The recent collapse of Flyglobespan (with some 4,500 passengers stranded and 550 staff with no job just before Xmas) has thrown up a few interesting coincidences.
As with many companies these days, Flyglobespan chose to outsource it e-payments (Credit Card) business with a third party – eclear – taking away any worry and of course the costs of running that type of operation itself.
It seems pretty straight forward, you offer your products for sale on your web site and when someone buys something, they pay the e-commerce company who takes a commission and then passes on the balance to you.
Easy? You would think so, but it seems in the case of Flyglobespan, it was owed £35,000,000, yes that’s £35,000,000 by eclear when it went bust!
I now seems that another travel company that used eclear for its e-business outsourcing has gone bust – Allbury Travel Group. Some concerns are now being voiced that they have gone bust as a result of problems in not receiving transaction funds supposedly from… Yes you’ve guessed it eclear.
A common name seems to be at the centre of all this, a one Elias Elia.
Although eclear have now said that they want to cooperate with investigations proposed by various people, there is still no explanation as to why they held on to the £35 million before Flyglobespan collapsed.
By the way, Allbury Travel Group is owned by a British Virgins Isles based company, owned by… Yes, you’ve guessed it! Mr. Elias Elia!
I wonder when there will be proper legislation created to better protect travellers from failures like Flyglobespan and Allbury.
More on this in the news tomorrow I am sure.
Beasley's Place 