advertising calls

[Jimbob]

i usually tell them where to go, but the other day i actually fell for one. Gutted. The guy said he was from the emergency services press, anyone had such calls?

now they have sent me an invoice for £230! which would be alright, but after a search about the company, they seem to be completely fake. And I dont seem to have any rights, Im considering completely ignoring them, but then it will just keep esculating.

Been advised to write to them asking for better proof and asking for details on the circulation of the alleged magazine. But thats about it. Anybody had any experience?

seriously considering taking my number off the Gas safe register website

 

[Puddle]

If telephone sale ,is there not a 14 day cool off period rule?

 

[Jimbob]

not these guys, if you look on the net theres quite alot about it, theres ringing up claiming to speak on behalf of the emergency services press office.

There policy is 48 hours from order date, but you obvious dont recieve anything until the 3rd day. Got in contact with trading standards, think there advice is to ask of proof of their publication. What a ball achem should have known better but there so clever about it

 

[REDSAW]

yes jim bob,
i had them year before last, unless this was just coincidence and i mix it up with another add call of the same day .
if my memory serves me right, there a pain in 't' rse and very pushy, it is a publication called 'fire, police and ambulance' and is distributed throught these services and personel in there pay checks its an a5 booklet with some adds in.
my add cost £125.
did the call start of with someone proffesssing to be a ex-officer or police press etc like they wanted you to sponsor the next gymkana?
i tell you now i did drag on payment to about 2-3 weeks by that time they sent me the booklet of proof of the publication before i coughed up monnies.
so it does exist, although i did not get a single call from it.lol.

 

[Jimbob]

yes jim bob,
i had them year before last, unless this was just coincidence and i mix it up with another add call of the same day .
if my memory serves me right, there a pain in 't' rse and very pushy, it is a publication called 'fire, police and ambulance' and is distributed throught these services and personel in there pay checks its an a5 booklet with some adds in.
my add cost £125.
did the call start of with someone proffesssing to be a ex-officer or police press etc like they wanted you to sponsor the next gymkana?
i tell you now i did drag on payment to about 2-3 weeks by that time they sent me the booklet of proof of the publication before i coughed up monnies.
so it does exist, although i did not get a single call from it.lol.

well this is very sneaky, its illegal to say your associated with the police force, and i first had a guy ring up claiming to be emergency service press office. well i still believe its a scam, and i doubt your publication was ever published.

 

[johnmcginty]

If telephone sale ,is there not a 14 day cool off period rule?

As I had problem in this area , no there is not a cooling off period under the distance selling regs as you are not considered a ''consumer'' but a ''trade to trade'' customer and this means there is no cooling off period. My advice is do not pay them at all untill a guy turns up at your house with proof of the magazine.

 

[WHPES]

I had someone offering to put my ad in a free magazine, very pusy. I got the details of the magazine and googled it - limited circulation and mostly in the South. I'm up in the North East so complete waste of money if I had gone with it.

In my experience, spending £250 on advertising in local Parish mags, charity papers etc goes a very long way and gets far more work than a single ad in a free mag. for £40 I get a 1/2 page ad in a large circulation parish mag which within the first 2 days got me 4 jobs.

 

[obseen16]

Yeah i fell for one of those companies in my first year. they called up claiming to be a charity for the emergency services and were doing a booklet to go to over 10,000 homes in my area, so i said yes put me in it, they sent me a template of my ad which looked ok, then they sent me the booklet, upon looking in the booklet the closest advertisement to me was a sparky over 100 miles away, not happy, i un willingy coughed up my cash to them and never got a single lead from it, then 6 months later they call AGAIN saying that i had agreed to pay for another year in the booklet, i blew my lid and told them to F*** off, to which the sales rep replied "well we have a recording which proves you agreed to another subscription" (i know for a fact i didn't), to which i replied in a very nasty voice "if you can send me this recording on a tape cd or mp3 then i will pay but until then you can forget it mate", he said he would send the recording to me but a year later i have not recieved this imaginary recording and strangely enough they never did call back. HMMM

 

[johnmcginty]

six calls from yell.com yesterday? Oh and there is a new one going round its something to do with kids football matches .....I say if they contact you then they are too desperate and don't have a good enough business model.

 

[Plumbstar Tom]

I love telling them to wait there...let me get my secretary and seeing how long they stay on the phone for.

It is all a con though and as above if tehy are good they dont need to cold call for business. Make sure you pick where to advertise and not the other way round

 

[Jimbob]

well i found out theres nothing you can do unless your willing to take them to court, because they just take you to a debt collector, they even sent me a recording of the conversation. So they have now invoiced me for a cancellation fee, still money for naff all though.

Im usually pretty wise to them, the usual ones saying they are bt or yell.com but this guy was a wordsmith.

If they ever phone again I may have some fun with them, starting singing to them or something.

 

[GASMAN10]

I never agree to anything like this over the phone. I always ask for them to send the info in the post and I will consider it. Never do I receive the info!!!