Sponsoring kids leaflets - help - scam?

cosgrove80

Sorry the subject isn't very clear but I'm not sure how tp put it. I'm just wondering has anyone else recieved a phonecall from A&E Publishing promoting Evolution Streetwise Magazines?

Basically this company from the UK, A&E Publishing, contacted our company saying they had been in touch with us previously about sponsoring a childrens health & safety leaflet. None of use remember taking such a call.

In the most recent conversation they asked us to name a local school to be sponsored and they'd send out the leaflets to the school. The person who took the call assumed this was agreed by someone else and gave out details. This was one of those calls where your railroaded into giving an answer.

We recieved the magazine this week in the post. It's badly designed and written and our business name and (out of date ) address and contact details are in massive writing on the back.

They have now invoiced us for €300 aprox (€18 per issue) for the magazine.

I was just wondering had anyone come across this before,

What annoys me the most though is that in the "magazine" they have an article about smoking. The proceed in listing the disadvantages (bad breath etc.) but then amazingly have an ADVANTAGES column! :eek:

Advantages: You are trying something new.

I don't want our company to be associated with this material at all. The employee who took the call no longer worked for us when they rang and had no right to give out details.

I feel very strongly about not paying the invoice. Has anyone experienced anything similar?

Apologies for the rant

Nuttzz

*cough* scam *cough*

Yes I have experienced something similar, more of an internet based thing though. If they have no signed order form (or similar) from yourselves you can just tell them to get stuffed, they will rant and rave about legal stuff but just tell them to get stuffed, our "scammers" pulled our "ad" from their site within a week and we never heard from them again

cosgrove80

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking of donning my stern email hat sending it and then forgetting about it.

Fair enough people need to make money but targeting it at kids is a bit ridiculous.

Victor

There are scams that depend on the left hand of a company not knowing what the right hand is doing....

spongebob

a well known scam with many variants.

M

cosgrove80

So if this is a scam, which it would seem to be, do you say the school that we nominated actually recieve the magazine?

I'll have to ring and explain the situation and apologize etc.

spongebob

The english company is acting ...in effect ...as an unauthorised charity collector or as an unauthorised charity . It has not registered in Ireland.

I would forward a copy of the invoice to the Fraud Squad who have a section that keeps an eye on these 'trade mag publishing' type scammers.

You never nominated a school, an ex employee NAMED a school, thats all. The school would never see a penny of the €300 anyway but you should ring them as a courtesy in case these scumbags send them an invoice as well.

There is no contract because there was no offer and no acceptance of the offer by an authorised person in your company.

M

Specky

There are Irish companies operating similar scams too.

You're lucky!! Most of these types of scam don't actually even produce any literature at all, they just take your money and scarper.

We've been approached by a lot of these types of scam artist over the years and I'm pleased to say we haven't been drawn in, but they can use very severe emotional blackmail tactics to try to force unwitting receptionists/junior members of staff to sign up.

cosgrove80

Sorry to bring back up an old thread but I thought this matter had be resolved as they had stopped contacting my friend. However he got another letter the other day requsting payment

I rang them once and they said there was a verbal contract in place. I didnt have the invoice number to hand so I said I'd ring back.

Is the verbal contract binding or does there have to a contract in writing?

0utshined

cosgrove80 wrote:

Is the verbal contract binding or does there have to a contract in writing?

Technically yes. Having said that though it's worth the paper it's written on so it's going to be your word against theirs. Ask them for a recording of the call that was took place. And I'm sure they'll have warned whoever took the call that the call was being recorded too...

Personally I wouldn't bother with them and forget about it.

dahamsta

I guarantee they won't call back if you give them this message the next time:

"That company is no longer at this number, however I can give their new number, it's 01 6663777."

Keep the number by the phone, it comes in handy.

adam

cosgrove80

dahamsta wrote:

I guarantee they won't call back if you give them this message the next time:

"That company is no longer at this number, however I can give their new number, it's 01 6663777."

Keep the number by the phone, it comes in handy.

adam

might do that, thanks.

going to ring them tomorrow and see what happens

Lunchy

We have had the exact same sequence of events, A&E Publishing hassling us for payment of €299 for magazines we never ordered. I got hold of the "owner" (who's head I wrecked so well) actually admitted that he wouldn't be caught as "he was smarter then that, because he was actually sending something out for the money". I asked him what did he think of the fact that I was recording the conversation, to which he got very worried and replied "thats illegal".

The cheek of these guys are unreal. Even after many screaming matches on the phone they STILL phone up looking for payment and have even gone to the trouble of recording a phone conversation and editing it on the pc to actually create a recording of us ordering the magazines.

This gets better. They have sent us a court summons with all the various details filled in for the court case EXCEPT there is no official stamp or signature on it. After they sent it they rang up to confirm that we received it, we said no so they're sending us out ANOTHER COPY.

I am not making this up.

We've found an interesting link here

http://pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?f=23&h=0&t=101883

We're not the only ones

RainyDay

Very nasty - try reporting them to the Garda Fraud Squad and/or the ODCA and/or their local UK Trading Standards Dept