People often ask me why I am no longer involved in the Paper Industry Training Association (PITA)
Well I can assure you all that it has nothing to do with the organisation. I wish things were different and that I felt I could rejoin and do more of the free work I used to do.
Keeping the whole thing private has not solved the problem, so maybe now is the time to 'come out' and tell the full story
I may not get my money, but I will feel a lot better when I have told my side of the story. I think the psychologists call this externalisation, ( a form of stress relief). Of course FTA SERVICES LIMITED are welcome to comment
It is all to do with this unpaid invoice - now coming up to FIVE YEARS
I had a verbal agreement with FTA SERVICES. The Carbon Trust would pay £30,000 for the work we would do. Myself and FTA SERVICES would split the money 50-50 after expenses
Now the story begins
This was for work funded by the Carbon Trust
The Carbon Trust paid the money to PITA
PITA paid the money to FTA SERVICES LIMITED
FTA SERVICES LIMITED paid me, for the first part of the contract
When it came to the second part of the contract, things worked out a little different
The Carbon Trust paid the money to PITA
PITA paid the money to FTA SERVICES LIMITED
and there it stopped
There are many websites where you can find out about UK listed companies
HERE for example you can access information about FTA, some of it is free, and some of it you must buy
FTA SERVICES LIMITED have not replied to letters and emails from me, or from my solicitor
As you can all see, the company address is a post office box in Bury Post office, so we could not really send in the bailiffs, or talk to anyone that belonged to FTA SERVICES LIMITED.
For those that want to know more about this
I am going to post all the emails relating to this work, as I still have them all, and you can judge for yourselves should I have been paid or not
Well more soon folks
The P.O box sounds a bit dodgy to me but I would keep banging letters out to the address.. I would not let this go and fight until the end. I would like to read the emails and I do not blame you for exposing them.. good on you pal
ReplyDeleteHi, just seen this post on Twitter and agree with the above comment! I would continue to send letters to this rip-off company until they replied! Can't you get an investigator on the case to see if they are running a legal business because I agree with Joe Bloggs, a PO Box number sounds rather iffy! Don't they have a contact telephone number either? If not, it sounds like you have been add which is disgraceful when you have put in the work. RIP OFF BRITAIN INDEED!!!!! :-(
ReplyDeleteYou can't use a PO Box for a registered business address
ReplyDeleteYou can use it for general trading, but you have to have a physical address registered with Companies House.
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Can a PO Box be used for the Registered Office address?
ReplyDeleteYes, provided the full address is given, including the postcode, and it is validated by the Royal Mail...
Taken from the companies house website..
It might make thing harder for bailiffs, but a PO box is not anonymous, you can find out who is behind a PO box and their address..
It would seem you can use a PO Box for your registered office address... but it wouldn’t seem to protect your home address as Bailiffs can still access your home address by other means.
ReplyDeleteHi, your solicitor can write to Companies House to obtain the company owners address. The owners wouldn't have been able to set up a company with a post office box alone. It isn't as simple as that.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all your comments,
ReplyDeleteThe person that asked me to do this work, I had known on and off for several years. I thought of him as a 'friend' So all our agreements were verbal. I never insisted on any written agreements because I trusted him
He asked me to do the work, said we would split everything 50-50 after expenses.
He came to my house and ate with my family while we discussed things. He arranged all the meetings, booked and paid for the hotels and organised all the transport.
After the Carbon Trust paid PITA the first installment of money, PITA paid him, and he called me saying , I've got the money, this is all the expenses we incurred, send me an invoice for half the remainder, which I did, and it was paid.
The 2nd payment seemed a long time in coming, I kept asking him and he kept saying it had not been paid. Then I was told by someone from PITA that it had been paid.
When I approached this person again, he told me that my dispute was not with him, but with FTA SERVICES LIMITED
I investigated FTA SERVICES LIMITED. In the beginning they operated from a post office box in Durham, and then later moved to a post office box in Bury
I did a search on the company and found that it had only one director, (with a valid address), and this was not the man I had been working with, but the did have the same surname.
Neither the person I had been working with, nor the only named director, responded to my solicitors letters.
The point of being a limited company is that people owed money cannot go after your personal assets, only the assets of the company.
And there is not much room for assets in a post office box!
QUOTE: And there is not much room for assets in a post office box!
ReplyDeleteSome friend! The only asset in his post office box would be a bubble-wrap envelope of dog muck, Guinea Pig droppings and a bottle of Rhino fart sealed firmly with a Prison Widow kiss!!!!!