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

GomerPyle

Refer them to

QUOTE
Maestro Cards For Maestro card chargeback information, see page 477 (Appendix of the "MasterCard Chargeback Guide".
UNQUOTE

http://www.cardpaymentinfo.co.uk/chargebacks.html

Too many jokers enter the world of service providing without having much of a clue what they're doing, hoping to make pots money by skidding through providing poor service.

I just went to the hospital today to get a blood test done as they screwed up the first one, and the nurse at my GP surgery asked if I checked that he put the sample on ice - or it'll be screwed up again. No - I presumed thet he had been trained to do his job. I had impressed on him the need for it to reach the lab quickly and he then asked if the previous test failed because too little blood was taken.

It's a plain simple chargeback. Ask for the forms - and try to be polite and patient, if you can.

I'll draw up a letter for all the various government funded departments who have failed to reply to my earlier mail.It will be quite scathing and highly acidic, so I won't post it here, though it won't say anything that's not true. It may worry the admin looking after the site, so I'll host it elsewhere and link to it.

All I ask is that you all provide e-mail addresses of politicians and journalists you'd like me to send copies to (by PM). They can ignore me (and the public until Kingdom come) but if they start getting journo's and MP's sniffing round for blodd, especially in this financial climate, they may get up off their padded behinds and do their jobs properly.

I'll update this post with who I'll be contacting. Probably I'll put their names, rather than their e-mail addies, to avoid them getting harvested by spam bots.

See what happens when the NHS makes me grumpy. :rotfl:

codger

roversforever wrote: »

Hi,

I am still awaiting news that any victim of the New Forest scam who paid using a Maestro card has yet received a refund. Anyone with Maestro experiences will you please share........
Thanks.

Roversforever:

Gomer's correct -- this is a CHARGE BACK matter.

Virgin One is fobbing you off with irrelevant guff about how debit cards aren't covered by Section 75. On which basis, Virgin One staff need sending on refresher courses, ideally with 5th Para in the Falkland Islands for a period not less than five consecutive winters.

Virgin One also needs avoiding by any prospective customer -- presumably you can't get away so easily because your mortgage is tied up with it.

Anyway. Yours isn't a Sec 75 claim.

You require the return of your monies because the merchant altered the specifications of what you were buying without your knowledge or your permission, this alteration being of so extensive and substantial a nature that you would not have carried through the transaction had you been made aware of it.

And that's the basis of claim, evidence for which exists aplenty.

Get back onto the lunatics at Virgin One (what happened to Virgins Two, Three & Four? And are they any wiser?) and calmly point out you are NOT asking Virgin One to stump up its own money for a credit deal gone awry.

You are requesting the initiation of a charge-back procedure via which Virgin One acts as the conduit for your own money to go back into your own account.

This in turn requires Virgin One to either approach RBS Streamline direct, or ask Mastercard Maestro to do so on its behalf, so as to ensure your money is returned -- it's up to Virgin One how it sorts that out.

It's virtually certain that your money is still in the LNF merchant account which RBS Streamline froze after panic set in about the Mears's mad enterprise. But what with all the other charge-backs going on, it ain't going to stay there forever, so you need to move fast.

Interesting though, isn't it?

Your VirginOne account is actually a masquerade for a Royal Bank of Scotland operation.

Streamline is a division of Royal Bank of Scotland.

And you're a part-owner of Royal Bank of Scotland.

You should've had your money back long since. Good luck & keep in touch here.

GomerPyle

:rotfl:

You really shouldn't have pointed that out to me codger.

I wasn't going to be very flattering about RBS's involvement in this dreadful saga, but that is disgusting, and highly questionable. That's really put a few more bullets in my magazine.

I'll be e-mailing interested parties on Monday. I'll write out my mail over the weekend and collect journo's and MP's to contact - including councils and organisations who are supposed to be helping consumers.

codger

More strength to that arm of yours, Gomer! :beer:

GomerPyle

http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/lapland/4014299.Lapland_refusing_refunds/

It isn't forgotten - and a copy of my e-mail will go to the Daily Echo as they are keeping the story in the public eye. Good on 'em.

I think this quote from that article sums up the attitude of the proprietor. Utter contempt for customers, authority and business in general. He considers people are dupes for him to milk dry.

I think he had a bad Christmas. Everyone make sure that his New Years is no better by getting your claims in.

QUOTE
When the Echo called the Brighton address, a man blamed the press for the fiasco.
When asked about refunds, he said: “How can we comment to the press after what you have done to us? I think people should be looking to the press to get their money back.”
UNQUOTE

On the other forum I inhabit, I have earned a title which includes the word 'b

---

d'. Not for nothing.

whitewing

Gomer,

You'd better make your email a good one, and prove Trading Standards wrong. Look at this:

http://www.thisisdorset.net/news/tidnews/4014732.Little_hope_for_victims_of_Lapland/

"TRADING standards officers have warned customers ‘not to get their hopes up’ about getting a ‘Lapland’ refund. They fear many people will lose money although some may have success, depending on how they paid.
Officers at the Dorset County Council department hope to hear more about the finances of the attraction operator in the coming weeks."

and

"Ivan Hancock, head of Dorset Trading Standards, said: “There were more complaints about Lapland this year than we would expect for a whole year.”
Mr Hancock said that the criminal investigation into the park was ongoing and trading standards officers would know more about the finances of the Brighton-based company and company directors in the next few weeks.
He said: “If the company does go into liquidation it is unlikely that much money will be had by the creditors."


Unbelievable! Don't give up. Keep posting here.

______________________________________________________________

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

whitewing

Don't forget, this is being reported all over the world.

Here's how it has been reported in Canada:

http://www.nationalpost.com/rss/story.html?id=1097374

______________________________________________________________

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

A good spot whitewing

This part is particularly interesting

QUOTE
Mr Hancock said that the criminal investigation into the park was ongoing
UNQUOTE

I'm not sure that it will help if I wade in with any further e-mail in these circumstances. Whether they are likely to come to the same conclusion that I would, is open to question, but I hope that those involved have learned some valuable lessons from this. I wouldn't buy a pound of apples off this man unless I had inspected them closely, checked the weight, tasted them and wouldn't let go of the money until they were in my hand.

That would be a very useful quote to add to any claims form you send, especially if your card company is part of the RBS group.

I hope and trust the authorities will do a better job this time, as I'm sure they are getting irritated that he keeps coming back with the same old.

whitewing

GomerPyle wrote: »

I wouldn't buy a pound of apples off this man unless I had inspected them closely, checked the weight, tasted them and wouldn't let go of the money until they were in my hand.

You're not the only one refusing to do business with him:

http://www.basingstokegazette.co.uk/news/local/3973598.Farm_park_refused____Lapland____reindeer_request/

The Family Adventure Farm, on the A339 in Headley, owns a herd of reindeer as a visitor attraction, which it also loans out.
But when organisers from Lapland New Forest, at Matchams Leisure Park, near Ringwood, contacted the north Hampshire park earlier this year, manager Oscar Darlington turned them down.....
Mr Darlington said: “They contacted us quite late to loan several reindeer. If you are doing something like that, and need to book reindeer, you do it a year in advance, particularly if it’s a major event.”
He added: “It didn’t seem right so we didn’t loan them any reindeer."

______________________________________________________________

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

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/scammed-by-santa-attraction-closes-six-days-after-it-opened-1055550.html

QUOTE
In the 1980s, he served four years for tax evasion, during which he gave evidence about the Brinks Mat robbery on behalf of the defendant Kenny Noye, later the M25 killer. Mears, then a gold trader, had links to the case through another trader called Derek "Little Legs" Larkins. These are, to say the least, unusual antecedents for a man who planned to spread festive joy.
UNQUOTE

Do you think that when Vic was told that Rudolph "the Red Nosed" Reindeer would be there, he thought it was one of his associates ? :rotfl: