247 spares rip off!!!

tonyross

Hi

Bought some electric door mirrors to replace damaged ones for my car on 8th March 2007 through 247 spares, on the advice of another thread on this website. Cost me £117.50 through one of their agents, seemed like a good deal and 247 (and Quentin Wilson who endorses them) claim they have a warranty for all their parts :rolleyes: .

The mirrors were sent for a completely different car, obviously wouldn't fit. Spoke to the agents Dewsbury Auto Salvage, they demanded that I send them photos of the mirrors to prove they were wrong, I did this but they didn't reply. When I phoned them again, they said I should return them for a refund. I did this, cost me £18.50, and have proof that they signed for them on 30th March.

Since then they have not responded to recorded delivery letters, emails and when you phone asking about the refund, you get abuse and the phone put down :mad: .

I've since tried contacting 247 spares several times; they won't respond to emails, I cannot find a postal address for them. Every time I’ve phoned the woman seems very pleasant, she keeps saying she will sort it out and call back, but she doesn’t. The last three times I’ve phoned she says her boss tells her that I’ve had my refund, when I say this isn’t true and can I speak to her boss, he won’t speak to me and she won’t give me his name or their address. The only name on the 247 website is Quentin Wilson (perhaps he runs 247 spares):rolleyes: .

So two things:

1/ Be warned 247 spares are not what they seem, they are happy to take your money but flatly refuse to sort out problems when things go wrong. In other words they are quite happy to rip you off.

2/ Advice please experts, (I’m a nurse not a consumer expert), what do I do next? This has now cost me over £136, which I cannot afford to lose and I still have a car with broken mirrors.

Thanks in anticipation.

Tony

MarkyMarkD

Presuming that you paid by credit card, you can ask your credit card company to sort it out for you as they are liable.

I wouldn't have bought from 247spares - as you say, their website doesn't give any contact details which I believe isn't legal.

This: http://www.aboutus.org/247Salvage.com might be useful - gives an address, phone and fax numbers which are different to the 0871 number on the website. Also ties up to the address given via a "whois" search on the domain name: http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/whois.ch?ip=247spares.co.uk&cache=off. Hope that helps.

blue_haddock

Right i actually earn a living from 24/7 spares selling car parts, i don't actually know of that particular breakers but can give you some general advice.

It's not 24/7 spares fault - they are just the middleman, your contract is with Dewsbury Autosalvage. If you are getting nowhere with the breaker give 24/7 a call and ask to speak to a chap called Alex - he is one of the main men there and has the power to pull the plug on their subscription.

As has been suggested if you paid on your credit card you can do a credit card charge back and also speak to them regarding returning the parts under the distance selling regs.

If you need any more advice drop me a PM and i'll see what i can do.

MarkyMarkD

Respectfully, blue_haddock, it IS 247spares' fault if they are failing to return the OP's calls and failing to sort out what their business partner has promised to one of their customers.

They should be proactive, not rely on the fact it's Dewsbury's problem.

blue_haddock

I know from 1st hand experience that they can and do cut off breakers subscriptions and that is why i said to speak to Alex, until the issue is sorted they will have no leads to sell to so will get things sorted pretty sharpish.

tonyross

Thanks for the advice guys. As I said I have tried to speak to someone at 247 and they won't respond to emails and phone calls. They are fully aware of the problems with Dewsbury Auto Salvage, but I don't know if they have stopped their subscription.

If you have a website such as 247 that gives the impression of full back up when things go wrong, but instead there is no back up it seems pretty dodgy. If you also refuse to supply or display contact details, that tells me there is something to hide. I just hope others are warned not to go there.

I will contact my bank, I used a debit card so don't know if that makes a difference. I will also look into the distance selling regs as suggested.

Many thanks
Tony

davey69_2

Dont know if it will help but this is their companies house registered address -

CITYNET DATACOM LIMITED
SUITE 501 223 REGENT STREET
LONDON
W1B 2QD

MarkyMarkD

It's an address to send your small claims court claim to, but given that it is blatantly an accommodation address/mailbox it won't be any use when you try to send the bailiffs round.

I,_Brian

247spares (http://www.247spares.co.uk/) is a broker for a couple of hundred car breakers, so they're pretty dependent on the quality of service provided by the breakers involved.

Did you pay 247spares directly? If so, I should presume a contractual relationship with them.

In which case, feel free to email me (enquiries AT britecorp.co.uk) as I know some of the staff at 247spares. Can't guarantee anything, but I'll have a try for you.

tonyross

Some strange stuff happened today, first I received a Visa dispute form from the bank, then Alex from 247 spares contacted me, because of this thread, stating that Dewsbury Salvage have refunded me, I checked with my bank this morning, no record of this happening.

Alex was concerned about this thread, had suspended the account with Dewsbury Salvage, promised that he would get the manager of Dewsbury Salvage to phone me personally, today to apologise and to refund everything including the returned goods, expenses for the return of goods plus phone calls, etc. He also gave me his mobile number to ring.

I finished my work today trying to keep the NHS going (another story!), switched on my mobile, no message from Dewsbury or 247, but a message from my wife. The manager of Dewsbury Salvage, a guy who calls himself “Zed”, (won’t give his real name) had phoned my home number, instead of my mobile. Even though my wife told him I wasn’t there and he should contact my mobile and it was nothing to do with her, this “Zed” decided to have a go at her. :mad:

He stated that he refunded the full amount over a week ago, complained about this thread, saying what I have said is not true, and it had damaged his reputation and loss of business, although he didn’t swear, my wife found his behaviour offensive and intimidating. My wife is currently on sick leave, having been badly injured at work in the NHS (she is also a nurse) and is not well. She is certainly not well enough to put up with bullying on the phone, we get enough of that at work.:mad:

I have rechecked my bank statement this evening and surprise £117.50 has just appeared on the account from Dewsbury Salvage. But this is only the cost of the mirrors, this does not refund the £18.50 it cost to return them, nor the phone calls, and time wasted writing letters and listening to abuse on the phone.

So we have still not got everything back and an apology from Dewsbury Spares, for their mistake. I will contact BT about the phone call to my wife, to see if they can take action, I doubt the local Police would be interested.

I did promise Alex from 247 spares that I would certainly acknowledge their assistance in getting a full resolution. Obviously there is not a full resolution to this problem yet and I do look forward to this happening. I am happy to acknowledge that 247 do not have full control of the companies that they link to, so it is not their fault that people such as Dewsbury Salvage behave towards their customers in the way that they do.

But, I do believe they must put in place the means to arbitrate and resolve problems such as this, otherwise people like myself do have the option of putting it out on message boards such as this.

What I do not expect, under any circumstances, is for people to phone my home number, or my mobile and intimidate my family or me, this must stop!

I will keep you posted.

Tony

MarkyMarkD

Thanks for the update.

I don't see how you can complain to BT about a supplier phoning you up to discuss your business dealings. Although your wife may have found the phone call intimidating, it doesn't sound particularly offensive from the way you've described it.

At the end of the day, she could have hung up on him after telling him to speak to you directly.

I'm very pleased with 247 taking this so seriously, though. I think that "Zed" was clearly far more bothered about 247 suspending his dealings through them than by getting slated on MSE, so 247 have made the difference.

Regarding 247 believing you'd been compensated by Dewsbury, I can understand that Dewsbury had probably done a reverse Debit Card transaction and hence believed you'd got the money. But these things are not instant.