Castle Coast Campers folded

Any idea who the 'secured creditor' is?
Could be a company separated from the business so the assets are still in their possession.
Not everyone that starts a business like that are totally naive.

 

Tax man?

 

I would imagine the unplanned costs factor is why airlines and car rental companies all run modern fleets. There's likely more to it, but that's a big factor, I'm certain.

 

The bad thing about this story is that Castle Coast clearly didn't have any cash reserves to refund booking deposits/payments or vouchers in the event of a crash, and cheekily advised their customers to claim off their insurance assuming they had any.

 

Always use a credit card . I think the young drivers thing is a bit off . They have a rev limiter and VW sold millions not just to the over 50s ...

 

Tax man these days is just another creditor.

 

Secured creditor sounds like a loan secured against the business or it’s assets

 

It's just it normally takes time for a loan company to take back secured stock, this sounds like it has all happened very quick. Maybe I have seen too many companies/ people do this sort of thing and make quite a bit of money out of it. Taking loads of deposits at the busiest time of year then closing down with 'secured creditors' in the back ground.
It used to happen all the time with replacement window companies.
Not saying this is what's happened here though.

 

That scenario sounds familiar.
Call me old fashioned but ...

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I think you could well be right.

 

Whatever ....

They're far from pioneering intrepid explorers , it's a business plan which has been tried MANY times and failed - FACT .

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I don't know but if I was setting up a company like that (no thanks) I would personally own the vehicles and rent them out to the company.
Not being dodgy just protecting my interests.

 

Did you read that on the back of an absynthe bottle?!

 

Back in my working days, I did freelance IT work and operated as a one man Limited Company, the company owned my car, my company provided my services to clients for a fee, the company was vat registered so I had to collect vat and pay the vat man.

I wasn't taking money up front and had to earn it, get the client to agree my work and wait for the client to pay the invoices.

Castle Coast took clients money in advance with a promise to provide a service and this situation would be risky for clients, especially as its based on trust and they probably couldn't pay by card, so much less secure.

Castle Coast should have secured clients money so they could have refunded if things went wrong.

 

Me and a buddy hired a couple of VW T2 Campers a few years ago before I completed the resto on mine .. On collection I took mine home and checked it over ..

Mine was running on car tyres, was low on oil, belched black reek , and was generally sloppy .. although it was clean and reasonably well presented ..

Before we set of I changed the oil, put new points in , timed it , adjusted the carb and choke , fixed an exhaust leak , put some air in the tyres, adjusted the steering box and parking brake and fitted new wiper blades... and fan belt ...

My mate never made it home .. the new motor that was fitted prior to hire gave up 10 miles from the van collection point . It was recvered and the hire company took the engine out of a split screen they had , they fitted the engine ito the T2 but the tines were different so they couldnt fit the seals and it wouldnt rev under 200 rpm and yet had zero throttle response.. We collected the vans at 11am and he got his back at 10pm.. with a call to me that we wouldnt be leaving at the planned time as the van wasnt running properly ..

I went down to his at 10pm .. We made a new throttle pedal lincage from the cab and sorted the heath robinsom connection at the carb to get the idle down.. checked a few other parts and made sure it was at least driving... Nothing we could do with te seals so we set off with it as it was .

We did around 1000 miles in 5 days Paid £ 500 each for the hire had no breakdowns ( surprisingly) we both made it unscathed and the mates van never overheated despite the missing tins and a trip UP the balach na bah to Applecross ..

I ended up selling the guy the original engine from my van ( regret doing that) didnt get any reimbursement for the work I did to the van before setting off and always wondered how they could run a hire business with Marmite vans welded from front to back poorly serviced and maintained .. its bound to be a money pit and not a cash earner .. especially when you hire out to folk who have no idea what there getting themself into.. I would suspect that 99% of people would expect a full refund not IF but when the van breaks down.. so van hire is fraught with financial disaster ..

I had an idea to do van hire wherby I provided escorted tours .. Viz You hired my restored camper, I escorted you in a second restored camper, we followed an itinerary , visited significant sights and attractions and did a memorable road trip with the benefit of mechanical backup .. I would also be able to control the route and the speed and regulate the driving time and mileage ...

That might sound a bit restrictive but with the best sights and attractions plus the road trip experience it sounded to me like a good idea and less stress on the hire van... plus I got a fre holiday 6months of the year .. Only problem minimum fee would be more than anyone was prepared to pay lol catch 22 ... needless to say I never bothered ..

 

No, it was on the packaging from @Barry Haynes Elephant Trunk underpants...