About 300 people have lost their jobs after an Oxfordshire company which sold adjustable beds to the elderly and disabled went into voluntary liquidation this week.
Scores of customers have been left without the goods they had ordered.
Craftmatic employed 100 people at its head office in Fyfield Wick, near Abingdon. It also had a call centre in Reading and sales staff based around the country.
Ray Cousins, of Cemetery Road, Abingdon, worked at the head office for 14 years as a sales manager and then in customer service.
The 60-year-old said: “They phoned us at work and said ‘clear your desks, we’re closing’.
“And we don’t really know why, because according to our accountant, we were making money.
“I feel let down. We all have got our mortgages to pay. One girl has had to put her house on the market already, because she can’t find a job. There have been lots of tears.”
Angela Harbottle, from Great Dunmow, in Essex, has lost a £500 deposit on a £4,000 adjustable bed she ordered to help with her bad back. The 72-year-old said: “This news makes me feel sick... to be polite. I won’t starve but it’s money I can ill afford to lose.”
A spokesman for Oxfordshire County Council’s trading standards department said: “Customers who have not yet received the mobility aids they have agreed to buy will not now get those products.”
Those who have paid a deposit are unlikely to get their money back.
Provisional liquidators David Rubin & Partners plan to hold a creditors’ meeting on June 1.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here