Is this legal? advice needed please.

Happy_Bunny_6

My daughter and her friend received an invitation to a "make over and photo shoot"

They rang to make an appointment, and gave a debit card number over the phone, they were told they would receive a registration form and a holding fee would be taken once they had registered.
They didn't register, and telephoned the firm on several occasions, to cancel, over a few days, but only got through to an answer machine.

The fiirm then rang them and said as they'd not cancelled and not turned up for the appointment, they would take £200 from the account, which they have done.

Barclays couldn't stop the payment.

Is that legal, if they hadn't actually registered, they do have a record of numorous phone calls to the firms number, trying to cancel.

Sooler

It's probably in the T&C's
They may not have registered but they made an appointment.
They were probably charged a no show fee or something.

What happened when they tried to cancel? Was this before the charge was taken?

Tozer

Were they made aware of the consequence of not turning up?

Happy_Bunny_6

They were told it wouldn't be "official" until they'd returned the registration email, which they didn't do, she then rang over 40 times to say they couldn't keep the appointment, but never once got a reply.
The firm phoned her the day after to say they were taking the money, and she went straight to Barclays who said they couldn't stop the payment going

Tozer

Question was - did they know about the terms? Were they given opportunity to see them?

hollydays

Which company is it,there has been a similar thread on here before.
This one sounds like out and out fraud,If she tried to cancel and couldn't.
Over what period of time was she ringing them?Could she not have sent a letter recorded delivery?
These scammers do charge for "lost " studio time-but she wasn't allowed to cancel,this has got to be illegal.

Happy_Bunny_6

It's a shame I didn't know she was having this problem or I would have intervened, tshe is a little naive..

I'm just waiting for more info for you, and I'll come back, Thanks

hollydays

Doubletake studios and studio 54 are two company names you could search on this board for similar stoies.

Happy_Bunny_6

I've just got the info, it's Double Take studios, and she paid a deposit for herself and my daughter, she was told that if she cancelled, she would have to pay a fee of betweeen 1p and £100
She was charged £194...the deposit was £3 each and the charge £194

george2

think you need to get your local trading standards on to it straight away

hollydays

I have "bumped" another thread on the adjacent warnings and rip-offs board about double take-have a look.(its not the only one though) called "cold calling rip-offs"