Ultimate After Party - County Court Judgement

jay_001

me and my friends have decided to ignore them and see what they do, i really dont think they are legit, no one has actually experienced debt collectors on here, so i wont give them money for nothing! just a waiting game i guess... the fact that they are willing to accept a payment of less than they are asking for says a lot too!

WhiteHorse

The contract is presumably solely between the firm and your friend.

Did you actually consent to the contract being changed into your name? If you didn't, then you owe the firm nothing. You might however owe your friend, depending on how it pans out.

Which country's law applies? The T&C's usually state this.

Stephen_B

linzi_4 wrote: »

I'm having the same problem too. Me and my friend went to Magaluf this June and at an all-you-can-drink event at BCM bar a rep swooped on us. He firstly sold to us a bar crawl for the following night for 10 euros each, to we which we both wanted to do so we paid the money and then he said about the reunion. We said we weren't interested but after him hounding us for about 10 minutes we gave in just to get rid of him. At no point did he tell us that we wouldn't be able to cancel and said that the 10 euros we had paid for the bar crawl would act as the deposit for the reunion. Now I totally forgot about this reunion, never received an invoice, then 3 months after we had got back they started ringing day after day demanding that we paid. I have received another call today whereby I told the rep I would not be paying a penny and that I hadn't received an invoice. She said that everyone had been sent an invoice and that she had never come across a situation like this (as if!!). Also that if the balance wasn't paid by Friday she would pass it to a debt recovery agency. This got me panicking but after reading on here I will just await this 'agency' because I don't think they'll have a leg to stand on.

Lynsey

Hi Lynsey my story is identical to yours. We kept ignoring their calls and now are threatening debt collectors. On knowledge of this have told all my mates to completely ignore them, then found this afterwards. I recieved no invoice from them. My friends are panicking a little but I have explained the company cant do jack.

Also I was told the barcrawl was just a deposit for the reunion and was not made aware that I had to pay within 14 days.

jay_001

Has anyone actually heard from debt collectors at all? My friends and I have decided to ignore them and yesterday was our last chance to pay, just wondering if the debt collection thing is just a way that they scare people into paying?

JSRichards

Hi this has happened to my son and 5 friends, we have now received a 'Notice of Intention to Recover outstanding monies'. When we first received a letter back in July we rang the number and was told they would look into it and get back to us, but surprise surprise no one ever rang us back and we have now received this letter. All boys concerned were 17 and they were NOT told they were signing a contract. Grateful if anyone could let me know what their outcome has been.

thanks

SJWar

My daughter is also being hounded with phone calls and threatening letters following a trip to Magaluf in July. This is obviously a scam whereby youngsters are told at the time that they are just paying 10 euros each for a bar crawl and asked to sign on that basis. I have told her to simply ignore all contact from the company. The victims should of course have read the booking form at the time but it is not surprising that they have other interests and may of course not be entirely sober at the time either. The fact that so many witnesses to the scam could probably be gathered from this forum alone would weaken any case put forward by the company and I very much doubt that they actually go through with their threats. They will unfortunately be succesfull many times and are simply fishing for gullable victims at this stage. If anyone has actually been approached by a debt collection agency, etc. can they please update this forum.

isplumm

JSRichards wrote: »

Hi this has happened to my son and 5 friends, we have now received a 'Notice of Intention to Recover outstanding monies'. When we first received a letter back in July we rang the number and was told they would look into it and get back to us, but surprise surprise no one ever rang us back and we have now received this letter. All boys concerned were 17 and they were NOT told they were signing a contract. Grateful if anyone could let me know what their outcome has been.

thanks

Hi,

The question is - are they going to take them to court - cause if so, let them & go & defend ...

This could be a letter trying it on ....

My attitude is I would ignore until they actually take you to court.
Mark

nistrach

GHPE Privay Policy states "Once we take a credit card payment from you, we destroy your card details, we will NOT store any of your financial details on our records."

So how did they manage to get funds taken directly from someones account? The actions of this company sound to be bordering on illegal...

I'd be interested to hear people's experience with challenging the threats and demands as my daughter (17 at time of Magaluf) and her friends are now receiving threatening phone calls. Debt collectors will be around next week apparently
We'll see...

Has anyone had this experience taken to the next level?

Sashaaarrr

I am experiencing the EXACT same problems with GHPE. Myself and two friends were harrassed by a rep and eventually was sold a bcm bar crawl for 5euro. The rep explained that this was also a deposit for the bcm reunion but we could cancel at any time. We were not given a copy of the contract in magaluf and just assumed it was for the bar crawl.

As we had no intention of going to the event we just assumed that as we hadn't paid it would be automatically cancelled as the rep had said.

Two days ago, I received a letter notifying me of debt collection action if I do not pay the amount in 7 days. This included the contract I signed and terms and conditions which i was not shown at the time of signing it. Like you all, I have not received an invoice as explained on the t&c.

We went to the police and they advised that we don't pay them until we have found some more information. They also advised that we call pontins (where the event is taking place). After calling pontins they confirmed that there is not a bcm event on Nov 12-15 2010. We then called GHPE Ltd to question this, as these were the specific dates on the contract. At first the MD said the event was now in January and when we pointed out that the contract is therefore NUL AND VOID as it stated november, he backtracked and said it was on in november but fully booked.

When he was told pontins denied the booking he said he had booked with pontins MD. The lady we spoke to at pontins LAUGHED at this.

We have no intention of paying this money, and we will be contacting BBC WATCHDOG and ACTIONFRAUD to expose this company!

Please if this has happened to you, do the same and report them. We can stop it from happening again at least.

antrobus

Sorry curiousity got the better of me here. Oddly enough the links provided by the OP now redirect to the BCM reunion website. The T&Cs are now to be found at http://www.bcmreunion.co.uk/terms-of-service.php and state that;

4. Cancellations By You

Once the deposit has been paid, you have entered a contract between yourselves and GHPE Ltd, you are therefore required to pay the remaining balance. Cancellation by yourselves is not permitted, once the deposit has been paid, the remainder of the balance must be paid by the contracted final payment date. Once full payment has been made NO refund will be given no matter when the booking is cancelled. (please note if you have sent a written request to cancel your booking then this must be done with 14 days to our head office, 26 Duke Street, Biddulph, Stoke on Trent, ST8 7DE, UK

So cancellations are "not permitted" but must be made by "written request ... with 14 days", which is both contradictory and ungrammatical.

On the other hand;

6. Cancellations by us

We reserve the right to cancel or change the BCM Reunion event without prior notification, changes may include the number of arenas, dates, DJ's, PA's or even the venue due to reasons beyond our control. No refund will be given if a change to the event occurs.

So apparently by paying a deposit to GHPE Ltd an individual is irrevocably commiting themselves to paying for attendance at an event whose location and date can be changed at the whim of the organiser and might not even occur at all.

This just screams unfair terms. As in SCHEDULE 2 of the The Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 (No. 2083) which includes an INDICATIVE AND NON-EXHAUSTIVE LIST OF TERMS WHICH MAY BE REGARDED AS UNFAIR

Specifically item 1 (c)

making an agreement binding on the consumer whereas provision of services by the seller or supplier is subject to a condition whose realisation depends on his own will alone;

or indeed 1 (f)

authorising the seller or supplier to dissolve the contract on a discretionary basis where the same facility is not granted to the consumer, or permitting the seller or supplier to retain the sums paid for services not yet supplied by him where it is the seller or supplier himself who dissolves the contract;

or again 1(i)

irrevocably binding the consumer to terms with which he had no real opportunity of becoming acquainted before the conclusion of the contract (as in a contract supposedly signed by an inebriated teenager in a Spanish bar)

Which is interesting since the 1999 regulations derive from an EU Directive, and so it is very likely that similar provisions exists in Spanish law. Just in case anyone raises that point.

I'd say that their T&Cs amounted to nothing more than scary sounding quasi-legal mumbo-jumbo that is of no consequence whatsoever.