Lyoness likes to claim that its system provides a 'WIN-WIN-WIN' situation.
In the fairy tale scenario that Lyoness tries to sell to the world, the Lyoness members win (because they get discounts), the Lyoness loyalty merchants win (by gaining more customers) and the world wins through the Lyoness Child and Family Foundation. As regular readers of this blog know, we dare to doubt this claim - and so do a number of people in Paraguay who are not entirely satisfied with the services of Lyoness, to say the least.
In January, it was reported that 29 Paraguayans had paid an equivalent of 2000 euro to acquire a Lyoness 'business package'. However, due to legal problems, Lyoness is not entitled to 'open' Paraguay, i.e. the offices could not be opened and 'phase 2' could not be entered. In other words, these 29 Paraguayans have paid 2000 euro each to become a 'premium member' of a company that effectively does not exist.
Now, four months later, Lyoness Paraguay still does not exist and the 29 Paraguayian Lyoness 'premium members' still have not received their 'advance payments' yet. The following they have sent to the Facebook page of Lyoness:
"Lyoness Austria, I have visited your country, which seemed filled with nice and honest people. We have put our trust in your company and have invested our money in your company. You have promised us you would pay us back our investments as soon as possible. However, it has been two years now and we, 29 people, are still waiting. We are being humiliated by your silence and there are allegations of fraud. You should not forget that 2000 euro or 3000 Swiss francs is a huge amount of money for Paraguayan people. People have invested their entire life savings and have believed the incredible promises made by Lyoness. It remains scary for us until this situation is finally entirely settled."
Perhaps, the Paraguayans should be happy that Lyoness never opened in Paraguay - in this way, they 'only' lost 2000 euro.
The only one winning with Lyoness, are the instigators of Lyoness themselves.
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I would assume that these poor people have a very good case for suing the Austrian government for knowingly allowing the pernicious 'Lyoness' racket to develop there, and to be exported around the globe, unchallenged.
ReplyDeleteIt is a matter of public record that complaints were first filed with Austrian law enforcement agencies concerning Hubert Freidl's abusive activities, several years ago, and that Austrian officials have subsequently done effectively-nothing to protect the public.
The legalistic concept in the UK which obliges persons in positions of responsibility, such as government officals, to do their jobs, is called 'Duty of Care.'
I would presume that Austrian Ministry of Justice officials similarly have a duty of care not just to the Austrian public, but to anyone anywhere in the world who has been robbed by Austrian-based criminals, whilst these same justice officials were asleep on the job.
David Brear (copyright 2013)
That is very true David, I think anyone would agree that the Austrian government officials carry responsibility in this area.
DeleteUnfortunately, I expect that the Austrian officials will gratefully benefit from the devious tricks performed by Freidl and his accomplices, by claiming that Lyoness is 'Swiss'.
I couldn't agree more.
DeleteWhen I have talked to embarrassed senior officials in the Austrian Ministry of Justice, they exhibit selective-amnesia (concerning the exact number of complaints they have received about Hubert Freidl, and when they first began to receive them), brought on by a severe conflict of interest.
David Brear (copyright 2013)
Unfortunately for them, the complaint centre has found some data on the number of complaints filed against Lyoness and the other scams operated by Freidl. If they are solid and informative enough, they will soon be published here.
ReplyDelete