Emmas Diary/Disneys Wonderful World of Reading

MeridianHamster

I'm afraid that I've been a bit silly. A few weeks ago, while I was in the middle of cooking tea, a rep from Emmas Diary called me, trying to sell me a book package. Even as I was agreeing to everything she was saying, in the back of my head I knew that I was being utterly stupid, while panicking about whether the tea would burn or not.

So, come the next day when I have my wits about me, I sit down and do some research. Emmas Diary, in partnership wtih Disneys Wonderful World of Reading, are going to send me two free books, a free bookcase, and then some books that I have to pay far. Some people say that the books are decent, others say that it's a scam. Me, I'm just not interested, and I really should have said that day.

Fast forward to today, and I receive two letters in the post, informing me that my books are on the way and will be with me in 30 days. The subscriber number on each letter is the same, so I'm fairly sure that I haven't been signed up twice. The dates on the letters are the 7th and the 8th of January. I received them today, the 23rd of January.

If I ring up the number provided to cancel (as they say I can do within 7 days of receipt of this letter), will I get anywhere, since it's more than 7 days since the date on the letter? Or am I better waiting till the package arrives, and then sending it back, and cancelling?

Are there any regulations that I can quote at them in order to stop their retention pitch? After dealing with AOHell and a couple of other companies, I like to be prepared with knowing my legal rights.

Thanks

sjlou

You're not the only one....although I only have one letter.

Glad you reminded me, I'm going to ring up now to cancel now. Only received the letter this week and its dated 8th Jan.

Will let you know how I get on!

sjlou

Ok, that was very easy! She didn't even ask why I was cancelling and did it with no hassle.
I asked her to confirm that I wouldn't receive anything and she said that nothing had yet been posted out.

debtfreenewbie

You have 14 days to cancel after agreement, its the distance selling laws I think. I am a martin lewis addict but cant remember exactly.
Good luck. I would think you could return the box also but make sure you have proof of postage.

vroombroom

Be careful with this company.I had loads of trouble with them. I called up to cancel and was sent an invoice for 8.53 - my fault as I cancelled a few days late. I sent the payment slip off to pay and thought nothing of it, until I received another one. Did the same thing.
On the third letter asking for payment, I called the number and got through to an American call centre. The operator was lovely and took my payment. It came out of my bank a few days later.

Few days later, I got another letter asking for payment, this time with a fiver late payment, then a letter from a DCA. I called up again and went mad. Awful company.

barbiedoll

Oh, this makes me so mad! :mad:

I work in an ante-natal clinic and I give out copies of "Emma's Diary" and similar publications, including the first Bounty pack.

I always tell my women to NEVER give out their real home or mobile numbers on any of the vouchers or websites, these books are just advertising tools, they exist solely to grab your details so that they can sell you stuff that you don't want or need.

I recommend giving out any of the mobile numbers that you get from those texts which promise you £thousands for the accident you had/your missold PPI/the payday loan that you don't want etc etc.

Play them at their own game!

OP...send a letter, recorded delivery (signed for), cancelling the agreement and make sure that you keep a copy. Send any books back, and let your bank know (on the phone and in writing) that you have cancelled the agreement and that you withdraw your permission for any direct debits to come out to this company.

Let us know how you get on!

19carlymarie88

I got one of those calls and said yeh of course send em over. I think they attempted to deliver them as I had a recodered delivery slip through the door and wasn't expecting anything else. Within the week I got a letter saying I owed them £8 something. I hadn't even collected the books! So I rang them up and said if they checked their tracking they'd see I hadn't signed for it, therefore haven't received them and not paying! They were nice as pie to be fair and cancelled the fee straight away!

SplanK

Let me dig out an email I sent them... what they are doing is called "unsolicited goods" and they its against the law to demand payment for such...


Its really easy to "win" this one...

SplanK

Here we go...
I got a response within 3 days to this email.


From: stephen@
To: disneywwr@jacklinservice.com
Sent: 28 May 2013 01:05:42 PM
Subject: Subscriber Number:

[FONT=Calibri,sans-serif]Subscriber Number: [/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri,sans-serif]Date Invoice: 16/05/2013[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri,sans-serif]Items received: 28/05/2013[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri,sans-serif] [/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri,sans-serif]Hello,[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri,sans-serif]We have received today 4x books sent to us, with a request for payment for 2x books.[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri,sans-serif] [/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri,sans-serif]We have no record of ever ordering these books, and have had no direct contact with Disney Wonderful World of Reading or Hachette Partworks LTD, we can only assume that you have received our information through a Baby club such as Bounty Pack or similar. We did not, and still do not want to subscribe to your book service, or any other service that the company offers. These books have been sent to us in error.[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri,sans-serif] [/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri,sans-serif]You have asked us to return the 2 books “The Lion King” and “Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree”, however you advise that we have to pay for their return.[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri,sans-serif] [/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri,sans-serif]As we did not request, or agree for you to send these items to us, we are treating the 2 books in addition to the 2 “free gifts” as an unsolicited gift, and falls under the “Unsolicited Goods and Service Act 1971”. [/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri,sans-serif] [/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri,sans-serif]http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1971/30 [/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri,sans-serif] [/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri,sans-serif]A more “simplistic” version of the act:[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri,sans-serif]Under the Unsolicited Goods and Services Act 1971, (as amended) it is an offence to demand payment for goods known to be unsolicited, in other words, they were sent to a person without any prior request made by them or on their behalf.
Someone who receives goods in these circumstances may retain them as an unconditional gift, and does not have to pay for or return any unwanted goods. Anyone who receives a demand for payment for unsolicited goods should report the matter to their local Trading Standards Department[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri,sans-serif] [/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri,sans-serif]We can accept that these items were sent to us in error and are more than willing to send all items back to you as soon as possible, however as these items are being treated as unsolicited gifts, we request that you to arrange collection of the books, or to provide us with a freepost return address where these could be returned.[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri,sans-serif] [/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri,sans-serif]Regards[/FONT]

SplanK

and PS... im a dad.... again just shows how pointless this separate forums is!


And by law, you get to keep the books sent to you as they were sent to you unsolicited. In their reply, they just told me to keep them...


Have you actually read the books as well? They are very very poor!

MeridianHamster

Hello all!

Thanks for the really helpful comments!

Baby brain got the better of me, and I completely forgot that I had to ring the stupid shower of people, and made me forget that I had actually signed up for anything, until the parcel turned up on the doorstep the other day.

The books were cheap and nasty looking, one was quite dented. The so-called bookshelf was cheap blue plastic, and it looked like a good sneeze would make it fall apart.

So I did a bit of digging, found the return address, and sent it back. I enclosed a letter with it, stating that I wanted nothing more from them, and just in case that didn't get to them, I sent a seperate letter basically repeating the same information. Post office records show that they were signed for in Jarrow, and collected by "Bill".

So hopefully that will be the end of that. If not, it's time to be stereotypical and let the hormones do the talking :rotfl: