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Amanda Butterfield reporting For months, Eyewitness News has been covering the closure of an off-campus bookstore near the University of Utah that owes students money--in some cases hundreds of dollars. Then we told you the store near the Salt Lake Community College campus closed. Now, we've learned one of the co-founders of Beat the Bookstore has resigned.
David Monk was president of Beat the Bookstore. We first talked to him in November after the University of Utah bookstore closed. The store owed students, like Sydney Stoner, money. "I should be getting $81 back," Stoner said.
Back then, Monk said, "The whole reason we started Beat the Bookstore was to help students, and it's our intent to make sure none of the student lose money in regards to their in-store credit.
But now Monk is leaving the store. No one from its corporate headquarters would talk to us on camera about it, but over the phone we were told Monk is leaving to pursue other opportunities.
Today, we caught up with Stoner again. "I have not received any money back," she told us.
Now she says she's even more discouraged to learn a co-founder is leaving. "It seems a little sketchy," she said.
Despite Monk's promise to us in November that it is their intent to see that University of Utah students are paid back, that's not what Stoner is being told when she calls corporate. "They've been honest with me, telling me I'm not going to get my money back," she explained.
Same thing for student Edward Wright. We met him while talking with Stoner. "They just wrote me off. They didn't want to discuss it and said, ‘It's not our problem.'" Wright said.
Andrew Wright, also a student at the University of Utah, said, "I've been here 10 times. I went to the corporate office, and they just said, ‘It's not our problem.'"
This bookstore is a franchise and is independently owned by Zach Neipp. Corporate officials say they are seeking legal action against him, and they say it is Neipp who owes the students money.
A statement sent to us today by corporate lawyers reads in part: "We express our concern to any of the students who have an unpaid, in-store credit with the franchisee. We have retained legal counsel, who is in touch with the attorney for the franchisee, and we are pursuing our legal remedies against the franchisee."
"What if I were to tell you you're not going to get your money back? I'm angry," Edward Wright said.
We also reported in November that a Beat the Bookstore had closed near the Salt Lake Community College campus. That store was owned by corporate, and officials there tell us they have paid all students back who were owed money.
