Give the guy his bike back.

How can the new owners give him his bike back if the old ones stole it?

How can the new owners give him his bike back if the old ones stole it?

I’m not saying for the new owners to. I’m saying for the old ones, presumably the ones flagging his review as “not a review”. But even then it’s a figurative phrase – stop trying to block reviews of your shady practices and do the right thing.

Really hope they all get their comeuppance.

Looks like whoever has access to the Ubyk Ltd Trustpilot account is reporting all negative reviews to try and get them removed. My favourite – a customer who dropped his bike in for service and it’s now gone AWOL in the shutdown. Ubyk Ltd have reported the review and posted a comment “this is not a review”. Genius. Yes – it absolutely is a review. Give the guy his bike back.

I think the report refers to the bit underneath that, which is blurred out, and presumably a bit of pure abuse justifiably aimed at the company. I think the new owner will need to do a bit more in terms of reputation management…

Missing bike bloke should report it as a theft to the police. Because it is a theft. I wonder if the liquidators have tried to sell it on Ebay yet?

Reading the TP reviews and the bit about the person that after ordering their bike went in to the store to enquire about it and was told “the bike was a special order and being built up at Santa Cruz”. Would the staff have known it hadn’t been ordered?

wow this is awful. customer bikes disappearing whilst in for a service is really bad very unlikely they paid up front with a credit card, so no claiming back of your cc. they are properly out of pocket.

reporting as theft is one thing but you won’t be getting your bike back for some time if ever

Would the staff have known it hadn’t been ordered?

I suspect the staff were a little more aware than they are trying to make out. If you are passing all these lies along innocently they must have had their eyes closed for ages.

And the missing bike in for service? What reason could be given for that being spirited away that wouldn’t have a strong smell of fish?

I suspect this has been obvious for weeks; but now they can blame the top dog and look all cherubic.

I find it hard to believe that the staff wouldn’t have known that this persons bike wasn’t even on order. Hopefully one of the staff that has already commented on this thread can prove me wrong.

I suspect this has been obvious for weeks

It was being sold as an insolvent business 3 months ago. If the senior staff at least hadn’t worked out what that meant then it’s clear they were part of the problem – expecting to trade their way out of significant debt was unlikely to happen and a new owner cutting off any existing obligations/debt was the only likely outcome of a sale.

It was being sold as an insolvent business 3 months ago

If your’e a random pushbike tech/sales why or how would you know this ?

weeksy – people were posting it on here, the bike industry is small enough that stw wasn’t the only place it was being discussed. I also made the point that senior staff should have understood what the implications of that was – not all staff.

I can’t believe that Richard that I spoke to at around 5 o’clock didn’t know they would be shut up the very next day.
Still didn’t stop him from lying to me though.
As sales manager how could he not know.

Aren’t people confusing things here? Wasnt being sold as insolvent, business and stock was up for sale wasnt it? I mean, that is a big warning sign, but it wasnt officially insolvent at that time as far as I can tell (not an insolvency practitioner etc.).

If the person’s bike in for a service has some sort of label system, think that property will be returned to them:

Assets include property, vehicles, machinery, stock and even the fixtures and fittings of the business premises. Only goods owned by your company can be sold as part of this process, so this means any vehicles or machinery you have on hire purchase, or any heavily mortgaged property will be excluded. Instead, any hired or leased goods will be returned to the leasing company, and the mortgage company repaid through the sale of the property. There is often not enough money to go around in which to pay every creditor in full; therefore some unfortunately miss out.

Insolvency practioner, once appointed will verify what is there’s and what isn’t.

No liquidation reports on gov.uk (Companies House) website.

I also made the point that senior staff should have understood what the implications of that was – not all staff

Aye, i’d go along with that, the senior staff should/would know. But not the guy who was posting on here the other day… (maybe)
The guy who had the Santa Cruz issue, the bosses may have said “It’s ok, we’ve sorted, tell him to wait….”

Maybe i’m being daft, but i try to see the good rather than the bad in people.

ive had a hate to say I told you so moment (in my head) reading this thread – I saw the post Njee posted about it being up for sale……my immediate thought and pessimist in me was that the sale was just a way of generating as much money as possible before closing down to line there own pockets/clear debts

im absoutly gutted for anyone who has been done by this, but the alarm bells were ringing if you knew about the insolvency/for sale thread prior, just goes to show how much people are willing to risk for a ‘bargain’ even knowing a business is in deep shit

not that my thoughts count nor helpful, but I came close to buying something quite expensive I wouldn’t have got 20% off elsewhere, but I had a feeling it was not right….glad I stuck to my guns

the previous owners are pure and simple scum, they absolutely knew the outcome and still lied and took peoples money, right before xmas, right up until the day of closure

feel a little sorry for the new owner, and fair play coming on here to state whats happened and trying to help where possible, but that name UBYK is defunct, no sod in there right mind will buy anything off them knowing what has gone on before, and although the guy may have bought it legitimately I cant see what on earth he thought it would gain by keeping the name….deluded, or from what you read between the lines, shafted as well…

either way disgusting by the previous owners, hope everyone gets sorted out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EP_L5c6oq8c
“If a customer isn’t happy I do take it really personal”

Would the MD/Owner actually be able to remove that money though ?

Various ways but a lot of it would rely on getting the cash into the accounts in time, for services like paypal the money should still be with them until goods are delivered. Card transactions would be in much quicker and you could be repaying directors loans etc. or bonus/salary/backpay though it could just be one push to get past the final big bill that kills it.

as coomber says, a quick(ish) look through companies house records dont indicate any insolvency action. What is apparent from documentation is that sometime in 2011, two chaps called Ollie Wells and James Heath created Rokcruz Ltd. Later that year Ollie Wells resigned his directorship from Rokcruz. Later again that year Rokcruz changed name to Ubyk Ltd.

So far so unremarkable. A new venture, settling on a trading name, harmonising the Company and trading name etc.

In 2013 Neil Coventry joined the Co as a director and lent it upto £150k for a major minority shareholding

2015 Ubyk arranged bank funding from HSBC (normal overdraft/revolver kind of thing I expect, with a floating charge and negative pledge)

in 2017, that Charge was withdrawn. Now it’s possible that Ubyk breached its banking covenants and the bank called in its overdraft or Ubyk just decided to move on from HSBC. However, around about the same time, a new loan of up to £421k was made into the company, probably repaying all outstanding facilities from HSBC, from…. Mr Ollie Wells! At about the same time, 59/259 new shares were issued to Mr Wells (the original 200 split 100:100 between Heath and Coventry, the owners) and he once again became a Director of the company, 6 years since his last role.

Frustratingly, Oliver Wells entry as a director has his names “mistyped” in the wrong order (Wells Reginald OLIVER) so it doesn’t show all other entities with which he’s involved under the name Oliver Reginald WELLS (and they all seem to be LLPs investing in various fixed assets). And these two are indeed the same chap as birth months are the same and OLIVER WELLS ADVISERS LIMITED (his company) has the same address as the the Oliver Wells named in the charge over the £421k loan made in 2017.

It’s unclear just why Mr Wells would lend £421k into a bike shop with only £600k of gross tangible assets at the last 2017 a/c unless there’s a deeper relationship between the parties than the paperwork makes out, over and above the fact that Mr Wells was there at the beginning in 2011 and is there again now.

My very-much finger in the air guess is that they are possibly related, and Mr Wells has come to the aid of Mr Heath last year when the bank started being obstreperous.

I can’t believe that Richard that I spoke to at around 5 o’clock didn’t know they would be shut up the very next day.

When Alpine Bikes closed one of their Glasgow stores the staff didn’t know until they turned up in the morning and found the door locked. It does happen

There is no way that a number of people during that last week were not fully aware they were taking money for goods they had no intention of supplying, how far down that tree that extended is conjecture but a member of staff who tells a customer they have checked with a supplier and X is happening was either merely lying about contacting the supplier or was complicit.

The sales brochure states that administrators were pending appointment, do we know if that ever happened, was it in formal administration, formally liquidated or just an obtuse sale of all assets (including the brand) but no liabilities from a still nominally healthy trading entity to another? Which in an of itself stinks.

Well the refund that was issued on the 12th last Wednesday didn’t go through, looks like after calls to paypal they are going to sort the money for me.. again I wonder how many more are in this boat ..

They bought the lease, or something off of the bike shop that used to be in the same location as their Brighton premises around 2015.

Bloke on our local FB group today managed to recover his bike that was in the Brighton store for maintenance when they shut up shop so things seem to be moving a bit.

There were only 4 guys working in the Ubyk Oxford store and they didn’t know what was happening until it happened. So much so that the member of staff that posted on here has had to contact the landlord in order to get his own bike back!

You may think that they should have known, but James is a liar and had been telling everyone that he was sorting everything out. It has been a bumpy road for Ubyk for the last year or so and so delays paying distributors and getting stock in were normal.

As has already been said, James is now in Poland and has changed his mobile and hidden his social media.

I used to work in the store.

James sounds lovely 🙁

Sounds like a weapons grade C*** to me!!
I still find it hard to believe that no one in the store knew anything. Who was dealing with shipping?
Didn’t it seem strange that there were so many orders coming in and nothing going out and many emails & phone calls from unhappy customers?
Was Richard Moir dealing with all the complaints/queries? If so, he must’ve know what was going on..

It has been a bumpy road for Ubyk for the last year or so and so delays paying distributors and getting stock in were normal.

Interesting….. I wonder if that’s what caused all the delays in various One Up products (including my EDC) earlier this year, rather than delays at One Up and then a hurricane?!? Saw the old email chain earlier, guess what, payment was taken before stock then. And a bonus prize to anyone who can guess the name of the person serving me the excuses….. 😉

I nearly fought for a refund at the time but as I was travelling a lot with work, couldn’t be arsed.

Hindsight is perfect vision, as they say – definitely now makes more sense in the light of what we now know.

It has been a bumpy road for Ubyk for the last year or so and so delays paying distributors and getting stock in were normal.

And that will also be normal operating procedure for a lot of companies, with many being able to trade out of it so long as nothing goes wrong.

If so, he must’ve know what was going on..

He certainly new enough to lie on multiple occasions about the “backlog” being down to Hope.
Of course the stuff didn’t turn up as it hadn’t been ordered.
I’m sure as manager he’d have know full well it hadn’t been ordered.
Still waiting to hear back from the new owner on how he’s going to help us all out too.

I believe some people have heard back from the new owner about Santa Cruz orders, but I dint know anyone who has heard back about a hope order.

Perhaps the new owner is looking to salvage what sales he can and as others have suggested, there was no margin on hope at those prices.

As for Richard knowing, if he didn’t, he should have. If fraudulent trading is proven, managers as well as directors can be personally liable for the debt.

As for Richard knowing, if he didn’t, he should have. If fraudulent trading is proven, managers as well as directors can be personally liable for the debt.

Hopefully he’s been alerted to this thread and is feeling a bit jittery. I know he joined his boss/mate in hiding all his social channels…..

I’m sure as manager he’d have know full well it hadn’t been ordered.

I dunno. It could have been centralised so they didnt know and werent lying aside from maybe blaming Hope when they were waiting for a response from their central team.
I would be suspicious but wouldnt be certain.

It could have been centralised so they didnt know and werent lying aside from maybe blaming Hope when they were waiting for a response from their central team.

Avid road cyclist Richard Moir (‘magic Moir’) manages the web sales & dispatch team

I think it’s fair to say he knew…

What a frigging mess. Hopefully people will get their cash back but it still stinks that they’re in this situation.

I’ve used them once before and the stuff turned up no problem, the second time I tried to use them the product I ordered wasn’t in stock. In the end I ended up cancelling the order and getting my cash back. After that, like Tredz they were on the ‘no tah’ list.

If I were the new owner, I’d be binning the name off because it’s now trashed.

I’d be ditching the name if were the new owner; too many consumers have been burned so it’s trashed really.

Finally some sort of closure for me Paypal (after an hour on the phone ) refunded the money back into my account at lunch. I know others are still fighting for their losses, but to say Richard didnt know what was going on.. I have to call horse shit on that, the tone on the phone the lies and false promises all struck me of someone who knew full well what was happening. Given time im sure these two( Richard and James ) will surface and kalma will get its just rewards.
Best of luck and fingers crossed to those still owed money I hope you get it sorted soon.

Just out of interest, where does the PP refund come from? Assuming they’ve cleared out their accounts or been frozen etc. Who foots the bill? PayPal?

Stevedoc, some more details on that refund if you could. I’ve got £270 that I hop PayPal will refund but they seem to be playing a waiting game.

Paypal charge higher fees to the company using them than debit cards, which enables them to offer greater buyer protection. In this case they would have to stump up the cash.

JP

Onzadog … I played blue murder with the Oxford store on the wednesday before they folded and was issued an Echeque refund which bounced today when it should have cleared. Id ring paypaland once you’ve “asked to speak to an advisor ” 5 times to the god awful automated service ask to be put through to the refunds claims department and explain the UBYKs debacle and ask them to cross reference any other issues with the seller and explain the money was taken illegally, oh and lay it on thick.. as Paypal told me they can issue a refund with in 24-48 hours and as (insert any name you want to describe these dodgy dealers ) have gone to the wall they will side in your favour asap 🙂