ABC Mascots - Not receiving responses to emails in relation to a costume hire

Reallyfedup123

I have booked and paid for the hire of a costume through ABC Mascots.

The booking fee was paid for at the beginning of the year via Paypal (so well out of the 60 day limit to make a claim) and the remaining £75 (£50 refundable deposit and £25 courier delivery and collection) was paid by BACS about 4 weeks ago.

The website no longer exists and the contact number on their Sales emails no longer works.

I had an initial response to my query about what was happening with the website saying that their web hosting company had gone bust and had turned off their servers meaning that ABC had lost their site and their customer database. The database had subsequently been restored and all future orders were going to be fulfilled.

But since then I've had no responses to my emails and the phone number is no longer working.

The costume is due to be delivered in a few weeks and we are going to have to try and source an alternative now at additional cost to us.

I know of one other customer whose costume arrived (it would already have been in transit when their site went down) and was picked up, but they haven't received their refundable deposit and have received no responses to their emails.

Is there anything we can do to get our money back? :mad:

bod1467

Even their Ebay shop appears to have gone.

bod1467

Is their Twitter account still active? Do they have a Facebook account?

Sorry to say though that it looks like they have done a flit.

Reallyfedup123

I had a look on their twitter account and they haven't posted on there since beginning of March and they don't seem to have a Facebook account. Would all of these be linked to their website though? Could that be why they've gone?

This is the email that I got from them:
Hi, thank you for your email regarding your order, the company who hosted our website went bust on Tuesday and at the end of the Tuesday the switched off all of their servers leaving companies who hosted with them in a dreadful state, we had no active backup for our software and have been franticly trying to restore what we can since this happened. We have lost our complete site along with our 1500 customer database, we had no choice but to let customers down last this weekend and had to refund their monies. We have now got our database back and running and ALL orders will be for field.

Why would they send that if they were then going to disappear? It just seems a little strange...

agrinnall

Payment by FPS (not BACS) means that you have little comeback other than to use Small Claims.

https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome

Disney_daisy

Hi

I have also been trying to contact the company, they have not replied to my emails, and if it was the case they lost their database why have they cut off the mobile number for people to contact them.
I am so unsure whether to use another company now, as really obviously cannot trust ABC Mascots, and unable to claim back the deposit and courier fees via PayPal due to the way payment made.

Reallyfedup123

Disney Daisy, I'm in exactly the same position!!!

We have found somewhere locally (Plymouth) that does the costumes that we need, so we are tempted just to use them... My daughter will be SO disappointed if the character we asked for isn't there for her party.

If we use the local one we will collect it ourselves and return it ourselves to ensure we get our money back.

I feel for you because we are in exactly the same situation. £100 is a lot of money to lose for NOTHING!

Reallyfedup123

I've just had a response!!!!!! Please see below:

Hi, we are still here working frantic to try and get issues sorted, we should be dispatching tomorrow and we are going to be phoning customer later this afternoon who have orders for this weekend, please bare with us as we are working all hours to try and correct things and get customers their orders.

Wigwamfan

V misleading website which makes out costumes can be hired & delivered for £25 backed up by an invoice which indicates delivery costs are covered once you've paid your £25.

The company then start chasing for extra courier fees & £50 security deposit, conveniently once you are within their 10 day "no refund" period.

I note they have changed the wording on their website since I complained so they've effectively acknowledged that it was misleading but have not been honourable enough to offer me a refund because of this.

Once I made it clear I wasn't prepared to pay the extra hidden charges their response became aggressive & unprofessional.

The majority of this company's customers must be the parents of young children. ABC Mascots know that those parents who are not prepared/can't afford to pay their hidden charges will ultimately end up with v disappointed children. How immoral they are.

AVOID AVOID AVOID!!!

MamaMoo_2

Lisa_May wrote: »

i have ordered from abc mascots twice in the last 2 years, the first for my sons 1st birthday in june 2012 and again this year for his 2nd birthday party, i have never experienced any of the issues mentioned above except for the odd email not being answered, i was fully aware of the delivery and deposit charges because i asked so many question before ordering from them the first time around. i always make a point of asking everything i need to know so its clear in my head, i have no hesitation in recommending friends and family to them and will use them in the future, i have always found them polite and accommodating to my issues, because of one persons bad experience does not mean its the same for others.:T

New user, praising a slated company, and incidentally just a day or so after the original company replied and was deleted.
I wonder if the IP addresses match
Although for now, marked as spam...

Mollyanne

Think I've just been had too! Ordered a costume at a bargain price of £25 or so I thought!
Requested the delivery option and the total cost remained £2
Paid and then 2 days later got an email saying I needed to pay a further £12 for it to be delivered, another £12 for the cost to have it returned and a further £50 deposit ????? Erm I don't think so!