Does anyone have an answer to this one?

anniegbrambles

I've just been reading all the blogs on www.misunderestimated.co.uk . Oh my God! I didn't realise just how awful this company really is! I wish my daughter had read this before giving her details. And I'm actually quite glad now that we missed the appointment - it looks like we had a lucky escape!
I've had a call from Trading Standards this morning - it seems that my whole case hinges on whether the original call my daughter received was unsolicited or not! I can't see how that can be disputed - she did not give her phone number to this company nor did she give her permission for anyone else to give it. So as far as I'm concerned it blatently WAS unsolicited.
The fight goes on!
Thanks gldkg for informing me of this site.

anniegbrambles

anniegbrambles wrote: »

I've just been reading all the blogs on www.misunderestimated.co.uk . Oh my God! I didn't realise just how awful this company really is! I wish my daughter had read this before giving her details. And I'm actually quite glad now that we missed the appointment - it looks like we had a lucky escape!
I've had a call from Trading Standards this morning - it seems that my whole case hinges on whether the original call my daughter received was unsolicited or not! I can't see how that can be disputed - she did not give her phone number to this company nor did she give her permission for anyone else to give it. So as far as I'm concerned it blatently WAS unsolicited.
The fight goes on!
Thanks gldkg for informing me of this site.

Further to the above. Trading Standards have requested that everyone with a complaint regarding DoubleTake studios report it to them. They told me the more bad feedback this company get the more likely we are to take action against them.

anniegbrambles

GOOD NEWS EVERYONE!!
My daughter received a full refund in her bank account today - including the £40 overdraft fee she incurred when Doubletake extracted the money from her account.
So to anyone else who has had a similar problem - keep on fighting and hopefully you will get your money back ! Thanks to everyone who assisted me with my fight.
Anne

codger

Well, they hadn't a leg to stand on, Annie.

In a case where everything hinged on the promise freely extended to your daughter by the company, viz: "you have nothing to pay other than a £2 fee which will be forfeited for non-attendance" -- which promise then voided anything else the company might deliberately have buried in small-print exclusions / small-print clauses to which it took great care NOT to draw to anyone's attention -- then in any subsequent civil action or legal proceedings, a decision would had to have been made as to whether that was the actual truth of what happened. . . or whether your daughter had made it up.

Doubtless the selling pitch for a company such as this will be amended so that in future the cold-call sales message incorporates the phrase "there may be other additional charges arising from cancellation if we have to re-allocate studio time -- but of course, you wouldn't dream of cancelling anyway, would you?"

Actually, what you would never dream of is taking up any offer, of any nature, and at any time, that's contained in a cold-call sales pitch.

Mrsct_2

My dealings with Double Take Studios: Slightly different!

I had a phone call from a nice sales rep from Double take Studios on 6th Nov. I had been recomended by a friend and she said I had been one of the lucky ones that has been offered a free shoot for myself and a friend.
I explained that I did not want to book anything as I was very unwell and unsure when I would be well enough to travel to London. The Lady said that she would book me in provisionly as I will miss out on the free offer. I ended up saying ok but just for me, not a FRIEND as i need to ask around (told her a lot of my friends have had photos taken recently) I didnt even check all this out with my friend that had the photoshoot! Silly of me, but I thought its free and PROVISIONAL so I have nothing to lose. The lady then asked for my card details for a deposit, i asked why? you told me its free? she said its just to surcure your place and it will be refunded in full when you have the photoshoot on the day or go towards the costs of the images purchased. I then asked I want a full refund also if I am not well enough to attend, she said yes u can if you give us at least 14days notice, just call the number in your confirmation pack to cancel or re-arrange it.
So I let her take £25 deposit. card payment went through and she told me she was sending my confirmation pack out today, I then asked if the price list would be in the pack and she said no! I asked how much are all the photos on a disc and she said £70. I thought thats not bad at all.
I then spoke to my friend who paid £400 for the disc! and another paid £250 for the disc and 2 prints that went a few wks before! I was annoyed as I was told by the sales women £70, so I thought I would wait for the confirmation and then phone up about the prices.
Confirmation came through on 14th Nov, 8days after the Provisonal booking was made. I was annoyed to see that the appointment date was wrong it was the wk before and I had been charged £50 and it said for 2 persons, I was charged twice and I said that It was just for myself!!
I phoned all day yesterday and it was an anwer machine and no one called me back.
Today I had hospital appointment and had been told my recovery is going to be much longer than expected, I will def not b well enough to travel to London the date provionally booked over the phone let alone the date they booked me in which was a wk earlier!
I ve called again to cancel my provisonal booking and only an answering service, so i called the studio in London direct and they said that they dont deal with cancellations and put me through to another answering machine. Still no call back from anyone!!
I then read the terms and conditions on the confirmation letter and it says that full refunds of the refundable deposit are only after 7days of the booking! The sales rep told me upto 14days before the appointment date. Not only that the date I was cold called was 6th Nov, this confirmation is dated 12th and rec’d on the 14th! how can anyone cancel in 7days anyway.
I ve emailed them to cancel as no one calls back and stated that I was advised I would get a full refund and that it was just a provisional booking.

So I was lied to, over charged upto this point- it would make anyone think they had been ripped off already. and after reading some different forums saying you can never get your money back, I know I have been.
Other forum: http://www.misunderestimated.co.uk/?p=6
where people that have showed for there appointment have never got the refundable deposit back!

Anyone ever been refunded??

I better get my money back!! I am now off work much longer
Will keep you posted of my outcome

aydeenewbie124

anniegbrambles wrote: »

GOOD NEWS EVERYONE!!
My daughter received a full refund in her bank account today - including the £40 overdraft fee she incurred when Doubletake extracted the money from her account.
So to anyone else who has had a similar problem - keep on fighting and hopefully you will get your money back ! Thanks to everyone who assisted me with my fight.
Anne

Anne, my story is almost identical to that of your daughter. I was cold called by Doubletake and "promoted" this "free" offer of a photo shoot for me and a friend with a booking deposit in total of £2. The salesman explained this was only to secure my booking but there would be no extra charge. This happened to me September 2007, so shows that they are still doing this to people months after it happened to your daughter. I had an appointment for December 2007, but never received ANY paperwork and soon forgot about the company and my £2. I was called a few days prior to my appointment to "remind" me and I said I probably wouldn't be attending, to which the representative neither informed me of a cancellation charge nor a no-show fee. A month after my supposed appointment early this month (Jan 08) a sum of £148 has been withdrawn from my account without my knowledge nor consent! (Also causing me to become overdrawn) I didn't even know anything about this fee let alone that they could and would remove it from my account without informing me!! I have tried to ring them but it goes straight to answer machine, so wrote to them, to which they replied that I could put the fees charged towards booking another "luxury experience"!!! Needless to say that is the very last thing I want - to have any firther dealings with that comany. In their reply to me, they did not mention anything about the fact that I had only given them permission to withdraw £2 from my account in September, not to keep my bank details on file and withdraw another £148 four months later. They also did not explain why they had never sent me the details in the post (it turns out they had my address incorrect originally but when this was amended they still did not re-send) with supposedly outlined the Ts and Cs. Neither did they explain why every person I'd spoken to, from the salesman to the "reminder" rep ommitted to inform me about any additional charges. Anne, if you still have template copies of the letter correspondence you sent, would you be able to give me some pointers? I have contacted the Office of Fair Trading and Consumer Direct, and I am also in dealings with my bank to see why they let this happen in the first place. Any other avenues anyone could suggest me to go down?? I feel a total mug for being sucked into, what I now see, was a blatent scam. This has happened to so many people but Doubletake are still operating as a company. They are immoral and underhand, and I strongly advice anyone who has had the sense (unlike me) to investigate the company before giving them any details, to STAY WELL AWAY!!
Please, any advice from anyone to help me get my money back??!!
Thanks