Warranty Works has fallen into liquidation, leaving resellers around the country to foot the bill for warranties of up to three years on computer hardware and components.
The company has attributed outstanding debts from PC assemblers and OEMs as the reason for its collapse.
"We were forced out of business through the non-payment by OEMs and multinationals -- we weren't even insolvent at the time," Warranty Works director Michael Chappell told ARN. "There was too much pressure on the shareholders to keep putting cash into the company and in the last four months we have lost a lot of money with people going under."
According to Chappell, the company is owed money by four now-defunct PC companies, as well as two multinationals.
Although he declined to name the companies involved, it is believed Z-Tek Computers Pty Ltd, currently in liquidation, owes more than $300,000 to the company. Z-Tek's administrator, Andrew Dunner & Associates, could not be contacted at press time.
In the meantime, resellers will be forced to honour warranties on PCs they sold with a three-year Warranty Works offering.
"There was no warning, no notice, nothing. We don't know what to do anymore," said reseller Rob Dodin from Systems Service in Cairns. "We paid up-front for three years and we have clients that have bought $300,000 worth of PCs all with three-year warranties.
"It's a scandal."
