AtHome America - Going Out of Business? by: DonnaLynne MacDonald
Thanks, Viv for your enquiry. I have the following to share about AtHome America:
AtHome America is a direct selling company based in Alsip, Illinois. Products: home decor.
To answer Viv's question about the current status of AtHome America, this company has recently been in distress. Following is an excerpt of the message that went out from their home office to their consultants on January 4, 2010:
"To Our HomeStyle Specialist Family
We have a sad announcement and a hopeful announcement to our Home Style Specialists family. Sadly, due to many factors, AtHome America has been experiencing financial difficulties. Although we have worked closely with our bank to resolve these difficulties, the company?s bank has decided to foreclose on the assets of AtHome America and sell them in an effort to recover the loan to AtHome. This means that AtHome America will only operate until the bank has completed the foreclosure sale, which is currently scheduled for January 14, 2010.
There are two hopeful parts to this announcement. The first is that the bank has accepted an offer to sell the inventory of AtHome America and the non-physical assets to Signature HomeStyles, a direct sales home décor company based in suburban Chicago, SUBJECT TO the foreclosure sale procedure. This means that Signature HomeStyles? offer to the bank will have to be the best offer received at the foreclosure sale. The hopeful part is that if Signature HomeStyles is the winning bidder, it will be offering the HomeStyle Specialists the opportunity to join their company.
The second hopeful part of this announcement is that Becky and Lisa have not given up on their quest to save AtHome America. It is possible that Becky and Lisa (or even another, as yet unknown party) comes to the sale with an offer the bank cannot refuse.?
Subsequently their Customer Service Department sent out the following dated Thurs, Jan 21st:
"AtHome America is not going out of business. Over the past few weeks, and over the next several weeks, we are going through a transition period. We anticipate our website to be up and running by next week."
As of March 18, 2010, the company site is up and the BBB (AtHome America has been a member since 2001), rates them A+.
Following is my request to their Customer Support Department today:
"Hello, my home based business resource site (www.home-biz-help-desk.com) has received a request on behalf of a prospective AtHome America consultant. The interested party is looking for an update on the current status of the company's transition plans as per your January announcement referring to financial difficulties. Please respond with information that we can post on our website to update our community and reassure those who are considering the AtHome America business opportunity. Thank you."
