Once promoted by Bollywood stars Ranbir Kapoor and Kangna Ranaut, AskMeBazaar has become talk of the town after it suspended its operations last month leaving about 4,000 employees in angst.Here's our exclusive coverage on AskMeBazaar went bust:Exclusive: How the AskMeBazaar scam unfoldedEven a month after shutting down the services, AskMe Group’s issues with investor Astro is far from getting resolved. Even as the group’s management and Astro continue to throw mud at each other, here’s a stock of what this issue of all about, how it started and how bad is it turning out for its employees and the vendors.Sanjiv Gupta mismanaged AskMe, missed performance targets: AstroMalaysia-based Astro in 2015 had cautioned AskMe’s founders that it was unable to put in more money.
'Am no longer an employee, have quit': AskMeBazaar CEOClosure of AskMeBazaar was a writing on the wall since 2015. Top management hid from employees - Astro's key decision of not to invest any further.'I might have to sell my house to pay debt': AskMe sellerVendors on the platform say beginning November 2015 their payments started getting delayed. Such is the case that one vendor says he is on the cusp of selling his house to repay the loans he had taken supply products to Askmebazaar buyers.Employees threaten suicide in emails to AskMe CMD Sanjiv GuptaDisgruntled and disheartened employees of AskMeBazaar who have been pushed to the wall have formed WhatsApp groups and are threatening the top management of AskMeBazaar with suicide if their dues are not cleared.AskMe scaled too fast and ran out of moneyWith less than 2% stake, startup founders had no skin left in the game, experts say.With no management, employees can’t even resign or get fired!Unlike delivery boys who were on contract and were laid off, Askmebazaar employees have no one to report to or head to for any queries. Worse, with decision-makers absent at their chairs, the staff is caught between a rock and a hard place — they can't even resign or get pink slips.
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