community network uk advertising missold

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  • Like you VIX I signed up with this mob for advertising on a post office screen, after months of getting nowhere, their advertising skills are not as they were described by their sales person Peter Arnold, mobile number 07977 222323, they also started charging us before the advert was up and running and it seems hard to get any response to emails. I decided to stop the monthly payments regardless and I am contemplating taking them to court under the "not fit for purpose" rule if I do not get a refund. I see from their credit ranking that they are a non limited company with a credit rating of ZERO, their MD is Nadeam Butt and they have two CCJs against them. I believe they have a really bad reputation in Australia, having kind of scammed lots of companies.
  • For anyone reading this thread, i emplore you NOT to use this company to advertise your business! The tactics employed to get you to sign are extremely aggressive, and from what i have read through performing a simple google search, there are many others out there who have fallen prey to this company. They are based in Poulton Business Park, Poulton-Le-Fylde, Lancashire. The advertisements offered are hit and miss, they dont work at all (at least they didnt for us) and they are a terrible outift to deal with. The contract is spurious, and you will be pressured into signing by a representative to "save" money on the day. Avoid at all costs. There are lots of alternatives out there with much better results. In our particular case, the whole package was missold from day one, with added fees that were never explained, amongst a whole host of other things. Truly terrible company. If this post helps at least one person make a decision not to use their services, at least our experience has saved someone else the misery of dealing with them. DO NOT USE COMMUNITY NETWORK TO ADVERTISE!
  • Lynnzer
    Lynnzer Posts: 51
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    I just made a lot of research into this mob. My wife also fell for them, named now as Patient Direct.
    It's riddled with what appears to be nefarious activity and liquidated, dissolved companies from earlier incarnations.

    I just posted the list of problems, inconsistencies etc over at legal Beagles.

    I suggest you look at using the contents of that post to your advantage.
    At this time I'm still contemplating our next move. Will post back later on what I do.
    Confucius say woman who sits on Judges knee gets honourable discharge
  • Lynnzer
    Lynnzer Posts: 51
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    Just got my chargeback payment.
    Please read my full topic on Legal Beagles. It's important that you lay a trail of obfuscation and unlawful behaviour to stand a chance of a chargeback and I think my own efforts paid dividends.
    Here's the link again:
    http://legalbeagles.info/forums/showthread.php?98087-Business-contract-cancellation&p=732455#post732455
    Confucius say woman who sits on Judges knee gets honourable discharge
  • I was unfortunate enough to also be scammed by Patient Direct back in April of this year. They quoted one price to me (c£300 a year) and said it was a 1 year contract. No mention of a £198 annual admin fee for advert changes. Since then I've cancelled payments and managed to successfully do a chargeback through my bank. I still can't quite get my head around how the contract they've sent me has different figures on to what I was quoted (it had become c£600 a year, for 2 years) as I know I wouldn't sign something with the wrong numbers on. I can only think they forged my signature or something similarly dodgy as I wouldn't sign up to a contract that differed to what I was promised. They've been aggressive to me on the phone and don't seem to want to put things in writing. If it were a reputable company you'd expect everything to be in writing so there'd be a paper trail. More details of my experience are on the legalbeagles thread linked to above by Lynnzer.

    Please if you read this don't sign up to anything with this scam company. It's absolutely disgusting that they'd prey on busy small business owners who can't afford to lose money like this, and who don't have the same rights as consumers in the eyes of the law.

    I've passed details onto Action Fraud and Trading Standards and I can only hope they get enough similar reports to put an end to this for good.
  • Please note that Multimedia International Services (the registered name of Patient Direct), have now changed their name to Direct Digital
  • Lynnzer
    Lynnzer Posts: 51
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    edited 6 July 2018 at 12:27PM
    Here's a useful trick if you want to put them into a sweat of thinking that the hospitals will pull the contracts.
    Just send them something like this.
    Say that you intend to notify the hospital legal team in due course but give them a chance to withdraw the contract you have, or withdraw from any court action. Try this:

    For attention of the Legal Dept.

    Sir, Please take note that our company has contracted with Patient Direct, perhaps known to you as Multimedia International Services Ltd, for the display of advertisements in 3 locations, those being Peterlee Community Hospital, University Hospital of Hartlepool and University Hospital of North Tees.

    I have visited those locations on several instances and have never seen any of the screens which are supposed to display our adverts even switched on. In fact I have had endless discussions about who even has responsibility for the Urgent Care facility at Peterlee since it is leased to County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust. They deny any responsibility to the use of the advertising screens as they are part of the leased property and they do not have a contract with anyone for the operation of an advertising programme. I am told that the screens have never been switched.

    As you may imagine, this is disappointing to say the least. I have a copy of a contract you will have entered into in the advertising relationship which places an obligation on you in clause 3 to display the adverts at all times/during all hours for which the grantor (yourselves) shall be open for business.

    On each occasion I have visited and found the screens to be switched off during normal operational hours. It is clear to me that you are in breach of your own contractual agreement with Patient Direct which reflects on our own situation to the extent that we believe that our beneficial rights to the services we have contracted with Patient Direct (but later rescinded) amount to a constructive case of 3rd party liability.

    Patient Direct will presumably tell us that they are operating under their clause in our contract of that being outside of their direct control thus invalidating any liability against them. In such a case, the only redress appears to be one of 3rd party liability within the definition of the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 for a denial of our beneficial rights you agreed to uphold with your own Prinicipal in Clause 3 of your contract.

    I am at this stage not really bothered about your lack of contractual misapplication and would only resort to legal action if absolutely necessary.

    Now, please consider. We are in denial of Patient Direct's contract since it was misrepresented to us in the 1st place, has a false signature on it and the agent who "sold" it did so on an agreed basis that a copy of their contract would be left with us and if the terms and conditions were found to be disadvantageous, it would be torn up. The whole charade is a lot worse than that though, involving my wife who has mental illness being made to sign on the promise the contract would not become effective until the terms and conditions were agreed by myself, her husband and company secretary.

    We are now being taken to court for payment of over £10,000 for their denial of our notification of a cancellation of contract..

    As a matter of preparedness I did, as already mentioned, make several visits to the hospitals to see what advertising was being carried out. It is apparent that in the case of Peterlee, none was ever shown and there may well be similar situations at the other hospitals. The screens at the other locations may though be sometimes switched off and sometimes switched on as I have no evidence either way except to say they were switched off on my visits.

    It is obvious that we are not the only advertisers using these locations and I feel that they deserve the right to know that their own expectations are not being met. I also believe that in some, if not all, of the cases the advertisers will have found themselves signing up to a contract never having been presented with the terms and conditions and never left a copy of them to scrutinise at some later time as was the case with ourselves. I feel it is essential that those persons/companies are made aware of the lack of screening of their paid for advertising, and in the case of Peterlee at least where no advertising has provably never been done, the parties concerned should have the right to rescind the contract.

    I have no means currently to find out who these parties are due to the screens being constantly switched off and I put it to you that I should be given permission to visit Peterlee Hospital accompanied by one of your representatives to switch on a screen to see what adverts are on there, if any at all. I cannot persuade the manager of the Urgent Care facility to switch the screens on as they do not belong to County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust, and he doesn't even know where the remote control is for them.

    He says that as the screens are part of the leased premises that they are your responsibility and if they are to be switched on it should be done by you.

    All I require at present is for someone to accompany me so that the screens can be switched on but it would be hugely helpful if you could divulge the names of the other advertisers at the other locations. I would guess that the commission statements you get will have their details on. I need no other information which may complicate matters on the Data Protection side of things, but as each one of them will already be known as an advertiser on the screens (supposedly) their company name would be free to make known to us. If you have no data to draw the names of these people it may be useful for a member of staff to watch a full run of the advertising programme and take details of them all.

    I would also like any records made which may show times of operation of each screen, and any notification of downtime by Patient Direct, or any in-house records made by the Trust. I would prefer not to have to go into a FOI request for that as it takes too long and the court case we are facing may come along before then

    As an addition to this, I point you to the contract you have with patient Direct. You will see in clause 13 (ho-ho, how appropriate) that if you wish to cancel the contract with them you have to do so by giving a full 12 month notice. I leave it to you to decide on the consequences of that.
    Yo may also care to Google Patient Direct

    A copy of the contract will be attached. (made available from this link)
    Confucius say woman who sits on Judges knee gets honourable discharge
  • Lynnzer
    Lynnzer Posts: 51
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    Case law that will kill any court claim in the UK has been found from a result of my extensive searching. In Australia they are known as The Community Network and they were taken to the Federal Court of Australia a couple of years ago by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. They were charged with a good number of the things we have faced over here such as misrepresentation, lack of clarity in contract etc. Resuls was that they were fined $230,000 and had to give an undertaking to the ACCC for changes to contract as well as a comprehensive set of compliance issues.

    Anyway, the Federal Court is a criminal court which applies the basis of its findings on the "beyond reasonable doubt" basis rather than the less strict "balance of probabilities" in a civil court. That means there really is no way out as the ACCC has proven beyond reasonable doubt that they were committing serious offences.

    Australian case law would be fully acceptable in the UK and as the Federal Court has a much higher status, equivalent to a UK High Court ( I think) it would hold sway in any lesser UK court.
    Just visit the link here and also the other links which can be found from that. The actual case is on here.
    Confucius say woman who sits on Judges knee gets honourable discharge
  • Lynnzer
    Lynnzer Posts: 51
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    edited 30 July 2018 at 12:59PM
    Confucius say woman who sits on Judges knee gets honourable discharge
  • I have yesterday had dealt with this company trading under the name of digital direct my small family run electrical business was duped into a contract with these at my local estate agents two years ago .
    My business went into liquidation a few months ago and therefore the contract was ended due to non payment.
    Last night whilst I was working away from home bailiffs entered my home address and threatened my partner and children with removal of all goods from the house unless a sum of £5000 was paid which distressed my family especially as I was a director of a limited company so the goods at my home address should not have been considered. Despite numerous offers the bailiffs did not leave my home until I had paid the full sum which in protection for my vulnerable family I begged and borrowed to pay the sum requested. Please be very careful when dealing with this fraudulent company as they clearly know how to bend the laws of justice in there favour including threatening vulnerable women and children.
    I’m still looking into it but I’m unsure weather the bailiffs we’re actually who they said they were.
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