381. Bankruptcy assets, staffing decisions, attorney general inquiry

Chapters

• 0:00 Bankruptcy Closure Updates
• 1:55 Refusing to Influence Staffing Decisions
• 3:15 Attorney General Complaint Situation
• 6:31 Documentation Saves The Day
• 8:18 Moving Forward Despite Complaints

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:32

All right, well, two updates for today. Well, I guess three. So the trustee for the bankruptcy courts, as well as an attorney general complaint for the state that we're in, as well as what was the final item. Oh yeah, hiring and firing kind of things. So HR stuff. So first let's start with the trustee. So she asked that we deliver a check and some valuable assets to her office to close out our bankruptcy process. So my wife is doing that today and delivering a check to close everything out. So looking forward to closure. In that I'm really really glad that's near the end.

Speaker 1: 1:11

The second item was over the weekend I got a random text from the new owner asking me about additional context for former staff that have worked with me. So reasons why they got hired, reasons why they got fired or reasons why people left, just any context for some particular individuals. And at the end of the day, there's no benefit to me personally if I provide context, if the person did a great job or if the person did a poor job or anything in between. I don't want to have influence over someone else's employment situation. I don't want to be accused of doing anything hurtful on that side of things. So give her a kind of a generic response saying hey, unfortunately I'm not at liberty, I don't feel at liberty to discuss that. Here's the franchisor rep contact person. They could probably help with any like staffing decisions that you may want to do, because corporate helped me with my staffing decisions. And so, unfortunately, that's kind of the answer I gave, because I don't want to be liable for any decisions they make that could harm someone and I don't want to be the reason that someone else got hired. I want the owner to make those decisions without me telling them what to do. So that was kind of a surprise, but realizing I want to do things as kosher as possible.

Speaker 1: 2:40

And then, like 10 minutes ago, I got an email forwarded from the studio. It was basically a member made a complaint to the attorney general's office. They said that I closed the studio knowing I would never open it again, said that I closed the studio knowing I would never open it again and that harmed many consumers by doing so. And they included a copy of the email as well, and rightfully so. I'm assuming that all messaging and communications I send out will be blasted out into the world. It'll be screenshotted, it'll be printed and nothing is going to be like a closed conversation, that it's all going to be made public and so, for better or worse, it's just kind of like a paranoid way to live. I don't like having to think that way, but in this case it actually is working out okay.

Speaker 1: 3:30

So the person made the complaint and that they weren't able to get their $110 refund for the membership which they should have been paying $160. I don't know how they were paying $110. And then they include a copy of the email saying the studio is closed indefinitely and all that stuff. And so basically what I do now I'm reaching out to my bankruptcy attorney trying to figure out what the heck do I do with this? But ultimately this is why it was helpful to have in writing that the franchisor said they would handle refunds. I sent them copies of here's a screenshot of my bank, my business bank account. Here's what I have. I will send you every dollar I can, and in writing I want you to say that you're going to cover refunds and in this case I'm actually glad I was that documentation-oriented.

Speaker 1: 4:21

This person is the person who submitted the complaint to the attorney general. I don't know if they're listed. Well, they list my name, nathan Platter, as well as the franchise name, as folks that are harming consumers and so like the brand and the studio location. And so if the attorney general says, hey, nathan, what's gives what's going on, and say, well, I had to close the business. Everything was on auto draft that got turned off by the credit card processor a few days afterward, here's a list of members that issued chargebacks so they got their refunds.

Speaker 1: 5:01

Here's where I'm glad I did this. Here's where I can point to the messaging I had with my franchisor. I'm saying they would cover future outstanding refunds and I don't remember the values, we'll just make up some numbers. Say they're like $20,000 in refunds and I had 7,000 in funds. I would wire them 7,000 and corporate said they would cover the remaining 13. And so whether the corporate eats that cost themselves or they pass it along to the new franchisee, I have documentation that I don't have the funds to cover that. And so, whether I did the right thing or the wrong thing, either way, there's documentation saying someone is said they would take responsibility for such actions. And so grateful I did that, grateful I covered that actions. And so grateful I did that, grateful I covered that.

Speaker 1: 6:02

And yeah, just sitting there like working on some morning work and then realizing, and then getting an email from the, forwarded from the Minnesota Attorney General's office. It's always a little spooky, but then realizing, okay, like this isn't, I'm not going to jail today, I'm not losing my job today, I'm not losing my kids today. You get into this fear-based situation and you don't need to think that way, especially if you've been intentional on how you got to where you are today. Interesting developments, definitely a hassle. And this particular customer fortunately their name out of I don't know, we'll just say like 50 other members who were named by name by the credit card processor on how the refund is going to be handled and all that good stuff. So this particular person, we'll get them taken care of. The other members we know at least who could submit a complaint. We know how the complaint can get handled. They move on with it.

Speaker 1: 7:02

At the end of the day, customers want to be made whole. They don't want to feel like they got taken advantage of. Attorney General wants to make sure people aren't out there just hurting individuals and businesses just don't want to get dragged into expensive drama that is not needed. So that's where we're at now. That's where we're going to keep going. So, man, my nerves definitely tightened up when I got that message. So that's where we're at, that's where we're going. Bankruptcy is nearly done, the studio is nearly behind us and, at the end of the day, I think people are just mad at me because I disrupted their day-to-day life and I can't fix that. They're mad at me, so I'm going to keep going about my day job and keep going about day-to-day life. That's where we're at. That's where we're going. Let's rock and roll.