A former employee of the now-defunct Australian caravan company, Tango Caravans, lashed out at the “toxic” work environment the company provided to its employees.
According to 37-year-old Chris Ferreira, who worked for four months as a business consultant at Tango, he did not receive any compensation, and the company owes him almost $5,000.
Ferreira suggested that he and the other company employees trusted the “fake dream,” adding that he never realized that the company was facing such a chronic financial crunch until he saw it going bankrupt.
Ferreira first became aware of his former employer’s struggles when angry customers started showing up at the stores to demand refunds.
He stated that his bosses saw his abilities to handle conflict and authorized him to deal with furious customers.
Now Ferreira stated that he feels for the customers and believes the company, not its former employees, should be held accountable by the group of customers losing hope of recovering their hard-earned money.
On one occasion, Ferreira was representing his company at a caravan sales show on the outskirts of Melbourne when he suffered a medical emergency, leading to his hospitalization. Reportedly, the company later accused him of faking a medical episode to avoid work.
Ferreira voiced his concerns against Tango at a time when many enraged company customers were opening up about how they had lost their money.
Tango allegedly received advance payments from at least 30 customers before filing for liquidation, leaving the customers who trusted them out of money. Some customers paid as much as $90,000 for the bookings only to be defrauded later.
43-year-old Sylwia Logan had to take a loan of $76,000 to buy her dream caravan and paid the full payment in advance. She never received the vehicle and now has to pay $14,000 in interest on the loan, bringing her total loss to a whopping $90,000.
Similarly, Taisha Ellis from Queensland finds herself buried under the $83,000 loan and is trapped in a five-year repayment plan after never receiving the caravan she was supposed to get within two weeks of ordering.
When Tango did not hand over the caravan to Ellis within the deadline, she contacted a third-party manufacturer that Tango was using to manufacture the customized caravans. However, that company told Ellis that Tango already owes them so much money that they have stopped working with them.
Tango’s liquidator, Andrew Yeo, has already informed customers that they have little chance of getting their money back.
Yeo noted that Tango’s facility did not have any caravans. If the company was using an independent contractor to manufacture the caravans, customers might be able to get partial refunds.
