Cold calling rip offs

Mrsct_2

Overview of the company: Double Take Studios

Doubletake get hold of numbers by bribing people to disclose their friends’ numbers by giving them gifts. They then cold-call each one on the list, often falsely claiming that you have won a competition in order to secure a booking. As well as allegedly withholding information about ‘no-show’ fees, the cold-callers can be very reluctant to let you hang up.
After the makeover and photoshoot are numerous reports of salesmen being rude, pushy, patronising, and condescending. Many people have reported feeling pressured to buy (extremely expensive) photos. Prices are not fixed. They are set according to how much they think they can get out of you. If you don’t buy anything on the day, or only buy a few photos, a few months later you will most likely be offered the entire photoshoot on CD for £60 (which they try to sell you for around £2000 on the day).
Lots of people, did not receive their deposit back within the 30 days, which is what they promise.

This is now my personal experience:
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 various sites I know I have.
I better get my money back!! I am now off work much longer

Has anyone else been ripped off buy this company????

Will keep you posted of my outcome

Mrs_B_12

It's a very high pressure sales technique but why didn't you just hang up??

Mrsct_2

I wanted the photo shoot cos i was told it was free, I thought I would have it done and just buy one or two images or a disc for my partner for christmas. They also told me I would be made up to look like a Hollywood Star and treated like one! Its a free offer most females cant refuse.

I wish I had looked up the company before I gave my card details!! But she did say that I could not call back and book for free thats why she made a provisonal booking for me.

I feel bad for the people that have had a gift voucher for the make over and photoshoot from family that have paid £100 for it! Then to find the poor person that has received the gift is ripped off with the prices of the photos and pushed into buying them, when this was a gift day out!!

alison99_2

Hi OP, you may be interested in this Blog
http://www.misunderestimated.co.uk/?p=6

Mrsct_2

No one has called me back or replied to my email! What a surprise.
I have tried calling again all morning and still an answering service! I also called the London Studio direct and they wont deal with me, only the customers at there as a receptionist, they wont take a message and end up either hanging up or again putting me through to the answering service!

In the T & C's sent to me over 7days after the payment was taken, it states that if you dont turn up on the date and time of your photoshoot, they take a 'no show' charge of £100 per person booked in from your card!
But how can you cancel if they wont let you???
I cant afford another £200 taken from my account now, they are clever booking me in for 2 instead of 1 and over charging me, and also so they can over charge me even more!

Does anyone know what I can do??? Surely this is not legal
This company needs to stop opperating!!! :mad:
Surely there is a 14day cooling off period for cold calls anyway? I mean, I have not even purchased anything from them, they just took a refundable deposit from me to secure the provisonal booking.

Please help! I am soooo mad with the company, and wish my friend never sold my phone number to them in return for gifts! Also I am mad at myself for being so stupid.:eek:

codger

OP: usual advice applies.

1) Make sure you have the full address and postcode of the location upon which your complaint is centred.

2) Use that location to identify the county.

3) Google for the County Council of that county. Then scroll through the County Council departments until you find the Trading Standards Dept.

4) Where a complaint location is in London, Goggle for 'London by postcode area'. This wll then identify London districts covering those postcodes.

5) When you have identified the district -- Lambeth, Stepney, etc -- Google for the local council. Then scroll through it for details of consumer protection / trading standards.

6) You can use ConsumerDirect. And it should, where appropriate, pass you on to the relevant T/S department. However, this doesn't always happen as a matter of course -- hence my advice to do the leg-work yourself, and set up a direct link with the T/S appropriate to your (geographic) area of concern.

As to this company: there's been too long a past history of complaints about its methods and conduct for it not to have been identified by one and possibly more Trading Standards departments.

So yours will not be a lone voice.

Good luck.

tallyhoh

Can you not report it as a scam to the card company & get the payment blocked/refunded.

Mrsct_2

tallyhoh wrote: »

Can you not report it as a scam to the card company & get the payment blocked/refunded.

Thanks will try that with my bank, to get my money back, but also make a complaint as above to get the company to stop operating in this way!:mad:
Thank you and well done with giving up smoking!! :T

Mrsct_2

codger wrote: »

OP: usual advice applies.

1) Make sure you have the full address and postcode of the location upon which your complaint is centred.

2) Use that location to identify the county.

3) Google for the County Council of that county. Then scroll through the County Council departments until you find the Trading Standards Dept.

4) Where a complaint location is in London, Goggle for 'London by postcode area'. This wll then identify London districts covering those postcodes.

5) When you have identified the district -- Lambeth, Stepney, etc -- Google for the local council. Then scroll through it for details of consumer protection / trading standards.

6) You can use ConsumerDirect. And it should, where appropriate, pass you on to the relevant T/S department. However, this doesn't always happen as a matter of course -- hence my advice to do the leg-work yourself, and set up a direct link with the T/S appropriate to your (geographic) area of concern.

As to this company: there's been too long a past history of complaints about its methods and conduct for it not to have been identified by one and possibly more Trading Standards departments.

So yours will not be a lone voice.

Good luck.

Thanks for this! I will make a complaint, so that hopefully in the future others done fall for this.
Cheers

codger

Lots o' luck, Mrsct. All too often it can seem that a single consumer's voice must inevitably go unheard, when in fact there can be many voices all raised in very loud unison -- only each is unaware of the other!

This particular outfit needs closing down PDQ -- and not without penalty, civil or criminal, against its operators.

LuciferTDark

These days I say no to all cold callers, had one the other day in fact, my house insurance is due for renewal shortly & another company got our number somehow. They won't be calling back in a hurry.