If you’re not sure what Dore involves, the following links – Translucent Science On Dore and Podblack On Dore – should fill in some gaps. But first, here’s the news:
Holford Watch: Dore New Zealand goes into liquidation
Those who are owed money/services by Dore New Zealand should seek advice ASAP. More details on Brainduck’s and Gimpy’s blogs. A Liquidator’s first report is on New Zealand Companies’ House. We hope that Dore will soon put up an announcement on its own website (the Liquidators’ Report is dated 23 March 2009): explaining what happened, and what people it owes money to and is providing services to ought to do next.
Brainduck’s Weblog: Dore NZ ‘voluntary liquidation’
‘Dore Group Ltd NZ put itself into voluntary liquidation on 23rd March, 2009. My son started the Program barely 3 months ago. They insisted on $NZ5500 upfront and had recently had a nationwide recruitment campaign.’
Anyone know what’s going on? Once again there’s nothing on the Dore NZ website or on any other official Dore sites as far as I can see, though this happened a few weeks ago.
If you are one of the affected, please, head to those sites, write in the comments, keep track of what is going on and assert your rights. This has been an ongoing case of dubious practices since last year – see Dr Ben ‘Bad Science’ Goldacre’s report in the UK Guardian:
You will remember last week we were talking about the £2,000 Dore “miracle cure” for dyslexia, invented by paint entrepreneur Wynford Dore. It had been pushed unrelentingly in the media, despite multiple Ofcom and ITC judgements, and through personal endorsement by Kenny Logan, who, it turned out, was paid for at least some of his promotional work. This was despite the fact that the evidence base for the programme was spectacularly poor, although the relentlessly positive media coverage might be explicable, since Dore has been known to be heavy-handed with those who speak out.
This week the UK arm of Dore went into administration, and US branches are closing too. Parents are out of pocket, and employees are out of work, although Phil Hall PR is still representing Dore very effectively.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I don’t mean to seem critical here but what are the odds of someone simultaneously getting conned into a “miracle cure” for Dyslexia and being the type to read your blog…
Ah well you might luck out and at least you’re spreading the word.
Ta
^_^
W R
Actually – not that unlikely, White Rabbit. And I have evidence!
When Dore Australia collapsed, the members of Translucent Science all got massive hits and comments from not only parents – but FORMER EMPLOYEES. Brainduck started up an alternative forum-board for the parents and all of us commented on the ‘soon-to-collapse’ Dore forum board (which was deleting critical comments as they appeared – hardly conducive to further discussion!).
If you read the Guardian news entry, written by Ben Goldacre, you can see how we formed a ‘virtual support network’. We had parents who (of course) ranged from ‘I feel I was conned and where’s my money‘ to ‘I still believe in them and there must have been a mistake, they need to start again‘ all appreciating our efforts to link them to information. Particularly former employees, who (as you can imagine) mentioned how they felt betrayed and at a loss.
We don’t blame the parents for believing what they do. Several members of Translucent Science have been in very similar positions to their children in terms of learning and know that you will do practically anything to help your kids out. But we cannot stand by and do nothing when there are people seeking info on ‘what’s going on’. Our sites rank highly on Google searches – that’s what we draw upon.
Sad tale — really getting those who are most needy and most in search of help and solutions.
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