spectr17
07-17-2001, 07:05 PM
It ###couldn't happen to a more derserving company. You may remember this Xoutdoors.com and their annoying commercials showing a loudmouth guy heckling a guy fishing or hunting. In one commercial the guy grabs the a duck hutner's old shotgun only to hand he a brand new one. Somebody reaches for my model 12, they better be real careful.
=====================================
July 11, 2001
Local dot-com posts bond to reopen its doors.
By LAURA ERNDE and SCOTT BUTKI.
Xoutdoors.com, which last year touted itself as one of the only successful dot-com businesses in the area, was shut down last week by a bank seeking payment of a $111,000 debt.
On Wednesday the company posted a $130,000 bond that reopened its doors, but co-founder Eric Payne said the business ultimately will move to the home of its new owners in Birmingham, Ala.
Employees were upset because several paychecks bounced and they weren't paid for an additional week of work.
Last Thursday, the Washington County Sheriff's Department escorted about 15 employees and their personal belongings out of Xoutdoors' Sweeney Drive offices, said Holly Butler of Waynesboro, Pa., the company's Web development supervisor and project manager.
The police were executing an order, signed by Washington County Circuit Judge Kennedy Boone, to secure the property as collateral for the $111,000 debt, according to court records.
Manufacturers & Traders Trust Co. of Hagerstown asked for the order because Xoutdoors had not paid the money it owed for equipment leasing, court records said.
Xoutdoors computers were shut down, darkening about 500 Internet Web sites it hosted, including Florida State University's Athletic Department, Mossy Oak Hunting Supply and Beretta, court records said.
The web sites were back up Wednesday evening.
This week Boone denied a request by Xoutdoors to go back in and turn on the computers, court records said, but company officials were allowed access after posting a bond through the Circuit Court on Wednesday.
Payne said the company is being acquired by Vulcan Publications of Birmingham and Haas Outdoors of West Point, Miss. Both had been minority shareholders in Xoutdoors.
Most of the operations are being moved to Birmingham. Eight Web developers will remain in the area, at an office in Chambersburg, Pa., Payne said.
A handful of employees showed up outside the office Wednesday, hoping to get answers about when they will be paid.
They left before Payne posted the bond and opened the doors.
All employees will receive checks today to cover their back pay and bounced paychecks, Payne said. All have been told to sign up for unemployment. The Web developers will then be rehired, he said.
Butler, 36, said employees are skeptical because of earlier promises she said were not fulfilled by Payne and co-founder Jeff Edwards.
Employees were told the business was doing fine and would soon go public. But the road kept getting rockier. An April court order temporarily shut down the business and at one time employees' health insurance coverage lapsed.
Butler said she is owed about $3,300.
"It's just a big nightmare," she said. "To quote Jerry Garcia, 'What a long, strange trip it's been.'"
Payne told Washington County business leaders last year that the company was doing great, earning $2.2 million in its first year.
But Xoutdoors was telling a different story to Mid-Atlantic Business Group of Columbia, Md.
Mid-Atlantic tried to garnish Payne's wages this year to collect a $199,000 judgment against American Advanced Computers of Hagerstown, a now defunct company that Payne used to run, court records said.
Xoutdoors claimed that Payne was no longer an employee, court records said.
Payne and Edwards said both were off the payroll for a few months in order to make a personal sacrifice for the company.
The company's payroll had dropped from 45 to 30 employees earlier this year.
Payne admitted the company was having financial problems, but said it was important to keep public confidence.
"Impression is everything," Payne said.
Stargate, another Internet company that leases space in the same building, inadvertently got disconnected during the Xoutdoors shutdown. Its network was down for about five hours in the middle of the night after a battery backup died, said General Manager David Greer.
Greer on Wednesday began offering to waive the startup fee for hosting Xoutdoors customers' Web sites.
=====================================
July 11, 2001
Local dot-com posts bond to reopen its doors.
By LAURA ERNDE and SCOTT BUTKI.
Xoutdoors.com, which last year touted itself as one of the only successful dot-com businesses in the area, was shut down last week by a bank seeking payment of a $111,000 debt.
On Wednesday the company posted a $130,000 bond that reopened its doors, but co-founder Eric Payne said the business ultimately will move to the home of its new owners in Birmingham, Ala.
Employees were upset because several paychecks bounced and they weren't paid for an additional week of work.
Last Thursday, the Washington County Sheriff's Department escorted about 15 employees and their personal belongings out of Xoutdoors' Sweeney Drive offices, said Holly Butler of Waynesboro, Pa., the company's Web development supervisor and project manager.
The police were executing an order, signed by Washington County Circuit Judge Kennedy Boone, to secure the property as collateral for the $111,000 debt, according to court records.
Manufacturers & Traders Trust Co. of Hagerstown asked for the order because Xoutdoors had not paid the money it owed for equipment leasing, court records said.
Xoutdoors computers were shut down, darkening about 500 Internet Web sites it hosted, including Florida State University's Athletic Department, Mossy Oak Hunting Supply and Beretta, court records said.
The web sites were back up Wednesday evening.
This week Boone denied a request by Xoutdoors to go back in and turn on the computers, court records said, but company officials were allowed access after posting a bond through the Circuit Court on Wednesday.
Payne said the company is being acquired by Vulcan Publications of Birmingham and Haas Outdoors of West Point, Miss. Both had been minority shareholders in Xoutdoors.
Most of the operations are being moved to Birmingham. Eight Web developers will remain in the area, at an office in Chambersburg, Pa., Payne said.
A handful of employees showed up outside the office Wednesday, hoping to get answers about when they will be paid.
They left before Payne posted the bond and opened the doors.
All employees will receive checks today to cover their back pay and bounced paychecks, Payne said. All have been told to sign up for unemployment. The Web developers will then be rehired, he said.
Butler, 36, said employees are skeptical because of earlier promises she said were not fulfilled by Payne and co-founder Jeff Edwards.
Employees were told the business was doing fine and would soon go public. But the road kept getting rockier. An April court order temporarily shut down the business and at one time employees' health insurance coverage lapsed.
Butler said she is owed about $3,300.
"It's just a big nightmare," she said. "To quote Jerry Garcia, 'What a long, strange trip it's been.'"
Payne told Washington County business leaders last year that the company was doing great, earning $2.2 million in its first year.
But Xoutdoors was telling a different story to Mid-Atlantic Business Group of Columbia, Md.
Mid-Atlantic tried to garnish Payne's wages this year to collect a $199,000 judgment against American Advanced Computers of Hagerstown, a now defunct company that Payne used to run, court records said.
Xoutdoors claimed that Payne was no longer an employee, court records said.
Payne and Edwards said both were off the payroll for a few months in order to make a personal sacrifice for the company.
The company's payroll had dropped from 45 to 30 employees earlier this year.
Payne admitted the company was having financial problems, but said it was important to keep public confidence.
"Impression is everything," Payne said.
Stargate, another Internet company that leases space in the same building, inadvertently got disconnected during the Xoutdoors shutdown. Its network was down for about five hours in the middle of the night after a battery backup died, said General Manager David Greer.
Greer on Wednesday began offering to waive the startup fee for hosting Xoutdoors customers' Web sites.