tv advert toy possible scam

Ninky

My friends young son saw an advert on TV for a creative art toy called Bendaroos he wanted them so I said I would buy them for him for his birthday which is in November. I thought I would order early to avoid disappointment. The web address on the advert was bendaroos.uk.com but when I typed in the url it didn't recognise it so I done a google search and found the bendaroos.com website.


As I was placing the order I was thinking that the ordering process was very misleading and ambiguous to say the least. It tried to charge me for 2 sets and when I deducted one of the items it automatically finalised the sale without asking me for confirmation. As I felt suspicious I took a screen shot of the order confirmation and saved it in a document. I received an email from spinmaster.com confirming the order.


On the bendaroos website it it had said to wait 4 to 6 weeks for delivery. Today after 5 weeks waiting I asked my husband to call the customer service number on the email invoice to chase the order up. The number was in Toronto, Canada, once his call was answered he was put on hold for quite a while then the operator came back and said that they did not deal with overseas orders and that we should telephone the Connecticut USA number that was on the Bendaroos website. My husband then called this number, was again put on hold and then told by the operator that they did not deal with this and to call another USA number which he duly did. It was this third and final call that we were told that they do not send overseas so we could not have placed an order. They would not even take the order number to try to track it.


The order was placed on the 3rd of July, the money was charged to my visa on the 8th of July by a company with the dubious name of Angel fulfilment! When you say it out loud 'I ordered bendaroos from angel fulfilment' it sounds like an x rated order! But it wasn't until I got my statement that I became aware of them


I have a screen shot of the order confirmation and an email confirming my UK shipping address and yet they are telling me I did not place an order.


I telephoned Visa who have suspended the transaction and are sending me out dispute forms to fill in.


This advert is STILL being shown on UK TV I think ITV and CITV show it, it is targeting children during kids programmes and early evening. There must be other people who have been caught out by this. It seems like a scam to me.


I also find it odd that the website changes as when I went to visit it earlier today the actual order form was at the bottom of the page to fill in, whereas when I just went to look now, you have to click a link on the main page to order and it brings up another box which only allows USA addresses.

gordikin

oh dear!!!!!!...sorry I have not got a clue what your point is?

Ninky

is this not the praise, vent and warnings section?
Is it not a warning to others to avoid purchasing this product from this website?
Is it not also a vent?

Claire_Bear

You should try getting in touch with the channels that are showing this advert to warn them about what is happening. You would have thought they'd check companies before advertising their products, I imagine they'll get a lot of complaints once people realise what is going on. Just had a quick look around, if you still want to get some for your friend's son, they have them on Amazon, or apparently a product called Wikki Stix is exactly the same thing so you could get some without supporting the dodgy company. HTH

Samba_Pa_Ti

Ninky wrote: »

is this not the praise, vent and warnings section?
Is it not a warning to others to avoid purchasing this product from this website?
Is it not also a vent?

yep quite right, anyone googling this dodgy company will bring up this thread in the future so its always good to post problems imo.

Ninky

Thanks Claire bear I was looking on the ITV website earlier to try and work out who to contact, will do some more digging tomorrow.

Samba Pa Ti I noticed on google when I done the original search for bendaroos that there were a lot of mother and toddler type forums asking for info on where to buy this product as they had seen the tv advert and rather than trawl for all of them to leave a warning, thought I would come here and leave one.

Thankyou for validating my OP :-)

Ninky

Claire_Bear wrote: »

You should try getting in touch with the channels that are showing this advert to warn them about what is happening. You would have thought they'd check companies before advertising their products, I imagine they'll get a lot of complaints once people realise what is going on. Just had a quick look around, if you still want to get some for your friend's son, they have them on Amazon, or apparently a product called Wikki Stix is exactly the same thing so you could get some without supporting the dodgy company. HTH

Yea I saw them too, thought I would probably get them instead,they look identical ands also even use some of the same images on the packaging! ;-)

trisontana

All suspect adverts should be reported to the Advertising Standards Authority:-

http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/

willo65

On the order page https://www.bendaroos.com/flare/next#billingform you will notice that the only option for country on the address is united states did you not think that this is becaus ethey only ship to the united states??

I think the site you required was http://www.bendaroos.co.uk/

Sorry for your experience but I would say by making country selection USA only then you are at fault here I would probably chase them for a refund though.

mrcol1000

Loads of USA toys get advertised on UK TV. Did the advert actually say that you could order them direct from the company to be delivered to the UK? Surely the advert was just for the product which as someone has said can be brought at a number of UK retiallers on and off-line. There doesn't seem to be any scam. In fact the only thing the company has done wrong is not refunding your order as soon as they realised it was to a UK address. It may well be that if you live somewhere that there is a USA town/city with the same name (and there are many) they just assumed it was a USA address and sent it out.
Also few companies actually send out the items themselves in USA or UK or most countries. They have a warehouse owned and run by a 3rd party logistics company who store their product and send it out on their behalf.
In fact if you had done a google search for Angel fullfillment your see its actually quite a big company. It looks like they take orders and pass them on to the warehouse.

So I wouldn't waste your time making a complaint as your going to look a fool. The company is advertising a product that is for sale in the UK on a UK channel. I would get your money back and just make sure a website sends to UK before buying from them in future.

Takoda

You just used the wrong web address - there is no scam!