I’m sure that Working Capital Partners and it’s owner Perry Burns will be pleased to know that this post will be my final words on his company.
My original post had an amazing response with over 500 unique views and with much of them coming from the various factoring groups on LinkedIn there can’t now be many decision makers within the factoring industry that haven’t read it or don’t know what he and his company have been up to. Many have contacted me to share their own views on Mr Burns’ actions and not one single one of them have even come close to agreeing with what he did with “Shooting himself in the foot” being perhaps the only one of many quotes that are printable in a family friendly blog.
As I mentioned in my last blog post I posted a pretty poor review of the company on Trustpilot titled “Not to be trusted by the broking community” and giving the company the minimum of one star.
Judging by the flurry of positive reviews that followed, Perry Burns rounded up some of his mates and asked them to try and redress the balance by saying some nice things about his company.
One of the brokers who gave him a positive review was the subject of a previous article on Factoring Blog as he was one of three directors of a factoring brokerage that went bust in such a spectacular fashion that one of his co-directors was made bankrupt and banned from holding a directorship for four years. A good referee indeed 😀
Part of the above’s reference is that “Working Capital Partners are run by a very experienced management team.” The two main board directors don’t have any factoring experience at all prior to setting up their company whilst the Director of Commercial Operations isn’t actually on the board at all and has previous employment on his CV at one of the few factoring companies to go bust.
Working Capital Partners obviously take their Trust Pilot testimonials very seriously as they have a testimonial slider on the front page of their website in which one after the other of the wonderful testimonials are presented to the world for the reader’s consumption.
Oddly enough the one star testimonial left by Factoring Solutions never appears at all so it seems that whilst I don’t understand the technology involved the company have found a way of excluding their negative reviews. Is that misleading or dishonest or both. I leave it up to the reader to decide.
Looking further into the company’s website the section entitled Team / Our Roles states that Perry Burns is a member of the Asset Based Finance Association’s Executive Committee, the body responsible for setting and enforcing standards across the industry.
I won’t comment on Perry’s suitability to be sitting on the body for setting and enforcing factoring industry standards but he would be the last person I would choose and from the many comments made to me by senior factoring personnel I am not alone in that thought
The fact that Working Capital Partners Ltd is even a member of what was the Asset Based Finance Association is surprising as the association states that one of the criteria for membership is that “The company has a net worth in excess of £250,000”
According to their last published accounts Working Capital Partners Ltd has a share capital of just £1,000 which is probably the lowest in the business by an ABFA member by a long way and the company seems to be propped up by loans without which it would be technically insolvent.
I set up the Factoring Blog nearly ten years ago to write about some of the things that I didn’t like about the factoring industry as I was in the fortunate position of not having to be reliant on anyone within the industry so could say what I felt. In all those years this is the first time that I have had to write about something that affected me personally and whilst Perry Burns probably felt quite smug when he took the decision to shaft me and my company out of the (fairly substantial) commission that EVERY other factoring company would have paid I hope that he thinks twice about doing it to anyone else.
Obviously I will never deal with his company again and his loss has been the gain of both Creative Capital and Calverton Finance as I have already passed them a single invoice factoring lead each which will hopefully be the start of a more mutually beneficial relationship with the former and the continuation of an excellent relationship with the latter.
I will finish the miserable saga of Working Capital Partners with the same warning that I started with that if Perry Burns is happy to shaft me in pursuit of a few more pounds on his bottom line what makes you think he won’t do the same to you too as after all one of the better known quotes from the bible is about the inability of either an Ethiopian to change his skin or a leopard his spots.
Caveat Emptor