H&A Appliances - Electrical Retailer Website - Potential Scam

Chaz5725

mojo293 said:

LornaH77 said:

Chaz5725 said:

LornaH77 said:

Think I've also been scammed by this company. Currently on phone to my bank. Thinking I was getting a good deal on PS5

If it's a debit card keep all e-mail correspondence and discuss Charge Back but you might have to be patient with Visa as they will have terms, Master Card is 30 days from payment debited. Get a new card ordered as they have your details.
You'll get offered a free slow cooker, not much use if you already have one.

Thank you. Was offered a toaster. Hsbc said can take upto 60 days for visa debit 

They must have run out of imaginary slow cookers, as last few reviews on Trustpilot also suggest they were offered toasters, probably also imaginary ones.

I reported it to trading standards and Action fraud.
A letter from Action fraud arrived over the weekend and sounds like nothing can be done from the UK as it looks to be an overseas scam, just pleased I got the money back. It must be costing the banks a lot of money and surprised they haven't done more to block their account. 

mojo293

Chaz5725 said:

mojo293 said:

LornaH77 said:

Chaz5725 said:

LornaH77 said:

Think I've also been scammed by this company. Currently on phone to my bank. Thinking I was getting a good deal on PS5

If it's a debit card keep all e-mail correspondence and discuss Charge Back but you might have to be patient with Visa as they will have terms, Master Card is 30 days from payment debited. Get a new card ordered as they have your details.
You'll get offered a free slow cooker, not much use if you already have one.

Thank you. Was offered a toaster. Hsbc said can take upto 60 days for visa debit 

They must have run out of imaginary slow cookers, as last few reviews on Trustpilot also suggest they were offered toasters, probably also imaginary ones.

I reported it to trading standards and Action fraud.
A letter from Action fraud arrived over the weekend and sounds like nothing can be done from the UK as it looks to be an overseas scam, just pleased I got the money back. It must be costing the banks a lot of money and surprised they haven't done more to block their account. 

That's crazy. Surely they should be able to at least have the website taken down, so more people don't find it when looking for bargain/cheap electricals?

Perhaps there is/was a degree of truth in a post on the now deleted thread, where a poster claimed the owner contacted him and said he'd been a victim of identity theft, and that this was nothign to do with him, and the payments were being diverted to a fraudulant account, and hence he seems to have filed to have the company struck off Companies House and 'dissolved'. That request was made early October, and just filed on CH on 1st December.

But if that is the case, and he's reported it to authorities as he claimed, then they would/should also be acting to at least shut down the website?

I did report them to Trading Standards, but have heard nothing back.

Chaz5725

mojo293 said:

Chaz5725 said:

mojo293 said:

LornaH77 said:

Chaz5725 said:

LornaH77 said:

Think I've also been scammed by this company. Currently on phone to my bank. Thinking I was getting a good deal on PS5

If it's a debit card keep all e-mail correspondence and discuss Charge Back but you might have to be patient with Visa as they will have terms, Master Card is 30 days from payment debited. Get a new card ordered as they have your details.
You'll get offered a free slow cooker, not much use if you already have one.

Thank you. Was offered a toaster. Hsbc said can take upto 60 days for visa debit 

They must have run out of imaginary slow cookers, as last few reviews on Trustpilot also suggest they were offered toasters, probably also imaginary ones.

I reported it to trading standards and Action fraud.
A letter from Action fraud arrived over the weekend and sounds like nothing can be done from the UK as it looks to be an overseas scam, just pleased I got the money back. It must be costing the banks a lot of money and surprised they haven't done more to block their account. 

That's crazy. Surely they should be able to at least have the website taken down, so more people don't find it when looking for bargain/cheap electricals?

Perhaps there is/was a degree of truth in a post on the now deleted thread, where a poster claimed the owner contacted him and said he'd been a victim of identity theft, and that this was nothign to do with him, and the payments were being diverted to a fraudulant account, and hence he seems to have filed to have the company struck off Companies House and 'dissolved'. That request was made early October, and just filed on CH on 1st December.

But if that is the case, and he's reported it to authorities as he claimed, then they would/should also be acting to at least shut down the website?

I did report them to Trading Standards, but have heard nothing back.

We've done all we can do and the message is out there, Banks, Trading Standards and Police all have the information and as long as people get their money back that's a good thing. For me it's time to move on and will be more careful next time, I learnt a lot from this purchase.

WoolyNU

Likewise Chaz5725. I will certainly be checking companies I've not heard of more carefully going forward.
I don't know how much money the banks/credit card companies lose every year to this type of fraud but I suspect it's one helluva lot. Lets just hope they take the losses out of the bosses bonuses.
I noticed just now that the H&A website is currently unavailable, but that's not the first time that's happened. Probably just waiting for the heat to die down before they reappear.

born_again

Chaz5725 said:

I have been another victim of this company and paid with my debit card. Remember credit cards do have extra protection but I have just got my money back though Charge Back. It took 30 days as stated by Mastercard terms, not sure what Visa terms are. First important thing was to cancel by debit card and get a new one then contacted the bank and explained I didn't receive my goods. I didn't mention is might be a scam and went through the banks procedure like a normal company claim.
They said I will have to call back after 30 days from purchasing the goods and they need details of the order number and evidence of what I have done to contact them, this was all printed out and sent to my bank last week with a cover letter and the money is now back in my account. I'm guessing Mastercard will now chase the money from H A appliances bank account.
Charge Back was easier than I thought.

Visa is 15 days for non receipt.

But be aware retailer has 45 days (Visa & Mastercard) to contest dispute & you would be redebited. But it may take longer to filter down to you the redebit than 45 days.

But if they are receiving a lot of chargebacks. They will soon lose the right to take Visa/Mastercard for payments. Or even their merchant bank pulls the plug 1st, due to the amount of work involved.

Z_dane_23

I too have been scammed by this company. I have raised a dispute with Amex but this fraudsters had the audacity to respond to Amex query via stripe (the payment gateway these fraudsters use) and said that they’ve delivered the item using by their own van and Amex reversed the credit that they had given me! I’m currently reopening the case with fresh evidences and wondered if anyone here has the same experience with their debit/credit card provider?

also I suggest everyone here to email support@stripe.com so they can investigate this company and hopefully reverse the transactions…

LornaH77

Chaz5725 said:

LornaH77 said:

Think I've also been scammed by this company. Currently on phone to my bank. Thinking I was getting a good deal on PS5

If it's a debit card keep all e-mail correspondence and discuss Charge Back but you might have to be patient with Visa as they will have terms, Master Card is 30 days from payment debited. Get a new card ordered as they have your details.
You'll get offered a free slow cooker, not much use if you already have one.

I've been refunded today thankfully

Z_dane_23

LornaH77 said:

Chaz5725 said:

LornaH77 said:

Think I've also been scammed by this company. Currently on phone to my bank. Thinking I was getting a good deal on PS5

If it's a debit card keep all e-mail correspondence and discuss Charge Back but you might have to be patient with Visa as they will have terms, Master Card is 30 days from payment debited. Get a new card ordered as they have your details.
You'll get offered a free slow cooker, not much use if you already have one.

I've been refunded today thankfully

Keep an eye on it. Amex refunded me too at the start but then as part of the dispute process they contacted stripe. This is where these fraudsters then said to stripe that they had delivered the item. Amex then took the refund back… the saga continues in my case unfortunately…

WoolyNU

I reported this bunch of scammers to the Police Action Fraud website.
Received a reply, the gist of which follows:
"On this occasion, based on the information currently available, it has not been possible to identify a line of enquiry which a law enforcement organisation in the United Kingdom could pursue."

If they are unable to pursue such an obvious scam, I'd have to question what on earth they are able to pursue.
What a waste of time that was.