One day auctions - Dickinsons (Sales & Auctions) Ltd

thrifty_get

I had an experience with this lot (I think its the same lot) in Northampton a while back. A very seedy experience. The salesman had the crowd whipped into a frenzy and sadly some people were parting with lots of cash. Fortunately my wife and I had to leave and decided to cut our losses at £7 each.
My wife was very angry at first but we now see it as a useful reminder that you don't get ought for nought!
Never go to these auctions

Mrs_B_12

When I originally posted we had a leaflet put through out door on a Sunday afternoon advertising the sale for the next day. I was suspicious immediately by the fact there was no local advertising for such a big sale. Plus the working on the thing, can't remember exactly how they did it but it was something like *goods like these* etc. Nowhere did it say that they definately had the things on the leaflet for sale if you read it closely.

It really did look too good to be true, and like they say, if it looks too good to be true it probably is. I hope other people do search if they get the leaflet like I did and find this thread and others that I found to stop them losing money.

puthsardarade

Is there any hope for any of us that have fallen for this?
I spent £600 and the most that I could hope to make back would be around £300 and that's if all the items work!

Could I possibly claim to money back via my credit card company?

G

BFG_2

gagandeeptiwana wrote:

Is there any hope for any of us that have fallen for this?

hollydays

The problem seems to be they have not lied to you-you have bought without caution-ie they didnt say the items , were great quality, or market value,you didnt ask.It so rotten.

lil_me

I seen this type of thing on that Real Hustle programme and Watch Dog.

You could ask your credit card company for help with this, if that is how you paid.

mikeysh

hi, i attended one of there auctions in stoke on trent. i'm pursuing them via letters, i feel they have broken the law on several counts..................

Consumer Protection Act 1987 Part III
A.38 Part III of the Act prohibits misleading price indications in relation to
any goods, services, accommodation or facilities, including the sale of
new homes. A trader commits an offence if, in the course of any
business, he gives (by any means whatever) to any consumers an
indication which is misleading as to the price at which any goods,
services, accommodation or facilities are available (whether generally
or from particular persons).
A.39 Under the Act an indication given to any consumers is misleading as
to a price, if it conveys, or if consumers might reasonably infer from
the indication or any omission from it that:
• a price is less than in fact it is
• the applicability of the price does not depend on facts or
circumstances on which it does in fact depend
• the price covers matters in respect of which an additional charge is
in fact made
• a person who in fact has no such expectation:
- expects the price to be increased or reduced (whether or not at
a particular time or by a particular amount), or
- expects the price, or the price as increased or reduced, to be
maintained (whether or not for a particular period), or
- the facts or circumstances by reference to which the consumers
might reasonably be expected to judge the validity of any
relevant comparison made or implied by the indication are not
what in fact they are.

Data protection act 1998.
The 1998 Act applies in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It applies to:
· computerised personal data;
· personal data held in structured manual files
held by all data controllers. In addition, the Freedom of Information Act 2000 extended the Data Protection Act 1998 to apply to all recorded personal data (including that in unstructured manual files) held by data controllers who are also public authorities for the purposes of the 2000 Act.
It applies to anything at all done to personal data ("processing"), including collection, use, disclosure, destruction and merely holding personal data.

Mock Auctions Act 1961
A.79 The Mock Auctions Act 1961 prohibits promoting, conducting or
assisting with mock auctions (sometimes referred to as ‘one-day
sales’). A mock auction is a sale where goods are sold by competitive
bidding if one or more of the following events occurs during the sale:
• the buyer of a lot pays less than the amount of his highest bid
• part of the price of a lot is repaid
• the right to bid is restricted to persons who have bought or agreed
to buy any articles
• any articles are given away or offered as gifts.

Companies Act 1985 – Sections 348, 349 & 351
A.31 Sections 348 and 349 of the Act require companies to put their
names up outside every place where they carry on business and to
state the company name on business letters, notices, official
publications and other business documentation. Section 351 requires
that the place of a company’s registration, its registration number and
its registered office address be stated on all business letters and
order forms.

The breach of data protection act refers to your refusal to supply the video recording that you say you have examined.
These are areas where I feel that my consumer rights have been breached, and this and any other relevant information I can find I will use to the fullest extent. Until I can re-coupe my losses.
..................................................................

i furnished my local t/s office with this info & they still actually feel that they have no case to pursue. so now i'm about to start a small claims action. it'll only cost me £25.00 and i believe they are advised not to bring expensive lawyers with them.

i hope this info spurs on a lot of other people to pursue them.

Simon_Hudson wrote:

If you are the lady that I think you are, then you were probably stood next to me in the Venue on Sunday. I remember your face probably looked like mine when he gave us those crappy Camcorders.

I have to take my hat of to this guy. I have just left the Army after 22 years service and am extremely proud of that fact that there is not much that sucks me in. However, this guy had me Hook, Line and Sinker. It was always about expectation: ie, buying in the hope that he would chuck in something else or that it would lead to something bigger and better, like the Plazma TV or Laptops, (None of which he sold). The real items never were available. I did notice the ringers there but still fell for it. Sadly, I have checked all the sites only to find that out of the £400 package that I got, it is probably actually only worth £250-£300 and the £200 Camcorder can't even be found on the Net, but it may just as well go in the bin.

All I can say is "That what goes around, Comes around" and apparantly these people come back to the area again, all be it once a year. If that is the case then perhaps we should post our own flyers warning people about them before the event or even turn up and warn people on the day. Feel free to E-Mail me if you find out where these people are likely to be before I do. Freedom of speech is not against the law and the more people that know about this Con Artist, the better. :mad:

hollydays

I wish you loads of luck.

Terminator3d

I went to one of these auctions by Dickinsons a couple of weeks back. It was officially the dodgiest show of an auction ive ever seen. A group of lads with one older guy with a few rental cars/vans and a bunch of stock wearing raggy old tracksuit bottoms and some rough tshirts.

I stood there in amazement at how everyone trusted these people as if they were their own family. I stayed there for approximately 90 minutes before I left. In that time he sold about 5 toasters and a couple of mp3 players, and just rambled on about a bunch of wonderful packages he was putting together.

One of the lads even went round collecting peoples credit cards who wanted to participate in the auctions and buy items. No wonder credit card fraud is as bad as it is eh?!?

I do sympathise and see how people can be enticed in by guys running scams like this tho.

vtmil

Hi, i was done by these people about 2 months ago, i spent £200 and was given a camcorder (yippee) worth about £20 if that (one of those free gift with every purchase type.) I too thought that it looked to good to be true whe the leaflet dropped through the door, but as it was at a v. posh hotel i thought it must be genuine(yes gullable I know). Anyway when we arrived I went in to the auction with my partner a daughter and we brought an iron for £1 - at this point i thought it was ok - so me and my daughter went to sit outside. My biggest mistake was leaving my brofriend with my card! I did feel sorry for him though- he though he was getting this plasma and he ended up with a camcorder! After i saw what he did i managed to change it for a playstation2,soundstation and dancemat - probably worth £150!! The iron by the way is not even worth £1.

Anyway i'm not one to be conned, so i decided i was going to film the next auction, to give to trading standards! I even cut an old bag up to hide a ditigal camcorder in! ANyway the heavy on the door wouldnt let me in....
i was going to have that! So i asked for a refund, obviously he said no, and then i was met with 4 'heavies' who were telling me to get lost! I told them i was going to get the police, trading standards, and sabbotage ther auctions- but they didn't really care! They then said that i was threating them and that they were going to phone the police. I said fine, and that i was going to stay there all day until they gave me a pressure washer (its the first thing i could think of and they didnt look like they were going to give me the cash). Anyway they said no repeatedly and then left me to it until I started turning customers away saying it was a con! Eventually i got a pressure washer just to shut me up, but as we drove away i covered up my car number plate just incase they tried to follow me - they were scary!!

So in the end i got about £210 of stuff for £200, not a bargain exactly but we live and learn. I would advise people to stay away but if you do get done stay on their case all day- i couldnt believe people were walking away with the camcorders without saying anything! I would like to warn people next time using leaflets or something but i wasnt sure if this would be illegal, or exactly how to do it?

heres to not getting done again.....