mobile phone cash back -company gone bust

[custardkid]

got a mobile phone from this company, promising cash back in months 4/6/8/12...... they've now gone bust, what should i do?

letter here:

.....................................................................
TO ALL KNOWN CUSTOMERS

Our ref PML/RG/RD/IB/ADM0307/MOBI101/102/H

Dear Sirs

Mobile Affiliates Limited t/a Coolnewmobile and Phones2yourdoor - In Administration

Birmingham County Court No. 5302 of 2007

Mobile Media Systems Limited t/a Phoneboxdirect - In Administration

Birmingham County Court No. 5303 of 2007

I would advise you that I was appointed Administrator of the above companies jointly with my partner Alistair Steven Wood by the directors on 14 November 2007. I am authorised to act as an Insolvency Practitioner by the Department of Trade & Industry and my partner is authorised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales.

The companies have ceased trading and their offices are now closed.

The statutory purpose of an Administration consists of three
objectives:

· rescuing the company as a going concern;

· achieving a better result for the company’s creditors as a whole than would be likely if the company were wound-up (without first being in Administration);

· realising property in order to make a distribution to one or more secured or preferential creditors;

Within eight weeks (or such longer period as the court may allow) of the date of the Administration Order, I am required to prepare proposals which I will publish on the Joint Administrators’ website www.phoneboxdirectinformation.com.

As Joint Administrator I am not in a position to pay any amounts due by the company in respect of contractual obligations entered prior to the date of the Administration Order.

Following my appointment customers have requested a response to two specific questions namely:

· Recovery of cash backs due from the company.

· Contractual obligations with the network provider.

As far as the cash back is concerned my current estimate is that there are over 30,000 customers who may be eligible to make cash back claims. My current estimate of this liability is between 4-10 million. The companies’ assets are less than 250,000. It follows therefore, that after the payment of the expenses of the administration and the preferential creditors (wages and holiday pay owed to the employees) it is unlikely that there will be funds available for unsecured creditors.

Turning to the second matter, I am unable to comment on a customer’s contractual position with their network provider, customers must therefore, either speak to the network provider directly, take legal advice or contact their local Citizens Advice Bureau or Trading Standards Office. The network providers and/or their agents should not be referring you back to me.

Please refer to the Joint Administrators’ website www.phoneboxdirectinformation.com which will be posted with further updates for the benefit of customers and creditors. This website has been set-up to enable you to record your claim against the relevant company. Please do not write to my office to submit your claim as written communications will not be acknowledged.

Yours faithfully

For and on behalf of

Mobile Affiliates Limited & Mobile Media Systems Limited

P M Lyon

Joint Administrator
...........................................................................


andy ideas

cheers custard

[DonnyMac]

hi Chap,

I publishh the magazine for the mobile phone industry - www.mbmagazine.co.uk - if it's gone down, and it has, no cash is coming your way.

20 industry buddies of mine are seeing ofcom in the next week or so to discuss this issue - pm me with your issues and i'll forward them to the chairman of the IMPDA.

sorry,
D.

[mcflurry]

The phone company may put you on a lower tariff if you call them, but the odds on you getting a decent cashback amount are pretty remote

[Work-Shy-Wanabe]

This was one watchdog or working lunch the other day. Check there websites maybe?

[tigger1]

This was the reason I eventually shied away from getting one of these "zero-cost" mobiles this year...the risk was too great for me. I was on a cashback scheme with DialAPhone and had no problems at all - but it *can* be a risky business.