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

Newly_scammed

Barclaycard - refusal of refund for visitor - I had to write a letter, so used advice on the forum to seek a chargeback....

Barclaycard VISA refusal letter received - "I empathise, appreciate your problem", blah, blah, blah
"So that a claim can be made under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, we need documentary evidence to prove breach of contract or misrepresentation by the supplier.
Having had the opportunity to fully evalute....it's with regret BC maintain that a proven case of breach of contract or misrepresentation has not been established

So sorry, you may wish to contact local Trading standards / CAB"

Along with the letter, I posted photo's, web-inks, mentioned all media coverage including naming the majority, confirmed I had contacted Trading standards, but get this bland response

So I'm off to contact their complaints Dept - £200 is worth fighting for!!!

And then closing all dealing with Barclays forever....

whitewing

Newly scammed,

I see, I think, from your previous posts that you actually visited the site and therefore I am assuming that you put in your form before Gomer did the latest guide? You will need to focus on the website as it appeared when you booked your tickets against the actual day you went. If you get a chance to go to the CAB, it would be useful to know what they advised.

(the latest Lapland New Forest Refund Guide is here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...1#post17633351)

It may be worth you checking out Gomer's post against the stuff you put it to see if there are any points/arguments that you missed in your earlier claim.

Don't forget you can also take it to the FOS if the bank won't budge.

I believe that sarahscottiedog and gjoffredo had refunds from barclays as did spark0101 and yogatee. (Some of these were visa debit cards).

Good luck! £200 is definitely worth fighting for.

As an aside, from my rough list of MSE users against purchase price, the guesstimated average spend on tickets per MSE user is £107. That's a lot of money for an individual family to write off. (In fact the average spend is probably higher than that as where the user did not specify an amount, I guesstimated £60 on the basis that a person is unlikely to go on their own).

Newly_scammed

Barclaycard Customer Services (an oxymoron I know!) have taken a step back after I demanded to know why chargeback was not bein tried, and have now asked I send more evidence to them, so I will utilise this website stuff and try again
At least I dont have to pay the £200 yet, and they are not now going to charge interest or late payment charges, although the operator said he would ensure this occurs, so I assume this would not have been the ase if I had not called

Yes, we were unfortunate to have visited this debacle in person, on the first Saturday, and were there for no longer than an hour
It was that bad, even the younger children in our party did not complain at leaving, and that's a very rare occurrence!!!!
Onward and upward

sarahscottiedog

Sorry, we stated to them that we had never received the tickets and that the company has gone bust. We did state that we purchased 1 family ticket @ £150 not 6 individual tickets. We wrote them a letter confirming the information and then got our money refunded.

EdnaCloud

Just a quick update as to the status of Lapland New Forest Ltd ('the company').

The company is still 'active' but the registered office has been changed to:-
QUOTE
Name & Registered Office:
LAPLAND NEW FOREST LIMITED
30 FINSBURY SQUARE
LONDON
EC2P 2YU
Company No. 06671308
UNQUOTE

This information is publicly available at:
http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/f145d9cfa680157b1d5d3b2a1342cae8/compdetails

It is also to be noted that a registered office of Grant Thornton is at the same address, and there are telephone numbers associated with this address which may be of use as we see the debacle unfold:

London, Finsbury Square

30 Finsbury Square
London EC2P 2YU
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7383 5100
Fax: +44 (0)20 7184 4301

see http://www.grant-thornton.co.uk/locations.aspx?city=London for original context.

I think it is now reasonably safe to assume that GT in their capacity as insolvency practitioners have taken on the this case as liquidators, but this cannot be assured until records at Companies House reflect such.

IMPORTANT NOTE
This MAY mean that any initial claim against the company, which should be made in the first instance to the registered office, and is now sent to Grant Thorntons office, will be IMMEDIATELY treated as a creditors claim and thus possibly preclude other reclaim actions.

I urgently seek advice in this situation from those wiser than I, but in the meantime I would suggest that anyone who has not yet written to the company's registered address as part of their refund claim process takes further advice at this point. I am not an expert, but a cynic and can see a devious loophole now, whereby anyone writing to the registered office (even at the old address - I expect mail will be redirected) will be treated as an unsecured creditor by doing so, and that may well severely hinder their ability to claim refund, even if the reason given by the bank is 'blather' and not technically correct or enforceable.

This is provided for background information only, in the hope it will assist if all else fails in the reclaim process, in the meantime pursue your claims as advised by Gomer, and admirably supported by Whitewing. Remember, chargebacks are against the bank(s) not the company, so the company's status should not effect your powers of reclaim.

Please do see Gomers excellent page at:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...1#post17633351

rgds
Edna

whitewing

Interesting reading there Edna.

I suppose at some point Grant Thornton will send their letters out. If anyone gets one, please can you post the text of the letter (in full, excluding personal details) on this thread. I am assuming that Grant Thornton's letter won't mention anything about the possibility of doing a chargeback. That is a real shame as they will have unique access to your personal details in order to write to you anyway as a card-paying ticketholder. They would also presumably know that the 'average ticket spend per family' is higher than my guesstimate of £107, which would be well worth a little admin effort to get refunded.

This wiill enable us to add some relevant comments to the latest Lapland New Forest Refund Guide:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...1#post17633351

whitewing

I'm not sure if this letter by Ivan Hancock/Trading Standards has been linked into this thread already, but it will be worth printing off and adding to your evidence for your refund claim:

http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/news/press_releases/national/2009/LetterofLaplandclosure

For some reason (reorganisation of website?) the above link doesn't seem to be working. However, for now at least, the letter can be found here instead:

http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/after_you_buy/know-your-rights/companyinadm/LetterofLaplandclosure

The latest Lapland New Forest Refund Guide is here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...1#post17633351

whitewing

Just wondering how you are all getting on now with your refund requests?

For those who need help, the latest Lapland New Forest Refund Guide is here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...1#post17633351

zoeteen

Hi all
Thought I would let you know that I contacted the Halifax as I paid for 4 tickets and a baby by visa debit, they looked into it and refunded the full amount into my account last week, the person I spoke to said it was becuase I was mis sold an item (or words to that effect) not sure if any benefit to anyone (sorry I havn't read all the recent posts) but thought I would pass this on.

whitewing

zoeteen,

Well done for persisting and I hope that everyone else gets their claim in or chases up an existing claim!

the latest Lapland New Forest Refund Guide:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...1#post17633351