great british mobility

macthefatcat

I can only sympathise with diggerman and Damamma-my mother has had a similar experience-two hours listening to the original slimebag salesman, giving her such emotional blackmail. She decided she couldn't afford the "bargain" buy one get one free for four and a half grand! but then got talked into a chair for two and half k. that was on the 4th jan, we cancelled on the 5th, they took the money out on the 7th. that in my book is theft. After months of phone calls, letters emails, consumer direct, trading standards she finally got the money back last week. they dont answer phone calls-its the only company i know where they cant put you through to accounts. or emails or letters from anyone. Forget the nice stuff-go straight to the "pay up in seven days or county court letter" get in contact with trading standards(who are useless but best do things right) And i believe Somerset Trading standards are quite interested in them. Good luck to you all, hope they crash and burn. Its very interesting that if you google them they are so involved in charity golf matches and feature quite heavily on the mobility pages of many councils and advertise heavily in mags for older people-maybe we should get some good old consumer pressure going on their publishers.

sparkie65

Father in law ordered a bed through these **** we cancaled the order when they could'nt deliver in the promised time frame. I've been trying to get £1995 refunded since Feburary, keep getting fobed off with "its been autherised but you cant talk to the finance department as they dont take incomming calls" Reported to Trading Standards and Followed thier advice but still no money yet, Oh and we got the same/better spec bed for half the money and within 1 week of order. Praying on the old people! how do they sleep at night??

DAVIATOR

Father(registered disabled, 78 years old) had similar experience. He came to his senses after having agreed to buy a bed for 3k and cancelled the order.Salesman called and offered to give him 1k discount but my father declined and confirmed cancellation.Turns out Greatbritishmobility had already taken money from credit card and after 2 months of calling and being told we cannot put you through to accounts he still has not had money back.
Ideally I would like him to get his money off the scum who have been ripping the elderly and disabled off but does anyone know if section 75 of the consumer credit act would cover such transactions and enable him to recover the money from his CC company?

LilacLouisa

DAVIATOR wrote: »

Father(registered disabled, 78 years old) had similar experience. He came to his senses after having agreed to buy a bed for 3k and cancelled the order.Salesman called and offered to give him 1k discount but my father declined and confirmed cancellation.Turns out Greatbritishmobility had already taken money from credit card and after 2 months of calling and being told we cannot put you through to accounts he still has not had money back.
Ideally I would like him to get his money off the scum who have been ripping the elderly and disabled off but does anyone know if section 75 of the consumer credit act would cover such transactions and enable him to recover the money from his CC company?

I am having problems with this company too. They promise no pressure selling, and I fell for it. Ordered a chair costing £3.600.00 of which I had to pay £1,800 immediately, plus £90.00 per month for 2 years Was told it would take 3 - 4 weeks to be delivered. When it was a few days before the first payment was due and I hadn`t heard from them, I rang. They told me that the order had been muddled up and it hadn`t been made, when I asked how long it would be they said 4 - 6 weeks. I was in so much pain that I told them I would have to cancel and get a ready made one. I then got a letter telling me that they would be witholding 10%.

I rang my solicitor and he sent them a letter. They decided that they could refund all the money, but I get calls and letters telling me that the money is on the way, a cheque is in the post etc. When you ring the company, you are usually answered by some gormless person who says no-one is there, doesn`t know when anyone will be there, doesn`t know who is in charge of the post etc. etc.

My solicitor has now sent it to the small claims court! If only I had seen this thread before I contacted them.

I contacted my cc company and they told me that if they British Mobility were awkward, they would try to help.

Payless_2

What an absolutely appalling company :mad:. I hope that you all get your money refunded.

LilacLouisa

Payless wrote: »

What an absolutely appalling company :mad:. I hope that you all get your money refunded.

Thanks Payless. I know it seems like an excessive amount of money to pay in the first place, but when you are in constant pain and something comes along which eases it somewhat (and you are told the medical benefits too) you feel you can`t not afford it.

This company advertises on television too, so foolishly I thought they were trustworthy.

Payless_2

LilacLouisa wrote: »

Thanks Payless. I know it seems like an excessive amount of money to pay in the first place, but when you are in constant pain and something comes along which eases it somewhat (and you are told the medical benefits too) you feel you can`t not afford it.

This company advertises on television too, so foolishly I thought they were trustworthy.

My Mam lives on her own and I always worry about salesmen like this. She is very vulnerable. I just wonder how they sleep at night.

I completely understand how someone knocking at the door and promising to take away the pain could be so tempting to people.

madjackie_2

My mother and stepfather were one of the lucky ones by the sound of things, Back in jan2010 mum saw their ad in the newspaper and called G/B/M the next day they were at the door, the gent managed to get £480.00 out of them for a mattress (bloody hell i cud buy the whole bed for that)!!!! they paid by card but the next day they had changed their minds abt the mattress so they called the bank to cancell the payment, BUT guess what the money had already been taken out.How quick was that !!!!. So they call G/B/M what a joke call after call letter after letter,but no-one seemed to knonw anything abt anything, My mum and stepdad were not goin to let this lie it is their money and they wanted it back, i took over and went to C/A/B/. they were very helpfull. 5 months down the line they had a cheque in the post with all the bull that comes from them sort of ppl. this company should be exposed, RIPPING OFF OLD AGE PENISONERS ITS JUST NOT RIGHT THEY WOULDNT LIKE IT IF SOME OND DID IT TO THEIR PARENTS.. If you want ur money back then i say dont give up go to the C/A/B/ AND IF THAT DOESNT WORK GO TO THE SMALL CLAIMS COURT THATS WHAT WE TOLD THEM WERE GOING TO. And by the looks of it,it worked, luck good to everyone whos had dealing with theses low life ppl soz not ppl scummmmmm

vulnerable80

I have to say I am horrified to read your experience. I am in the process of trying to get a refund of £2,397.00 for my 80yr old mother. She was also persuaded to part with the full amount of money on the day the salesman visited. The order was cancelled within the 10 day period specified and we received written confirmation from the company that they would refund the money within 28 days. I, like you have had terrible trouble trying to be able to speak to anyone to the company - I keep getting fobbed off at reception. I have written to the accounts department as well and had no reply. On a Google search I see that the Chairman's name is Peter Kitson - they wouldn't give me that name over the phone. It is now 80 days since the written confirmation which acknowledged that she could have a full refund. :mad:

Any ideas where to go or what to do next please anyone?? It is dreadful that elderly people are being pressured in this way. I would be grateful for any helpful suggestions. Thanks

LilacLouisa

vulnerable80 wrote: »

I have to say I am horrified to read your experience. I am in the process of trying to get a refund of £2,397.00 for my 80yr old mother. She was also persuaded to part with the full amount of money on the day the salesman visited. The order was cancelled within the 10 day period specified and we received written confirmation from the company that they would refund the money within 28 days. I, like you have had terrible trouble trying to be able to speak to anyone to the company - I keep getting fobbed off at reception. I have written to the accounts department as well and had no reply. On a Google search I see that the Chairman's name is Peter Kitson - they wouldn't give me that name over the phone. It is now 80 days since the written confirmation which acknowledged that she could have a full refund. :mad:

Any ideas where to go or what to do next please anyone?? It is dreadful that elderly people are being pressured in this way. I would be grateful for any helpful suggestions. Thanks

I am sorry to hear that your mum has also been duped by this company, but that seems to be the way they operate. When you ring to make enquiries (not sales though) they seem to put people on the phoneline who know nothing, don`t know where anyone else is, can`t give you any information at all, and apparently they are the only one there!

They also contacted me most Friday afternoons by phone, telling me that the money is being refunded, it is being refunded but needs approval from someone or other, the cheque has been put in the post. When the cheque didn`t arrive I rang them and was answered by the gormless one answering the phone that particular day. This person did not know how to contact the mail room or where it was, or who was in charge of it. I told her that if the cheque did not arrive in that days post I would be contacting the small claims court.

The next day I received a phone call from a woman working there who said she would try to find out who had been dealing with the posting of the cheque, so I told her that it was too late, I was fed up with being fobbed off, and had asked my solicitor to put it through the small claims court. She seemed to be a bit upset - tough- so was I at being messed about by them.

The upshot of it all is that my solicitor phoned me this morning to say that the cheque had arrived! (keeping my fingers crossed it doesn`t bounce)

Don`t give up, perhaps you might consider the small claims court route too, it appeared to be the only thing that got them moving in my case.

Good luck

PS Forgot to say, I only used a solicitor because he is my son :-) but anyone can do this themselves as far as I am aware.