Epress scam/fraudsters

Libra1975

I got a call last Thursday asking me if I would like to place an ad in a new magazine which was going out to all emergency service personal in my county. It sounded right up my street for my business and also in my price bracket for marketing and said yes. About an hour later I got another call confirming I wanted to run an advert and that I couldn't now change my mind. I said fine.

I have in front of me the invoice (for which I get a 10% discount if paid in 7 days) I was just about to pay by bank transfer when alarm bells started ringing in my head. I have no idea what the magazine was called and hadn't had any details about it yet. The company account no and sort code couldn't be found by my bank. And the old saying, if it seems to good to be true it probably is (it was cheap for advertising).

Has anyone had any experience with this? I presume the fact it was over the phone the fact they said I couldn't now not pay is !!!!!!!! as surely I have the 7 day cooling off period?

The company is epress.org.uk

Any suggestions?

(apologies if this is the wrong forum).

Thank you.

transient

old schoolscam loads of variations if you search on the web

Hintza

Libra1975 wrote: »

as surely I have the 7 day cooling off period?

I know nothing about the legitimacy of the company but this is a B2B transaction so no cooling off.

arcon5

Some are scams. Ie sending out nothing.

Some are Mis-selling. Ie distribute a small number and Mis represent the service.

Some are genuine. But offer a poor ROI.

Don't pay, they will make threats, send you demands for payment, threaten court - they will more than likely go away eventually and never carry through.
Alternatively make an offer of a nominal fee as full and final settlement.


But firstly, find out if they record calls, of not deny agreeing to it. If they say they do, deny it anyway and they will probably send you a recording to scare you in to paying.

Libra1975

Surely, if you do pay they do have to present a magazine going out to what/who they told you or they are in breach of contract?

They did say it was recorded and that now I had agreed I was liable for the full amount (very quickly before almost putting phone down on me).

I am not worried about being threatened by baliffs.

Sorry what is B2B?

Thank you for your replies.

bod1467

Business To Business.

Libra1975

So legally I have to pay? Despite the fact there is no magazine?

arcon5

Libra1975 wrote: »

So legally I have to pay? Despite the fact there is no magazine?

From a legal perspective you have entered in to a contract so yes. There are no statutory get out clauses for B2B contracts. Nor can you prove they do not intend to send something out.

Libra1975

I have also just noticed that on invoice there is no VAT registration number but they are clearly charging me VAT. It is below £250 but I was under the impression that legally they still needed to include VAT registration number on an invoice.

Libra1975

Sorry arcon5 didn't see you had posted.
They said the first publication date was Sept 10th, surely if not one member of the emergency service in my county receives anything then that is proof enough..

arcon5

Yes they should include a VAT number.

But they are asking for payment within 7 days and publication is in 12ish weeks so wouldn't be grounds to not pay. If you could demonstrate they haven't delivered the service you could dispute the work and seek a refund - but this would be a very difficult task involving the courts. And even if you had obtained a CCJ you may struggle to enforce it. Many of these companies are shut down and restarted under a new company ID (many of them also seem to be location in Manchester also) (this is also assuming you have their physical address and not a virtual address).