Time crisis: Administrators called in
Summary: Reports say workers are locked in at their Burnley HQ, as the UK's leading PC retailer hits troubled times
The crisis at Granville Technology Group, the UK's largest computer retailer, deepened on Wednesday after the administrators were called in.
According to concerned employees, police have been sent to the Burnley headquarters of Time Computers, which is owned by Granville. It is understood that some employees have been locked into the building.
Staff had been told to expect an announcement at 1100 on Wednesday, but this was cancelled. A further announcement was due at midday.
The company has been besieged by rumours all week after the staff were paid late on two occasions. The company eventually said that its bankers, HSBC, had suspended its credit facilities, but this has been disputed by company insiders.
It was also rumoured that major creditors, including HP and AMD, had suspended deliveries. Earlier this week, the company halted most of its production forcing some staff to take holidays.
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Talkback
So what now?? I already got a new job to go to but this months pay !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Is it even worth holding out hope
been paid late twice and contrary to Dick Harris' storiy we WERE NOT TOLD at all the 1st time till after...HSBC went on strike folks not our fault !!! then the 2nd time we were told it would be late by email at 530pm THE NIGHT BEFORE THEY WERE DUE TO GO IN
so basically just about the same amount of notice as we got for this
DISGUSTING...NOT THAT ANY OF THEM WILL CARE
Anyone having served less than two years won't see any redundancy, and now its down to the administrators what sort of 'Notice' package is put together.
what is that again ???? we never had any from the company about ANYTHING else...ever so why start now
If the company had spent as much time and energy improving their products as they spent thinking up new dirty tricks to tie customers to a rotten deal then perhaps they would not be in the hands of the receivers now.
Hopefully we will not see their like again.
My thoughts go out to the employees and their families who are going to face an uncertain future now thanks to Granville Technology Group.
The Directors will have plenty of money to survive but what about the 'working' men & women with every day needs like food for themselves and families and mortgages to pay or rent to pay?
How many people will lose their homes thanks to the tactics of Granvilles Directors.
I'm sure the Directors will be laughing all the way to the bank - while some of the workers are left crying in the gutter.
I find the whole situation a disgrace and the directors should be held to account and forced to pay back some of their money to help out the people who really need it.
But it seems the laws in this country allow them to get away with what they want.
I am just glad I got out of the company several years ago when I saw how they treated customers and staff alike.
Just to rub salt in the wound, despite having gone into administration, as I write this their web sites are not only still up and running, but also still accepting new orders.
I really feel sorry not only for all of my ex-colleagues but also for all of the customers who haven't got their machines/plasmas - hopefully if you paid by credit card then you'll have a degree of protection, if not then sadly who knows...
I hope you all find jobs if you deserve them and I hope your house / car / boat / etc. gets reposesed if you deserve that
WE OFFER ANY TIME COMPUTER OWNER A DEAL. BRING IN YOUR OLD TIME AND WE WILL SWOP IT FOR A BRAND NEW COMPUTER WITH 12 MONTHS WARRANTY FOR
they had only sent me the old version of what I had bought two years ago.
Having made lots of phone calls and sending e-mails to the press office about my complaint, even though I have now been sent the updated new version of the anti virus and been given the run around by being given wrong telephone numbers for the company which manufactures the anti virus product no body from Time has said sorry.
Fortunately I knew enough to fix the problem myself but I never bought another Tiny system. I spent years telling people not to buy them because their support was cr*p and their kit exploded.
So I guess I have helped contribute to the downfall of this company. Me and the thousands like me who were treated the same way.
To quote Niven & Pournelle, "Think of it as evolution in action". The fit prosper. The weak, inefficient and shoddy get discarded.