Be Careful - Queensway House Sponsorship

Estateprincess

Hi,

This morning the company I work for received a phone call from this "charity" asking for sponsorship towards diary printing for the Welsh Regiment for the Royal Welsh Show.
We became suspicious as the man said they could not send us info via email (they don't have one??!!) and we were caught out a few years ago by a similar scam that wanted sponsorship for a police magazine.

Anyway we looked them up in the charities list and there is no such charity, this made us even more suspicious! A quick search Companies House search found that they are in fact a limited company that was dissolved on 02/02/2010 yep 2 days ago!

The reason we know this is in fact the people that rang this morning is because unfortunately my parents, who run their own company, actually sponsored Queensway House last year for the same thing. Whilst searching for the name I remembered my parents mentioning the diaries last year so we dug out the invoices etc and turns out it is definitely the same people :mad: they received nothing from the company after they had sponsored them (i.e. no confirmation, printed diary etc.)

The most shocking thing is the fact that despite the company being dissolved they are still ringing businesses, many of whom will just sponsor the money (it was only £20 last year so luckily not a huge amount) and it will never benefit any charity.

Sorry this post is so long - I just hope this stops someone making the same mistake my parents did this time last year - luckily only £20 but still it is money that could have been used to benefit a genuine cause had my parents known last year.

sjssouthwales

I just had a call from them - again to do with the Royal Welsh Regiment.

ceri_morgan

I have been hassled a few times. He quotes charity no 264120 but no mention of queenway house.

Trading standards told me that Maindy Barracks knew nothing about this nor any diary. I searched the charity no and it does come up but havent got around to telephoning yet.

I did some research and did find a limited company called Queenway House thats a bit strange. The oldham area accent man is very friendly and very convincing.

Can anyone tell me that this is genuine?

Strange that we are all in S wales?

trisontana

This sounds like the usual scam that involves the printing of fake posters or booklets that are supposed to be linked to the emergency services. Another clue is the mention of Oldham. Most of these scams seem to operate out of the north-west of England, especially the Manchester area.

There is a thread about this , under the title "advertising scam".

MDT_2

I came across this thread as I was trying to find out if an enquiry that we recently had to our business was genuine or not.

We were contacted to see if we would sponsor the Household Cavalry by donating £25 or more towards the Queensway Diaries that get given to members of the cavalry, we agreed and got send a certificate of our support and an invoice from a company called 'Queensway House UK Ltd' [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]

This made me a little concerned as to whether the cavalry would benefit from our contribution.

After looking at various phone number checking and company registration websites I thought I would go straight to the Household Cavalry and ask them if they new of these people.

After a few calls I managed to get a phone number for the Home HQ of the Household Cavalry (01753 755297), the lady I spoke to was very helpful and confirmed that Queensway House were genuine and that she had recently received a Queensway diary herself.

I hope my findings are correct as I have now paid the amount, however it is such a pity that we live in a society where we need to doubt things like this rather than just support our troops in any way we can................

scooby088

In reply to your post on this, i think everyone on MSE are here to save money, i for one personally feel put out that companies phone me for money and when they do more often than not it is a scam. I think that anyone who gives blindly are foolish.

Genuine or not i decide who i give my money to and i don't wish to be pestered by organisations i have no desire in donating to.

cookshop

I have been donating for 3 years now but I decided to check it out properly as they were a bit keen to get the money and felt a bit harassed. I couldn't find out much, no website etc so I contacted Edinburgh Castle where the regiments headquarters are and the man I spoke to confirm it was all above boards, I emailed him and he phoned me back. He didn't give me much detail about the company just that they were in Ormskirk and was aware the the company was dissolved in the past, he offered for the managing director to phone me. That's a lot of trouble to go to for £25 so I have a feeling it is legit, I think. The chap did say I could send the cheque to him and he would forward it which is prob what I will do. Interested to know more though just to be sure.

Foggster

If you want to sponsor the Household Cavalry, why not donate direct to them, your £25 will go further and there is no middle man to take a cut.

http://www.justgiving.com/householdcavalry