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From bad to not getting any better... :(

Proudly broadcast by... Love Bytes Monday, August 17, 2009


Well, hi everyone.

It has been a week since I last posted and I have been procrastinating on posting as I really wanted to blog about something OTHER than this whole credit card fraud thing. It is really taking over the Ankle Biters blog and I am sad that something so negative is monopolising it.

I have been working really hard on uploading a huge range of gorgeous new toys and linen and much more up to our site this week and was hoping to do a big post with some gorgeous pics and a nice chit chat about it all.

Also, it was our beautiful Zali's birthday on Tuesday and it is Neo's 1st birthday tomorrow and we had a little Dora/Diego celebration on Saturday that I also wanted to share with you all.

I even managed to get a little bit of work started on our shop and was going to post some pics about that for you all too, but alas, it won't be possible.

Instead, I get to tell you the following, and I am going to put it all in point form to save some time:

- Today CBA has overdrawn our account to the value of $2400, which is the amount of the first chargeback that has come back due to the fraudulent transactions. We have never received any form of notification of this from CBA or any type of formal correspondence AT ALL from them to date, in relation to this.

- The only thing "in writing" that we have ever received from the CBA is their "fraud prevention pack" which arrived last Monday 10th August, about 2 weeks AFTER they called us to tell us of the stolen credit cards that were used.

- Elizar from Huggalugs is our life-saving ANGEL who so VERY VERY generously donated the services of her wonderful solicitor to assist us. He has been working on the case since late last week for us and today has reported that we may have a slightly positive outcome from it all, but that we are likely to be liable for at least some of the $24k in some way. (I can't go into detail here due to the legalities of it for now).
- The wonderful solicitor has however managed to negotiate some "breathing space" for us and CBA has agreed to not overdraw our account with anymore charge backs temporarily, which gives us enough time to get the hell out of there and get our business up and running again with a new bank... So Blair from Jirsch Sutherland, thank-you, thank-you, thank-you! And if anyone needs an AWESOME Intellectual Property lawyer for trade marking and or patenting your products/brand, please contact Blair, he will serve you wonderfully!

- Following on from the advice of many other small business owners on the Skout Trade Fair forums, we today visted the Bendigo Bank and they were very helpful, accomodating and gave us a wonderful sympathetic shoulder to cry on too! They have set us up with a new personal bank account and tomorrow we will have a new business bank account up and running too. They are also looking into alternative EFTPOS options for us so that we can get "back on the horse". I thoroughly recommend Bendigo to anyone needing a personal touch, they truly do live up to their claims.

- Many of you have asked when the Today Tonight story will be airing and/or has it aired yet.

The answer is that it hasn't yet aired and won't be airing for some time apparently. :( This is because they are doing quite a large story and it involves a great deal of research, with us being the centrally "featured" persons. It may even be a few weeks before it goes to air, apparently. So, I will be sure to post, twitter, blog etc about it as soon as we know anything!

Lastly, I really am getting so very anxious, I just can't stop thinking about our financial situation 24 hours per day right now, and have a constant knot in my stomach. Despite the fact that many people have tried to console us by saying "at least this is drawing attention to Ankle Biters" etc, our orders have all but ground to a halt. We haven't had a single order in almost a week now and I think it is because people are becoming scared that we can't provide them with a secure shopping environment.

I really want to emphasise to everyone that we are still providing the same beautiful products that we always have, and the same great service too. For those few orders that we have received over the past fortnight, delivery has been a little slower than normal due to all of the distractions we have been dealing with, but over all, we are trying our best to provide business as usual.

Please everyone, don't lose faith in us! The impact that this is having on our business only continues to worsen our situation as the bills are mounting and with no income to speak of there is no way that we can pay them.

We are still Ankle Biters - Everything For The Green Parent, and our range of gorgeous, hard to source products has been steadily growing to one that we are extremely proud to offer you. In fact, I have uploaded over 100 new products in the past week in preparation for our store opening so the range is even bigger than ever before!
We only hope that we have continued support as our bricks and mortar store is due to open on 29th August and may be very short lived if things don't start to turn around very soon!

Thanks again to everyone who continues to assist and support us. It means more than we can voice in a few words, and we promise that some day, in some way, we will return the favours you have all shown us.

Thanks so much,

tan, steve and our 5 little ankle biters.

2 responses

  1. My thoughts are still with you and appreciate your updates. We all wish we could do more to help you at this stage...a shoulder to cry on perhaps is always here. We handed out all of your brochures at The handmade Expo on Saturday too...hope this helps.

    Liesa

     
  2. stickytiki Says:
  3. Oh Tan I feel so much for you and i wish I could offer you some amazing advice or words of wisdom..but unfortunately I dont have them as this all just STINKS!!! It is hard enough in small business making ends meet. Your business idea and concept is a great one and I truly hope your B&M store is a success.
    My thoughts are with you, try to stay positive even though I know it all seems so hard. Best wishes. Kim