Box closing down.

Hades said:
I seem to recall there was a tax loophole they used to sell DVD's from the channel islands or similar. The loophole was closed down around the time they put themselves up for sale.
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Yup, as mentioned above, VAT wasn't applicable in the Channel Islands (not part of the EU) and EU member states could optionally exempt low-cost goods from non-EU states. IIRC it was imports of circa £18 or below so perfect for DVDs, CDs etc.. UK put a stop to it just after the 00s.
 
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Kelt said:
Wow, didn't know Aria had bit the dust.

I never checked the site since I had a bad experience with them when buying a monitor, funnily enough, it was when Gibbo was working for them! :p

I see they were involved in tax fraud earlier, so perhaps no surprise they went under.
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Drove past there a few weeks back and it has been renamed to that Roman Russell Crowe movie, same business type.
 
I'd be very cautious about buying from their "sister site" I always suspected they were the same place. They always had the same customer service and same inventory levels, pricing and promotional codes.

I did actually buy from Box via ebay a few times this year. They had cracking deals on NVMe drives using an ebay code.
 
WOW, I saw the news yesterday, I used to buy from them years ago when they were a small retail shop called 'Xenex Technology' in Newtown.
 
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Kelt said:
Wow, didn't know Aria had bit the dust.

I never checked the site since I had a bad experience with them when buying a monitor, funnily enough, it was when Gibbo was working for them! :p

I see they were involved in tax fraud earlier, so perhaps no surprise they went under.
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I worked there years ago, in returns and tbh they were dodgy as hell then!.... ( around 2003 i left ).

Aria Taheri the owner/MD was a rather obnoxious man who was not easy to work for. He was convinced that everyone was stealing from him, even customers, and he even went down the route of reselling returns as new and selling KNOWN faulty goods we couldn't return to vendors as "sold as seen" at computer markets and fairs, very dodgy practices.

I left soon after the e-commerce side of things started as i was doing credit checks and whatnot for online orders and he made life impossible wanting more and more orders checked faster and faster but committing no resources to it!

Obviously some fraud got through and he tried to make us pay for it from wage deductions saying it was our fault, as if you could stop 100% of fraudulent orders! this was 2003 not 2024!

He would sack people just before 2 years so they didn't get workers rights ( back then ) and fabricate written warnings and so on if they got challenged. They would make you work overtime and then argue when it came to wages, claiming they never asked for overtime and we had given our time freely "for the company progression" and other rubbish like that. So many illegal things went on its hard to recount them all!

The VAT debacle was only one of the many dodgy deals we all knew about.... there was an incident with a large quantity of ( alledgedly ) stolen IBM "deathstar" hard drives that came to light when we tried to RMA some back to IBM and got investigated!.... Also i seem to remember some incident with dodgy fake durons and athlons....... fun times though the staff were generally great!
 
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Unfortunately it seems there's only space for a few firms selling electronic hardware nowadays though admittedly one particular store with excess floor space seems to have survived longer than I'd imagined they would.
 
StriderX said:
Unfortunately it seems there's only space for a few firms selling electronic hardware nowadays though admittedly one particular store with excess floor space seems to have survived longer than I'd imagined they would.
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It does seem that way if you sell computer hardware exclusively. The manufacturers have all the leverage in pricing the little guys out - whereas the likes of Amazon can leverage their buying power & reliance on other markets to even it out.
 
MartinPrince said:
Luckily because I knew I was dealing with a corrupt company I videoed myself packing the GPU and posting it. Full refund and "apology" given.
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I find that’s good practice to do with all companies now to cover yourself.

I find myself filming packages being opened when they’re a high value item as evidence should there be a problem.
 
ChocAndGray said:
I find that’s good practice to do with all companies now to cover yourself.

I find myself filming packages being opened when they’re a high value item as evidence should there be a problem.
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Yes I have been doing that for a number of years now since the incident with C*L. It is mandatory in our household for any item over ~£50 for both receipt and if it has to be returned.

It came in handy recently with a brand new camera lens I returned. It came obviously used. After returning it I was only refunded 70% due to the used condition. I sent in proof it was received in that state and the full refund was initiated by the end of the same day.
 
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AtreuS said:
I worked there years ago, in returns and tbh they were dodgy as hell then!.... ( around 2003 i left ).

Aria Taheri the owner/MD was a rather obnoxious man who was not easy to work for. He was convinced that everyone was stealing from him, even customers, and he even went down the route of reselling returns as new and selling KNOWN faulty goods we couldn't return to vendors as "sold as seen" at computer markets and fairs, very dodgy practices.

I left soon after the e-commerce side of things started as i was doing credit checks and whatnot for online orders and he made life impossible wanting more and more orders checked faster and faster but committing no resources to it!

Obviously some fraud got through and he tried to make us pay for it from wage deductions saying it was our fault, as if you could stop 100% of fraudulent orders! this was 2003 not 2024!

He would sack people just before 2 years so they didn't get workers rights ( back then ) and fabricate written warnings and so on if they got challenged. They would make you work overtime and then argue when it came to wages, claiming they never asked for overtime and we had given our time freely "for the company progression" and other rubbish like that. So many illegal things went on its hard to recount them all!

The VAT debacle was only one of the many dodgy deals we all knew about.... there was an incident with a large quantity of ( alledgedly ) stolen IBM "deathstar" hard drives that came to light when we tried to RMA some back to IBM and got investigated!.... Also i seem to remember some incident with dodgy fake durons and athlons....... fun times though the staff were generally great!
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:eek:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...ire-tv-entrepreuneur-aria-taheri-layoffs.html
 
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AtreuS said:
I worked there years ago, in returns and tbh they were dodgy as hell then!.... ( around 2003 i left ).

Aria Taheri the owner/MD was a rather obnoxious man who was not easy to work for. He was convinced that everyone was stealing from him, even customers, and he even went down the route of reselling returns as new and selling KNOWN faulty goods we couldn't return to vendors as "sold as seen" at computer markets and fairs, very dodgy practices.

I left soon after the e-commerce side of things started as i was doing credit checks and whatnot for online orders and he made life impossible wanting more and more orders checked faster and faster but committing no resources to it!

Obviously some fraud got through and he tried to make us pay for it from wage deductions saying it was our fault, as if you could stop 100% of fraudulent orders! this was 2003 not 2024!

He would sack people just before 2 years so they didn't get workers rights ( back then ) and fabricate written warnings and so on if they got challenged. They would make you work overtime and then argue when it came to wages, claiming they never asked for overtime and we had given our time freely "for the company progression" and other rubbish like that. So many illegal things went on its hard to recount them all!

The VAT debacle was only one of the many dodgy deals we all knew about.... there was an incident with a large quantity of ( alledgedly ) stolen IBM "deathstar" hard drives that came to light when we tried to RMA some back to IBM and got investigated!.... Also i seem to remember some incident with dodgy fake durons and athlons....... fun times though the staff were generally great!
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I'm not all that surprised.

I used to regular on their forum until they "upgraded it" and totally ****** it up.

They then completely denied anything was wrong with it, blaming your internet connection etc

That basically killed off their forum.

But they were clearly prepared to lie about that, I dunno to save face or what, but ....

Anyway.
 
BUDFORCE said:
I'm not all that surprised.

I used to regular on their forum until they "upgraded it" and totally ****** it up.

They then completely denied anything was wrong with it, blaming your internet connection etc

That basically killed off their forum.

But they were clearly prepared to lie about that, I dunno to save face or what, but ....

Anyway.
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Aria the man is pathologically unable to admit any mistake or wrongdoing, he was always like that.... it was ALWAYS someone else's fault... or someone was out to get him or some conspiracy etc.... he really is an very annoying man.
 
redeye said:
From the original linked article:



A quick look finds this: https://caseboard.io/cases/5314cef0-e662-4f04-90e5-f1ff19e8ba93

Which says Tactus took the previous Box Directors / owners to court in March 2023 (Tactus can't sue Box, they own them and two of Tactus' Directors are Box's Directors since the takeover). So could well add up that story about an overvaluation. Which means either box budged their accounts to sell it at a higher value, or Tactus screwed up their due diligance.
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The case was unsuccessful and reverse summary judgement granted and found that valuations were fair at the time of writing according to this article which tends to have credibility. https://www.rahmanravelli.co.uk/exp...t-for-defendants-to-defeat-a-claim-in-deceit/
 
sx_turbo said:
Man trucks done the same to ERF when they bought them out, ERF inflated the future order values and promptly forced the company into administration and wound them down shortly after.

Shame i liked box, bought a few things from them in the past
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ERF's demise was actually down to fraud at ERF and a decision by parent company MAN Truck & Bus to cease using the brand in the U.K. which was the only market it was used in.

ERF Limited is still in existence to this day under its aforementioned parent albeit dormant.

E.R.F.LIMITED overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK

E.R.F.LIMITED - Free company information from Companies House including registered office address, filing history, accounts, annual return, officers, charges, business activity
find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk
 
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