The Norfolk hamper company thread

Alwaysskint22

All I want is my money back. I don't want/need his hampers. Sick of the whole thing so would just like to put it behind me. Makes me think twice about where I spend my hard earned cash in future.

The recent email has done nothing to quell my fears. He's stalling for time. Nice when you've got all our cash in his bank! :mad::mad:

denmjd

ppc_guy wrote: »

Ellieo,

Unlike most on here i have not been worried about getting a hamper and following on from a link posted on here obtaining a direct email was easy,

I dropped him a polite email and he has responded.

Hi, can you please tell me which link it was so I can check I've got the same e-mail address?

Many Thanks:)

[Deleted User]

Another one who hasn't received any hampers, nor have I received replies to my politely worded emails initially asking when/if hampers were being delivered, if I needed to change my order if stock levels were low.., my two tweets were deleted and now I just get stock replies.

I paid in October so paypal won't give a refund.

My family ate two cheap Xmas puds, cheap crisps and cheap sweets this Xmas. Thanks Neil. It really helped. our Xmas. Not going to worry about your stress levels given it could all have been prevented with better management and handling of customers.

Personally, I think given his 'responsible' actions (NOT) so far, the company will not open up again. And I'm afraid a lot of customers will not get a hamper or refund.

I bought goods from this company because there were at the time positive reviews on here from people who'd used the company. Normally I won't touch small companies unless I know they are reliable. But lesson learned. Not the MSE people's fault, they were posting their experiences but I won't follow through on a 'deal' like this again.

ppc_guy, I am sorry. Thank you for your efforts but as u kindly tried to arrange to collect and deliver orders for NHC but were let down.., I assume you were conned like the rest of us. Quite often these conmen like to portray themselves as well meaning but bumbling eejits (gives them more time, more room for manouvre) but there are always hints as to what's underneath. His Tweet page was more than a hint.

Sending a circular mail every couple of days is in no way a remedy to the situation he has created (Neil). It takes a few minutes to do that. Answering our mails individually as he says he is doing (but I have yet to hear on here from one person who has received an individual email) would indicate the man was actually trying to deal with the situation.

I wish I could write differently, more hopefully but given what I have seen, I don't have any hope.

soolin

ppc_guy wrote: »

I initially "inserted" myself into this debacle in an effort to help people, My first attempts to contact Neil were to offer to take any hampers which needed to go Norwich way in my personal car on Xmas eve. I was in Yarmouth visiting family and live the other side of Norwich and thought this was a tragedy so i tried to help in any way i could even if it was only 3 or 4 hampers i could take i saw it as 3 or 4 people less upset.

This didn't work out and it has, if im honest, intrigued me to an extent. I love business and wanted to get into knowing where this went wrong and of course help Neil make things better which in turn makes it better (again to an extent) for everyone adversely affected by this whole episode.

As someone who runs a very small business and also assists others with the same, I believe the biggest mistake was reacting so poorly to buyers. If a business person starts seeing buyers as 'something' he can vent his anger on and abuse then in all his years of business he has learnt nothing.

I do not see this as an exercise in working out what went wrong- all that matters here is that people get either their goods or a refund and sadly in many cases I suspect that is not going to happen quickly

The business was time dependent, it isn't a case of stuff arriving Thursday and making it all alright, it will be to late. This is also NOT a courier issue although there has been some sympathy in that direction. You cannot blame the courier in any way if they were expecting hampers in the first week of December and actually got the delivery requests with about 3 days notice instead. Go and ask any small seller on the eBay board whether they would guarantee courier deliveries even a week before Christmas.

So much has gone wrong here to the point of incompetence. One mistake we can all make, but start adding more and more mistakes and it looks like there was never a viable business plan here at all.

I suspect the next step will be a 'staged' breakdown with nothing much being achieved on the basis that the nasty money paying buyers forced him into ill health.

Hopefully every one who can has now got their claims in via the bank and PayPal, if nothing else it might stop him doing this to other people as with out the backing of the financial institutions he can take no more payments.

inkypink_2

Morning all

I've not been on here since my remaining hampers arrived last Wednesday (still too late though!). Can someone fill me in as to what's happening at the moment please? I 'took advantage' of the 12+12 deal so I've paid for 22 hampers and I'm not sure what the best course of action is.

Many thanks and hope everyone had a lovely day yesterday x

Lynsey

ppc_guy wrote: »

I have also made it known to him that in order for his business to survive in any way with an inch of credibility then the refunds must be offered and honoured to everyone who has not received the hamper.

I am hoping that you will alll see some progress in the next 48-72 hours which has more meaning but the generic email at least shows he hasn't just "done a bunk" and left you all in the sticky stuff?!

The refunds and return costs must also be offered to those who received their hampers late and to those who were sent hampers short of advertised goods etc.
Can you update as and when your "new found friend" has started to refund and ask how many refunds has he done to date??
If he's genuine, a lot of refunds should now have taken place, that's if he's genuine of course.

maxtweenie wrote: »

The best advice I could give him at the moment is that he has two options;

A) Refund everyone whose money he has had for months and hasn't supplied goods to, or
See everyone in the small claims court.

Absolutely, I think a LBA (Letter Before Action) giving max 14 days to refund may be needed. If he allows small claims to progress, then he really is finished along with lots of CCJ's and added costs.
Time to take his "Clown Suit" off I think.

Hope all issues are swiftly sorted - good luck to all affected.

Lynsey

maxtweenie

I'm not knocking ppc_guy for his admirable attempt to help people by offering to deliver hampers on Christmas Eve. I am concerned however with the advice he may be giving the company. I would prefer to see that they get professional help to sort this mess out, especially as there are already several county court claims going through.

ppc_guy

Max,

The advice is simply guiding the company towards issuing refunds, and then issuing a brief press release to explain why it went wrong. whats going on to fix it, and when people can expect their money back.

I have advised him to issue refunds (and said it should be today) to all people that definitely are not getting their hampers (the people whose hampers he either has or knows he has not fulfilled.)

I have also suggested he set up a direct email purely for people to request refunds. This will make it easier for him to process the refunds and easier for all of you to try and get your money back.

I have let him know that court action is being mentioned on here and pointed out that this will definitely kill the company, although at this point i think the company can be salvaged.

And for the poster earlier saying i may have been duped this is not the case. I was not in any way involved until i heard on Radio Norfolk about the issues and thought "what the hell, i have boot space and im in Yarmouth lets see if i can help" i had not made contact with Neil before this point and simply turned up at the shop to see if i could get any to take Norwich Bound.

maxtweenie

ppc_guy wrote: »

Max,

The advice is simply guiding the company towards issuing refunds, and then issuing a brief press release to explain why it went wrong. whats going on to fix it, and when people can expect their money back.

I have advised him to issue refunds (and said it should be today) to all people that definitely are not getting their hampers (the people whose hampers he either has or knows he has not fulfilled.)

I have also suggested he set up a direct email purely for people to request refunds. This will make it easier for him to process the refunds and easier for all of you to try and get your money back.

I have let him know that court action is being mentioned on here and pointed out that this will definitely kill the company, although at this point i think the company can be salvaged.

And for the poster earlier saying i may have been duped this is not the case. I was not in any way involved until i heard on Radio Norfolk about the issues and thought "what the hell, i have boot space and im in Yarmouth lets see if i can help" i had not made contact with Neil before this point and simply turned up at the shop to see if i could get any to take Norwich Bound.

Thanks for the full explanation. I really believe you are genuinely trying to help him, and I'm sure he appreciates it. However, there are over
130 pages of comments on here so you may not have had the chance to read them all. There are already numerous claims that have been filed at the court, in fact I believe one poster who lived fairly local said that they had filed 13 claims as a group. I fear it may be too late to save the company.

soolin

ppc_guy wrote: »

I have let him know that court action is being mentioned on here and pointed out that this will definitely kill the company, although at this point i think the company can be salvaged.

.

I do not believe Court action will kill this business, I think the owner will do that .

I agree with your suggestion that the owner should now be refunding people he knows that have not received Christmas hampers, I think that should be a priority and then maybe deal with the other issues later. I know it is Boxing day but there are thousands of people working, he only needs his books and a PC to refund, nothing else.

I would go as far as to say I would not blame anyone who feels that legal action should be started later this week if no refunds are forthcoming in the next 48 hours.

Personally how the owner deals with this issue, and more importantly how quickly, will show whether this is a one off unfortunate incident, or a sign of something more worrying.