An April Fool’s joke turned sour for The Notebook Company when some suppliers failed to see the humour in a spoof liquidation notice.
On Friday, 1 April 2016 The Notebook Company CEO, Christopher Riley, informed all its local suppliers that the company hasdbeen placed in voluntary liquidation since it was not able to pay its local suppliers. It was also mentioned that the company will do everything in his power to pay the suppliers what is owed.
Riley stated that, with immediate effect, at 13h00 on Friday 1 April, all the notebook company accounts were closed and locked. Deliveries to their clients, and warehouses were stopped. Their own drivers were not able to have stock released to them. All came to a halt.
The company sent a follow-up note to all its suppliers on Monday 4 April 2016 at 08h00, informing them that Friday’s statement was an April Fool day’s joke. At this point most clients replied with “OMW”, “LOL” or “Got us”.
However, there were a few nasty surprises, says Riley.
“Unfortunately your terms were revoked due to the email sent to us,” was the response from one supplier. “Information was already sent to our insuring company CGIC.”
Another responded: “We have undergone legal costs already, and we will be charging it to your account – this is funny, but was not funny on Friday.”
Riley hopes that will soon be restored to normal. “One can say it might have been in bad taste, but it could also be a good proactive run for suppliers, as this year is going to be a tough one and, if companies are going to fail, it will be this year.
“No deliveries and supplies to clients were affected,” he adds. “Apologies to our local South African suppliers.”
