The Age has a good story today about some of the challenges around OnQ and Bill Express. My only comment would be that there could have been more complete coverage of the plight of newsagents.
Newsagents were actively recruited into Bill Express by representatives of the company and through the active endorsement of their association, the ANF. The ANF received a fee for success and pursued this by organising a national roadshow and other activities at which newsagent sign up was sought. This is where newsagents were signed on for the agreements they have today, the agreements costing over $500 a month.
How newsagents were recruited and who provided recruitment services will be key to any legal action by aggrieved newsagents as it is the representations made which will come under close scrutiny. I am aware that the ACCC is asking questions about this. Newsagents and associations with files from 2003 should be able to help the ACCC with their inquiries.
I personally blame the ANF as ,to me they where selling the product all was good while it was good for them . Now the anf want a fee if it all goes to court , as far as i am concerned that is why i pay my anual membership fee .Can someone tell me what the membership for the ANF is actually for , i have been in my newsagency for just on 12 months .When the anf was trying to sell it self to me ,i even got a personal visit to my house from them ,it was great at that stage i thought they actually do something . At this stage i don’t even know who the rep is for the ANF in queensland . my views maybe wrong but this is how i see it.
ONE SAD THING ABOUT ALL THIS IS THAT THERE ARE STILL HUNDREDS OF NEWSAGENTS STILL WILLING TO SPEND OVER $1000.00 A YEAR TO BE MEMBERS OF THESE SO CALLED UNIONS.PEOPLE NEVER LEARN.
i could not agree with you more shaun, they are only interesed in their own security, do the anf and vana etc, really have our best interest in mind. i think not,as long they get their pay packet, they will continue to dance between suppliers and newsagents
I think that Bill Express should be investigated for fraud. When I signed up in 2005, I was told by the Bill express Acccount Manager, there would be no downside for my business, and they would pay a subsidy for the term of the contract. (What about the misrepresenation of their Account Managers) My written contract even states that I would receive a minimum payment of $210.00 per month for my advertising screen. Where is that payment? Where are our payments for the advertising their products on our screens in our shops, which they are no doubt being paid for!!!
Newsagents need to unite on this, with lead from our associations such as ANF and Vana and boycott Bill Express. Bill Express have breached their contracts with Newsagents. We need to file a consolidated action agains them for breach of contract written or verbal.
ANF , I believe has their hands tied as they received monies from Bill Exp from their cooperation in selling to the newsagents. But they should seek legal advice themselves and inform their members openly on what can/ cannot be done about situation with BillExp.
Up till now, they have not said so except for some news from a Newcastle ANF meeting that Bill Exp newsagents have no choice but to pay up.
From my viewpoint that is not good enough to concede defeat without an option to take matters further where possible.
Perhaps VANA like NANA can do something if they were not in cahoots with ANF on Bill Exp.
I only found this sight today after doing a search on bill express, as I like all neswagents with BE was feeling ripped off looking for additional information. I have just spent the last hour reading the blogs on the subject, and are now feeling dismayed. Where is the support from our Associations on this issue! ANF & VANA. We pay their wages! I have seen very little feedback from them on the subject. We called them yesterday, and the advice was keep paying. Great but what is the expected outcome. Where is their written advice to the members and an outline of the strategy moving forward. Why do I pay my fees!
helen our vana membership is up for renewal. iam not paying the $2000.it is ok for them to say keep paying the rental fee, but its not from their pockets.i think its up to newsagents to make vana/anf much more accountable.all newsgents and their bodies must start grouping together and act as one,vana /anf currently is not the solution ,thats is why the channel of newsagents has no real power
in NSW, NANA is taking up the fight helping newsagents here to do something about BillExp on state/federal level.
we have now contributed $495 each to a fund and got legal representation to start proceedings. This was open to non-NANA members as well but am not sure about the jurisdiction/state it can look after.
The legal proceedings can only represent those who participate in the fund though.
No one can fully guarantee what the outcome will be, but we should stand a fighting chance.
If anyone is interested, best try to contact NANA directly to find out.
Adam, I agree, but how do we get this to happen. By creating a new body you just end up with yet another group, which becomes yet another voice. We need to hold ANF/VANA responsible to their membership who pay their wages. How do we harness newsagents to be united to get the power!
ANF staff (i don’t name here) signed me up for this trouble. When I asked for a copy of contract before I had signed. he told me ‘it is all standard’. I am sure he made a good commision on that. Recently, I contacted him and asked him what can I do as BXP has breached the contract. What he said to me was ‘you are a non-member, I can’t give you any advice’.
ANF is a business. They don’t care the life or death of newsagent as long as their pocket is full.
Good to see NANA looking into legal action, however, why does the $495 charge seem familiar, isn’t that what we are paying in rental. We pay our association fees year in year oput and our told that our associations have legal staff on the payroll, so why do we need to fork out more money this time. It all seems to be a money pit to me, we are getting stung no matter which way we turn. Most of the legal advice I am getting is that the contracts are that full of red tape we have no chance of getting out, and the ANF knows this, that is why they are so quiet on the matter. NANA is just trying to score brownie points with newsagents because they are one of the only state bodies still in compitition with the ANF.
Luke,
My understanding if that the legal challange NANA is taking is on the basis of how the contracts were marketed and ‘sold’, not solely on the content of the contracts themselves.
Association fees will cover some minor legal issues, but this is far from that. The Bill Express issue is one that requires a significant amount of resources to navigate; resources that yearly fees are certainly not designed to cover.
Am aware of the competition between NANA & ANF , & NANA using this opportunity to score brownie points.
paying up $495 each seems a hefty amount according to a legal friend of ours.
So yes, it remains to be seen how the monies are accounted for in the end. hopefully they will do the right thing by us.
Contracts are always full of red tape anyway and are definitely a messy business to interpret/dissolve.
Again we know that lawyers get paid whether we win or not, unless agreed otherwise.
But rather than sitting back and do nothing other than whinge, waiting for the heavens to arrive, at least we can now formally put forward a case for justice to be heard.
it’s time just to concentrate on the issue at hand, ie how to get out of the unfair contract with Bill Exp. and using any means available to do so.
In the meantime, those who have not done so, please complete a submission of complaint to ACCC, the more the better. There are responses from them recently to individuals about how they are looking into the matter.
I SPOKE WITH MY SOLICITOR YESTERDAY, WHO ADVISED THAT WE WOULD BE BETTER OFF AS A GROUP TO FIGHT BILL EXPRESS. $500.00 TO A SHARED SOLICITOR IS BETTER THAT $6000 TO BILL EXPRESS.
Well today we strated with EZIPASS so Bill Express can sit under the counter for the next 2 years of the contract. They may still get my $500 a month but thats all they will get ,can not see the use in making any sales for them at this stage . And my ANF membership well i don’t think i will be continuing with that once it is up unless i see some changes in the near future .
Luke,
The $495 goes into a trust account.
The law firm they are using has had an impressive string of victories on behalf of newsagents.
A good mouth-piece don’t come cheap.
Any change will come back to us.
NANA are not trying to score brownie points,
What you need to understand is that all NANA board are newsagents like us; unlike ANF, who in my view are just slimy sales people, bludging off newsagents.
They got us into this shit in the first place.
Gold Coast Convention….Jesus H Christ, give me strength!
Hope they enjoyed their drinkies by the pool with newsagents’ money.
Not once have NANA asked for any of us to join NANA as members.
This is about newsagents fighting together to stop BXP stealing $495 PM off us.
So tell me, how is that greasing for brownie points?
The folk at ANF don’t have to worry about coughing up $495+gst PM, they aren’t newsagents. Just parasites.
They are probably worried, however, about the possibility of being called into court over the BXP fiasco, and/or their gravy train (the anf) crashing & burning as members finally see through the BS, & resign in droves.
I was lured to sign the contract with Bill Express during the ANF training course when I attended three years ago. At that time, the ANF people talks up all the opportunities with B/E and they said it is a ‘must-have’ platform for newsagency these days. That prompts me to make the decision to sign up the contract when the B/E business development manager visited my shop later. Disgusting thing is they never disclose the terms and possible liability with this contract and simply push you through. I should seek the independent legal advice then, but I didn’t, because I was told a lot of newsagents already installed the B/E system. So I followed suit, now I regreted I made the wrong decision at that time.
The lesson drew from the whole Bill Express thing is the newsagents need to have a trusted and capable solicitor to work on their behalf. This solicitor or legal adviser could come from the newsagents association(NANA) and he will represent newsagency industry to examine all the supplier contracts, especially the new ones(such as Bill Express) and advise the newsagents in general before signing the contract. To prevent bad things is much better than seek legal action later on.
Newsagents in general are sheep that follow whatever hype is around at the time, don’t get me wrong I am one of those sheep that signed up to billexpress without looking into the whole thing and I have the big advertising screen in my shop that does bugger all, as well as a heap of other bad investments in my newsagency that have cost me a packet. But I signed the contract and no one had a gun to my head, we need to stop blaming others for our mistakes and stop this from happening in the future. ANZ has increased its break fees, Mag suppliers are oversupplying and reducing payment terms, the list goes on at how we are being shafted. The first thing my father told me when I entered into a business is that the blame stops with the owners because in the end it is our money on the line, not the ANF’s not NANA’s or any of the other groups out there that says they represent newsagents. Most suppliers see newsagents as a soft touch because we work long hours and to be fair don’t look too hard at things before we jump in, all we see is the $$$ signs. This needs to stop and if that lesson cost each of us $6000 then so be it, any legal advise we get in the future must be our own not run by a third party or it will not be unbiased. Until we act as one unit we will continue to get the left overs, take prepaid cards why do we make 6-8% and coles etc can offer up to 10% off it is not because a few stores got together and made a deal it is because if they did’nt get the good rates then no store stocked the suppliers goods. I don’t care if it is NANA, the ANF or uncles pete’s pies as the national body but THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE, sorry for the rip off of highlander it’s been a long morning
we should be talking about taking the anf,etc, to court, and making them be accountable for their actions. may be then they might start actually doing something constructive, rather than saying just keep on paying. i guess as long as we keep on paying, it takes the focus off them
ADAM
YOU ARE ON THE RIGHT TRACK THERE
Why would anyone unplug the system and keep paying the fee is beyond me.
Stop your direct debit with the bank as I have done.
You must be better off not paying them one further cent. Worst senario is you pay it later but that will never happen.
If they take one of us to court for the money we will all appear as witnesses to their breaches.
We all know we have been ripped off so stand up for youselves, unplug it, stop the direct debit and get on with making money.
Interesting statements by ETT Limited have been made. Looks like they might have been caught up in it.
http://www.asx.com.au/asx/research/CompanyInfoSearchResults.jsp?searchBy=asxCode&allinfo=on&asxCode=ETT&companyName=&principalActivity=&industryGroup=NO
Impairment Loss
The impairment loss of $4,050,447 has been recognised by the Board as required under the Australian Accounting Standards in relation to the prepaid services acquired on 28 April 2006 from Bill Express Limited (“Bill Express”).
The Accounting Stndards require that an asset can only be recognised in the balance sheet when it is probable that the future economic benefit will flow to the entity and the asset has a cost or value that can be measured reliably.
Bill Express has provided a limited quantum of services to the company incuding supply of office premises, supply of hosting of software and systems, supply of management consultancy services and a software licence agreement.
The Directors had previously been of the opinion that the above services would bring substantial benefits to the company over the forthcoming years.
However due to ongoing separation of services between ETT Limited and Bill Express resulting from the early stage of the NSO Agreement signed with IPA as outline in Future Direction below, the future economic benefits relating to a portion of the services detailed are not sufficiently certain to meet the requirements of the Australian Accounting Standards. In addition, given that Bill Express is currently in a prolonged trading halt on the Australian Stock Exchange, the Directors feel that no certainty can be obtained that Bill Express will be able to deliver the ongoing services as promised.
Accordingly the Board has decided to write down the entire value of the prepaid services. Legal opinion has been sought as to the remedies available to the company.
In an ASX announcement on 29 February 2008, Bill Express stated that the Company intended to buy the Service Provider Australian Private Networks Pty Limited (“APN”). To date the Directors of ETT are unaware if this transaction has proceeded in any form. The same release stated that Bill Express had also decided to dispose of its shareholding in ETT. At the date of this report, Bill Express still maintains its shareholding in ETT and the Directors have not been directly advised of Bill Express have initated proceedings to commence the diposal of its shareholing in ETT.