In the words of Jeff O’Bryant, a restaurant manager from Miramar Beach Florida, “I received $14,000 in emergency payments and have been offered a measly $7,500 as a final payout. That is supposed to cover losses through 2013? Our losses have cut deep and will be felt for a long time. The $7,500 will cover taxes and a mortgage payment. This won’t nearly be enough to avoid foreclosure.”
A scant three days ago, the average amount of an accepted final payment from Feinberg’s GCCF was at $11,000 dollars, but now, as of March 7th, the average has dropped to $6,800 dollars. By Feinberg’s own estimation there is roughly $15 billion dollars available in BP’s escrow fund, yet so far he has offered up only $64 million dollars in final payment money.
Makes a guy wonder how the negotiations are going between Feinberg and British Petroleum, you know, to determine how much his law firm will be paid for the next three months to administer the fund.
And even though the average on final payments will doubtless fluctuate over the coming months and probably begin to climb at some point, I’m guessing that the claimant, or the business that gets paid more than Feinberg for administering this mess will be the rare, rare exception and certainly not the rule…
Have a nice day.
Drake Toulouse: Photography and Words 
enough with the gccf, get a lawyer and let them deal with it … we now want money for the headache you put us through.
Finally someone I personally know got an offer. He was told his business had no loss, so they offered him the $25,000. He did get an EAP from GCCF last year. The calculation of how they arrived at “no loss” was shown in a PDF file he could see when he logged into his claim on the GCCF website. His status still shows “received” but there is another link to review offer.
When he looked at the figures, he was shocked to find they were completely made up. None of the figures they used were figures that were included in his documentation. He called the Ohio office and was told he would have to meet with a GCCF accountant, one that travels from local office to local office. They were to schedule meeting for later this week, I’ll find out if the meeting actually happens.
On a side note, he didn’t even submit his claim until mid February, so the idea processing claims in order of receipt is a lie.
I wonder what the odds are in Vegas that someone, anyone, will step in and say “To Hell with you, Feinberg. Checks go out TODAY. And they will be checks for real money, not just enough to pay the electric bill.” I should place a wager (against it happening), my winnings are bound to be more than a final offer. I bet those people with bogus Super Bowl tickets got a better payoff than most claimants will.
I’ll post an update to my friends meeting this week, if it happens or not.
Thanks for the update, and I wish I could say this is the first time that somone has questioned the figures the GCCF has come up with in determining a claim. Due to the low amount averages of the final claims offers, it would seem apparent the GCCF is not doing these claims in the order that they are received, but in the order of ease… Meaning, when larger businesses start getting these offers, the averages will probably go up…all conjecture of course. Please, keep us all updated and thanks…
-Drake
You should spread this article from the latest Gambit. I like that they put out for mardi gras hopefully folks would not have read it just to find the best bar. bestofneworleans.com/gambit/built-to-spill/Content?oid=1608991
I received my “final offer” over 5 weeks ago. Having no other choice, I accepted their measly offer and was promised payment in 14 days. I am still waiting after over 5 weeks for my payment. Have called them dozens of times and gotten no specific reason for delay and no expectation of when payment can be expected . They are arrogant and heartless monsters created by a greedy system. The whole process is maddening. Some poor soul will lose it in the near future, and violence will be the result. Then everyone will act surprised that someone could reach such a point of desperation. There are special places in Hell for corporate and attorney types.