Warning - clearstone ceased trading!

www.clear-stone.co.uk

NOTICE TO CUSTOMERS

The directors regret to inform you that following a review of the financial position, and having taken professional advice, it is not possible to continue to trade.

With effect from 1st February 2008, the business will have to be closed down and no further training courses will be provided.

The Company will be placed into a formal insolvency process, which means that where you have made any payments towards a course, you will become a creditor of the Company. A letter will be sent to you in this regard in due course.

Where payment by you has made been made by credit card, it may be that you will have a right of recourse against your card provider under Consumer Credit legislation.

The Company has set up a telephone helpline in order to provide further information. This is 0800 3777 303 and is free of charge if dialing from a landline.

CLEARSTONE

FAQ’S BY CUSTOMERS

Q What has happened to the Company?
A The Company has ceased to trade following a review of its financial position. The directors have been advised that in the absence of future funding commitments, it could not carry on trading.

Q What about courses I have paid for?
A The training schools are unlikely to accept you as they themselves have not been paid. However, if you wish to approach the school you were due to attend you may be able to make fresh arrangements.

Q What if I want my money back?
A Regrettably, as the Company is insolvent and has ceased trading you will be a creditor and in due course you will receive a letter explaining whether or not there is likely to be a dividend or not. At this stage, it appears unlikely.

If you have paid by credit card, please contact your card provider to make a claim.

If you took out a loan to pay for your course you should speak to the loan provider about your rights under the consumer credit legislation.

Q Why did the Company fail?
A The business was bought from an administration in June 2007. Substantial funds (over £1.25 million) were invested in the business but the losses, though reduced, still continued. When the directors reviewed the position in January it was estimated that a further £3 million plus would be required to ensure financial stability and the directors realised that they would be unable to raise funds of this magnitude.

I feel sorry for anyone who has recently paid for training, although there were enough warnings about, but it is good news that this mob have finished.

Hope this doesn`t affect too many newbies on here and elsewhere

I bet that one of the other companies that works in the same way will now ‘expand’

Sounds like it wont improve anything then

I heard yesterday that the Directors of J Coates had a meeting and they will be offering a 10% discount to anyone who has booked a course with Clearstone and will not get their training because of them going bust. Hopefully many of them will have paid using a card which should mean that they could get a refund on what they paid Clearstone.

One of the directors said that they where fed up of these companies harming the integrity of the training industry with their lack of knowledge, misleading advertising and pushy sales techniques.

Clearly this “agents” business model does not work so what will the others like Advantage, Pathways and Apex do any differently?

I heard that Apex was currently being investigated by trading standards because they had taken somebodys £900 and only delivered a medical. The potential trainee cannot get in contact with them now!

The moral of the story is only train with companies that are long established, have their own trucks and instructors and have many satisfied customers

I think there may be a question missing from the

CLEARSTONE

FAQ’S BY CUSTOMERS

Q. Why were you such devious, lying, cheating, conning ■■■■■?

A. …

Really feel for those affected by this. What a kick in the balls.

This is my favourite bit -

ROG:
Q What about courses I have paid for?
A The training schools are unlikely to accept you as they themselves have not been paid. However, if you wish to approach the school you were due to attend you may be able to make fresh arrangements.

Which kind of begs the question - why would you have wanted to use cowboys like this in the first place? In my opinion this statement proves what many (including myself) have believed for a while - Clearstone did precious little for your cash.

I wonder how many have their course with ROLL-RIGHT as they were a CLEARSTONE agent

Roll Right was bought by clearstone which should mean that there is no more Roll Right unless they use it as another phoenix company

There could also be an issue with other training schools who worked for Clearstone not being paid for work already completed. These schools might struggle to survive with cashflow issues especially this time of the year.

russjp:
Hope this doesn`t affect too many newbies on here and elsewhere

HERE IS ONE - POOR SOD
I came across one the other day who did a C1 refresher (got licence pre 97 - never used it) with me. He has paid about £1,500 .
As an outsider to this industry, he did not know where to get advice on the training issues so he searched the internet and chose one of the most prominent ads on the page

Rollright were owned by clearstone - there only driving school. All staff and instructors were told at 4.30 friday evening with no prior warning. Rollright had a great first time pass rate and filled the majority of test slots at cullum test centre. The knock on affect will be heavy - not only have candidates lost there money but many staff and 10 instructors are out of work - the test centre will miss 60-70 tests a month and the tea bar who we supported will close.

A sad day for many good people …

Big D:
Rollright were owned by clearstone - there only driving school. All staff and instructors were told at 4.30 friday evening with no prior warning. Rollright had a great first time pass rate and filled the majority of test slots at cullum test centre. The knock on affect will be heavy - not only have candidates lost there money but many staff and 10 instructors are out of work - the test centre will miss 60-70 tests a month and the tea bar who we supported will close.

A sad day for many good people …

Do I gather Big D, that you are one of the affected employees

PS welcome to the site

Thank you for your welcome Rog - yes i am now a LGV instructor looking for work - i didnt expect that…

Big D:
Thank you for your welcome Rog - yes i am now a LGV instructor looking for work - i didnt expect that…

sending you a PM (Private Message) - see top of this page

I looked at clearstone for my own training about a year ago, chose not to use them and went with a local school, but clearstone never stopped contacting me! so much so I threatened them with legal action. they would contact me via home phone/mobile phone, post, It amazed me how much time and money was being wasted even though I had told them I was,nt going to proceed. Each time they were offering some discount or other. so perhaps this type of pressure selling may have led a little to their problems?

yeah, watch out for stirling too, I was naieve enough to be caught out. by the looks of things I’ve forked out heading for £1300 for a theory test, a class 2 course and a VERY SLIM chance of a class 1 course including a cpc course and a hazardous goods course.

I will be going with a local school who are going to charge me £750 + vat and £89 for the test fee, i will take an accement drive first which i think will cost me either £40 or £50 think the rigid trucks are ivecos or daf one of the 2

that’s made me feel a bit better mate, thankyou.

Still annoys me how these people are so happy to rip you off though!

Big D:
A sad day for many good people …

It certainly is as Rollrights were one of the local firms which I was quite happy to point people towards, until that is, they were bought by Clearstone.

Did Clearstone buy the whole operation? Or just the LGV side of things? IIRC, Rollrights were one of a limited number of companies providing accredited Fleet Instructor Training (Cars), as well as FLT and various other bits and pieces.