Lapland New Forest Scam. How to get money back...

GomerPyle

I can only commend the West Midlands Council officers and Trading Standards for their work in strangling their version of 'Lapland' before it ever started. Whether every single person got their money back may or may not be true, but if it were going to be a replica of the New Forest version (as the organiser's suggested it would be), then they mitigated the potential of a lot more people being disappointed and losing money.

Encouragingly, the right noises are being made by the authorities down south, and Victor Mears is making some bilious sounds that suggest he won't be playing 'Goldfinger' on his door chimes any time soon. I bet that the concept of a limited liability company was not easy to explain to the Mears family, and I shudder to think what may be revealed by a close examination of what's been going on.

Under certain circumstances, the limited liability can be removed and any person shown to have been running or operating the company can become personally liable. A bank would expect a company of any repute to answer corespondence or complaints sent to their registered office. It also assists them in handling chargebacks.

In these circumstances they would be most unwise not to assist their bank who undoubtedly rue the day they got involved in this mess.

whitewing

Edna,

I don't recall noticing this last night (or I would have commented), but this is on last night's BBC report now: More than 40 people paid more than £3,000 online to buy tickets to the event.

So it's a manageable number and I can quite believe they've all been refunded. The other thing is that I commented a day or so ago that it was strange that I couldn't find anything in the local press around the West Midlands about anything complaining that refunds hadn't been received, or even stating that they had put in a claim for a refund. It would appear then that they have been kept informed, and refunds co-ordinated well, would it not?

I still think LNF refunds should be dealt with in a co-ordinated way via Streamline's head office and either chargeback, or simply from the Streamline reports.

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ATTENTION PLEASE! Added mid-Jan 2009: Just as a reminder, the latest Lapland New Forest Refund Guide is here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=17633351#post17633351

GomerPyle

Some of the comments made by people on various websites over the last two months have been quite unbelievable.

To run any sort of event like this you'd expect the organisers to make an outlay of not less that £1m, but to meet the standards portrayed in their advertising then it would be more like £3m, perhaps as high as £5m.

So, unless the proprietor evidenced this level of expenditure to his bank or merchant facility provider, it was plainly clear that this adventure was going to be a disaster from day one. This is casting aside the previous track record of the proprietor and his family.

Even without lending, a merchant facility is a risk facility, as Streamline have had demonstrated to them all too clearly. Even if this should all go wrong you would expect that the proprietor has been interviewed and investigated to confirm that he is a responsible man of integrity, but we now find, he has thrown his toys out of his pram and refuses to answer mail.

This proposition would never have stood up to any form of scrutiny, nor would its proprietor, and I think Streamline should undertake to unwravel the mess now created. That is my opinion as someone with an awful lot of banking experience.

whitewing

whitewing wrote: »

Edna,

I don't recall noticing this last night (or I would have commented), but this is on last night's BBC report now: More than 40 people paid more than £3,000 online to buy tickets to the event.

Lapland West Midlands.

It's interesting to see that a mere 40 payers, spending £3K in total, divided by £25 ticket price works out at 120 tickets, as an approximation.

Looking at an at earlier article from the Guardian,

http://www.scenta.co.uk/travel/features/cit/1737666/no-reindeer-and-lookalikes-for-the-huskies-welcome-to-new-lapland.htm

Chris Daley, the site organiser.............. said Lapland West Midlands had already sold thousands of tickets on its website.

Hmmm.

Lapland New Forest - Gomer I totally agree with your latest post.

______________________________________________________________

ATTENTION PLEASE! Added mid-Jan 2009: Just as a reminder, the latest Lapland New Forest Refund Guide is here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=17633351#post17633351

EdnaCloud

whitewing wrote: »

Edna,

I don't recall noticing this last night (or I would have commented), but this is on last night's BBC report now: More than 40 people paid more than £3,000 online to buy tickets to the event.

So it's a manageable number and I can quite believe they've all been refunded. The other thing is that I commented a day or so ago that it was strange that I couldn't find anything in the local press around the West Midlands about anything complaining that refunds hadn't been received, or even stating that they had put in a claim for a refund. It would appear then that they have been kept informed, and refunds co-ordinated well, would it not?

I still think LNF refunds should be dealt with in a co-ordinated way via Streamline's head office and either chargeback, or simply from the Streamline reports.

Oh, I don't disagree, my query was because there was no clarity to the article - and yes of course 40 is a manageable number. (not a good turn out for poor ole WM Santa though!), I just wondered how they can guarantee that all have been refunded, unless of course the *only* method of payment was through *one* payment processor and that I cannot remember, sorry. Anyway I did not intend this to become a distraction, I was just concerned that the comments seemed a bit to good to be true, and concern for anyone who might have not been refunded.

Sorry if this was off track :-(

whitewing

From today's Express and Star:

http://www.expressandstar.com/2009/01/08/refunds-for-joke-lapland/

Ref: Lapland West Midlands Refunds

Quote: Councillor Dean described the attraction, which shut down on December 6, as a “joke”. “There was very little there and what there was was a joke – the fantastic ice rink turned out to be plyboard painted white.

______________________________________________________________

ATTENTION PLEASE! Added mid-Jan 2009: Just as a reminder, the latest Lapland New Forest Refund Guide is here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=17633351#post17633351

EdnaCloud

I am surprised that a local paper has been considerably more specific about details that the BBC, so hats off to the Express and Star.

GomerPyle

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/7818757.stm

QUOTE
Lapland company 'to be wound up'

Dorset Trading Standards told BBC South that Victor Mears, the sole director of Lapland New Forest Ltd, had taken the decision to appoint a liquidator.
UNQUOTE

Get your chargeback claims in as soon as possible.

Anyone who paid by cheque please contact this thread, as it has been reported that those payments were being routed to an address not associated with the company.

There is no justifiable reason for any chargeback to be refused. If anyone requires a lengthy reason justifying it I'll gladly spend some time drawing one up.

If RBS lose money over this, then that is the foolish risk they took when supporting this company/person, but it will be much easier to do it via a chargeback.

If there is any appearance of a campaign to refuse justifiable chargebacks then I'll climb back on my 'high horse' again.

People who paid by cheque will need to provide details of where they were told to send the money to give any hope that their money can be refunded.

whitewing

Very well found Gomer. Still seems extremely strange to me that LWM can get full refunds handled quickly and efficiently by Trading Standards, and Lapland WM can't, despite also having Trading Standards involved. I don't understand why Trading Standards keep saying there is a possibility that people won't get refunded. As you say, why isn't RBS refunding?

______________________________________________________________

ATTENTION PLEASE! Added mid-Jan 2009: Just as a reminder, the latest Lapland New Forest Refund Guide is here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=17633351#post17633351

GomerPyle

.... and Lapland New Forest have even made it to the American website 'False Advertising' cached here

http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:YtXhOrMuLn4J:www.kzzyw.com/false-advertising/index.php+lapland+new+forest+liquidation&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=29&gl=uk

and there's an ITN news bulletin mentioning the hundreds of e-mails they received complaining about the event with not ONE in support. I suppose Vic Mears relations (I doubt he has many friends) couldn't cover the websites and TV too - well not spelled in a manner anyone could comprehend. :rotfl: