They also claim that the company, which closed in August, has failed to settle claims, commissions and incentives since January 2016.
AskMe.com.my, previously known as Findit, is Malaysia’s first and only integrated platform for search across local businesses, deals, and classifieds. It rebranded itself as AskMe.com.my in April 2016 in line with its flagship platform ASKME India.
A spokesperson for the employees, Ng Ven Ping, who spoke to FMT, said AskMe employees were facing a tough time as their salaries had not been paid since August, leaving employees struggling to settle bills.
Making matters worse, they have been unsuccessful in getting answers from the management.
“We just don’t know what to do and where to go,” said Ng.
Apart from the 30-odd unpaid employees, Ng said customers who had invested in AskMe were also in the dark.
“When they call us, we don’t know what to tell them. We can only try explaining the situation to them; but at the end of the day, they will not listen to us because they just want their money back.”
Another employee, Andrew Kanan said several customers had paid for the service in July but had got nothing as the company shut down completely in August.
“I’ve even had customers who called me up and threatened to ‘get their money one way or another’. They actually said things like ‘I’ll find out where you live and I’ll get my money back’,” adding that it was distressing.
According to a report in India-based news portal livemint.com in August, Indian-based AskMe.com suspended operations in the country citing lack of funds.
The report said Askme.com failed to pay salaries to its employees and even to its vendors after its main investor, Malaysia-based Astro Overseas, pulled out last month without paying the last tranche of funds to the company.
Astro, according to the report, said it had invested USD300 million (RM1.3 billion) in Getit Infoservices Pvt. Ltd, which runs AskMe, since 2010, and had criticised AskMe for its inability to make its business profitable despite this investment.