There has been huge uproar among the British public after the retailer, having enter administration, stopped accepting gift cards. One MP questioned if they committed ”offences against the Theft Act”.
The reason for the anger is that HMV top brass we’re believed to know exactly how precarious the retailer’s position was, and yet still continued selling gift cards.
”Directors and management must have known that the company was at very real risk of failure,” wrote senior Tory backbencher Sir Tony Baldry, MP for Banbury. ”I understand that HMV was selling Gift Cards and Vouchers all through Christmas and up until the day they went into administration.”
He continued: ”That, of itself, must raise questions, in that way before they went into administration, directors and management must have known that the company was at very real risk of failure, and I think that of itself raises legitimate questions of, in those circumstances were the directors of HMV obtaining property by deception, i.e. offences against the Theft Act, in allowing their stores to continue to sell vouchers and gift cards, when they must have known that there was little prospect of those vouchers or gift cards ever being redeemed?”
Now it appears as those unscrupulous executives have been shaken enough by the public outcry.
”Since our appointment as Joint Administrators on Tuesday afternoon, we have been urgently assessing the Companies’ financial position,” said Deloitte’s Nick Edwards. “I am pleased to confirm that, having concluded this assessment, we are able to honour gift cards.” HMV had also freezed payments of proceeds to charities; these too will resume.
”We will continue to assess the longer term options for the business whilst continuing to trade,” Edwards concluded. ”I am hopeful this process will result in the business continuing as a going concern.”
Another of music and movie companies, such as Sony, Warner and Universal, are now backing the survival of the retailer, offering lower-priced items and flexible credit terms.
