4x4Store.com.au Shut Down.

[AB]

Just noticed the www.4x4store.com.au (http://www.4x4store.com.au) has shutdown.

If I had spare money floating around I would be very very very keen to use this great domain name and set up a 4x4 online store.



http://www.4x4store.com.au/images/4x4storedomain.jpg

St George bank has stopped the merchant facility and frozen our bank account due to their view that our charge backs of late is in excess. They are investigating, and this has been in process for a few weeks now. This has effectively closed down the store as we cannot order stock or issue refunds.

This has of course made it worse as everyone is now asking their credit card company to cancel their transaction.


For Sale

4x4 Store Australia is now for sale. This includes the highly ranked website and software to run it, multiple domain names, and 1800 number. If you are interested, please email me on shane@4x4store.com.au.

Note: All funds raised from any sale will go towards repayment of any outstanding debts that may exist at the time.

[YNOT]

4X4 store shut down about 6 months ago.
Hobzee's 4H.com also shut down earlier this year.

Tony

[AB]

Hobzee's was pretty popular.

Do you know why Hobzee's shut down Tony?

[Woof]

Us West Aussies knew about that a LONG time ago............you Easteners need to stay up to date with stuff..........................yeah I know:hijacked:
Woops, just remembered SNIP SNIP sorry "P" I mean AB:bowdown:

[CoR]

Us West Aussies knew about that a LONG time ago............you Easteners need to stay up to date with stuff..........................yeah I know:hijacked:
Woops, just remembered SNIP SNIP sorry "P" I mean AB:bowdown:

haha what he said ^^

[YNOT]

Hobzee's was pretty popular.

Do you know why Hobzee's shut down Tony?

Straight from the horses mouth, posted 5/6/10;


The news is not good. Angella P/L T/As The 4WD Shop (4H) voluntarily appointed Vince & Associates as Liquidators. We have not traded in the past few weeks and were not in a position to trade, pay, refund or comment while such discussions were being held.

Before GFC we were rocking. GFC hit and it wasn't so much people not spending at the time but the USD falling to 50c that drove prices through the roof (look at Hi mounts - we sold 15 a month and then 1 per 3 months) and it was the price hikes that killed sales by a half. Then in Sep last year ebay changed it's search criteria to best match and that halved our sales yet again. We resized - smaller factory and dropped some good staff saving $25K per month and had been making good progress. But some 2 weeks ago we were suspended by ebay due to lower star ratings and that pretty much screwed us. The boys resigned and immediatley upon returning from OBC (we left early) I made the first appointment with the liquidators and reported that I was no longer able to pay my bills. It's against the law to trade in this predicament.

To set the record straight I have nothing to do with 4x4store or with Johnno in cranbourne. Stuf4blokes was an attempt by my sales guys to get some sales happening while I was away. They did a good job, they only listed product we had in stock and every sale was honoured. I withdrew all active listings in that store when the liquidators said I shouldn't continue trading. So that store is now inactive but by choice.

Also, I have heard rumours that Cliffhanger is off - This is a rediculous claim. Cliffhanger is on more than ever (it's my only job right now) and in fact we are considering having a second cliffhanger for 2011 in Sep/Oct and have already begun talks with CCDA and our major sponsors.

So where to from here? Everything is in the hands of the liquidators and no amount of begging or harrassement can change anything I'm afraid. Please remember that it is the business entity that is being wound up at this stage and not the person Steve Hobbs yet. I do have things like an old comp car and yes these are being sold to go towards debt relief but not by the liquidators as they are only engaged in the business assets.

There are not that many customers affected. What I suggest is that if you paid with Pay pal or via Credit Card then you seek refunds through their buyer guarantees straight away. If you can not then please send me a PM and I will make sure the liquidators are aware that you were not capable of getting a refund. No guarantees but it's the best I can offer right now.

Ebay have caused me a huge amount of grief of late. My advice to ebay buyers and sellers is to watch those star ratings - they can put sellers out of business. I'm sure that even the angriest customers wouldn't want to delibereatly bring this on and cause so much pain for so many innocent people.

For every supplier and customer affected by this there is a hard lump in my throat and a great deal of regret and remorse. Given that I know a lot of people and my business life and social life blend together I am finding this very hard to come to terms with. Many of my suppliers and customers are my friends (or were).

The Liquidators are :
Vince & Associates
email : kwright@vinceassociates.com.au
Ph : 03 9793 5588
They know me as Angella P/L.

Regretfully,

Hobzee

[YNOT]

Us West Aussies knew about that a LONG time ago............you Easteners need to stay up to date with stuff..........................yeah I know:hijacked:
:

Must be more of a south easteners thing, the north easteners knew about it!
Shane, who was a big part of 4X4store is a member of the QLD Nissan Patrol club, so I knew about it straight away.

Tony

[AB]

Shame, thanks for posting that Tony.

Very interesting information for anyone wanting to start an online site/ebay store.

The company I work for import a lot of goods and It did also hurt us.

[AB]

Before GFC we were rocking. GFC hit and it wasn't so much people not spending at the time but the USD falling to 50c that drove prices through the roof (look at Hi mounts - we sold 15 a month and then 1 per 3 months) and it was the price hikes that killed sales by a half.

I'm a little bit lost with this comment. THE GFC actually helped Australia in some degree for importing. Our dollar was still travelling ok compared to USA and other countries. If anything, if you were an importer at that time then the Aussie dollar could buy a lot more then usual.

Unless they were manufacturing their products inhouse and exporting to USA but I highly doubht that?




Then in Sep last year ebay changed it's search criteria to best match and that halved our sales yet again.
Does anybody know what this means?


Ebay still and has always just based It's algorithms on keyword searches. Ive never heard of "best match searches"...I actually dont know what this means?

I'm just picking the hell out of this as It's very interesting how a very successful online store can go backwards thats all.