 years, I think I can talk from experience. When you have a business, you do everything to keep it afloat. Progress payments from clients for projects that you sell, extending trading terms, ets, are all methodilogies used to stave of the inevitable by SOME businesses, not all. The problem is that we, the customer, dont know which ones. We, as business owners, didnt use these, we faced the music.
So: from my perspective, having had a business fail after 10 years, the old sayings still hold true:
BUYER BEWARE
DONT THROW GOOD MONEY AFTER BAD
IF YOU SMELL A RAT....
Happy sunday night everyone.
