Hello, friends and fans!
Welcome to another “Peek At My Week” for November 27, 2023! Here are some things that happened this past week!
News About Writing & Publishing: This Is The Current State Of Things
- Writing: Well, I’ve finally done it. After more than 6 months of near-obsessive work, “Freedom Inc” (book 1 in my new sci-fi adventure series, “Threaders“) is now available! At 100,180 words, “Freedom Inc.” is officially the longest novel I’ve ever written! Here’s a look at the brand new cover and poster for this book. Links are below where you can get the eBook and paperback versions of the book! There is also already a link to the reviews page, where you can read the first review!
Further Reading:
- Articles: This past week I posted “New Release: ‘Freedom Inc.‘”
- What Readers Say: I know I can’t please everybody (so I’m not trying to!). That said, it really pleases me when I see that I’ve managed to do it anyway! Drop me a line and let me know how you think I’m doing – or leave me a review on Amazon or Audible!
Bibliography – A listing of all my books so far:
Other Stuff:
Quilter – an “odd lot”
I am a so-called “odd-lot” holder of a small handful of shares in a UK company called Quilter. Or at least, I was, until today.
On the afternoon of Friday 24 November 2023 I received a written notification from Quilter delivered to my mailbox which described a process by which “Odd-lot Holders” (described as lots of shares of 199 or less) would be repossessed by Quilter, and the proceeds paid to their Holders via EFT.
The notification was dated 18 September 2023, so it took more than 1 entire month to reach me via the post!
The notification instructs Holders of “Odd-lots” of shares who do NOT wish to sell their shares to respond by returning the form via post, or by filling out a form on the Quilter website “by no later than 12:00 (SA time) Monday 6 November 2023” – a whole 18 days BEFORE I even received the notification!
I did NOT want to sell, so I immediately contacted the helpdesk number provided in the documentation by telephone (in Johannesburg) to ascertain exactly what was going on.
After a runaround process, and after speaking to two people who kept insisting that it’s my own fault for not meeting the deadline, one of them a supervisor, I was informed that it was too late, and that my Quilter shares had already been sold without my consent.
I was informed that the process was final, and could not be reversed. I was advised that I could repurchase my shares AFTER I received the reimbursement for the sale of those shares, which I believe was illegitimate and unethical, if not illegal.
I was given no guarantees that the “reimbursement” would reflect a fair market value of my shares, or that in repurchasing my shares I would not lose any value or share quantity in the process, or that there would be no “service fees” that would impair my ability to do so.
I would like to draw attention to the fact that the SA Post Office IS WELL KNOWN to be slow and unreliable – how could Quilter set up such an arrangement in good conscience, by which Holders failing to respond to instructions WHICH WERE “CONVENIENTLY” NOT RECEIVED IN TIME, would UNAVOIDABLY DEFAULT and be made to forfeit their shares against their wishes and without Quilter receiving their consent?
In addition, the envelope this correspondence was sent in is marked “Delivered by Royal Mail” and “by airmail” – but would’ve had to have passed through the local South African postal system on the way – even if it were sent from Jhb via JSE Investor Services (who operated the help desk) and strangely enough, has NO identifiable stamps anywhere on it to indicate this, which I find very “odd” indeed.
Could they not have used more modern, reliable means of communication with their shareholders? Email? WhatsApp? Phone calls? Smoke signals? Instead, they opted to use bloody snail mail, like it’s 1920… except in 1920, the SA postal service was actually reliable!
That said, if this is the process Quilter followed, I cannot believe that I am the only Holder of Quilter “Odd-lot” shares that this has happened to.
I am outraged. I am livid. This is totally unprofessional, it’s deceitful, it’s malicious, and it looks to be entirely deliberate! In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if it were.
The date for payouts of “reimbursements” indicated on the 18 September document is Monday 27 November – and if I receive it, rest assured I’ll be putting every penny of it somewhere else rather than buying any back.
Good riddance.
As always, I’ll keep you posted about any further developments, so until then, I wish you all a pleasant week! For me, as I’m wrapping this up, it’s still weekend – so I’ll be getting back to whatever I’m keeping myself busy with, and catch you later!
In spite of some of my books having been on Amazon since 2005, not one of them has yet reached the magical 51 reader reviews yet! (The highest number any of them has, is 10 – which is a pretty good number compared to many others, but it’s still not high enough for the almighty Amazon!) I would really appreciate your help on this! Come on, leave a review – it’s free!