Pepper Homeloans has written to some newsagents claiming to act on behalf of the trust to which they claim Technology Business International assigned rights in relation to the rental of Bill Express equipment. The Pepper letter requests that Bill Express equipment rental arrears be paid. It lists a contact number for newsagents to call to discuss the matter.
The QNF continues to the newsagent association providing good leadership on this matter. Below I publish with their permission what they have sent to members today:
Please find attached (below) Hank Spier’s advice regarding Pepper Homeloans correspondence received this week.
We further suggest that all newsagents may wish to contact their Bank and give notice that any direct debit for the amount mentioned in your letter of demand from Pepper Homeloans should not be allowed to go through on the 25th of this month (QNF are unsure as to which company may attempt to debit your account as they have used different company names, previously using TBI & CHP).
The attached advice was to go out to only those newsagents represented by Hank Spier but the QNF & Hank feel that it is important that all newsagents are informed.
As Hank Spier representing 100’s of newsagents with this issue and the ongoing issue of Bill Express, he is presently being inundated with phone calls and emails.
If you wish him to represent you simply email him with your details, he is unable to reply but will include you on his list.
The details required are:- Full Name & Company Name, Business Name (shop name), Address, Phone, Email address
For wording in the email:- “we wish to be represented by you with regard to this Bill Express issue”
If you have any specific questions you can direct them to the QNF via email.
Here is the advice from their legal team:
Pepper Homeloans.
Some of you will have received letters from Pepper Homeloans headed Over Due Notification and demanding payments.
These letters follow on from similar letters some time ago from Mobius.
I have today written to Pepper along the same lines as I did to Mobius, namely we regard the claims as invalid and their action unlawful. We have also asked them to prove the validity of their demands.
We have also said to Pepper, as we did to Mobius, that should they take any legal action against anyone in our group we will immediately move in Court against them.
In relation to the letter you have just received from Pepper I suggest that you either write back to Pepper saying that the matter is with solicitors acting for newsagents and newsagents associations or simply do not respond.
ACCC
I met with ACCC last week. Their investigation is well underway.
Hopefully some positive action will be announced very soon by the ACCC.
Hank Spier. Special Counsel. Sweeney Commercial.
For those interested, Pepper is owned by Oakwood (Luxembourg). Merrill Lynch is a major shareholder in Okawood.
I am still trying to get the direct debits back from April May June that chp lease took out of the account . I had the bank doing an investiagation into it but they said there is nothing wrong with what has happened and they said for me to contact them ….Where do i go from here ?
Shaun,
I continue to receive two or three emails or calls a week from newsagents who have been successful at getting their money back. The most is a sum of more than $3,000 refunded by the bank. Go above your manager, take this to their state office and explain that you will lodge a formal complaint if the matter is not addressed.
mark
I have successfully get back the ‘rental payment’ of April & May through the bank – Westpac. You need to lodge a trace.
I successfully got my Apr/May Rentals via my bank ANZ. Speak to your Business Banking Relationship Manager – They will sort it out! Good Luck!
I got back May and June. When I went back and queried April, the bank sent me the original Bill Express contract I signed along with a letter stating it had been transferred to CHP. They have claimed this is sufficient proof for the deduction to be valid and that I was lucky to get the other 2 months back.
Dean that is where i am at that same letter .
There are banks which have, even with this letter, refunded past payments. Mark
Interesting to note the anf is too busy to give more than cursory coverage to this. They are too busy trying to stop newsagents and staffers fleeing. It is good timing that their office lease is at an end.
You mean the anf still actually has members?
No, people surely can not be that stupid.
Can newsagents from S.A. join with hank spier about the pepper homes if so what is the cost if we email him our details
Lyn
Lyn, any newsagent can join, currently there is no cost. That may change depending on whether action commences. Mark
The letter I received from pepper homeloans is sent to my street address but addressed to another newsagent Frenchs Forest Newsagency I am Callala Bay Newsagency it also has someone elses bank account details inside so who has my bank account details. Wendy
what is the email address of Hank Spiers
I received a letter from Pepper Home Loans on Friday demanding payment of outstanding rentals on the Bill Express Equipment. So far now I have had Mobius and Pepper demand payment. It sounds to me like the directors financed these rental contracts several times to raise funds for the company.
I called Pepper Hopme Loans last week to see what the hell is going on and the lady on the other end was very helpfull and said they can’t take any money off me because the account has a stop on the direct debit .It actually came up on her computer screen wich ones are stopped and wich ones are not .The tone of her voice was that she was glad that it could not be touched . So if you have not put a stop on that direcft debit, jump on it before the take more money .
Has anyone else got the one from Middletons? I think that’s five letters we’ve received from five different companies claiming that they have the right to recover Bill Express debts, claiming five different amounts (as best we know we don’t owe them anything anyway).