Needing a bit of support/advice from the lovely people of the Sunny Coast tonight :( My husband and I moved to the Sunshine Coast 3 years ago and we fell in love with it. The people, the weather, just everything about it! So recently we decided to buy a local business (mobile car detailing) so we could really become a part of it all. The business was advertised as having a fully mobile van, supplies, equipment, current regular customers and a steady, reliable income. The contract of sale included full training (my husband and his mate have plenty of experience but needed to know how to use the generator, particular products, methods etc used by this business) for a 2 week period, full support for a month after handover and it all seemed fantastic. Sadly we used all our savings to buy it and counted on the guaranteed income to meet our financial obligations. Well... Things didnt go so well. The people who sold us the business shot through leaving us with basically no training despite agreeing to work several days alongside us to introduce us to their customers and whatnot. They dumped the van on us with no registration transfer papers and didnt attend any of the agreed meet ups we had arranged. On day one the generator stopped working. On day two the engine on the van blew up leaving us stranded on the side of the highway. There was hardly any product left for us to use and we had to go and purchase a pile of supplies. And of course the people we bought the business from either ignored my requests for assistance or made excuses. Today their solicitor emailed me to tell me that they would not be returning our money despite the breaches of contract and selling us an inoperable business. We went home and my husband comforted me as I cried. This had been my idea and we had turned it into a dream... Once we start this business everything is going to be so wonderful... However, one week after we paid $17,000 to these people we have no operable business and have been detailing as many customers as we can manage with just our little car. We had to cancel any bookings where we would have had to use our own power and water. I guess that brings me to the part where I ask for some advice... Reassurance... Encouragement? The thing is that we have met such amazing beautiful people and have loved doing this. We want to continue! Yesterday a beautiful lady made my husband and I soup for lunch. Another lovely lady gave my husband a pile of take home beers as a tip (and wasnt he delighted!) Everyone has been so supportive and understanding about the setbacks we have experienced and just made us love the Sunny Coast even more. But we are so deeply heartbroken and disillusioned by what the previous owners have done to us that we are not sure how to proceed now. We dont have the money to buy another van, generator etc, now. We are obviously lodging a QCAT application against them on a Monday but its going to take weeks and weeks if not months for the court date. We know that no court would rule against us and we will get our money back but until then what do we do? These people seemed so nice and we trusted them. Maybe we are just stupid. When the van broke down and they kept breaching the contract by not supplying training and support etc I offered the previous owners the option to return $10k to us, and we would just keep the business name and customers. We could buy more equipment and a cheap van for that. But no... Too bad so sad was the response. We wanted to just be reasonable and sort it out :( So do we keep using the business name we bought even though we are suing them for the return of our money? In one week we doubled the number of likers on their Facebook page and we paid for business cards, uniforms, website, everything. And tonight we sit here so sad that we can barely speak. Anyone who knows my cheerful lovely husband would know how unlike him that is. I feel so sorry for my poor husband. This was my idea - buying a pre existing business instead of starting one from scratch and Ive ruined us... But god bless him not once has he made me feel bad for trusting these people and making such a bad decision. Anyway Im sorry for the long post... Sometimes a few kind words can mean so much. What do we do? Give up the ghost? Keep using their business name even though we will have to hand it back when the court awards us our money back? We cant start from scratch because we havent got the money :(
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 09:34:59 +0000
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