Eurobookings.com Warning : Marcel Stillekens, Edo Jansen and Tim Verbeek in payment default to BPO Canada

Marcel Stillekens Edo Jansen Tim Verbeek Warning

Client is running Drupal 5 site developed by BPO Canada and after getting control on source code they have large overdue invoices. They have also informed that they will be moving away from Drupal and have not paid after taking services and giving many absurd excuses for not paying e.g Marcel’s wife has Cancer, Marcel is heart patient, Site does not function(after themselves closing all issue ticket queue), you gotta give us the code else 43 people in Mexico and Netherlands will lose their jobs.. They have a history of such criminal acts.

Edo Jansen and Marcel Stillekens are partners in Eurobookings.com and Tim Verbeek - their Project Manager. This is a group of masterminded thugs who are on ripping off spree. Beware!

Eurobookings was at risk of losing its Search Engine position big time because of not complying with Google’s norms. Edo and Marcel run a series of Travel Sites. Eurobookings.com is owned under company Aribana.

Tim Verbeek, Marcel Stillekens and Edo Jansen engaged BPO Canada Global Services Corporation in March 2008 to build a new site in Drupal 6. While the new site was to be built, BPO Canada was to fix a Drupal 5 site site which according to them would need about 40 hours of work and then it was to be moved live. BPO Canada did not want to take up Drupal 5 project and Tim Verbeek who had prior relatioship with BPO Canada was already made aware.

BPO Canada CEO was called in Los Angeles for this project from Vancouver and contract for Drupal 6 site development for Eurobookings was signed. In 2 weeks into the contract, Client moved entire team to Drupal 5 as it was evident that Drupal 5 built by previous company site was nowhere close to being pushed live. BPO Canada team was also aware from Tim Verbeek that Eurobookings (Marcel and Edo) did not pay the previous company who put up Drupal 5 site this far for amount of over $50,000 in services. External sources confirmed that the previous company also went through incomplete specifications and changing scope all the time.

Tim Verbeek who had near 1 year relationship with BPO Canada assured the company’s CEO that Eurobookings always pays. After the final product was delivered by BPO Canada, and monthly timesheets presented, and also the fact that product accepted with all major items closed by the Project Manager Tim Verbeek himself as acceptance of the product, Eurobookings now owes BPO Canada over $102,000 US in unpaid bills.

All the time during the project, Tim assured BPO Canada that client will pay and requested BPO Canada to release the code base even though client had unpaid previous invoices. During the project there was lot of emotional blackmailing done by Tim via email that many Jobs will be lost if we do not help the client, client always pays - don’t worry. After getting the code released, Tim later avoided the payment matter altogether stating now it is client’s decision to make the payments and he has nothing to do with it. Further to this, things like Marcel’s wife has Cancer and he can’t pay was also mentioned later on by Tim.

Tim always has a habit of undercutting the effort hours and paying fraction of the invoice amount after taking services. This had happened lot of times with his relationship with BPO Canada and also confirmed by others we spoke to.

While BPO Canada would never have taken Drupal 5 project for Eurobookings it was Tim who suppossedly had a hidden agenda and convinced BPO Canada team that they are hired for Drupal 6 and later pushed them to Drupal 5 for which he backstabbed friendship and left company with unpaid bills of over $102,000.

Tim badly managed the project right through and there was a communication disaster as they requirements were not clear and there was tons of rework done with progressive elaboration and change in scope all the time that spiraled the costs of the project. BPO Canada always recommended to plan things and have clear requirements but Marcel, Edo and Tim always took shortcuts in this project without thinking the implications and when the problems did surface, they again came back asking for fixes.

BPO Canada had asked Eurobookings to remove the latest code from their servers for which they have not paid the invoices. Eurobookings did not removed the code but continued to use the Drupal 5 product. They gave excuses that Drupal is not the right platform but have continued to use it and with traffic increasing steadily after the site was put live on April 12 and all other enhancements released by June 15 by BPO Canada team.

http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/eurobookings.com shows that the product works and the traffic is steadily growing.

BPO Canada now is the second company which Eurobookings owes money. Not sure how many others have been duped of services by Tim Verbeek, Marcel Stillekens and Edo Jansen.

Be wary of dealing with Tim Verbeek, Edo Jansen and Marcel Stillekens. They do take services from company and do not pay their bills. I will be sharing audio files, emails as well as chat transcripts in due course with lot more details. Marcel is a sick guy who seems to have lost mental balance and can act very oddly. If you are a services company, be wary - he may wake up one morning and send out emails to your entire IT team with some contract deal, etc - generally which should only stay within management level!!

For any information in this regards, please contact me personally at roshan_shah at yahoo.com

Note : This is posted in public interest from personal viewpoint.

P.S : After warning Eurobookings that BPO Canada will take strict action, Marcel came back with offer of $35,000 instead of $102,000. This was not accepted by BPO Canada and now the battle is on! Considering that Marcel was a heart patient and his wife had Cancer, BPO Canada team proposed a $75,000 final amount and gave a deadline to accept that which was not accepted. BPO Canada now is claiming full $102,000 unpaid amount with 2% monthly interest.

When there is hue an cry about outsourcing service providers, here is an example of how Clients dupe vendors of money - a story soon to be discussed with press and television media.

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