Time crisis: Ex-employee sets up support site

An ex-employee of Granville Technology, parent company of the Time and Tiny computer brands, has set up a free website to offer help and support to staff and customers alike.

The move comes just days after the company collapsed after defaulting on loans from HSBC.

Customers can use Tinycon.com to try and find support for products bought from The Computer Shop, Time or Tiny. The site was set up by Matt Ashworth, who previously worked in sales support expediting customer orders at Granville. He was laid off with the other employees and is now organising fellow ex-employees to staff the site.

Ashworth told ZDNet UK: "Basically there are a lot of people out there with time on their hands. This will give them something to do and it helps us to keep in touch with each other."

Although the site will act as a forum for ex-employees it will be primarily aimed at customers, said Ashworth. "There are a lot of people out there who are going to have problems, particularly those who are with the [Granville] ISP. If we can help them, we will."

Ashworth said he did at first think that he was going to keep his job at Granville. On Wednesday he was one of 14 sales staff told to report for work the following day. At that point the company was still taking orders for systems from its website. When he turned up on the Thursday, Ashworth says, he and the others waited in work until around 14:00(BST) when they were also made redundant.

Shortly afterwards the Time and Tiny websites closed down. Customers of Granville can still get support from the Granville technical support group, which is based in India but calls cost £1 per minute. There is also a free enquiries line organised by the administrators but callers have reported that this is usually busy.

Colin Barker writes for ZDNet UK