I write to advise of a variation to the merchant agreement between your business and Bill Express. All income and sales margins are now provided on a performance based business model that provides greater incentives for our retail partners. Performance opportunities will be supported by a significant marketing and industry management fund allocation of a minimum of $500,000 per month.
This is the opening paragraph of a five page letter sent to newsagents today in which Bill Express announces that the remaining subsidies paid to newsagents are being removed.
The spin in the letter is breathtaking, it has to be since Bill Express is reneging on commitments made to newsagents years ago.
In my case Bill Express promised a bunch of direct and indirect benefits. This commitment got me to sign a contract. Today, the benefits have been unilaterally removed by Bill Express.
To be fair, I’d note that Bill Express will say I am better off with an incentive program. I am not better off.
This latest move by Bill Express against newsagents leaves me feeling that they are in trouble and have struck out against newsagents in order to preserve cash. I will be interested to see whether they make an announcement to the ASX – I would have thought that such a whack against your prime retail network is reportable.
Hi Mark
At least you have the letter. Was it sent by post or faxed? Nothing has arrived for us as yet. I am yet to hear back in response to a letter I sent on 2 March 2008 requesting information on the current status of our contracts/agreements. The only item of correspondence I has received thus far with that is at all related to this matter was an unsigned letter from Technology Business International Pty Ltd advising of change of direct debit users in early April. The letter provides a generic email address for queries but doesn’t cite a contact person or contact phone number. Strange way to do business if you ask me!!
Mark Fa
Cant you guys write back with something along the lines of
“I write to advise of a variation to the merchant agreement between your business and XXX Newsagency. Effectively immediately we are able to break any contract without penalty”
Whats good for the goose…
I am at a loss for words on this latest from Bill Exp.
Can we organise a national boycott on using their system at all? So that they will not even get a cent of extra income other than the $544.50 which will need to be separately challenged.
Are newsagents even represented on the submissions to ASIC?
It’s difficult for newsagents to act collectively on this. I know of some who are arranging for their banks to block further payments. I have also been told of complaints being lodged with the ACCC, ASX and ASIC. The only way newsagents can resolve this is through pressure on Bill express.
So what form of pressure to use that can be effective?
They are already acting as Big Brother by coming up with that many variations of contract. Who’s heard of this sort of action from a professional organisation?
In my opinion Bill Exp has lost all its plot and senses to even listen normally to anything we say.
It’s run by people with rose coloured glasses who has no experience of anything in the real world except in their own cocoon of financial models .
The letter still talks of association with ANF even after the announcement of separation.
Also I know of mthly Bill Exp rebates given to ANF members only although there are other members who do not know anything about this entitlement at all.
What about those non-members who are equal agents.
Granted newsagents are acting independently in their own small business, but aren’t associations created for the very purpose of common preservation?
Helen, everyone got the rebate, not just ANF members. I think the best course of action is to complain to the ACCC, ASIC and the ASX. the more newsagents who do the more likelihood that Bill Express will be looked at by regulators. If you;re in NSW also lodge a complaint with the CTTT and ask them to pass judgment to release you from your agreement. Mark
Mark,
the rebate I mention is not the dialtime ($85)/advertising rebate ($210) or the subsidy.
It’s a separate one given by ANF to its members only presumably out of the kickback from Bill Exp.
By the way what’s CTTT?
Is it a Contracts Tribunal/Review Board?
If complaints don’t work maybe We should organize a class action against Bill Express, to break out all individual contracts and to claim damages. I am quite happy to put in my share of fund to fight them.
Helen the anf rebate was paid by BE to non ANF members.
While what Bill Express is doing here is undeniably dirty business, newsagents have to look at making the most of a raw deal while we wait for action to be taken. What Bill Express offers over Ezipass or simple EFTPOS setups is its rival to Post BillPay. As Mark points out over and over Post Offices are a government regulated monopoly which is slowly garnering more and more of the traditional newsagent market. By competing using Bill Express we can draw some of those customers back and retain them with the unique shopping experience and knowledge which you can only find in a newsagency. And as to Bill Express moving to an incentivised rate of payment for the newsagents, why don’t we just jump for the carrot a bit and see how big of a bite we can get? Just as we can cross-promote stationery, mags and cards, why can’t we try to strategise our approach to prepaid phone and internet? Look to creating new customers by effective promotion (do your little old ladies know how easy it is to setup a prepaid internet connection to get knitting patterns/recipes?) and give your existing customers more reason to continually shop with you (bonus offers, promoting free time deals, buy 20 get the 21st free, promoting to the right target audience). My advice is, while the managers and owners are jumping up and down about Bill Express’s inexcusable behaviour, get your staff working to make the most out of this situation.
Kym, a comment on your advice above.
I would like you, and BXP for that matter to explain to me, and all the other small (tiny) country newsagents how we can make this happen in a town with a population of less than 400 people which has post office as well.
We will NEVER be able to meet these targets. Lets get real.
Do you know the math if you sold 20 items at a 5% commission and gave away the 21st…a big fat zero..get real!!Cashflow for Billexpress nothing for us ,that makes sense!!
Alex,
we did have someone telling us to approach legal counsel for a class action concerning the contracts we signed.
It may look like we have to go down that road.
Start small and local. BE will find it harder to deal with 500 small cases than one big one. Also, at a lower forum, we are more likely to get a fairer hearing.
Complain to the ACCC. I have just had a phone conversation with them, if they get enough complaints and there is a national pattern of complaints they may act against bxp.
Go to http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/tag/SmallBusinessComplaintsAndEnquiries/ and open the Small Business Complaints link at the bottom of the page.
I also just received the new letter from bxp in the post, what it totally ignores is that we can get similar services for no or little cost from others.
Perhaps its shareholders should consider approaching bxp as well. it would seem bxp has alienated a large proportion of its ‘network’ who won’t be renewing their contracts. They will also find it difficult signing up new members from now on as well. No ‘network’ = no profits = low share price, or even no bxp and shares worth nothing.
Brian,
I have downloaded the complaint form and will endeavour to fill in the form to submit in the next 2 days.
will also contact all our newsagent acquaintances to submit and put out the word.
One of the most unethical thing Bill Exp has done is financially backdating all their contract variations. Is this really legal at all?
Wonder how would the directors of Bill Exp feel personally if their own bank come along and say oh by the way, your increase in interest rate is going to be backdated!!!
I certainly will not be renewing no matter what carrot they are dangling in front of me.
Helen, just fill it in online and submit it, quick and easy.
brian, just to let u know that i have dloaded the form and will fill it up tonight.
Carrot ?? more like a poison apple!!
I have just completed the online complaint form and hope more people can do the same.I have also just written a letter to them about my intention to terminate the agreement and seek damages. Bill Express must understand that we should not and will not pay for their own failures. I fully support a class action against them if it has to go down that path. We shall not just seeking contract termination but also all losses and damages from their action. They must know that we are no easy pushovers and won’t tolerate any more crap from them.
I tried to fill ou the form. Which industry we should select? Just trying to get this uniformed with you guys so there is no confusion to ACCC.
Has anyone been cancelling the contract, or stopped the payment yet? What is the response from Bill Express.
From the letter I received yesterday, looks like they need 180 days notice (half year), which is a long period.
Guys, I didn’t want to offend anyone with my comment, I’m just taking the view that BEx is big business and are ultimately out to make the biggest bucks possible, hence the restructuring of fees and shafting of newsagents. They are going to have a barrage of lawyers double checking fine print and ready to fight and fights newsagents put up. I fully encourage everyone to go here
http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/tag/SmallBusinessComplaintsAndEnquiries/ and open the Small Business Complaints link at the bottom of the page. But you should stop playing just ’cause you don’t like the game anymore. The examples I gave were just off the top of my ideas ideas for promotion and obviously won’t work in every context. You know what works in your town, I don’t. A small town newsagent friend of mine is actually still coming out ahead despite of the change because he cornered a part of the market and maximised their potential. In all other areas he’s struggling to survive but amazingly BEx isn’t the biggest of his problems. So fight the good fight, but don’t just complain, do something about it or with it.
Bario, I put it under ‘Personal and household goods retailing’, it was the closest I could see.
If you read the important note asscociated with the Small Business Guide to Unconscionable Behaviour it states:
“The matters a court may consider in determining whether a breach of
unconscionable conduct provisions. 51AC(1) or 51AC(2) has occurred
now expressly include whether a party has a contractual right to unilaterally
vary a term or condition of a contract between a supplier and a business
consumer, or between an acquirer and a small business supplier.”
Sound familiar? BE have this power and have used it and also have used it to change who dips into our bank accounts. In my opinion they are in breach of the act.
I sympathise with the problems everyone is having. But hasn’t anyone read a contract before they sign? The reponses here sadly indicate our industry as a bunch of ‘amateurs’. The Bill Express people would be reading all these exchanges. And that is no way to run a legal strategy to foghjt them
Sadly Ron is right, we are a bunch of amateurs in the legal sense, if not we would be doing something else.
Let them read, but rest assured there is more going on than appears here.
The big concern is how many are there out there who stand to lose from this who are completely unaware of what is happeneing? How can they be informed?
And yes most have read the contract, but there is no accounting for what is NOT written in the contract. See sections 52 and 53 of the Trade Practices Act, there is no hiding for bxp from this.
Spoken to one newsagent this afternoon and he is oblivious to what is happening and still believe in the new BE mantra.
How else can we get the message across to other fellow newsagent if ANF/other newsagent associations does not take up this fight for us (arent they supposed to be our representatives??)
Ron,
we might all seem like ‘amateurs’, but from where i come from, someones word is worth more than a piece of paper.
Just wait until i find that guy who signed me up with all those guarantees that i will not be out of pocket.
Alan
Alan, I fear he has taken his sales commission and is probably selling another product somewhere else.
His word will be worth nothing. All of your verbal dealings will have no witnesses and nothing in writing most likely?
Not that newsagents don’t lie. One in our area when challenged as to why they were taking on the system said they had to. They had no choice.
People in small towns know that if they lost their post office computer then they lose a lot more besides bill pay facilities. Sometimes the only banking in a small town.
This whole scheme has made a lot of bad blood between small town newagents and post office licensees. Was the bad feeling really worth the angst?
I bet there is a lot of Newsagents that installed the plasma screens with an extended 12 month contract , our sales lady told us we would get paid for advertisiment we have never seen a cent from this.
I think if enough agents signed stat dec’s stating what they were told when installing the system it might hold some water in court.
We got our plasma free because we refused the contract extension.
http://imagesignal.comsec.com.au/asxdata/20080416/pdf/00832850.pdf
The announcemnet from bill express to the market on the end of the ANF contract. Interesting spin. Get rid of ANF middle man and pass on the money that used to go to them directly to the newsagents? That is what I see in this article anyhow. Newsagents that actively promote the system will be rewarded for their higher transactions by the sound of it?
Localized promotion is what should have been funded in the first place. Not sponsorship of St Kilda football club so that fat cats could use a corporate box (I presume, as no St Kilda fan I ever spoke to knew or cared what bill express meant).
Some grass roots promotion. The newsagents are part of the community, do advertising at community level.
Whether many newsagents stay and make a better rate of income overall remains to be seen.
Still no response to the issue of what happens if you sell your business and the new owners refuse to continue with bxp because of the new increased costs. You are are left liable to pay out the remainder of your contract through no fault of your own.
This has the potential to affect every user of bxp.
Brian, the contract has provisions for handling this. The problem is that Bill Express appears to approach each situation differently. I know of one newsagent who got away with paying nothing and another who is being pursued for $12,000.
mark
Mark, we have spoken to bxp who say we will be up for in excess of $15k. They were going to get back to us with the exact figure but in 2 weeks so far have not.
It a bit like the ‘training’ they charge us for, and are contractually obliged to supply, but don’t. In the 2 years we have been here we have received NONE. They say be ready on a certain date at a certain time, but never call.
we were also quoted in excess of $15k if we wanted to opt out.
so what’s different between the agent who got away with nothing to pay and the one that is hounded?
Brian, Helen, get it into a forum and have the case adjudicated. This is what I am doing. mark
Where does all this leave the poor old newsagent when they have a contract on their business.? We must have rights. My signed contract says that we will be in an equal or better position with Bill Express however when I contacted them I was told they had sought legal advise and were within their rights to alter the contract. Surely they have a legal obligation to notify the parties concerned and reach agreement prior to implementation. I believe they have breached the agreement. Big companies think that they can bully the little guy. Is ANF going to come to our rescue here?
It looks like there is no help from ANF. I am sure Mark would have said if there was, so don’t hang your hopes on them. They aren’t getting any payments anymore, and it looks like their interest in helping newsagents goes no further than getting money for themselves.
i just spoke to a neighbouring newsagent who has sold and the incoming owner does not want bill express, he tried to contact bill express numerous times, come day of changeover, he pulled all the equipment out, closed his bank accounts thus cancelling direct debits, he still has the equipment, but a month on, bill express has done nothing regarding recovery of the equipment. who knows if anything will eventuate, but he has every intention of not paying a cent.
In response to clems post, I think that the ANF are doing all that they can currently. The heads of agreement they have with Bill Express means that they currently have their hands tied. I suspect that once this agreement lapses more action will be forthcoming.
Mark Fa
I have been informed by a newsagent solicitor that most new ownership of a newsagent are not taking on Bill express.There will be a lot of business owing bill express a lot of money due to there agreement unless something is done.
Mark Fa, I have concerns that the ANF has their hands tied in defending the people they represent????? What sort of agreement is that??? Are they representing Bill Express????
I appreciate your response, but I am sorry, I am a bit baboozled as to what the ANF represents. I thought it was an association of newsagents. It is what the name implies.
If they can not fight for the newsagents while they are still getting paid some fees from Bill Express, there is something that smells a bit here.
I don’t know the whole situation for sure, but I don’t hear a thing that makes me feel like the ANF are coming up looking good here.
All I see is advice for people to fight their own battles. What does membership get you besides bills for membership????
Congratulations ANF tell me something that I don’t know!!!! Looks like the little old newsagent still has to row his own boat on this one so much for a national body to unite us maybe in good times but when it turns to shit we are on our own! Do I stay an anf member?????
Neil, information to date, ANF will continue paying $66 rebate to their members till the end of the BE contract despite BE ending their contractual relationship with ANF on 16/04/08. I guess that $600,000 does go a long way indeed!!
By the way, non ANF members are not entitled to this rebate.
Bario, Bill Express advised in 2004 that they pay the rebate to non ANF members direct. The QNF confirmed this. Mark
Mark, ANF members will still get their $66 rebate till the end of their BE contract which will offset the monthly $544.50 while non menber will get $0.
Bario if this is the case, it is contrary to what Bill Express announced to newsagents in 2004. They explicitly said there would be no difference for ANF versus non ANF members.
Mark, well, my understanding of BE variation to contract dated 10/04/08 states that there will not be paying any more rebate or subsidies from March onwards. Hence, $544.50 out of pockets.
I have made a complaint submission to ACCC a few days ago.
Task seems daunting at first, but once you get started, it’s alright.
So I encourage everyone who hasn’t made any official complaint, pls do so right now, we do need numbers as Brian C commented a while ago for the authorities to listen to us.