Coverlook Studios

mumikoj

Hi All,

as all of you I received call, fell for it, paid ł60 for 2 people, all of it happened yesterday.
I found this forum and call my bank if I can get money back. Well, I have to wait till the appointment date which is 28th October and if they won't refund the deposit, bank will claim it back then.
But I would like to cancel all this fun so I called the studio tonight. The lady sounded suprised and tried to tell me the story how fab they are and professional and 15 years and the best in London and so on. I am not saying anything, I said, I just would like to cancel my appointment now and get a cancellation quote from you for my bank so I can get that deposit back. She passed me to her suppervisor. I spent 1/2 hour on the line with him, he refused to pay me back, said that I can cancel or not to turn up on my appointment date but I won't see any money. They did not want to give me more details about the company-register number, owner and so on.
So I am going to contact citizen advice bureau tomorrow to see if there is any law about cancellation, I personaly think that their "no cancellation accepted" is non sence.

Could anyone please let me know if you succesfully canceled appointment with them and got your money back.


If you are interested here are company details:

Coverlook Limited
C/O Henry Leapman
1st FL Hillside House
2/6 Friern Park
London N12 9BT
comp.no.: 05554774
status:active
date of incorporation: 06/09/2005
nature of business: 7481 (portrait photos, special photos etc.)

mumikoj

Just to keep you updated. Consumer standards sent me reply immediatelly, if you cancel you have all rights to get your deposit back but this to happen within 7 days after you agreed or paid, which I've done. It's called Cooling Off period. Another option your bank can claim that deposit back well you don't have to pay it off to your credit card because you are covered by British Law-product/service has not been received, but you have to contact your bank, report that company as disputable, give them all details about that scammers you have and state that service has not been received and wait. That what I am going to do now, I have letter fom them ready with copy of the receipt, letter for Coverlook (which came back today because that !!!!!!!s refused to receive it, it was 1st class recorded sign for, but I sent another one to their other address which seems to gone through ); copy of postage and Coverlook's details.
I also called Coverlook about 5 mins ago, I have been told there is noone who is in charge of these thing so I explained to a girl with poor English that I leave a message for her boss and that legal action is awaiting to be taken unless the deposit appears on my credit card till Friday. I don't think she is going to do something about it, but I'll call them every day to tell them pungent thing about their so-called-business and I'll get the money back.

PLEASE, DO NOT TRUST ANY PHONE CALL ABOUT ANY COMPETITION AT ALL. DO WANT TO KNOW ALL DETAILS AND DO NOT GIVE YOUR DETAILS TO ANYBODY.
I know I made a mistake and I am paying for it now. :mad:

rara81

Hi, all, I have been sucked into this too....if anybody can help it would be greatly appreciated. Got a phonecall tuesday saying I'd won comp. It was tea time....I have a 6 month old and a 3 year old. Girl even tld me I sounded unhappy (lol), anyway, got bullied into specifying a date, then he tols me I can take kids too, for no extra charge. and also get 2 vip passes to a choice of 3 diff clubs (chinawhite, mo'vida and cant remember the other).Anyway, she asked my debit card details, for £30 deposit incase I didnt turn up, I gave these like the sucker I am, only then she told me it was taken off there and then, and would get it back once I had been to appt....then said if I want to take adult guest it would be another £30 dep for them. I said I wasn't sure, so she said ok,let us know asap.....checked bank today...Theyve taken £60!!!!!! grrrrr:mad: , and Ive just received a 'confirmation' letter....now telling me NO CANCELATIONS and you wont get money back if you do cancel....forgive mefor saying this but LIFE IS NOT THAT PREDICTABLE, i have 2 small children. So came on net and have found nothing but 'scammers, con artists' and the like....now what can I do? my bank won't claim the money back, as I had given them my card details, and they cant stop transactions....

mumikoj

rara81 wrote: »

Hi, all, I have been sucked into this too....if anybody can help it would be greatly appreciated. Got a phonecall tuesday saying I'd won comp. It was tea time....I have a 6 month old and a 3 year old. Girl even tld me I sounded unhappy (lol), anyway, got bullied into specifying a date, then he tols me I can take kids too, for no extra charge. and also get 2 vip passes to a choice of 3 diff clubs (chinawhite, mo'vida and cant remember the other).Anyway, she asked my debit card details, for £30 deposit incase I didnt turn up, I gave these like the sucker I am, only then she told me it was taken off there and then, and would get it back once I had been to appt....then said if I want to take adult guest it would be another £30 dep for them. I said I wasn't sure, so she said ok,let us know asap.....checked bank today...Theyve taken £60!!!!!! grrrrr:mad: , and Ive just received a 'confirmation' letter....now telling me NO CANCELATIONS and you wont get money back if you do cancel....forgive mefor saying this but LIFE IS NOT THAT PREDICTABLE, i have 2 small children. So came on net and have found nothing but 'scammers, con artists' and the like....now what can I do? my bank won't claim the money back, as I had given them my card details, and they cant stop transactions....

Hi rara,

First, sorry to hear that it happened to you as well.
I am quite surprise they won't take a break, as they are very familiar with "our issue" i am calling them with my boyfriend everyday, and they have already started to avoiding us. Like today, we have been told, that Rick, the manager is not available, he is there everyday by the was.

Contact your bank and report lost/stolen credit card and report the transaction from Coverlook as disputable, because they have all your details now and can take more money from your credit card.

Contact Coverlook and tell them that you have been mislead and that you are cancelling the appointment and want your money back. They will talk nonsence about no cancellation policy-rubbish, it is against british law. You have 7 days cooling off period when you have all rights to cancel, all you have to do is to inform the lender, Coverlook.

Report them to Consumer Standards, by clicking on Contact Us, you will fill their form step by step and get answer within about 4 days with help.

Do call Coverlook everyday and ask for your money back, here are the numbers: 0207 580 3999; or owner John Quinn mobile 07977 417760 Because the so-called studio does not want to talk to us, we have contacted John Quinn today, he said something he is in France so we agreed to call him on Monday again and briefly said what is our issue with his associates about.

Do the same, call them, cancel appointment, ask for deposit refund, call them everyday until they will refund it. Send them e-mail on coverlook@btconnect.com use some nice sounding subject such as Thank you for great time (:rotfl:) and write in the body of that e-mail that you confirm that cancellation you have made over the phone.

Use the phrase such as Trading standards report, Consumer standards, Legal Offence, contact media and putting them down, etc...when you speak to them.
Don't give up, your bank must cover that cost as you have cancelled and must get the money back, service has not been received and this is covered by British law, that's what HSBS told me. I have sent them all materials yesterday so i am still waiting.
Also we tried to send recorded sign-for letter to Coverlook to have a proof that we sent them written confirmation of our cancellation. The letter came back and royal mail stated that "Adrressee has gone away". And the !!!!!!!s from Coverlook keep saying that they are top london company, they don't even have a fax number.

Good luck and keep me updated, if you need any further advice just post another message in here.

Mumikoj

claire21

Wow, interesting thread. We are photographers that do makeovers in Somerset and I cant believe this goes on. I guess that as the package price is so low they have to do a hard sell to make a profit.

The prices your quoted for a picture afterwards seems really expensive.

It appears to me these types of business are just conveyer belts with no personal service to speak of.

I think you should always remember if its so cheap to begin with, there will be a sting in the tail.

tracy_a-p

just wanted to say, I received a call tonight to say I had won the 2nd prize and unfortunately got completely suckered in and I too gave my card details and told them that I dont get paid until tomorrow, fortunately due to this great website, going to report my card stolen tonight so they cant take any money, good luck to the rest of you I had a lucky escape

rara81

Hi all....just want to say, I have been phoning for the past week cancel....it just rings off??? Anyway, I read an earlier post of someone saying they contacted watchdog. I have also done this now. And guess what....a lovely man just phoned me and they are going to look into it! So please peeps.....if they have scammed you contact watchdog through bbc. The more of us that contact them the more strength we'll have to stop them carrying on! I am going to try coverlook one mor time on the phone. and then email today if no luck again.

ZoeChick

I posted my negative feedback back in May of this year but today more shocking stuff came to light. In May I had fraudulant transactions made on my card for over £1000. Today I had a letter from my back that the shop that allowed the purchase had sent to them, the letter included a letter that had supposedly been written by me giving my permission for a Mark Walker to use my card. The letter had my name and address on it. I looked over all bank statements for this time of year and the only company that I gave both my name and address to that also required the long number across my card was Coverlook!
These details could not have been retrieved from my rubbish as I have a shredder and do not put these things in the bin so was definately through a purchase such as this. I then called the fraud team at my bank with my suspsions only to be told that this is not the 1st time they have heard this companies name associated with a fraudulant transaction.

I have called coverlook and left my details for the manager to call me back as I would like to know how they store our details etc and if they know of a rogue employer. (I am yet to receive a call)

I would advise people not to use this company and employees of this company that are honest and hard working to find a job at a more reputable company. I am also contacting watchdog regarding this. I know I have no real hard evidence as yet but would you risk it?!

mumikoj

Hi ,

just to keep you updated with my issue with Coverlook.
We have been calling them for 2 weeks now, last step was contacting John Quinn, the owner, directly on his mobile. He promised to inform his employees that we are still awaiting our deposit. Guy named Mohan called us on Tuesday, after we had to remind John Quinn that nobody called us back yet. He took all my details again but this time we gave him also the authorisation code from the receipt. On Thursday we had another call from them that they are proceeding the return and they gave us an authorisation code of deposit refund. I called my bank today to find out if there has been such a transaction visible on my account, but they are not able to see it yet as it's too soon. So I'll wait till Tuesday next week, after double check with bank again and if nothing happend I'll go down to London to get my money in person. And I'll get them, they don't know me but they will see soon :j
Watchdog, good point I'll go there as well.
Don't call them in that studio, call John Quinn directly on his mobile, after things seem to speed up.
Good luck everyone!!!

EmiPink

Hi

Like many of you i also got fooled by cover look studios.... After falling for the whole i`d "won" scam and stupidly paying £90 as a deposit so i could take my mum and sister with me, i logged on to try and find their website and up popped this website! So thanku 4 everyone 4 posting on here, cos it made me quickly decided to try and cancel it. After 3 hours of trying to get through to cancel it on the same evening, i finally managed to get through to speak to some1 on this number:02076310272 this is a direct line through to a Ricki Sangh, who tryed to palm me off saying i needed to speak to a Mr Daz Moham who was the manager, and he would get James Lo to call me back, who rung me in the 1st place to call me tomorrow. This never happened so i rung them!! James Lo then tried too palm me off saying i`d need to speak to the manager, who was Ricki Sangh, ha! Eventually he agreed to cancel it. As by law you have full rights to cancel a product that you have been sold and not seen within 7 days. But i`m still waiting a week later for this refund! So i contacted my credit card company straight away to put a stop on it, they are launching an investigation and have assured me i will get my money back!! So we will just have to wait and see! Any1 else having much luck?

Here are some other phone numbers that might help?

0207 6310252 James Lo
0207 5804248 Reception

Advice to any1, dont give up! You have your rights and this is Misrepresentation of facts!