A Web site set up last week to act as a forum for ex-employees of Time and Tiny Computers and as an unofficial help desk for customers of the company closed down in mysterious circumstances on Monday afternoon.
A stark notice on the Web site, tinycon.com, blames lawyers acting on behalf of the company's administrators, Grant Thornton, for the sudden shut down.
"I got a call from the company lawyers who told us to take it down," said Matt Ashworth who, until the demise of Time, worked in the company's sales office. "They said they were acting for the administrators. I refused and the next thing I knew the site had been taken down — I assume it was the hosting company."
Tinycon.com was hosted by SiteHQ.
Martin Hoscik, director and co-owner of SiteHQ, confirmed on Tuesday morning that SiteHQ had taken the site offline, but categorically denied that pressure from lawyers, or anyone connected with Granville Technology Group, had been a factor.
"I've had no contact from Granville, their lawyers, or their administrators," Hoscik told ZDNet UK.
Some of the comments posted to sites such as Tinycon.com since the collapse of Granville Technology Group by angry ex-employees and customers could potentially have been considered defamatory.
Following the landmark Godfrey vs Demon case of 1999, ISPs and hosting companies can be held liable for the content they host online.
Since its launch on Friday, tinycon.com had rapidly become a focus for users and customers alike of Tiny and Time Computers and retail company The Computer Shop. According to Ashworth, by Sunday night the site had registered 180,000 hits and it has spawned many threads from customers and employees alike.
As Granville Technology Group, the parent company of Tiny, Time Computers and The Computer Shop, lurched into administration last week, many employees and customers turned to the Internet — and facilities such as ZDNet UK's TalkBack — to share information.
Grant Thornton did not return calls requesting comment in time for this story.
Talkback
I understand these things happen, but why are these companies allowed to fraudulently con customers into parting with their hard earned cash when they know they could go bust at any minute. My daughter and her partner ordered a new plasma screen tv just days before Time went bust, they offered to pay a deposit [as you would if you order anything made to order] but were refused and had to pay the whole amount in full. Having recently sorted out a lot of financial problems, they do not have a credit card, which would have insured them in this event, but they used their switch card. Now they are £1300 worse off, and no prospect of getting anything. That to me is fraud and something needs to be done about it. My daughter is at her wits end, it is criminal how they can ruin lives just like that.
I am totally gutted that the lawyers acting on behalf of the administrators have asked Matt to take the site offline. The bloody cheek of it. The site was doing great and more to the point prospective employers were posting there to advertise upcoming job vacancies.
Can everyone please sign this petition in the hope that the DTI will fully investigate the collapse of this company. This applies to (ex)customers, (ex)staff, friends, relatives or whoever.
Sorry forgot to add the URL, been a long day ;)
http://tinyurl.com/b8zbz
It seems that they read some of the stuff on the site regarding the hidden stock and from the looks of it got the site removed. I think this is the case because I have a few friends still working at HO and they told me that the Adminstrators stormed VMT with their security and have apparently found said stock.
Apparently one of the brothers was said to be with them and looked livid. Let's hope they get what's coming to them.
The problem is there was too much truth being spoken there. The head of the Administration team is the same guy who sold Tiny to Time five years ago. That was done in suspicuous circumstances before any other possible buyers even knew about it, let alone given a chance to bid. This time the Administrators seem to be doing their best to sell the remains of Time back to the Mohsans at a knock-down price so they can close the deal in a hurry, but HSBC refuse to let them do it.
Problem is what do they have to sell? The shops are gone (they never made money anyway). The Mohsans skilfully extracted the production unit (VMT) from the crash, and also managed to retain both the Time and Tiny brands for themselves. The ownership of the site is in the hands of a trust fund believed to be controlled by the Mohsan's self-administered pension fund. All thats left is the ongoing service / warranty contracts, some of which are on direct debit basis - but hanging over that is a legacy of five million pounds worth of "cashback" warranties, all due for redemption around now. Theres even a question of whether the whole scam has been deliberately orchestrated over the last five years: the have been long-standing rumours and allegations that there was always an intention to bankrupt the company and run away with the warranty money.
Apparently according to some inside source it's HSBC's fault the company went tits up. Highly amusing.
This article contains a number of inaccurate comments regarding the reasons for the termination of the account in question.
Whilst we are prevented under the Data Protection Act from discussing the specifics of client accounts we wish to make it clear that no time have we been contacted by lawyers acting for Grant Thornton or Tiny and that our reasons for terminating the account differ greatly from those relayed set out in this article.
Further, at no point have we claimed, or advised, any party that we were contacted by lawyers acting for Grant Thornton or Tiny.
Our reasons for terminating the account have been made clear to the account holder and are not as are being claimed.
Martin Hoscik
Director, Beyond Ego Limited
What a load of rubbish
from Martin Hoscik's homepage at http://www.hoscik.co.uk/
"’ve been involved in designing, maintaining, contributing to and developing high profile websites since about 1996 and currently edit or contribute to several sites.
Past and present projects include constituency & party leadership campaign sites for Simon Hughes MP, the LibDem 2004 interim London Mayoral campaign"
Who was a non-exec director of Time for several years? Paddy Ashdown. Ex-leader of the Liberal Democrats.
Who is Simon Hughes an MP for? The Liberal Democrats.
Can you guess who was the first person to be - allegedly - recorded five years ago as stating that Time would be deliberately bankrupted so that the brothers could keep all the money from the cashback warranties?
The comment posted by the site's hosts (sitehq.co.uk / Beyond Ego Limited) are laughable! Not once have I had a single word from them, but they will be hearing from me tomorrow!!
Apart from that you can be sure that the site will be back up tomorrow so be sure to go back :)
Cheers,
Matt Ashworth
www.tinycon.com
Matt,
if you wish to email us at general@beyondego.com from a valid email address we will forward you the email sent to yo uon 01 August 2005 at 13:38.
Beyond this offer it would be inappropriate for us to comment further in a public arena while you continue to make unsupported and untrue allegations.
By embarking on this path you do your case no good and only undermine whatever case former employees and disgruntled clients may have.
Now let me guesss... However Lord Ashdown is no longer a Director of the company
First published on Thursday 21 October 1999:
Time for Paddy to take unpaid role
FORMER Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown has joined fast-growing computer firm Time as a director.
Mr Ashdown, who is MP for Yeovil, will not be paid for his part-time involvement with the Simonstone group.
He will be responsible for looking into new business opportunities for the company in the area of e-commerce - trading over the internet.
"I am delighted to have this opportunity to pursue my long standing and close interest in new technologies and especially in the potential for e-commerce," said Mr Ashdown.
"I have always been opposed to MPs having outside sources of income so I shall not, personally, be receiving any remuneration for the post."
Two years ago, Mr Ashdown was guest of honour at the firm's 10th anniversary celebrations.
Time was founded in 1987 by consultant paediatrician Dr Tariq Mohammed, who used a computer to calculate feed dosages for his patients.
He decided to see if there was a market for selling PCs by mail order, advertising one for sale in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph. He later set up a shop in Preston New Road, Blackburn, before the firm moved to Devonport Road and then Simonstone.
He and his brother Tahir Mohsan, now managing director of the group, have amassed a personal fortune estimated at tens of millions from the company's success.
Earlier this year, the firm announced it was creating 500 new jobs at Simonstone. It now employs more than 2,000 people and has 160 showrooms nationwide.
So Mr Hoscik
What would I need to do to run a website / newsgroup hosted by yourselves which discusses technical, moral , social and ethical issues related to Time / Tiny / Granville and is intended to examine and make public the malpractices of those companies?
And what steps would I need to take to ensure you did not pull the plug without apparent reason or recourse?
From your statement that Matt's site was NOT pulled at the request of anyone associated with Tiny or the Administrators, I assume you would have no objection to someone else other than Matt setting up a site? Or are you using sophistry here: was it pulled at the request of the Mohsans?? Or their legal team?
Matt,
If I were you I would take your hosting elsewhere.
You would think that your current hosting company would be pleased with the additional publicity you are giving them!
Keep up the good work.
The real villains in this saga should be exposed and the buying public made aware if they are buying from a reputable firm who can deliver on what they promise or have no intention of honouring contracts and will run off with people's hard earned money. If the government pursued the fraudsters with the same vigour as the lawyers issue gag orders, then the thousands of customers and staff would see something in return. The money hasn't vanished, it's been stolen. Simple as that.
The next site to be pulled down will be tinyurl.com ;)
tinycon.com is now back online. with a lenghty disclaimer / agreement which anyone wishing to use the site must agree to before entering.
hi everyone. help a student! this is a desperate plea to anyone who has true and fair information regarding the collapse of Granville technology group.
i am currently a 3rd year student and have a 10,000 word report to write on the failure of the company. basically an in depth look at what went wrong, linking causes to theories etc. i only have 9weeks to do this in and i am finding it nearly impossible to find any useful information on the net other than short news reports.
i need information and data like the company accounts (whatever is available from recent years or as much as pos), views from employees on ANYTHING they think is significant to my report. i am also very keen to get in contact with Matt Ashworth, if anyone can help me in doing that.
please please please help me! i feel like banging my head against a wall and this assignment is worth a whole 15% of my final degree classification.
thanks in advance to ANY help anyone can offer. please contact me on emma.fullwood@tesco.net
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http://tinycon.com/
Unfortunately due to defamatory posts being made on this site, the site has had to close down.
Defamatory comments and statements were made on the site in relation to Granville Technology Group Limited (now in administration), VMT Limited (now in administration), their directors, former directors, management and employees. It is accepted that these statements were entirely without foundation and untrue and we wish to offer our sincere apologies for the distress and damage these statements may have caused.
On a personal note I hope that this site helped both former employees and customers of GTG and would like to thank all of you who participated constructively.
Best of luck with the future,
Matt Ashworth
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Seems like the hosts were right all along!