Many are those who on daily basis besiege the premises of West-Palm Investment Company in Kumasi to demand refund of deposits or to access to their cars.
On this Tuesday, a young mother of months old twins leads the husband to pitch tent in the office of the company to prevail on managers to get money back.
The frustrations on faces of clients are strongly telling but so are that of workers and managers of the firm – they’ve been in and out of courts and police stations; and there have been threats and curses on their lives.
West-Palm went into the business of vehicle hire purchase with the objective of supporting commercial drivers to own cars on work-and-pay basis.
Thousands of vehicles were delivered to customers in parts of the country, many of whom had only deposited 10 percent of total cost of vehicle.
The scheme could however not be sustained as the company plunged into financial and vehicle distribution hiccups – most cars could not be traced and clients abused arrangements for repayment.
Executive Director of the company, Joseph Buadu, attributes the operational challenges to administrative lapses but he is excited Wet-Palm has been exonerated of any fraudulent intent.
For the past year, some customers have sought legal redress whilst others troop to the offices of the company to get back their money or their vehicles.
Mr. Buadu says the company is working hard to settle clients and stay in business.
“So far we’ve paid so many people, even though the payment did not go as bulk as they wanted it because the drivers were not making sales and as at now we’re still looking for almost 400 cars in the system. But we did our best and we’re gradually resolving them”, he told Luv Biz Report.
Whilst pleading with clients to bear with the company’s schedule plan for refund, Mr. Buadu stated that the company will soon bounce back in giving out cars.
“We’re strongly working on the process of giving cars and this time it’s not going to be like bring your money before the car if given to you; we’re going to attend to those who we have contract with and the subsequent ones will follow”, he said.
Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh