Advertising [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]

thanks for the little bit of advise, would anyone take someone to court over £82

I am currently dealing with this company. We had a call from somebody offering an ad in a 'services' magazine. The person who took the call fell for it. Very shortly afterwards an invoice from ESM Multimedia arrived which slipped through the net and a cheque was sent by accounts. I stopped it as soon as it was noticed. Meanwhile another 'cofimation' call was taken and the member of staff was asked to confirm the details. He thought it was the same company but it seems not.
In the last few days we have recived a tacky services brochure containing part of our website first page along with three more invoices from ESM and invoices from 5 other similar companies, mainly, but not all, based in Liverpool.
We have received 18 calls in the last 3 days pushing for payment of invoices. 12 of these are from another company which very proudly names and shames people they have taken to court on their website.
Clearly, since 6 invoices have arrived as a result of 2 telephone calls there must be a link.
I am writing to each of these companies telling them we are not interested and have no intention of paying and I think it might be time to go to Trading Standards.
Has it become this complicated for anybody else?

In response to DIMELORD and others;

My brother is having an absolute nightmare with this and it's becoming really stressful. Basically, they called him a while back and he agreed to set up the advertising at a cost of £82 - this was on the basis that he didnt have to pay until he got ba job out of it OR after a year. A week later he had his first invoice. To cut the story short - both of us have had numerous calls with them to find out what the hell is going on and each time they make up something new. They have a recording of PART of the conversation whereby my brother states his name, address, and says what he wants in the advert - they say this is legally binding and that he must pay up. He had a massive dispute with them and now he's had a letter from a ESMs own debt collection company with a bill for £175.

We are so stressed out about the whole thing and are now worried that if he doesnt pay, the charges will keep getting higher and eventually he may end up in some trouble. No one seems to be able to advise - he's been to the Citizens Advice Beaurau and they couldnt help him.

Today, my brother has been aclling round some of the numbers in this magazine they claim to advertise your business in (they sent him a copy), and everyone he's spoken to says they have been conned and had loads of trouble with the whole thing. They have all agreed to back him up because we are without a doubt taking this is far as we can go.

OUr main concern right now is what to do about the money - do we pay up and try and claim it back at a later date? Or not pay up and risk having to pay more out - because they will keep sending more charges out.

Can anyone advise? We live in the Liverpool area and would be keen to get as much support on this as possible. I've set up an email address if you'd like to send over your stories, but can I please ask that you only email us if you have actually signed up to ESM and are now trying to fight their ridiculous claims, address is;

[EMAIL="fight.esm.fraud@live.co.uk"]fight.esm.fraud@live.co.uk[/EMAIL]

As it stands, we have requested a mailing list of who this supposed advertising magazine has been sent to. So far we have asked twice and are still waiting!

Please do email the above address if you would like to help us try and fight these little sh*ts and if you think you can offer us any advice over what to do re. payment.

K&R

[EMAIL="fight.esm.fraud@live.co.uk"][/EMAIL]