Your Questions Answered

Notice

BurrowBlaster is fully engaged in a lawsuit against Varmitgetter in the U.K. 
Preparation of our case against them is nearing completion and we will be issuing proceedings against them in due course. As customers of ours and potential future customers it is our responsibility to advise you of this material activity and we will keep you informed of progress on this lawsuit as events unfold.

In the meantime, please be assured that we are fully able to continue to provide support, matenance, repairs and replacement parts for your Varmitgetter using British Made parts. 

So why the dispute? Here is the story so far:  

When Rob and I setup Rural Pest Control Services Limited and signed a Distribution Agreement with VARMITgetter, we were truthful and direct with all of our customers. When we told you that the VARMITgetter (named and sold by us under the new name of BurrowBlaster) was the safest and best product on the market, we meant it. When we said that it was and is a lot safer than the Rodenator we were being truthful and we stand by that statement. When we sold a VARMITgetter to you our commitment to you was for the life of the product and that commitment remains.

When we signed up with VARMITgetter we negotiated a 4 year contract that would enable us to invest in the product market development in the first year and look forward to making some profits in the second and subsequent years. We trusted VARMITgetter Inc. to supply a quality product that would enable our customers to gain maximum benefit from their purchase.   

So why the dispute?
The dispute started almost immediately we received our first shipment. The units delivered did not work and arrived in broken boxes. Rob and I had to start to invest in repairs before we could even ship the units out of the door.

We worked tirelessly with them to improve the product quality. Under our guidance they rebuilt the control unit twice. Under our guidance they re designed their electrical  system 3 times each time resulting in an electrical component that was less reliable than the one before.

In July we returned a complete shipment back to them that cost us $39,000 to import for which they never gave us a credit. In December they billed us for $23,000 worth of goods that they never shipped. Throughout the period we paid for our goods in advance so when in February 2009 
out of the blue they demanded a payment of $69,000 we vigorously disputed the claim and asked to them to justify their claim. On doing this they stopped supplying both product and warranty parts. This was in February 2009. Since then we have sourced components in the U.K. to enable us to maintain our warranty commitments to our customers and we will continue to honour our commitments indefinitely.

By March it was becoming clear to us that Varmitgetter had engineered a situation so that they could breach the contract with BurrowBlaster. We believe that they wanted to be able to bypass our hard work in establishing the BurrowBlaster brand in the
UK so they made a false claim against us. In an attempt to support their false claim they contracted London lawyers to proceed against us for recovery. When we defeated the claim and showed proof that they in fact owe BurrowBlaster £23,000 for returned faulty product, they immediately accused their own lawyers of working for us and promptly dismissed them. They then simply increased their claim to $400,000 and talked another 'no fix no fee' UK firm into issuing against us for this new amount. That claim was also defeated. We have now been advised that they intend to bypass out contract in full breach by selling directly into the U.K. We have been advised by our lawyers that anyone trying to sell the Varmitgetter in the U.K. in breach of our contract will be opening themselves up to an injunctive relief claim. At the end of the day Rob and I simply want to get on with the business of farming, selling Burrow Blasters and supporting our customer base. We will however look seriously at any recommendations our lawyers make as to what we should do going forward.

20.08.09 

Thanks for the feedback, we have almost completed our lawsuit against them and we will be issuing proceedings against them for breach of contract.

They have contracted with yet another legal firm. This is the 3rd law firm they have asked to represent them in a suit against us in as many months? 

As with the previous 2 occasions they are making false claims against us. This time their claims are aimed at trying to get us out of the way of their sales activity in the U.K. 

We do now have proof of this activity which is a further breach of our contract. In addition to taking injunctive relief against any third parties becoming involved in the sale of their product in the U.K. we will also be asking the courts to award all sales income they make from U.K. sales during the breach of contract period to us and we will be seeking for the courts to stop their sales activity whilst this case is being resolved through the courts.

BurrowBlaster has become an excellent case study on why contracts with overseas firms are so important. When the business flowing through the contract becomes big enough for the supplier to be able to justify their own office in the U.K. from profits flowing through to them, they almost always try to get rid of the distributor. Of course one accepts this as a possibility that is why contracts keep people honest and provide an avenue for Distributors to benefit from brand establishment for these foreign companies. We always knew that at the end of the contract periood (3 years time) we would most likely have to hand the business over to them, we were prepared for that and happy to do that. We never thought they would try to push us out the way after only 12 months of sales. Our problem was that we sold 3 times as many units in the first year than we committed to sell and it seems that that sort of money was enough to for them to want it all themselves. 

If we had not had a bullet proof contract with them, they would have simply stopped supplying us in February and just walked in and taken over our brand and hard earned market position. As it is at one stage they simply stole our whole website and put it us as theirs. Their own legal firm had to tell them to take it down and delete the copy they held. As it is they have all but destroyed our business because, as they said in a recent email, they thought they could simply bully us into handing the business over to them.  

They have printed a lot of false information on their website relating to this case in an attempt to make them look like the good guys. Well of course we dispute everything they say and we have told them that unless they remove all false statements, we will publish the entire case against them. That remains out intension and they have until next week to get the fasle statements off their site or we will start to serialize this case and make it a real case study.

It makes for incredible reading from references made to the American authorities and British Embassy to 'white 'n%^&^%%@' s (a word we cannot print out of context) and a whole lot more.

We will be serializing the case on the Blog.  So for more updates please go there.

If you are a BurrowBlaster customer, we would like your views.

What do you think we should do? 

Click here to post us a comment - when you arrive at the Bog page, go the word 'comment' and click on it.


 

Burrow Blasters are used for the collapsing of tunnels systems. For more information you can write to RPCS, 6F Thomas Way, Lakesview IBP, Hersden, CT3 4JZ. Email: info@BurrowBlaster.co.uk   Website: www.BurrowBlaster.co.uk  Registered in England No. 06501080.

Office Hours Sales and Support : Tel: 0870 458 7488 Fax 0870 458 7485
After Hours and Emergency Support - Rob: 07785 916135 Garth: 07912 029555

This Website is copyright 2008, 2009 Rural Pest Control Services Limited

  Site Map