By Esther Lauaki
The owner of a Geelong trailer business says he is copping backlash after Hoppers Crossing Trailers shut up shop.
Customers and suppliers who paid thousands of dollars for trailers and parts have been left in the lurch after the Hoppers Crossing manufacturer packed up and disappeared from its Industrial Avenue site in late March.
The business was still advertising on its Facebook page this week.
GL Trailers director Gurpinder Singh, who was a dealer for Hoppers Crossing Trailers, told
Star Weekly his business has been wrongly implicated in dealings with the failed manufacturer. He said he had been fielding calls and copped abuse from customers trying to recuperate their losses.
“This is affecting my business,” Mr Singh said. “I am not the same owner of Hoppers Crossing Trailers.”
Mr Singh said he bought 32 trailers from Hoppers Crossing and is selling them on.
“They still owe me six trailers … I am also a victim.”
Mr Singh said police and VicRoads had also been in contact with him last week.
Four people contacted Star Weekly in recent weeks claiming they were up to $6000 out of pocket for trailers they had not received and their inquiries to Hoppers Crossing Trailers were unanswered.
Hoppers Crossing Trailers, which sells, repairs, hires and manufactures trailers, cleared out up to 200 units of stock and abandoned its yard with little notice to customers or suppliers.
A post on the company’s Facebook page on April 2 indicated the business was in trouble.
“We’re facing some problems, due to which we are unable to open our physical location,” the post said. “Kindly be patient and we’ll be right back.”
Star Weekly’s attempts to make contact on four phone numbers and via Facebook pages of the company were unsuccessful.
