SHERWOOD, Ark – Just 5 days before the holiday a local company has temporarily shut down its services, leaving several people without a job.
“It’s very frustrating, you know. Especially when you’re trying to build yourself back up and try to get around and do the right thing and bad things keep happening,” employee at The Heritage Company, Johnathan Woods said.
The Heritage Company in Sherwood has suddenly closed its doors, leaving people confused and angry. Most of them said they found out about it through Facebook or from a coworker.
The telemarketing company has been operating for more than 60 years.
Some employees said as they were walking into work on Saturday, they found out they were unemployed.
“Technically I haven’t even been fired, like what’s going on,” Woods said.
Emotions are high for more than 50 people who walked into work Saturday, only to be sent home without a job.
“Why are you guys shutting the door on and leaving us with nothing,’ Woods said.
Johnathan Woods has been working with the company on and off since 2006.
Woods said he loves the job and helping people and now things are hard because he hasn’t been able to finish all his Christmas shopping.
“This time of year, how could you do something like that,” Woods said.
Woods said he’s hoping that they can at least be compensated. He isn’t the only one, Krystal Todd said she heard about it through a coworker who saw a post on Facebook.
“It wasn’t the right way, you know it could have been done better,” Todd said.
Todd said she never talked to management directly.
“To just shut it down with no notice, no email, no phone call, text, nothing,” Todd said. “It just makes me question them.”
She woke up to go to work but was told not to come in from a friend.
“It was just crazy because we thought that we would have at least a month’s notice to get another job or two weeks at least,” Todd said.
For her, it’s hard because she is a single mother with 3 kids, who now must wait to finish Christmas shopping. Meanwhile, a lot of others are taking to Facebook to express their feeling, as they wait to see what’s next for them.
“It’s a lot of people that are hurt, behind this. and we thought we were guaranteed a job,” Todd said.
The company CEO, Sandra Franecke released the following statement:
Dear Employees of The Heritage Company,
I know that you are all angry, confused, and hurt by the recent turn of events. Please know that I am just as devastated as you all are, especially that we had to do this at this time of year.
Please know that we would have NEVER gone to this extreme if we were not forced to. Now is the time to be honest and open about what is REALLY happening so that all of you know the truth, directly from me, especially since some of you have incorrect information and the spreading of untruths through social media is damaging us further.
Unfortunately, approximately two months ago our Heritage servers were attacked by malicious software that basically “held us hostage for ransom” and we were forced to pay the crooks to get the “key” just to get our systems back up and running. Since then, IT has been doing everything they can to bring all our systems back up, but they still have quite a long way to go. Also, since then, I have been doing my utmost best to keep our doors open, even going as far as paying your wages from my own money to keep us going until we could recoup what we lost due to the cyber attack.
I know how confusing this must be, especially after we just gave away 7 cruises just this week, but again, that was money that I spent out of my own personal money to give you the best Christmas gift I possibly could, but that was before our systems were hacked. Afterwards, I didn’t want to disappoint everyone by taking them back. We started the Prizes and Bingo the first of November when again I was being told the systems would be fixed that week.
What we hope is just a temporary setback is an opportunity for IT to continue their work to bring our systems back and for leadership to restructure different areas in the company in an attempt to recoup our losses which have been hundreds of thousands of dollars.
It is extremely important right now that we all keep the faith and hope alive that The Heritage Company can and will come back from this setback. It is also important that we all keep to the facts and keep calm. And so, I ask that you please share this with the employees who may not be on this page or may not have Facebook. To share this out of the group, you will need to copy the text of this post and share it as your own status.
Please know that when I made my speech at the “Future is Bright” luncheons, everything was sincere and heartfelt. We had no way of predicting that our systems would be hacked at that time. Once we were hit with this terrible virus we were told time and time again that things would be better each week, and then the next week, and the week after that. Accounting was down and we had no way of processing funds. The mail center was down as we had no way of sending statements out, which meant that no funds could come in.
Had we known at the time that this would have hurt the company this badly, we would have made a statement to the employees long ago to warn everyone what this might mean. The ONLY option we had at this time was to close the doors completely or suspend our services until we can regroup and reorganize and get our systems running again. Of course, we chose to suspend operations as Heritage is a company that doesn’t like to give up.
I also want to apologize for the way many of you found out we were closing our doors. When we left the meeting yesterday afternoon, everyone had a plan for what was to happen, but we never considered that the word would spread so fast and far to each of you before your managers could speak to the employees who had already gone home for the day. No one is sorrier than I about you finding out from other sources who did not necessarily have the correct information.
So here it is: The Heritage Company is temporarily suspending our services. On January 2nd, there will be a message left on the weather line. That message will give you updated information on the restructuring of the company and whether or not we’ve made progress on our system.
In the meantime, I urge each and every one of you to please keep faith with us. We know how extremely hard you all work for each of the wonderful charities we all represent. We want you all back where you belong in two weeks’ time. We are a family, and my hope is that we will stay a family for a long time, despite this setback.
My mother started this company 61 years ago, and I am committed to keeping Heritage open if it is in my power to do so.
Sincerely,
Sandra Franecke,
Owner and CEO,
The Heritage Company
