'It's destroying me': Small businesses paying $15,500 for a TV in alleged scam

Cara Waters
14 November 2018
The Age
Harvey Levy was worried the deal was too good to be true when the Viewble salesperson came into his lawnmower business Help Gardener to sell an advertising deal.
“She kept pushing and pushing,” he says. “In the end I said ‘Look if it’s not going to cost me anything, I’ll sign up’.”
Levy wasn’t given a written contract, but instead he electronically signed a deal on the salesperson’s iPad to pay $430 a month for a television screen to be installed in his business.
The Viewble television would display ads from Help Gardener along with ads from neighbouring businesses through a network called The Shoppers Network and the salesperson told Levy he would receive $430 a month in advertising revenue.
Unfortunately for Levy, unbeknownst to him he had signed a contract with a finance company and the advertising revenue promised by Viewble didn’t ever turn up.
“I am getting $430 taken out of my account each month,” Levy says. “I thought it was just a way of me getting a little bit more business but it’s destroying me at the moment.”
Levy says this is money that he can’t afford to pay.
“There are so many outgoings already that I am barely living on $200 a week,” he says. “I am working a 60 hour week and I am below the poverty line how did that work?”.
Hundreds of small businesses impacted
Levy is not alone and it is estimated that hundreds of small businesses around Australia are paying out $430 a month to Viewble each month which will cost up to $15,500 over a three year contract for a television while receiving no advertising revenue.
Viewble denies any wrongdoing.
Melbourne solicitor Ronen Atzmon represents Levy and several other small businesses in dealing with Viewble.
He says while the small businesses thought they were entering into an agreement with Viewble the agreement involved a third party finance provider Multipli.
“There are issues of false representations, misleading and deceptive conduct and false promises not kept,” he said.
“They are stuck with financial credit contracts which they signed electronically but had no knowledge of.”
Small business ombudsman Kate Carnell says she has received over 180 complaints from small businesses about Viewble.
Carnell says it is the most complaints she has ever received about an issue.
“We are currently working with Viewble Media and the financial providers to resolve this matter quickly,” she says.
Carnell is advising businesses exercise caution in entering into any new contracts with Viewble Media and affiliate The Shoppers Network.
Viewble and Multipli claim others at fault
Viewble director David Reid told Fairfax Media it was Viewble’s joint venture partner, The Shoppers Network, that was at fault not Viewble.
However The Shoppers Network and Viewble have the same directors.
Reid claims Viewble customers that chose to accept an offer for advertising revenue from a separate company did so knowing that it had no bearing on their legal obligations to fulfil their credit contracts.
“Due to unforeseen circumstances the advertising partner was unable to continue with the advertising revenue offer and stopped making payments strictly under the terms of the contract that the customers entered into,” he said. “Viewble has ripped off not one customer, they were affected by the collapse of The Shoppers Network. We will have a new media partner by the end of the month independent of Viewble and its directors and customers will have a choice to engage with them or not if not then they will get all the ad slots for their own content which we have already created for them.”
One of the businesses providing finance was Multipli and a spokesperson for the finance company said it had been providing finance for Viewble customers since December 2015 predominantly through a rental agreement or operating lease.
“The relationship between the two companies is of a referral nature only,” the spokesperson said. “We understand all media content was provided by Viewble and The Shoppers Network. We had no part in any arrangements apart from providing finance for the equipment.”
Small business the victims
The disagreements over who is at fault is cold comfort for Hassan Amnal who owns mechanical repair business, Professional Mechanic, in Brisbane.
He also signed up to Viewble after being told the television screen would not cost him anything but is now paying $613 a month for two years.
“We are the victims and we had no idea they were taking loans using our name and credit rating to get a loan for the screen,” he says. “As a small business it is too much. Small business in this country is already struggling and then being pinned with this is really bad.”