Dion Tilson: Parakai Springs general manager on GrabOne going into liquidation

There's no guarantee businesses will honour unredeemed vouchers from GrabOne, which has gone into liquidation.

The online deals website won’t be issuing refunds for unused purchases - and has told customers to directly contact vendors.

Some sellers have indicated they’ll recognise GrabOne deals, but others say they may not be able to.

Parakai Springs general manager Dion Tilson says they will honour vouchers, but customers could lose-out at other companies.

"I've spoken to a lot of businesses, restaurants and so forth, hotels - they may not be in a position to be able to offer it."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Heather do for c Ellen.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
If you haven't heard the latest with the fairies that
we've bought are buying from China, you're going to want
to hear this, so stand by. It's twenty past five
online deal website, though grab one has gone into liquidation.
Today's you know. Trouble is this is not good news
for people who've bought vouchers. They will not be refunded,
according to the liquidators, and that means it's up to
businesses to decide whether they're going to honor the vouchers

(00:21):
or not. Deon Tilson is the general manager for Podokai
Springs and he's with us now.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Hey, Dion, Hey, how are you very well?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Thank you? Are you guys honoring the vouchers?

Speaker 1 (00:32):
We are yet yet. No. We have made a conscious
decision and good faith to honor whatever unredeemed vouchers there
are out there in the market. Unfortunately, we don't know
exactly how many that is because the merchant system has
been shut down to them. To other businesses, we expect
there's probably up to five hundred still family and adult
vouchers still out there.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Have you been paid for them?

Speaker 1 (00:53):
We haven't been paid for a segment of the school
holiday vouchers. So we're estimating we've probably lost twenty thousand
dollars and income to date and potentially another ten to
twenty thousand and unredeemed vouchers that we will redeem for
customers as long as they can provide some sort of
an email or proof bank statement of the like that

(01:13):
they did buy a voucher in the first place.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah, I mean, this is the trouble, right because the
websites down, they can't necessarily print it out, can they.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
That's that's it. So we'll be working with those customers.
You know, I'll always recommend maybe de flick as an
email instead of just turning up at the counter so
we can arrange it. We do have, you know, some databases,
and most recent databases we downloaded, so we do have
some information, but some of the latest purchases we don't
have on file, so it is going to be a
bit of a case by case basis, but you know,

(01:41):
we will do our best to honor and make sure
that those customers do get the service dates they purchase.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Through bred deon J's. So you're just doing this for goodwill,
like you don't have.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
To do the s A well, no, that's ourbue. No
sitting now. And we've seen a lot of businesses. I've
spring to a lot of partners businesses, you know, restaurants
and so forth, hotels, they not been a position to
be able to offer it. You know, we're a hopful complex.
A lot of those voucher uses are repeat visitors, so
you know there's a good faith aspect to it. And

(02:11):
you know we're leading up to Christmas. It's been a
tough year. We certainly don't want to put people out
of pocket, so you know, we made a conscious decision
the managers and the directors to make sure that we
do honor those vouchers for those people that have a
basically locked out will being let down by grab one.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
Good on you man, that's very decent of you. That's
Deon Tilson, who is the general manager at Parakhi Springs
in Auckland. For more from hither Duplassy Allen Drive, listen
live to news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays,
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