Whirli Administration - What Now?

[StellatheCat]

Apologies if a thread already started but couldn't see one!
I received an email tonight saying that Whirli has gone into administration.
What does this mean? They said we have to return any return toys but I'm half way through a subscription that two months ago I boosted by £90 to get bigger and better toys. Is that my money gone? Or rather, DS's money as I used what he received when he was born plus a voucher of theirs bought by my DF for his first birthday.
Is it right that I must return the current rented toys and will receive no refund or anything?
I'm rather ignorant of what administration/liquidation etc means. And gutted as I could have spent that money on toys he could have actually kept!

I'm also really confused what to do about this. I only signed up 3 weeks ago and I paid for half a year. I really hope there's a way to get a refund! Surely they can't just keep everyone's money and ask for all the toys back too 🤔 The email last night said there'd be another email soon with instructions for people that want to buy the toys to keep so I'm hoping there will be info on how to get refunds too.

Yeah! Received the same email! And i was flabbergasted because I just signed up for a year subscription and a boost delivery! I hope we can get a refund for this😥

I’d hang on to the toys you have for now, just until you get more clarity.

If you paid any money by credit card and you are owed more than £100, which you might be if you boosted by £90, you can reclaim any lost money from your credit card provider under section 75 of the consumer credit act.

If you paid by debit card, or under £100 on credit card, there might be the option of getting your money by a chargeback.

www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/section75-protect-your-purchases/

www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/visa-mastercard-chargeback/

But you'll probably have to wait and see what is in the further communications, it sounds like it is early days.

I just checked on Twitter to see if anyone is discussing it there, and saw there’s apparently a FB group for users called ‘ilrihw users’.

If it does fold you’ll be at the bottom of the queue after employees and HMRC ; personally I would not send toys back and wait for them to go through any records and write requesting specific toys based on that. They’ll be looking to establish assets to sell.

Same here. Just received email. I have 8 month left;(((
Do you know any alternatives? I don’t want to buy any toys and then have a million boxes with toys …

Check to see if there is a Toy Library in your area - they'll usually change a very small joining fee & then maybe 50p per toy? That's what the one local to me does, & you can keep the toys for a month & return or renew the loan, just like a library.

I think as a creditor and a debtor you have right of offset so I don’t think you would have to

Hi to all - the chances of a refund are very slim. You should consider your money lost. They raised £4m in funding just 16 months ago from Octopus (who are a high profile institutional investor) so to have (a) run out of cash and (b) not been able to convince investors to re-invest means it's a dire situation. My strong recommendation is NOT to send back toys as you will not receive a refund. At least the toys you have will go some way to offset the cash lost.

Yup, we paid for a year ahead of time when we joined in December, it was a Christmas present for DD!

I'm not expecting we'll see any kind of refund tbh and I will NOT be sending back the toys we have now unless threatened with some kind of fine / legal action. Which I'm sure it won't come to, as pp have said when a company like this goes into administration the focus is on tax owed, employees, etc.

I’m glad people have found the group, there’s a couple of people in the group trying to signpost on social media, seeing as their social media is now all closed down.

We have 3 months left of our yearly subscription, plus nearly £150 in credit/vouchers from referrals and gifts. I’m not returning the toys until I know more about the £150.

We are in the same boat. Slightly gutted as my dd broke a toy last month so we bought a new one to replace it as it seemed cheaper than doing it through whirli. We were also waiting for a delivery which we won’t be getting now.

Is this something to do with a whirlygig?

Thanks for the advice everyone. It's so disappointing. I'm glad we have a good lot of toys at the moment (sometimes we chose badly!) and I think I will also keep a hold of the toys for as long as possible.

It was a toy rental company that you paid for via subscription- and it wasn't cheap!

Sorry to hear about all of you who have lost money. So disappointing. We are lucky that we signed up for a year at the end of May 2021 so have got to use most of our subscription. My worry is that next years payment is due to come out on the 27th May. How can I make sure no money is taken?

I literally have some toys boxed up downstairs which I was going to return yesterday evening but DD kicked off so I waited until today then got the email this morning!

@Marmazel general consensus has been to contact your bank - either to cancel DD or to block the payment from your card.

From the FB group, some banks have been more helpful than others.

I literally signed up for a years worth end of March, £360 worth 😭
I'm gutted and frustrated. Surely they knew this was on the cards, very naughty to still take peoples money!

Oh that's awful you just started with them! At least I've had half a year to make the most of my subscription.
Just had the email breaking down the cost of buying the toys I have, £100.09. It says if I don't want to buy them 'please could I kindly return them by post'- that sounds optional to me? Someone else pointed this out on the Facebook group.

I literally just signed up last week on the 4th May for an annual subscription and the post subscription too, gutted! We paid about £170 in total with the discount code we used and currently have about £160 worth of their toys here and I too am reluctant to send them back until I gain some clarity as to whether I get my money back! 🤦🏻‍♀️

You wont get any money back. Keep the toys.

Now a slightly different one but I pay a monthly DD, but I had just paid before this email & I’ve definitely been paying longer than the value of my previous toys. But of course I did a bloody swap the week before for a wobble board (which my dd loves!!) and some other bigger bits now she’s older. They have reduced next to nothing and want me to pay the remaining RRP for the toys.

is there recourse to hold onto them to await the outcome? I requested to join the whirli group on other social media sites but get the impression it’s blown up so haven’t heard anything yet. Shame, such a lovely idea

are they even paying for return postage? I’d keep the toys.

Looking at Trust Pilot the decision was certainly made at least four days ago as they stopped replying to reviews.