381. Bankruptcy assets, staffing decisions, attorney general inquiry

Transcript

Bankruptcy Closure Updates

Speaker 1 0:01

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 0:40

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

Refusing to Influence Staffing Decisions

Speaker 1 1:24

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 2:09

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

Attorney General Complaint Situation

Speaker 1 2:44

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 2:58

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 3:50

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 4:30

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 5:31

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 ,

Documentation Saves The Day

Speaker 1 6:01

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 6:31

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 .