SEAN BUTLER

It’s unbelievable! This Bank needs to be stopped.

I first read about Geoff Shannon and his fight with Bankwest in a Newspaper article on December 2011. It mentioned the unhappy banking website and what he is going through with this Bank. My business has been with Bankwest since 2003 and they had been very good to deal with prior to the takeover by Commonwealth. I have a cashflow business and had never missed an interest payment when Bankwest told me they wanted their money back at the end of 2010. They then doubled their interest rate margin. When the money wasn’t repaid on time due to a property settlement not going through as planned they issued us with a “Deed of Forbearance” that gave us a five month extension, charged us a $200,000 fee, told us an interest rate of 18.8% would be charged if all the money was not paid back at the end of five months and demanded a confidentiality clause so we couldn’t tell anyone what they were doing to us. We tried to negotiate more reasonable terms but they wouldn’t budge so they called in receivers. It’s now seven months later. They have sacked myself and my wife without pay, have receivers charging us up to $525/he EACH, have not sold anything and can’t tell us what’s going on. They are taking all my business profits as well as all the interest payments and the business is starting to deteriorate and lose value under their control. It’s unbelievable! This Bank needs to be stopped.
Geoff Shannon and unhappy banking have been an enormous help. By finding out that we are just one of many makes me even more determined to stand up for what is right. We will achieve much more as a group than we ever could individually and knowing I am not alone I have gone to the media and told my story. This in turn has motivated others to come forward as well and I now know our situation with Bankwest is being repeated in different ways throughout Australia.
Bankwest and their appointed Receiver / Administrators, accounting firm Taylor Woodings have told me what they are doing is legal. They have demanded that I don’t talk to the media and they have told my staff they will be sacked if they talk to me. If what they are doing is legal, which is questionable, the law needs to be changed. They are knowingly and willingly destroying commercial value to their sole benefit and to the exclusion of everyone else.
If Geoff Shannon and unhappy banking can help push for a government inquiry into Bankwests behaviour and the way receiver administrators work perhaps this sort of thing will be stopped. I urge you to listen to the stories of people who have contacted unhappy banking. A lot of them will be like me and have only come forward through finding out they were not alone. If enough good people stand up to this sort of behaviour by our Banks it can be stopped and Australia will be better for it.
I wish Geoff Shannon and his team at Unhappy Banking every success and I will help and support them in any way I can.
Sean Butler