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Hellopeter sold to a 'new team of entrepreneurs'

Johannesburg - Online customer complaints website Hellopeter.com has been sold to a group of unnamed entrepreneurs 15 years after the site was started.

Hellopeter founder Peter Cheales made this announcement via an email to users and a post on the customer complaints website on Tuesday.

Cheales said in a statement that a “dynamic new team of entrepreneurs” will take over the site but that two members of the site’s existing team are planned to remain.

“This is a bitter-sweet time for me,” said Cheales.

“I started Hellopeter in 2000, and have worked at it every day since. It was just an idea. After all, there was nothing to replicate. No such thing as social media. Facebook hadn’t been created. Neither had Twitter. The word ‘blog’ hadn’t been invented.

“Hellopeter has become the biggest customer service site in the world,” Cheales added. Thousands of customers have taken to Hellopeter over the years to name and shame businesses for bad service.

As a result, big local companies - ranging from the likes of Edgars to First National Bank - have also watched the site carefully in a bid to respond and deal with complaints.

"I will follow my passions: writing and speaking at conferences," Cheales said regarding his future plans.

* Follow @GarethvanZyl on Twitter. For more tech news, follow Fin24tech @Fin24_Tech.

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