How is Adam doing?

Hello
As one of the victims of Adam's actions I must say that I find your comment very dismissive.  Where else do we express it? Writing to Adam makes no difference and in the mean time more people are becoming victims of this. Another member tried putting this on the forum months ago and the posts were deleted. This information is relevant for every member that might think of a trip via this forum and company.
What you should be saying it is really sad that the figurehead and owner of Wetpixel, leader of tours etc has acted the way he has, not that it is sad to see it shared on the forum.
I had made a very clear post as a notice to Adam on the Fraud, Non Payment forum yesterday but it is only since someone mentioned Alex's post on FB that this have been commented on.
Wetpixel is a business.  Wetpixel Limited and Adam Hanlon was the source of information to make the booking,  Adam / Wetpixel was conducting the trip and Adam has taken the money, not just from me but dozens of other participants. Adam is the main moderator of this site, the star of the live videos etc etc.
I paid Adam USD 5,000 in January 2020 that is still held for a trip that I cancelled out of in October 21 and multiple times thereafter.  Most of us have not said anything due to the health situation which has been used an excuse. He will not respond to anything. No sign of a refund, no attempt to communicate either himself or via an intermediary. In short nothing has been done, one broken promise after another.
Alex has done the industry a massive service by coming out and stating what has been happening and finally the wider community can know what has been going on. Myself, and many others involved, back him up 100%.
Making this known is a benefit to everyone on the forum - to avoid booking trips from this site, and be careful when making any bookings, and further if you have a future booking with Wetpixel you should act on it. It is not a wall of rants for those that have issues -- it is notification of a very serious situation and one which could have been avoided with some communication and honesty.
We have a fraud, non, payment copyright issues forum - to report exactly things like this. That is where this belongs as that is what it is, plain and simple. Adam would not hesitate to call out another operator on this forum.
Respectfully please do not make us victims a second time because you feel it should not be on this forum. Have some empathy for those affected  - we are not attacking the forum at all and do not want to see it affected.
There is no connection to the moderators, no criticism, you all do a fantastic job and this is one of the best resources out there, I certainly refer to it daily and appreciate everyone on here.
You can reach out to me for more details anyime
Regards
John
 

Who is asking the moderators to address anything? Nobody expects them too. it is not their issue.

10 minutes ago, Interceptor121 said:

You got it completely wrong.
Wetpixel goes beyond Adam Hanlon whose tenure started in 2018.
What I said is that it would be sad if all of this goes belly up because of this situation with the last owner.
That doesn’t mean I am saying people to shut up.
However l also think that this has gone past a few complaints on this forum and the affected parties should get legal advice and debt collection support
Writing a few posts here is not going to resolve the situation I am afraid.


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Yes, I agree with this, but as trips are still advertised on the site and some individuals may not be aware that the Red Sea workshops have been cancelled by the boat for non payment of funds, I think it is a pertinent topic to hilighting. 
 

Does Adam own the wetpixel copyright etc? To whom is the sponsorship and advertising revenue paid for the website/forums etc?

obviously it would be an ideal situation if there was no connection to jeopardize this platform.  
 

when you reference ‘last owner’ does that mean he is not the current owner of wetpixel? Because the business registration in the UK cites him as the sole owner in 2023.  

7 minutes ago, Interceptor121 said:

You got it completely wrong.
Wetpixel goes beyond Adam Hanlon whose tenure started in 2018.
What I said is that it would be sad if all of this goes belly up because of this situation with the last owner.
That doesn’t mean I am saying people to shut up.
However l also think that this has gone past a few complaints on this forum and the affected parties should get legal advice and debt collection support
Writing a few posts here is not going to resolve the situation I am afraid.


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all good. Cheers

Just now, Ministryofgiraffes said:

Yes, I agree with this, but as trips are still advertised on the site and some individuals may not be aware that the Red Sea workshops have been cancelled by the boat for non payment of funds, I think it is a pertinent topic to hilighting. 
 

Does Adam own the wetpixel copyright etc? To whom is the sponsorship and advertising revenue paid for the website/forums etc?

obviously it would be an ideal situation if there was no connection to jeopardize this platform.  

This is a legal matter I am afraid. The participants of those trips bought it from wetpixel limited whose business is to be a tour operator it seems. If the directors or owners of wetpixel do things that are against the interest of the company itself this is a wrong doing however ultimately is the company that is liable to the customers so that company eventually folds. As the company has the liabilities this is worth nothing if it cannot recover the cash.

I have been involved in several cases of insolvency, and to be clear the facts here are unknown and I am not suggesting this is similar but I want the people involved to have an idea.

In one of such cases a company that was healthy was brought into insolvency and administration because one of the shareholder took cash out of it illegally. Although this person was found guilty the moneys were not fully recovered and the company was wound down. Creditors did not get the money back and employees lost their job. 

In essence in all those cases money can be given back if you can get hold of it, if you can't other than the satisfaction of having someone sentenced, nothing more is going to happen.

Wetpixel is a UK company and UK has very clear insolvency guidelines that can be followed. All interested parties should appoint a specialist to understand what can be done. 

By coincidence wetpixel accounts are due for filing on the 31 of August. Previously there was already a gap in shareholder funds of c90K (this happens when the company pays more dividends than it can) and I would like to see if I was an impacted party what is the situation of the assets and bank was as of November 2022.

So if the shareholders of wetpixel took too much money out of the business  and wetpixel becomes insolvent wetpixel dies. Nobody will want to touch the company as it has associated liabilities to the customers so everything comes to an end.

Hopefully the moneis have not vanished or been spent and somehow this whole thing survives.

I am also feeling sorry for all of those that are associated and worked for wetpixel in various form and are somehow associated with this mess.

Agreed. Although I’m not saying this is the case, but when you consider the chronology of events, it’s appears quite feasible that there has been a scenario where an individual has found themselves in a financial deficit and has attempted to delay all payments/refunds etc which would not jeopardize the actual trips, ( collected tips to boats/food costs/payments and travel costs to Alex etc) whilst trying to regain the money from future trips to fill the hole. Lamentably, as with all similar scinareos, the individual ultimately runs out of road and I suspect that may have happed with the Red Sea trips cancelling due to non payment to the boats even though all of the funds have been paid to an intermediary by the guests..

obviously all conjecture.

53 minutes ago, JohnVila said:

I had made a very clear post as a notice to Adam on the Fraud, Non Payment forum yesterday but it is only since someone mentioned Alex's post on FB that this have been commented on.

The Fraud, Non Payment forum is now at the bottom of the forum list.

37 minutes ago, Interceptor121 said:

It was suggested in the post I quoted
Moderators are volunteers and havr nothing to do with the situation nor can resolve it


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sorry missed that.

I remain stunned to learn about the affair and wish all those involved success in finally finding a solution. You have all my sympathy, as much as this will help...
For underwater images, WP is a more unique than rare community that has barely survived the onslaught of social networks for years. I have always compared it to the DPreview of diving.

I hope this tsunami does not give this community a final shove.

Amen to that Davide

1 hour ago, Davide DB said:

I remain stunned to learn about the affair and wish all those involved success in finally finding a solution. You have all my sympathy, as much as this will help...
For underwater images, WP is a more unique than rare community that has barely survived the onslaught of social networks for years. I have always compared it to the DPreview of diving.

I hope this tsunami does not give this community a final shove.

There are ways around it if someone is interested to buy some parts of the asset. However we need to understand if wetpixel is insolvent or not and if so how this process is handled.

5 minutes ago, Interceptor121 said:

There are ways around it if someone is interested to buy some parts of the asset. However we need to understand if wetpixel is insolvent or not and if so how this process is handled.

This is all speculation - the site is privately owned and it would require a willing buyer and a willing seller.  No one but the owner knows what the situation is unfortunately and posting about it on the forums is not going to get anywhere.

This is all speculation - the site is privately owned and it would require a willing buyer and a willing seller.  No one but the owner knows what the situation is unfortunately and posting about it on the forums is not going to get anywhere.

A fact is that nobody is able to answer the initial question of this tread, "How is Adam doing?". The last public signs of life from him were in early April (I think the last was the WP article on the appearance of the Nauticam Canon R50 housing from April 4th; on April 1st Adam even made a funny joke about a listening/talking Retra flash) - since then he is practically submerged and nobody, even the Associated Editors and/or Moderators (I think that some of these people are/were good friends of Adam), can tell what is the matter with him. We all are just speculating (and some are running for their money and/or thinking whether the Trips will take place or not)...

This all is extremely strange, scaring and unbelieveable, the parts of the puzzle do not fit together...

Wolfgang

1 hour ago, ChrisRoss said:

This is all speculation - the site is privately owned and it would require a willing buyer and a willing seller.  No one but the owner knows what the situation is unfortunately and posting about it on the forums is not going to get anywhere.

Whilst I appreciate that it’s normal to default to denial in these situations, Respectfully, I would disagree. If the site goes dark due to non payment of hosting fees etc, one would argue that discussions/hypothesis around a lift and shift strategy would have been very beneficial….something I would argue becomes more likely every day as more info is revealed about the situation, Adam remains awol, updates and site maintenance are unaddressed etc. 

it is far beyond my capability. But I would hope there could be some sort of ‘if the lights go off, we all meet somewhere else to carry on’ strategy… as opposed to lamenting the demise of the community with no plan.

Chris and I are pursuing. 

59 minutes ago, TimG said:

Chris and I are pursuing. 

If you do reach him and the information is revealed to be accurate, I would hope he is reassured that there will be empathy from most….even though it is a very serious situation.. there is always a solution, even in the darkest of times.
 

42 minutes ago, Ministryofgiraffes said:

If you do reach him and the information is revealed to be accurate, I would hope he is reassured that there will be empathy from most….even though it is a very serious situation.. there is always a solution, even in the darkest of times.
 

 

Very well written...

Wolfgang

I would hope there is a solution but as another victim from the Lembeh trip I need to back up John and Jess - we were lied to and are owed refunds. In my case he refused to move me to the second session that I had requested. He said it was full - it was not - and that he would try to sell my seat - he did not. I made it very clear I could not attend the first session at the time he made the change to 2023 dates many months prior to the event. 
I don’t want to see this Forum destroyed by Adam’s actions around the WetPixel trips but I believe this is the appropriate place to warn others about the risks of doing business with Adam operating as WetPixel trips. 

Adam, you need to communicate and pay back the money you owe me and others.  You have been reassuring me for months that you would get me my 5,000 dollars back from the Lembeh trip you rescheduled once your health allowed you to do so.  I you are able to post new trips and collect money from people you can send me my money back.  There is no excuse for this behavior.

I warn others that there is a pattern of collecting money then no communication and sometimes not even a trip like this Red Sea one.  To not talk about it and reveal what Adam is doing is hurting the industry and protecting someone that is fraudulent and causing great damage to the industry.