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

EdnaCloud

GomerPyle wrote: »

I have also managed to track down copies of the original Lapland New Forest Ltd web pages and have the main two copied and saved.

The 'About' page is quite amazing. It disappeared before I got a chance to read it.

I'll look through the copies I've kept for anything of use
Edna

EdnaCloud

GomerPyle wrote: »

I have also managed to track down copies of the original Lapland New Forest Ltd web pages and have the main two copied and saved.

The 'About' page is quite amazing. It disappeared before I got a chance to read it.

I'll look through the copies I've kept for anything of use
Edna

Dark-Star_2

Gomer - I know where copies of the original Lapland New Forest website pages 'About', 'Info' and 'Gallery' are safely stored with all associated snowy images. If you need them just let me know.

kattwood

I had to write my letter to the charges & disputes department and as for the indemnity claim I did not have to sign a single thing. From what my cc company said everything was absolutely fine.

I hope you all get the same result.

SandraScarlett

kattwood wrote: »

Well I spoke to my credit card company this morning and my Lapland New Forest £90 has been refunded. I wrote them a letter saying I wanted to do an indemnity claim as the goods were not as described and sent them in the website print outs as well as some actual photos and they called me to say they were looking into it. When I looked at my credit card online it seemed the money had gone back in so when I called them today they confirmed the "dispute had been resolved in my favour".

Very happy indeed, especially this time of year!

I hope everyone else has the same success with there credit card companies.

Brilliant! So happy for you. Let's hope other companies follow the lead of yours. Merry Christmas!

Beki999

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for the work you are doing.

Without your indepth knowledge of all things Lapland, I would be kissing my money goodbye.

Keep up the good work everyone.

Congratulations to everyone who has got their money so far, and for everyone like me, fingers crossed.

codger

Gomer:

Congratulations on a forensic piece of research. It has obviously taken many hours of hard work and considerable thought.

The only query I have concerns the prospect of the Feeble Safety Authority disqualifying the complaint on the grounds it is being made by a party not disadvantaged by Lapland New Forest Ltd?

I would hope such a stance would not be adopted, and that my usual cynicism about the FSA is misplaced.

kattwood:

Your post is enormously helpful, providing, as it does, the first real indication of what may be happening behind the scenes here.

Gomer's reservations about the indemnity process are well made but it may be that your credit card company has decided that as it cannot refund under the terms of Section 75, and that because of the likely scale of refunds it cannot be seen in this case to be creating a precedent for "goodwill" repayments, its only recourse is to the indemnity mechanism.

Should such be the case it seems highly unlikely your cc provider will have acted unilaterally or without discussion with RBS Streamline first. That being so, it is looking ever more likely that Streamline did act, if belatedly, to freeze the funds in the Lapland New Forest Ltd merchant account.

What is also significant about your post is the way it identifies an avenue of reclaim not mentioned by either Trading Standards or the Office of Fair Trading, both of whom continue to advise claimants to file a claim with the company at its registered address, or to follow the procedure requested on the remnant of the Lapland New Forest website.

Although claimants should most certainly abide by that advice -- a written statement of claim, sent by provable delivery -- it's now clear from your post that they should not pursue the supplier alone (LNF) but also the credit card company itself.

(Incidentally, the basis for claim is similar to that which PayPal -- the processor used by Lapland West Midlands -- frequently has to contend with, i.e., SNAD: item significantly not as described. Fortunately for the comparatively few claimants in the LWM case, things never got as far as that.)

I do hope Lapland NF claimants Googling at the moment see kattwood's post, one which yet again demonstrates the value of the MSE forum.

Re Lapland NF extinct pages:

As a side comment, I'm wondering if it would be helpful for relevant details from the extinct pages to be placed on this thread by those still in possession of such material?

Gomer, for example, has usefully excerpted LNF's preposterous Terms & Conditions, including the hilarious legalese about claims jurisdiction that in itself is an unintentionally damning indictment of the LNF enterprise.

This thread has become something of a compendium of information and reference resource for many caught up in the scam, so ready access to relevant material from LNF extinct pages is likely to be appreciated.

I sometimes wonder, incidentally, if MSE posters are too modest in evaluating the true value of their posts.

Experience of earlier and different consumer protection issues has shown that MSE forums are not read solely by MSErs but are also monitored by investigative agencies such as Trading Standards -- so the contributions here by kattwood and meggie are especially illuminating.

[To the hard-working MSE mod: I wonder if Martin might consider, should he ever have the time (!)
the possibility of drawing together the most immediately relevant info from here into a main site comment round-up, especially now that kattwood's post indicates that Section 75 is not the only avenue open to those in pursuit of LNF refunds. ]

Dark-Star_2

codger wrote: »

As a side comment, I'm wondering if it would be helpful for relevant details from the extinct pages to be placed on this thread by those still in possession of such material?

Gomer, for example, has usefully excerpted LNF's preposterous Terms & Conditions, including the hilarious legalese about claims jurisdiction that in itself is an unintentionally damning indictment of the LNF enterprise.

Unfortunately, from those very same preposterous Terms & Conditions -

"reproduction of any portion of this Web Site in any form is forbidden"

so I'm not sure what we are allowed to do in terms of posting excerpts or re-hosting the pages on other webservers. I believe Gomer actually linked to the original page in Google cache, which wouldn't be quite the same thing.

codger

Fair point dark star but the BBC continues to host a video of the main page of one of the earliest incarnations of the LNF website:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/7765080.stm

I rather doubt Mr Mears wishes to bring an action against the Beeb.

Though admittedly, that would be far more fun than anything ever promised by Lapland New Forest. . .

:rotfl:

Rockerfella

I, for one, have all the pages saved locally on my computer. These are the pages before major changes were made, including the booking page.

I also have a copy of the single page with the photos of the "attraction", put up after "the website problems".

If any one needs copies of these please PM me and I can send you the zip file for you to reproduce on your computers.

I have sent off a claim form to Barclaycard Mastercard for the £70 paid to Laplandnewforest. In the claim I simply stated that this was to be our first christmas occasion with the new baby, and that the whole event appears to have been a scam, as is well documented in the media. If the bank gives a negative response I will use more of the facts and findings found by GomerPyle (great work by the way - thank you!) and others. If legal action turns out to be possible I will also be claiming the Travelodge expenses, paid on a debit card.