A Creditors meeting heard yesterday that the 10,000 subscribers to Aberdeen Cable, which has gone into liquidation, will not get back any money.
Many are furious that their direct debits were collected in the days leading up to when the firm, part of the troubled Atlantic Telecom group built up by Graham Duncan, stopped trading.
By last night, the deadline for indicative bids for Aberdeen-based Atlantic, six offers had been received from parties interested in buying the group as a going concern.
Iain Bennet, the PricewaterhouseCoopers partner who is handling the administration of Atlantic, said the six indicative bids were in line with their expectations.
''This is really an intermediate stage and with this reduced number of interested parties we try and iron out the details of a deal.
''We are not aiming to make this any more protracted than need be, and if we can get a deal away in two or three weeks' time that might be in everyone's interest.''
Less than 20 creditors turned up in a hall set to cope for 450 yesterday to hear that after 16 years there is no way back for Aberdeen Cable.
One subscriber, who declined to be named, said: ''They took money from me under false pretence. They took a payment by direct debit of almost (pounds) 40 knowing that they were insolvent. It is not the money so much as the principle of the matter.''
Former employee Mark Farquhar, who was a customer services manager, said he had six very happy years with the company but he was very bitter at the way he and others had lost their jobs and had not been paid what they were owed.
Ian Rankin, of PricewaterhouseCoopers, said: ''I think it is virtually certain that the creditors will get nothing.''
He said the state of affairs showed huge debts - (pounds) 210,269,125 - because Aberdeen Cable, along with other group companies, had given a guarantee to certain bond holders.
''The directors are of the view that following the administration of Atlantic Telecom Group plc, the guarantee provided by Aberdeen Cable Services Limited has now crystallised.
''The trade creditors' claims total about (pounds) 600,000 and the assets are nominal'' he said.
''Technically, because they had given a guarantee and Atlantic is in administration, the guarantees are due and therefore the guarantors in theory have a claim against this company as well as the others.''
He said there had been no offers for Aberdeen Cable.
''The market had been tried but the problem is it is analogue technology, which is yesterday's technology, and no-one wants to buy for tomorrow with yesterday's technology.''
Aberdonian Graham Duncan, who was executive chairman of Atlantic, did not attend the meeting, which was chaired by fellow director Gordon Sleigh.
Rankin said Aberdeen Cable, which started providing cable in May 1985, had a potential 98,000 customers.
It reached a peak in 1999 when it had an actual customer base of 18,200, but in the following two years, because of the arrival of digital satellite services, this slumped to 10,000 customers.
He said it had looked at upgrading to digital, but that would have cost (pounds) 15m, which
the directors did not think they could justify.
It was in talks with BSkyB about transferring its customers to it when Aberdeen Cable went into liquidation.
Rankin confirmed that payments had been taken by direct debit from some customers after the company went into liquidation on October 5 and that money was being paid into a special account and would be repaid to them.
Sleigh said it was a matter of great regret that so many loyal customers had lost their service.
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