eBay

amalan11 · ‎05-01-2016

I am shocked a chain as large as DS can fail like it has.

I feel very sorry for anyone who has a gift card or deposit on an item as it looks like they will be left with nothing . I read that they may be able to do a credit card chargeback but even thats not certain,It just gos to show even major retailers cannot be trusted as they seem to have been trading knowing they could not secure stock to meet orders.

Apparently the administrators hope to sell as a viable business but I cannot see that happening as I think under the circumstances People will not trust the brand again ,

I would be very careful about buying gift vouchers after this as Dick Smith I would have thought were safe due to their size .It will be interesting to see how much people loose in worthless vouchers and deposits ,I think it will be heaps more than Angus and Robertson the booksellers as I bet DS made a fortune in Xmas gift voucher sales they now will not honour.

Very sad business really. ..

lionrose.7 · ‎05-01-2016

Same in New Zealand not going to honour the gift certificates, hope people who got them for christmas have cashed them in 😞

latina4621 · ‎05-01-2016

very sad to see this happening

i agree i think people will think twice now before buying vouchers for a gift not matter who the store is.

cee-dee · ‎05-01-2016

From reading reports about this, it all seems to be dodgy "financial dealing", literally legalised robbery?

It's life Jim, but not as WE know it.
Live long and prosper.

lurker172602 · ‎05-01-2016

I have no idea of the legal angle, but not honouring gift vouchers (especially at the volume sold at this time of year) must come pretty close to fraud mustn't it?

the_great_she_elephant · ‎05-01-2016

Unfortunately, probably not if the firm is in administrtion. I could be wrong, but I think it's the same deal as with bankruptcy - once the administrators move in, all bets are off.

chameleon54 · ‎06-01-2016

@lurker172602 wrote:
I have no idea of the legal angle, but not honouring gift vouchers (especially at the volume sold at this time of year) must come pretty close to fraud mustn't it?

From a legal point it hinges on wether the company was trading while insolvent. DS suspended shares on the stock exchange on Monday as it tried to re-finance loans etc. When it became clear the refinancing would not occur, the company called in the administraters. Had negotiations on finance been succesfull the company would have continued trading.

Wether selling gift vouchers was fraud would depend on the time that company executives became aware that refinancing would not be succesfull. It appears that this was in the last couple of days, but who really knows. ?

cee-dee · ‎06-01-2016

These sort of things have happened in the UK too. As far as I know, only one company agreed to honour gift vouchers when it went in to administration. Holders of such things become minor unsecured creditors.

As far as your current company woes go, it seems from what I've read that those hiding behind the company either knew or at least suspected there were problems and that's why they had the massive stock clearance beforehand. The idea there being to turn as much stock into cash leaving little for creditors but..... suspicions of corporative misdeeds can't easily be turned in to "evidence"?

It's life Jim, but not as WE know it.
Live long and prosper.

punch*drunk · ‎06-01-2016

They were looking like going belly up a few weeks before Christmas and it was all over the news so hopefully that was enough of a clue for people not to buy gift vouchers. I bought a mini hifi and was concerned at first about warranty if the store went under, then i realised it was reduced from $100 to $30 and I figured it was cheap enough to take the risk.