Customers still seeking answers after transport company collapse
Shire business
The fallout from the shock collapse of Port Douglas transport company Exemplar Coaches and Limousines has been reverberating across the region in the past week, with multiple customers contacting Newsport with stories of frustration.
One said she arrived at Cairns airport on Wednesday evening last week unaware the shuttle service had gone into receivership two days earlier, so she had to search around for a new way to get to Port Douglas at 8pm that night.
Another said she had been notified by the liquidators that she could apply to have her lost money reimbursed, but the about 40 employees would likely receive any available funds before the customers.
Long-time Douglas Shire local Graeme Halfacree said he was out of pocket up to $1000 after booking an Exemplar shuttle to Cairns airport on Sunday, March 29, for Monday, March 30, which did not turn up that morning, leaving him waiting on the footpath for more than an hour.
After ringing the company multiple times following the 8.15am pick-up time without being able to get through, Mr Halfacree missed his flight to Perth, he said.
“If they did it to me, they’ve done it to many other people,” Mr Hardacree said.
“You just can’t do that.”
Phone calls by Newsport to Exemplar went to an automated service, while the website was still operational for about three days after the shutdown.
The Craiglie business, which has operated for more than 30 years, is now being wound up by liquidators from BDO.
The Australian Securities and Investment commission notice states a general meeting of the members of the company Wellham and Wellham, which was trading as Exemplar Coaches and Limousines, was held on March 30 and resolved that the company be wound up and that the liquidators be appointed.
