Whats going on at Albany?

[Apsona]

Anyone any idea whats going on there. Some colleagues said that they received emails saying that they were changing banks and having some issues .. then some receiving calls/mails from a company called Von Hessen proposing to pick up the contract from Albany .....

Are Albany ok and Von Hessen just trying to jump on an opportunity??

Cheers!
Paul

[mteplan]

Not sure

I'm one of the contractors, and I was with Albany nearly 4 years and thay been always OK, but I'm not sure whats going on either. Haven't seen any money from them since Dec '09 and the don't respond to emails or phones.
That Von Essen is only used from certain date, but they won't pay the money owed by Albany, they will only process new timesheets from 7 Jan 09.
I hope for all contractors that we will see our money soon

[NeillC]

No, they're in lots of trouble by the looks of things, and it's been going on for a while.

http://www.recruiter.co.uk/albany-ap...003980.article

http://www.recruiter.co.uk/albany-an...004084.article

I'm owed money from November and December, and there's no sign of it coming yet. I've been told that they're trying to pay, but can't sort out the bank problems.

E-mail responses are becoming less frequent, and I'm getting deeper into financial trouble, and I'm sure I'm not alone.

[pzz76077]

Anyone any idea whats going on there. Some colleagues said that they received emails saying that they were changing banks and having some issues .. then some receiving calls/mails from a company called Von Hessen proposing to pick up the contract from Albany .....

Are Albany ok and Von Hessen just trying to jump on an opportunity??

Cheers!
Paul

Yep, you are screwed basically, RBS pulled Albanys line of credit and now they dont have your money to pay you.

Hopefully, you are not in on the Mirasol split as well as you will have lost all of your life savings also. 4 contractors in my team have lost 300k between them.

Happy days!

PZZ

[fred7777]

Mirasol

Do you know what is going on with Mirasol. Very hard to get in touch with them. They cannot pay from December.

[PAH]

4 contractors in my team have lost 300k between them.

There's me feeling sorry for myself because it looks like I've lost just over 10k in similar circumstances via another agency.

Basically boils down to the agency's overheads (premises, staff, flash suits and cars, vats of hair gel,...) being too large for the margins they make on the contracts, mixed with lots and lots of incompetence from their staff. So in tough times like these the worst ones go to the wall, which isn't a bad thing if we could do something to make sure we avoid the bad ones. Credit checks are useless when it only takes a short period of time for it to all go tits up.

I'm really sick of agencies. They offer so little but an endless amount of grief. Shame no-one in the industry has enough about them to do something to get rid of these parasites.

[Fred Bloggs]

Bad enough having to rely on clients and agencies being solvent. Doesn't having a man co in the food chain just make the risk higher without adding any value to the contractor?

[pzz76077]

Do you know what is going on with Mirasol. Very hard to get in touch with them. They cannot pay from December.

From what I gather there is one girl in Mirasols Swiss office answering the phone but essentially telling everyone that she just takes messages and doesnt know anything.
I have been told that Mirasol are really a BVI registered company and if it is the case and all of the money is gone, then there is nothing that can be do to try and trace where it went.

I now have heard from 6 people that have lost nearly 550k between them. Between 2 and 3 years pay gone, and they are left with nothing but wondering how they are going to earn that again in todays contracting climate. War chests = a big fat zero.

A sad state of affairs.

Albany were one of the biggest, longest running and best managed companies offering this kind of service.
If they are not able to stay in business, then I would have a great concern of any other agents/umbrella/service company and would be making sure that all possible funds were in my account, not accepting any excuses for late payments and stopping work or taking legal action immediately.

Im just happy that Im out of contracting for good in another 2 months.



PZZ

[Fred Bloggs]

I'm at a loss to understand how anyone could lose 2 or 3 years pay to an outfit like this? Did these guys not get paid for 2 or 3 years? How has that happened?

[pzz76077]

I'm at a loss to understand how anyone could lose 2 or 3 years pay to an outfit like this? Did these guys not get paid for 2 or 3 years? How has that happened?

Mirasol was one of these split schemes- you got paid something like 25% locally in say Belgium and paid tax on that. The other 75% stayed in the Swiss bank of Mirasol. Every quarter, I think it was, you could opt to take out some or all of the money, pay tax on it or leave it there gaining interest.
The contractors that I know would have been able to legally take the money in the Mirasol account tax free back to their own country, Argentina, Indonesioa whatever, after the end of their European contract, once they had left the local tax system for a certain period of time.

You can see that this kind of arrangement would enable many to retire rich after 5 years or so working.

I the area that I contact in, oil and oilfield services, its not uncommon for contractors to be in the tax systems of 5 or more different countries in any given year and this sort of scheme is almost universally used by thousands of self employed consultants and contractors around the world to maximize their earnings.

Oh and 4 out of the 6 I know have not been paid since Nov just to make things worse.

PZZ