Thoughts on Ellerine

Johannesburg - Ellerine is under protection from creditors after its parent, African Bank, collapsed under a mountain of bad debts in August.

In December retailer Shoprite announced it is buying upscale Wetherlys furniture stores from the Ellerine.

In the meantime, Fin24 users shared their experiences regarding Ellerine:

Fin24 user Shaun writes that he does not see anything wrong with the Ellerine stores.

"I was also a client of African Bank and had three accounts. I worked hard and I paid all three accounts before the African Bank fell down," he says.

"I like what Ellerine has in their stores."

On the other hand, Fin24 user Sam is upset with Ellerine.

"I had an account with them and when they closed they put some of their customers with a credit bureau without checking. There is no one to intervene and tell the customers where they must pay," he writes.

Another Fin24 user, who wants to remain anonymous, writes that he worked for Ellerine for 15 years.

"They were the greatest company when it came to staff training, supporting their local communities, underprivileged schools, training for the elderly, putting furniture in the house and food on the table," he writes.

"I spent many days collecting customers from home, feeding them and taking school supplies to the underprivileged schools. Those who have a negative thought about the group, think of this: Your patents could not buy from any other furniture company."

This Fin24 user finds it strange that some readers bad mouth the very same company that assisted in putting them through school and feeding them.

"They should remind themselves of where we all come from when sitting on their modern lounge suite, looking at their flat screen TV, admiring their contemporary art," he writes.

What really happened, in his view, is that African Bank "had no idea about retail and kept on closing stores as they started losing money".

Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on MyFin24 have been independently written by members of the Fin24 community. The views of users published on Fin24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent those of Fin24.