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ONE OF THE former senior management team of Click.ie is behind the reboot of the controversial website.
During the week, TheJournal.ie reported that a firm called Click Group Ireland bought the domain name for €10,500 at auction and the website has been live since 10 August.
The previous iteration of Click.ie, the trading name of Cantec Office Solutions, went into voluntary liquidation in April. It sold electronics such as refurbished iPhones at discounted rates.
Ray Norton, who was involved in running Cantec Office Solutions from 2016, has confirmed to TheJournal.ie that he purchased the domain name.
Click Group Ireland Ltd is a UK-registered company and Norton said he is in the process of setting up an Irish company.
Norton said Cantec’s former director Umar Anwar and former secretary Shane O’Neill are not involved in the new company.
“There is only one director and owner of the new company and that is me,” he told us.
Both Anwar and O’Neill confirmed that they are not connected to the new company.
Norton said he hopes that the company will “grow to become the largest online store in Ireland and the UK, offering a very diverse range of products”.
The new website sells electronic products, household items and clothing.
Norton told us the “main expansion plan” for the website is in the UK, stating: “Given uncertainty around Brexit I felt this prudent.”
Norton has been linked to a number of companies that have since gone into liquidation or been dissolved, including property firm Larionovo.
Hundreds of complaints
Click.ie made headlines in recent months after a series of complaints from consumers.
Hundreds of customers either did not receive phones ordered on the previous version of Click.ie or experienced problems with the products they bought, with liquidator PJ Lynch & Co confirming that it has received over 300 complaints in recent months.
A spokesperson said the liquidator’s office is unfortunately unable to help customers.
A spokesperson for the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) said, in the months prior to a liquidator being appointed to Cantec on 24 April, there was “a significant increase in the number of contacts received from consumers in relation to the company”.
From 1 January to 24 April, the body received 178 contacts about the company.
“Since this date we have received 13 further contacts. The contacts primarily related to issues with delivery, refunds and faulty products. At the time the CCPC engaged with the liquidator to make them aware of the issues consumers were experiencing,” the spokesperson said.
Cantec Office Solutions went into examinership in early 2017. However, this proved futile and the company went into liquidation in April 2018. It had eight stores and a number of franchises nationwide when the company was wound up.
It’s understood that the firm owes creditors in the region of €1 million. Several employees are still owed wages and redundancy packages.
‘Livid’
A number of former employees have expressed anger that the website is back online while they and customers are out of pocket.
Sarah*, who worked in one of Click’s stores, said she’s “livid” that the site is back online when so many employees and customers are owed money.
Michael*, a former employee from a different shop, also said he is angry about the development. “Where did the money come from (to buy the domain)?,” he asked.
Both Sarah and Michael said payment of their wages was regularly late in the final months of the company. Sarah said she wasn’t paid at all from February to April, while Michael said he is owed six weeks’ wages.
When asked about this, Norton said he didn’t want to comment about Cantec Office Solutions as it is in liquidation. At the time of publication, Anwar had not replied to a request for comment in relation to this.
O’Neill said he left the company in February so “[doesn't] know what happened in the final months”, adding: “I regret ever getting involved.”
*Names have been changed to provide anonymity
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SIPTU economist? Surely a contradiction in terms
@Stephen Kearon: They are the peoples economist. as tony benn once said. ‘every generation has to fight the fight all over again. because capitalism keep changing the rules to suit themselves.
@Stephen Kearon: can The Journal become any more left wing?
@Chin Feeyin: I’m confused. Is the journal left wing or is it a right wing government mouthpiece as all the shinners on here call it? It can’t be both, so maybe, just maybe it actually sits somewhere in the middle (like the majority of people).
The construction industry is up and down.one month you have a job the next your told your not needed.most construction companies don’t bother have employees anymore.a lot of people including labourers are either in through an agency that pays pittance or other people on RCT self employment.that way companies can get you or get rid of you as quickly,don’t have to pay your entitlements as in pension or holiday pay.the whole thing stinks and the revenue down to the trade unions turn a blind eye to it.no wonder a lot of tradesmen have decided to go work in factories over the years as your treated a lot better with entitlements
@dick daatardly: it’s like the kilburn rd London in the olden days if the van turned up you went to work if it didn’t you went home
I’m sure you’ll get the “No one is forcing you to work there” brigade on here defending the type of employment contracts we see these days. I accept certain flexible types of contracts suit certain people. But by accepting these contracts as the norm we are only encouraging the race to the bottom.
agencys in in the construction sector
are pure rip off
Cpl are an example of crookery. Flexsource really treat you as dirt.
And today is fatcat friday
When I was a kid we dreamed of a future when new technologies freed people to better themselves, spend more quality time with loved ones and friends, volunteer to give back to society and to enjoy life in general. What did we end up with? Precarious work places where employers use tech to spy on employees . Zero hour contracts. Trickle up economics and obscenely wealthy people like zucherberg, bezos and many other greedy individuals. Problem is capitalism never changed to allow workers to benefit from the tech revolution. Now slavery in back in another form
@Marc Power: and yet, the country is earning billions from taxes and or poverty rates are tiny (compared to when unions were relevant). if anyone compares agile working hours at over minimum wage with slavery, then they didn’t really get slavery. but you have time to go to the many public libraries, using public transport, to spend all your not working hours reading about it. just like slaves used to be able to.
It’s worse in the airline and maritime industry. Your contract is held in Singapore/hong kong on a zero hour contract.
Main offices are in Western Europe but they can do what they want and don’t need to pay you your entitlements.
Maria Sherlock must have filed the story in early December. The Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill is no longer going through the Oireachtas. The President signed it into law on Christmas Day.
As well as prohibiting zero hours contracts in most circumstances and introducing bands of hours, it forces employers to give the five most essential terms of employment on fifth day of employment, an employer faces prosecution if it misrepresents what is on this Day 5 statement and the Bill enhances penalisation provisions. It’s important legislation.
@orl: you may want to check your sources. As of 28 Dec it still hadn’t signed, but had gone for signature, and doesn’t come into force until March 2019
http://www.mondaq.com/ireland/x/767270/employee+rights+labour+relations/The+Employment+Miscellaneous+Provisions+Bill+2017+The+Bill+Has+Been+Passed+By+The+Houses+Of+The+Oireachtas
@Vocal Outrage: @Vocal Outrage: My first boss gave me a great bit of advice. Always go to primary sources: https://president.ie/en/media-library/news-releases/president-signs-employment-miscellaneous-provisions-bill-2017-into-law
The President signed it into law on Christmas Day. I like the symbolism of it – a nod to his Labour roots. It will commence in March of this year but enactment occurs when the President signed it.
The requirement to eat at least one solid meal a day, preferably under a roof, has always presented unscrupulous employers with an opportunity to offer just enough to stave off starvation in the name of free market competition. FFG neo-liberal agenda of the last ten years has cemented the extremely unsavoury employment practices referenced above, considering them the new ‘normal’. They are now so ingrained that rowing back on them will only be done under pressure and piecemeal. This will be the job for the next REAL government.
Did she ever pause to think that maybe this type of work suits the people doing it? I feel like working today so I will. I am in college and have odd availability but I want to work in my time off etc. This is the modern way of working. A lot of people don’t want a 9-5.
@joe: you must own or run a agency
who in there right mind would like to sit by the phone waiting on a days work
@joe: might suit a student but not really viable as a full time scenario
@joe: I am a Social Care Worker and have worked for Agencies in the past. I have rarely (if ever) worked with anybody who enjoyed or wanted to ‘wait for a call’, myself included.
@Flippermac: Thing is, you don’t ‘wait for a call’. Demand for work is higher than supply, you just log on, accept a job, work it and stop when you’re finished. Can take on as much work as you want.
It is all about risk and reward. The vast majority of the workforce is in the sme sector. If the business fails the owner is left with no income and probably debt that follows them. Unions drive companies out of business.
@john s: no they don’t there’s articles out there with facts in that state otherwise. Bad owners that dont know how to manage a company drive thenselves out of business
@Bobbybrownshoes: greedy unions looking for pay rises because a company makes profit . But when thing go the other way employer’s are expected to suck it up. If u every had to deal with a union u would see them differently
There is a global economic crash coming, soon. Jobs will crash as well as the Euro, then what?
Not news to me, my job has always been precarious, I’m a tightrope walker.
Had a very interesting chat with an American Uber driver once. He talked about how much security working on Uber gave him. He knew that people would always need rides so could pick and choose when to work. For one month he would work 10 hour days 7 days a week, taking every fare he could and then take the next 2 months off and go visit his kids in California.
Old ways of working don’t work with new ways of life. People want security AND flexibility nowadays. We shouldn’t legislate ourselves back into the past.
The article tends to conflate two distinct but related problems: i) precarious work and ii) low-skill work. Some precarious work is highly skilled, even expert, and done by people with a great deal more freedom than low skilled workers. Many leftists address the problem of work in the 21st century by looking only to improve the pay and conditions of those in work. They ignore the larger change wrought by technology: https://colummccaffery.wordpress.com/2017/12/17/full-employment-in-this-century-will-be-different-as-work-befitting-educated-skilled-workers-grows-scarce/
@Colum McCaffery: very interesting article. Thanks.
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