Forresters Fund For Children - Vardis Scam Warning - Red Cardinal

Forresters Fund For Children – Vardis Scam Warning

Posted in: Security by Richard Hearne on February 14, 2007

I got an email a little while back and forgot to publish the details.

Alan Cavanagh sent me this:

I came across your site today after a search for blogs on scams. I was targetted by phone this morning by a company called Vardis (you might already be aware of them). It made me quite angry and I posted a warning on my blog http://allancavanagh.blogspot.com/2007/02/beware-of-scam.html . I’d hate to think these guys got straight on the blower to someone else after I hung up on them so I’ve contacted colleagues to warn them off as well. I’d like to spread the word about this which is why I’m contacting you, as there’s probably quite a few small business operators that read your blog.

If they happen to call anyone can you please tell them I miss them and give me a call. I’d love to talk with them

There are more details on Alan’s blog.

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Comments (136)

136 Comments »

That’d be give Richard a call, not me! Thanks Richard.

Comment by Allan Cavanagh — February 14, 2007 @ 4:57 pm

Yep, they can call me until the cows come home, and I’ll try to keep them talking for as long as possible.

Comment by Richard Hearne — February 14, 2007 @ 5:50 pm

Thanks for the warning. I received a call from Vardis today. I decided to Google them and I came across your blog. Thought it sounded dodgy alright! Cheers

Comment by Dave — March 28, 2007 @ 4:38 pm

Jaysus

Are they still at it? Glad I helped.

Rgds
Richard

Comment by Richard Hearne — March 28, 2007 @ 4:45 pm

Go to blagger.com and you will see loads of complaints about Vardis, they are bullies and will probably be closed down soon like loads of other charity publishers have. Stay away from them; I was conned by them last year and won’t go near another charity publisher again.
Another one to watch out for is Chestnut House they print wall planners for the Honeyrose Foundation. I believe these people have been closed down twise by the DTI when they were know as Barrington House and also Hamilton Forbes, they used to print wall planners for the Children’s Research Fund and if you type their names into google.com you can read exactly why they were closed down.

Comment by Geoff Wilkinson — May 8, 2007 @ 12:28 pm

Look at this from todays Mirror newspaper!!!!

http://www.mirror.co.uk/

Comment by Geoff Wilkinson — May 17, 2007 @ 8:29 am

Good find Geoff. I’m not quite sure how some people sleep at night…

Comment by Richard Hearne — May 20, 2007 @ 4:07 am

I WAS CONTACTED BY VARDIS AND AGREED TO ADVERTISE I WAS SENT A COPY OF THE BOOKLET WITH MY AD IN THERE SO THOUGHT IT WAS OFFICIAL I HAVE NOT PAID THEM YET AND AFTER READING THIS BLOG I AM IN 2 MINDS NOW BUT AS I AGREED TO THE ADVERT AM I LEGALLY BOUND CAN I HAVE SOME ADVISE PLEASE. THANKYOU. LEE

Comment by LEE PINNOCK — August 30, 2007 @ 10:11 am

Lee – quick heads-up that typing in upper case is viewed as bad form online – looks like you’re trying to flame, and very often messages all in upper-case are flagged as spam.

I cant advise you I’m a afraid as I’m not a legal pro. I imagine if you’ve signed nothing (including email response) they’d have a difficult time forcing you into the deal. Get in touch with your local consumer affairs (OFT if you’re in the UK) and seek advice if you are unsure.

Rgds
Richard

Comment by Richard Hearne — September 11, 2007 @ 11:28 am

I don’t know if it’s any help but one of the charities stung in this has put together some information. You can contact the Laura Crane Trust.They have severed all links with Vardis. I’m still getting contacted by people caught out in this, but I think we’ve saved a few from it as well. But as Richard said, you should seek proper legal advice.

Comment by Allan Cavanagh — September 11, 2007 @ 4:08 pm

My partner and I have had a series of phone calls asking us to support the Forresters Fund … so glad I took a couple of mins to ‘google’ it and find your warnings. Thanks

Comment by Heather Richardson — September 26, 2007 @ 8:57 am

They are still at it. Had a call from them today.

Comment by P A — October 29, 2007 @ 4:44 pm

We’ve had a call today from them – so thanks for this.

Comment by Catherine Rogers — November 7, 2007 @ 11:31 am

Just had a call from a guy at the forresters fund so google’d it whilst on the phone to him. Wanted £95 for an advert and it all goes to charity and they publish an ad on a wall chart. If it isnt real there sick and need shutting down! thanks for all your comments………………

Comment by Paul Salmon — November 12, 2007 @ 2:19 pm

hi i have also recieved a call from vardis,they have sent me an invoice for £106.04, they called me and convinced me to place an ad with them at a reduced rate as i am a new bissiness, a week after the call they phoned to confirm my order, they told me the call was being recorded and that it was now a contract. during this conversation they were talking very quick and i just managed to catch them saying my order was £265 to which i replied my order should be £106 as was agreed by my first call, to this he replied i will phone you back i have to check with my manager. i dont know what made me suspicious of this company, maybe it was just the slip up about the price but i decided to look up the company on the net, during this time they phoned me 15 times! as i was so bizzy reading other peoples dealings with this company i did not answer my phone, my fears were right i found site apon site page apon page of other people caught out by this company please look at blagger.com and ? Scam or not – UK Business Forums these sites have helped me realise that if i want to give to charity then i will go direct to them, and if i want to advertise i will do it through my local paper. as its now the weekend i’m guessin they will not call but i am now looking forward to telling them what i think about there company on monday!

Comment by janine boswell — November 17, 2007 @ 1:22 pm

Hi Janine

Could be related to the distance selling directive – you have 7 days cooling off period for any good or service that you bought remotely.

I think you should make your experience known to the relevant authorities in the UK – not sure, but it might be the OFT?

Rgds
Richard

Comment by Richard Hearne — November 18, 2007 @ 2:13 pm

Has anyone got a call from a company Community Concepts?

Comment by Nicky — November 21, 2007 @ 7:15 pm

hi again just to update everyone vardis phoned monday morning and i told them i wouldnt be needing there service anymore they told me i had 2 pay a cancelation fee of £8.50 i told them i wasnt going to pay it as i had a right to cancel to which he replied “im going to sue your a**s see you in court” then he hung up, i’ll let you all know if i hear anything else from them.

Comment by janine boswell — November 21, 2007 @ 10:14 pm

I think that’s a good measure of the people behind this Janine.

Comment by Richard Hearne — November 21, 2007 @ 10:37 pm

Just had a guy try to sell me this on the phone. They gave me a telephone number of 01695 580548 to contact them. When I rang back they said I’d already ordered an advert which I hadn’t. He then confirmed that he’d deleted the non-existent order. Wait and see if they pursue it.

Comment by riggers — November 26, 2007 @ 11:15 am

I had a ccall from them not long ago in which they said that I had agreed to an advert during a previous call and that they were only ringing this time to thank me for my support (!!!).

When I said that I definitely had not booked an advert by phone they said that they had recorded the call and would be happy to play it back to me.

Clearly they hope people are more forgetful because when I instantly took him up on the offer of listening to the call to hear my ‘order confirmation’ he said he would call me back in 10-minutes with it…

I am still waiting for the call…

Comment by P A — November 26, 2007 @ 12:47 pm

Community concepts have been repeatedly sending me bills for €400+ since I put the phone down on them in february. Before them it was raise a smile and previous to that was barrington house. I have now stopped giving to charity and will be contacting a solicitor re their latest threat of district court and sheriff etc.These people are nothing but liars and theives!

Comment by phil — December 17, 2007 @ 9:40 am

Barrington House changed names to Hamilton Forbes after the DTI shut them down in 2005 because of thousands of customer complaints. Hamilton Forbes was then shut down by the DTI 18 months later once they got onto them. They now trade under the name of Chestnut House. STAY WELL CLEAR OF THEM ITS ALL A BIG SCAM.

Comment by J Lawson — December 18, 2007 @ 12:41 am

Thankyou for your postings, I was contacted by these people today I insisted on a “charity pack” before I would commit to anything and was promptly called back by a lady who wanted to confirm my “order” I told her that I had not placed an order and would not until I had seen the paperwork and that I had not agreed anything (they wanted £295) I had a phone number as I did 1471 on my phone. I have just called the number and it was answered with “hello” (not normal business practice)so I asked “who do you work for” to be told “Vardis” I informed them of my company detail and told them not to call me again, and if they did all calls would be recorded and passed onto the Office of Fair Trading. I am just waiting for them to call back(do you think they will ??) If they do I am ready for them !!!
Thankyou

Comment by Pauline — January 8, 2008 @ 4:13 pm

Looks like i got stung by this as well..

They caleld me up a few months back and it all sounded good as it was fr charity but last week i was called by someone else who had placed an add with them he warned me of what they where doing.

I am not going to pay them a penny, they called me up asknig for the mnoey last week and I told them I did not want the add, they said they had a recording of me saying yes. AS it was 3 months ago I cant really remember the call oh well.. expecting some junk mail off them stating i owe them money and that they will take me to court.

we will see.

Mike

Comment by Michael Smith — January 21, 2008 @ 6:06 pm

After yet another demand from Community Concepts( not even legiblly signed or named surprise surprise)I got onto the Irish consumer affairs today. Should be interesting. Will keep you’s posted.

Comment by phil — January 23, 2008 @ 4:25 pm

I recieved a letter today 26th January 2008 from Crown debt recovery dated the 26th January 2008 how the hell they got it here that fast I don’t know saying they are taking me to Liverpool County Court unless I make payment by the 16th of February for a debt to Vardis, I have never used this company and my wife is quite upset and anxious about it, and I have tried phoning both them and Vardis to which I get no reply, and don’t know what to do I hope someone can help,

Simon

Comment by Simon — January 26, 2008 @ 1:51 pm

I just received a phone call from a Vardis rep asking to sppeak to the owner of the business. He didn’t want to leave a message, but said the call was regarding advertising for the business.
Being nosey, i Googled Vardis, what is the deal with them? The Website isn’t particularly clear. What should I say to the rep when he phones back later??

Comment by Helene Bellerby — February 21, 2008 @ 10:34 am

I stated clearly that I wasn’t interested and hung up. Never heard from them again.

Comment by Allan Cavanagh — February 21, 2008 @ 10:50 am

Hi Helene

I’d tell them very nicely that you’re recording the call and see how they respond. Let us know.

Ask them how much money they give to the charity, and maybe to send you written contracts.

Don’t mention me pls I cant say anything about them being honest.

Rgds
Richard

Comment by Richard Hearne — February 21, 2008 @ 10:59 am

Thanks for that. I won’t mention you!!
The rep said he would phone back later, I’ll claim to be the owner myself and follow your advice!

Comment by Helene Bellerby — February 21, 2008 @ 11:02 am

I received a call yesterday and verbally agreed a £95 advert for a year,I received an invoice today, I have now read all your comments and will be cancelling Monday morning but wanted you all to be aware that they are still contacting people, I am sure legally you have to sign something to agree and need time to think about it, they were very pushy and assumed I was ‘just’ going to go ahead with the ad and said ‘don’t worry you’re not being cheap by taking the £95 advert’! cheak!

Laura

Comment by laura baker — February 23, 2008 @ 7:03 pm

Hi Laura

I believe that all transactions over the phone are governed by the Distance Selling Directive, and you should have a 7 day cooling off period during which you may rescind any transaction.

I cannot offer you advice however – you may need to contact your local Trading Standards office if you are in the UK.

Rgds
Richard

Comment by Richard Hearne — February 23, 2008 @ 9:18 pm

A Vardis rep called Stephen Jones just phoned me, again, i quickly told him that I am aware of the “work” Vardis does with The Forresters Fund For Children, and that I am aware of the warnings against the company, to which he hung up on me!
I shouldn’t think I’ll be getting anymore phone calls from them.

Comment by Helene Bellerby — February 25, 2008 @ 10:44 am

In November I started advertising on freeindex.co.uk.

A week later, I received a call from Vardis offering me discounted advertising in a magazine produced for the foresters fund for children. At £395 for a year’s advertising, I thought it a good idea, (would cost me that a month in local newspapers).

I was informed that the magazine would be delivered to businesses and homes all over South Wales, and that i would be given 6 copies once published. I agreed to the deal at the time, thinking that Foresters fund for children would be getting the larger percentage of my fee. They also told me that payment would be due no earlier than three months after the publishing of the magazine.

I tried contacting them at the beginning of June, as the draft advert they sent me, had several errors. It took eight days to get hold of them.

I have since received one copy of the magazine, and 9 letters invoicing me for £395+vat, (no vat registration number on the invoice). I have done some checking over the last couple of months, but noone I have spoken to has ever heard of Vardis, or foresters fund for children. Today I received a message from freeindex.co.uk, informing me that I am not the only business they have approached, and they advise contact with either trading standards, or the police, should they have any problems with vardis or crown debt collection.

[Edit by admin - removed word which might cause legal issues]

Comment by Bill Hainsworth — March 4, 2008 @ 7:21 pm

We do get this all time and thay WILL NOT just be from this name but the same (company’s)place. We have got Trade and standerds of london on this thay do no about and are on a trace. It is on a link phone line from france and back to england we where last told last year you must ask for the UK ref num and check.

Comment by Mr Bradbury — March 4, 2008 @ 7:58 pm

BY the way if you do not PUT a sig on a bit of paper you are NOT Bound By Lew. And if you get a bill Just put it in the bin. thay will make you say YES or just send you a bill Send A copy to your Trade and standerds thay will sort it out for you BUT DO NOT PAY.
And ask for UK Ref

Comment by Mr Bradbury — March 4, 2008 @ 8:06 pm

hi today i received a call of this company claiming to be vardis asking me to advertise with them frist they was rude to my partner at my home tel number then after she told them we are not interseted they proceeded to call me on my works mobil claiming my partner had agreed to go ahead with the advert in there so called booklet and demanded payment from me (knowing that my parnter would never agree to such thing without my concent ) i listened to what he said and told him i would have to check this out and then he put phone down on me !!charming but since reading the other comments of others iam glad he put phone down befor i did .
mr lynch.c/o hollywood coatings

Comment by mr lynch — March 5, 2008 @ 8:39 pm

They called me today and I googled whilst on the phone as it is not a charity I have heard of. Thanks to your website I saved myself a lot of money going down the drain! I just told her that I had googled the charity, asked her where she was calling from (Vardis surprise surprise!) and told her where to go. Cheers guys!

Comment by Sarah Bayliss — March 7, 2008 @ 9:57 am

I lost £300 I paid to Vardis company and they tried to charge me £300 more, I’ve had no advertising and nothing but grief. I just wish there was something I could do to get my money back as I’m such a small company it was a pretty big loss I wish I’d seen this page before I paid up!

Comment by Katie — March 7, 2008 @ 2:18 pm

I can’t believe these guys are still running this scam. It obviously pays off, which means there are a load of people out there who don’t see these comments first.

Comment by P A — March 11, 2008 @ 11:36 am

I have just started my company and when Vardis phoned me to advertise in a local magazine I took up the offer. I am so glad I have not paid them any money. The cheeky shits have sent me all the art proof work in the post. I am so glad I logged onto free-index and saw their warning in my inbox. Thank you all so much for your warnings.

Comment by Eddie Hart — March 23, 2008 @ 5:39 pm

Hi,
I am the same as Katie – i started my business in Sept 07 and Vardis phoned me up in October to advertise in the booklet for the Forresters Fund For Children. I agreed and they sent me the proof, booklet when complete and i paid. Now, ive read this board i am SO angry with myself although i thought it was wierd in February when they phoned me AGAIN demanding more money for a new ad – when i questioned that i had already just paid them in October for an ad in the booklet which is supposed to be for a year (at £250) she didnt have a reply and when i explained being a new business i don’t have the money to keep forking out to her and i said no she hung up on me and havent heard anything since. I wished i had read this board before and then would have saved myself money and could have bought more stock. They saw me coming i guess!!! Something must be done about this as they are taking advantage of new businesses and charities they are pretending to help when they get the bigger percentage of profit!!

Comment by Rebecca — April 15, 2008 @ 10:41 am

Note to all:
Phone your trade and standers office and let them no ask to give all your info and when thay cach up with them they have your info on file and you my get your cash back.

As we did in 2005 trade and standers office phoned us and said we have got some info for you come in to the office with proof and thay then sent us it in the post.

You do have a 60 / 40 hope on getting it back at no cost to you but the phone call.

(The add scam) BE WARE thay do phone and say thank you for the add and we just need your date of birth as a ref: DO NOT GIVE AS THAY WILL HAVE YOUR NAME ADDRESS AND DATE OF BIRTH as well as your bank card info.

YOU ARE THE ONE THAT NEEDS ADD’S SO YOU ARE THE ONE THAT WILL LOOK FOR THAT ADD AT YOUR COST.

Or you can just send your cash to the RSPCA.

LOOK OUT ALL

Regards

Paul Wiltshire

Comment by Paul — April 15, 2008 @ 6:13 pm

Watch out guys, they are at it again this time for the Fire Fighters. I had a call from the same ‘Vardis’ guy who contaced me about the Forresters Fund for Children (he had a very distinctive accent) asking me for money to advertise for a Fire Fighting Fund. Be wary – don’t get burned!

Comment by Angeline — April 30, 2008 @ 11:22 am

Had a call yesterday from Trading Standards.

They sent a letter to Vardis asking for a copy of “the contract” a few weeks ago, and advised them not to contact me again. They have had no response, but at the same time no further demands of payment have been made to me.

Incidentally, a couple of weeks ago I had a call from another company offering advertising in the fire fighters booklet for a mere £295 + VAT. Guy who called me was Richard, and as Angeline points out, he had that same accent of the guy from Vardis.

Needless to say I did not take up the offer. However two hours later, I had a call from someone else demanding my credit card details to make payment. You can imagine my response to him

Comment by Bill Hainsworth — April 30, 2008 @ 1:03 pm

Got this call this morning and went thru the process. Got a call back for confirmation etc. I googled and found these postings which confirms my suspicions. when I tried to call back the confirmation number which appears as an irish number ’353′ and it rings ‘out of service’(no real surprise. I checked for Vardis on the web and from their website called the design dept and did get thru. Obviously my ‘ad’ hadn’t made it there yet but the person was helpful enough. However, looking at the numbers on the site I changed the code from ’353′ to ’44′ i.e. the uk code and recalled. The first couple of times it was busy. After waiting a few minutes I tried again and it answered but hung up when I asked for person that had called me. I recalled straight away, it answered and immediately I sharply told them not to send me any advertising – this time the person stayed on the line, clarified her name asked for my details and agreed to cancel my order (will see if anything arrives). She then said to me “not to be rude but why do you want to cancel?”
I had no intention of parting with money or payment details without good due diligence but based on the above posts suspect calls may have started to come before the time period originally mentioned.

Comment by David — May 9, 2008 @ 9:58 am

Hi, my story is like that.
I got the ‘call’ a few days ago from a no. in Wicklow, Ireland , and today I received the ‘confirmation’ of order, and I googled this Vardis and came across this blog. Thank God!!!
On the back of the order, on the Terms and Conditions there is a cancellation period of 7 days from the order date.
I rang the no from Wicklow first, but that no is not in service, then I got them on 00441695576777 and got it cancelled (or that what they say) and I fax the letter of cancellation as well.

Thank you so much for the warning.
Hope this is the end of it!!!

Comment by George — May 9, 2008 @ 10:45 am

Under EU law you have a 7 day cooling off period – it’s under the Distance Selling Directive.

Make sure you have some evidence of cancellation, but I wouldn’t be too concerned about them pursuing you for non-payment. I doubt they want to attract the same attention to themselves as Euro Business Guide as they appear to be UK based, and therefore subject to UK courts.

Rgds
Richard

Comment by Richard Hearne — May 9, 2008 @ 12:53 pm

Thanks Richard.
I asked them to send me a confirmation of the cancellation, but ‘they don’t send letters to confirm the cancellations because will take a lot of time and paperwork’. (But it was quick to send the order confirm)
I have the report that they received my fax. And I was on the phone to them as well…..

Be aware…and be vigilent……

Comment by George — May 9, 2008 @ 1:15 pm

Got a call this morning from someone from Vardis for Forester’s fund for children, came up as private number on my mobile, same story for an ad on a wallplanner for 295 Euro, pay nothing till August. It sounded vaguely feasible so I agreed in principle over the phone. Then I googled the “charity” and found this can of worms! Very quickly I got another call from a cork number, “Gemma from Vardis”. I told her I’d done some checking online and that I wasn’t interested anymore. She hung up straight away! Feckin chancers!

Comment by col — May 15, 2008 @ 9:13 am

Hi – back again!! I have had a call at 2.20pm today from a guy with a scouse accent claiming to be from DIAMOND – and doing a firefighters handbook and phoning me up as i agreed on 11th March at 11.10am to an advert and he has all my details and password blah blah. Well i gave him as good as he gave me as i kept questioning him as i hadnt agreed to any advert as i only advertise with 2 people at this present moment and that he is from Vardis and they scam people. He started shouting at me repeating that id ordered my advert and all the details are written in his diary!! I havent even heard of them and he said he’ll take me to court- to which my reply was “Take me to court, take me to the police. I don’t care as i have not agreed to any advert by your company and if i did it would be in my diary with names, numbers and details etc. He started shouting again and then made squeaky baby noises so i hung up!!! Havent heard back but it was an unknown number on my phone and when Vardis conned me in October (see my previous message-scroll up) they were given a password so this bloke is definitely from Vardis as only they have asked for a password – not one other person ive advertised with has asked for a password!!
I did phone trading standards last week and informed them and she told me of the different names they go under to which i asked why they dont shut them down. She said that they do and then after a few motnhs they re-open again under a new name!! After i spoke to Trading Standards i emailed Vardis and told them what i thought and informed them NEVER to contact me again so i am livid that they have the bare cheek to phone me today – having a guy phone up too – thinking he can intimidate me. He picked the wrong person.
I hope everyone is aware of these rip-off merchants and they get shut down once and for all because im getting sick of them!!gggrrr

Comment by Rebecca — May 22, 2008 @ 3:00 pm

i had a call off vardis 2 days ago and call me stupid but i agrred to putting an advert in i may have also give them my bank details, does any1 know wot i shud do now to ensure i dont have any money debited from my account, i was just scrolling thru the vardis links and the warning is about 5 pages after the forresters fund for children which is the ‘charity’ i put my advert with – will these people be able to just randomly debit money from my account now and wot shud i do to stop it b4 anything is taken– please help me with sum advice b4 i deposit any cash in my account

Comment by ian kelly — June 5, 2008 @ 8:26 pm

Ian – you legally have 7 days cooling off period during which you can rescind any purchase made over the phone. Let them know ASAP.

I think you should definitely ask yourself why you would give your bank details to anyone over the phone? That’s just plain daft.

You might also want to alert your bank to ensure no transactions are processed.

Comment by Richard Hearne — June 5, 2008 @ 9:03 pm

Dear ian kelly

Print off the info on the site take to your bank an tell them to stop all card out put.

Phone your bank now if you can and STOP there name from debiting it.

You can not get it back unless you go to court this is hard to do.

You legally have 21 days EU cooling off period on all goods this was came in last year buy the EU-UK.

DO NOT GIVE YOUR BANK OVER THE PHONE !!!!!!!!!

Regards

Paul

Comment by Paul — June 5, 2008 @ 9:09 pm

Hi Ian,

If you gave out debit card details over the phone cancel your card and if they try to use the details they can’t. Also, as stated bu someone else above, tell the bank not to let any transactions go out of your account under any Vardis, Foresters fund names or anything. cancel while you have the cooling off period. You may have read my messages above – they conned me for the Forresters fund for children in october and sent me the booklet – which they only made 1 – the one they sent to me. They have been using so many names over the years and when trading standards catch up with them theyve closed down and wait 6mths and open up in a new name! They are ripping off and conning genuine businesses like ours because they havent got the intelligence to set up and run a legit business – sad people! They then phoned me up in Feb/March for another payment for another advert – i told them no and she hung up!
Seriously Ian, these people are con merchants and think what you can do with your money – give it to a local charity, sponsor someone and have your business name on the donation to gain credit but apart from that dont advertise with Vardis or any company phoning for charity books – go direct to the charity themselves. If they phone you back tell them you no longer want to advertise with them and due to the EU LAw of the cooling off period you are well within your rights.Make sure you don’t say the word YES on the phone – incase they are taping the call and can mess with it later. if they tell you you are under contract via phone tell them by the Data Protection Act you would like a recording of the phone call.The one thing i would recommend is phoning your local trading standards and informing them and they will give you a list of what heart-wrenching stories these conners tell you to get money out of you.
Good luck,

Rebecca

Comment by Rebecca — June 6, 2008 @ 8:21 am

Hi. I have advertised with the vardis, forresters magazine. They told me the add was for around my area, but all the other advertisers are 6o miles from me. I wish i had seen all the bad reports before i ever advertised. they want £229 for a small add, and i would not mind but the add they used is off my web site. i have not paid them yet, and dont think i am going too. I am going to seek legal advice on this matter, as i cant afford to be ripped off.

Comment by graham — June 30, 2008 @ 12:49 pm

Hi All,

If only I had known!!! I too have advertised with Vardis, Foresters magazine (twice). It was only when I seemed to be getting contacted by several other so called charity publications did I do any digging. Here I was pleased as punch that I was able to do some advertising for the good of other people. Little did I know it was a scam.

Next time I’ll be keeping hold the money. I, like you Graham and I’m sue many more of you can not afford to be ripped off. I would be very interested to hear how you get on with the legal advice Graham.

Perhaps if more of us took a stand against such low life we could help to prevent it happen to others!

Comment by Lesley — June 30, 2008 @ 3:30 pm

Hi Graham,

Just read your message. Do not pay them. They took my ad off my website too – it is copyrighted together with the writing and then copied that too in a booklet! I had a bloke phone up the other day wanting the book off me to which my reply was -”No, it costs me £300 so its staying with me” he phones up on my mobile every day so i ignore the phone number-hes on a mobile too. I explained to him about vardis and i think hes either from vardis himself or just wants all the other advertisers details which he is not getting.
So, Graham – i would not pay them. You will be wasting your cash which you can spend on your business or advertising etc – legitimate like google adwords or search engines, at least you can get return on your money whereas you won’t from vardis-trust me- i got ripped off in October after just setting up in Sept and lost my cash which i could have spent on stock. Luckily, i have good cashflow so moneywise im ok but still makes me angry that i gave them £ and then found this board! If you pay them its like money being tipped down the sink as you will not see a return.

Good luck, let us know how you get on.

Kind Regards,

Rebecca

Comment by Rebecca — June 30, 2008 @ 3:54 pm

Its about time people like vardis were stoped from trading,and the national newspapers should print an article warning other people about them. the only people getting anything out of this is the con artists taking your money.

Comment by graham — June 30, 2008 @ 5:18 pm

I was contacted by vardis as everyone else I was taken in by them and as they said it was for charity I felt ths would not only help my business it would also help a good charity. After reading all this information I have cancelled my advertisment with them. by phone and this was done on the same day as I recieved the call and within the 5 day cooling off period.

I feel uttely sick and it makes my stomack turn to think people are using small businesses like ours to scam people out of hard earned money, also to say that they are giving the money to charity is totally discusting and unbelieveable.

Also I approched my local paper that I am avertising in and informed them about this company, they gave me good information and support and I feel if anyone in the same situation sould do the same.

Regards

Jan

Comment by jeanette — July 1, 2008 @ 4:02 pm

READ THIS…
http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2008/07/charity-conman-peter-lyon-gets.html#comments

Comment by stuffit1 — July 7, 2008 @ 11:01 am

Yesterday I missed a few calls from this number so decided to give them a call back thinking it may be a new customer trying to contact me, I listened to his long sales pitch which was terrible and every other sentence ended with ‘for the children’! I told him I am looking into advertising but will need to check my budget and do research on the publications which I decide to go into to ensure that I pick the right ones, to which he replied “so which size add are you interested in buying!?” I repeated myself and said I won’t be making any instant decisions until I had done my research, then he was trying it on again asking “where shall I send my copy of the publication?” after repeating myself severel times and him still trying to sell it to me I thought he had eventually given up as the call ended with “thankyou for your time, you have my number if you decide to go ahead with it” then we exchanged goodbyes.
Then this morning I received another call from these from a women saying to me that I’ve agreed to go into their forresters fund for children magazine! I told them that I had not agreed to anything to which she immediatley hung up, I called her back to which she hung up again!
I’ve just finished work today and decided to google the charity and vardis and found this site along with scores of others. I hope this is not the start of any problems with these, unfortunately I’m expecting it after reading other peoples experiences but I’ll be prepared for them coming! I have a record feature on my mobile which I’ll be using if they call back again for sure, I’ll also keep a diary log if I here from them again and show all to Trading standards.

Has anyone reported these scum to TS/OFT or wherever you have to? And also has anyone contacted the charity about them?

Please, please nobody fall for this scam and their powerless bully tactics

Thanks for everyone elses above comments they are very useful
Kev

Comment by kevin — July 9, 2008 @ 6:02 pm

Simple. Dont pay them. Let them give you all the bull about taking you to court, they aint got a leg to stand on. They are just a con company lining there own pockets. Dont pay them , i have not, and will not. life is too short to worry about threats from these scum bags.

Comment by graham — July 21, 2008 @ 6:42 pm

They are still at it,I got my letter on monday 4/08/08 threatening to take me to court, I am not paying either let them take me to court.I was told it was for local children cancer charities then I later found it was for charities miles away.
regards
george 08/08/08

Comment by george — August 8, 2008 @ 7:01 pm

i was contacted by vardis asking me to take out an add with them that would be printed on a calander for 2009 ,and it would cost 395 euro plus vat ,so i agreed to it.they then sent me out proof copy of my add and a form to fill out witch has to inclued my bank details .what i would like to know is how do they get phone numbers to ring people like us.they were able to tell me the name of my business and where i lived.after finding this site there is no hope of them getting a dime out of me.

Comment by glen carroll — August 21, 2008 @ 10:48 pm

Thank you all so much for this blog! Just to let you all know that they are still at this and are now contacting businesses in Ireland claiming to sell adverts on a wallplanner. I’m fairly sharp and this really sounded legit, the pack they send out if really well done too. Just called and cancelled my order so now I wait for the follow up call to try and close me back, fun fun fun.

Thanks again for this blog!

Comment by Alex — August 22, 2008 @ 10:02 am

hi they asked me did i want to place an ad on a calender that would be circulated in my area and are trying to charge me 699 euro ,they also told me i would be the ONLY carpenter on the calender but you guessed it i wasn’t therefore they are in breach of contract they keep calling me is there anyway to shut them scumbags down using peoples good nature to make a few quid

Comment by phillip from ireland — September 4, 2008 @ 3:49 pm

Hi guys, I found you too late. I am a new business operator and I got a call from Vardis a few months ago (just after my ad went into the new Yellow pages.) I also had several other of these types of organisations calling on behalf of various fire brigade, ambulance service, police foundations which really began to pee me off. I must have had 5 or 6 of them over the first week of my ad appearing in the Yellow Pages.

Unfortunately the first call I got was Vardis and I didn’t really think much about it, checked out the Forrester fund on the web (which seemed genuine enough.) Unfortunately I didn’t check out Vardis… and as I write I have an invoice sitting in front of me for £111.63. The callender is printed (I have a copy downstairs) even although I didn’t approve it.

Now I did agree to advertise with them at the start but I didn’t like the ad and have never approved it and I am now wondering whether I should bother sending them their check??

I have missed both of their calls from someone called Rebbeca but think I may tell them to eff off!?

Gary in Glasgow

Comment by Gary Brown — September 25, 2008 @ 4:52 pm

Hi everyone,

I’m in the same boat as most of you i’m afraid to say..

Just like Gary above, I had an invoice for £111.63… They’ve been paid…

I’m heading down to the bank to fill out a maestro dispute form. Which I’m told offers quite a bit of protection against fraud like this!

Good luck everyone…

Darren – Aberdeen

Comment by Darren — September 30, 2008 @ 3:46 pm

well i to have agreed to place a ad with vardis foresters after a very pushy sales man trapped me in to a phone contract. I also got trapped big time with yellow partnership which I did not agree to but they told me I agreed it 2 weeks ago and there’s no way out.
yellow have been very pushy with payment and never sent me a copy of any art work so in that respect they are not getting my money!
its moved on to a debt collector now who rung me last week I just told them its a matter for a small claims court now so dont contact me again!
as for vardis they have rung me about 6 times in 2 days asking for payment, i have asked for proof of advertising , they tell me they cant say the exact address where the leaflets have been posted to as it is customers confidentiality so i asked how they will be posted he told me via royal mail,
i have rung royal mail and they have vardis Liverpool on there systems and told me no orders have come from them! as i did not have there address the royal mail told me 2 ring them back with the full address and they would confirm that it was the same vardis on there data base. i have the vardis address and funny they are based in liverpool! i will not ring the royal mail back as i now know vardis based in liverpool has not sent any post via royal mail!!!!

they shud all be shut down,
i also am a new business

Comment by bill — October 8, 2008 @ 6:26 pm

Quick update everyone!

GREAT SUCCESS!!!!!

I filed my Maestro Dispute form the other day and the money has been credited back to me!

10/10/08 CREDIT FRAUD REFUND 111.63 CR

I recommend everybody do this! However you will have to change your card “get a new one” because they could quite easily take the payment again!

But i feel so much better knowing that they now don’t have any of my hard earned money!!!

Good luck with your refunds!!!!

Darren – Aberdeen

Comment by Darren — October 10, 2008 @ 5:04 pm

they are trying to scam my father as well you are better of hanging up them straight away!!!!!!!

Comment by Lisa P — November 10, 2008 @ 4:22 pm

I have been stung by this scam recently. I received a telephone call from Vardis on monday demanding £220! I told them i was in debt and could not afford this amount, to which the woman did not care and was very pushy. I agreed to pay £20 per week to settle the debt after asking to hear a telephone call of me agreeing to the advert, which i did. I am now stuck as to what to do, but after reading the comments on this website, i dont plan on paying them any more! I am going to ask them for proof of advertisement, their address, their registered charity number, their VAT number and various other details next time they call me.

I am worried that they will send my details to a debt collection agency. As i am just 20 years old, this worries me, and i am not sure what to do if they do decide to send my details on.

I am not even in charge of the company, the company is in a friends name, i just thought it would be a good idea to advertise with Vardis because they sounded so professional on first contact.

Under NO circumstances should you agree with ANY product from Vardis!!

PLEASE HELP!!! Thanks

Comment by Francis — November 13, 2008 @ 2:07 am

I too have been caught out (actually by Vardis & Chestnut House) and I’ve only realised it when a 3rd company tried their luck. At the moment I still have an outstanding invoice for £111.63 to Vardis but following my reading on these companies I’m not planning on paying it.

A post in Blagger (http://www.blagger.com/db4/company_id/4739/companyname/Vardis.html) says they won’t take you to court over it and I’ve started ignoring their calls, so I guess I just have to wait and see.

I feel really sick when I think that we are guilted into helping out the “terminally ill people” or “abused children” just so they can get rich from it.

Luckily I did manage to get out of trouble with the 3rd company but only after a lot of time spent on my part. I’ve posted a detailed account of my problems on my site (http://www.lotsoffreebies.co.uk/articles/WallPlannerWhatWallPlanner.html) in the hopes that it saves others from the same problems.

Comment by Christopher Shennan — November 17, 2008 @ 8:54 pm

got a call from them today.i thought they had gone out of business.seems they are back.

Comment by alloageorge — November 19, 2008 @ 3:48 pm

They were supposed to call be on monday to collect my next weekly installment of £20 as i chose to pay weekly, before seeing this forum. I have now decided not to pay them a penny. But this monday, they failed to call. Shame really because i had written a whole essay full of abuse and left it by the phone for when they called. Aah well, if they do call soon, rest assured they will get one hell of a mouth full from me!

But guys, the best thing you can do is not to worry. Just ignore their phone calls and most importantly DO NOT GIVE THEM A PENNY OF YOUR MONEY!!!!

They will NOT take you to court! They may send you a fake debt collections letter to make you call them and pay, but no action will be taken against you!

It’s time we stopped these evil B*****ds!!!!

Comment by Francis — November 20, 2008 @ 2:48 am

I had a cll this morning from a sweet talking lady from Vardis and mentioning she was in connection with Forresters. She claimed to be producing a book from which all proceeds would go to chidren in need in Co. Kildare. She said she was contacting all schools, convents and monasteries seeking support; all funds collected in the county would be spent in the county. When I asked her to send on all details in writing for consederation by our parish finance committee she lost interest. I have been getting calls from people over the past year seeking advertising in yearbooks for the Garda, fireservices, engineeers and many others. They must all be connected. When I left down the phone I googled vardis and found this trail of woe from the UK and Ireland. Thank you for your site and a warning to anyone who gets a call from Vardis, Forresters or anyone seeking adds for yearbooks. Naas, Co. Kildare.

Comment by Tom McDonnell — December 17, 2008 @ 3:00 pm

Hi there,
I am afraid i have also fallen for this stupid stunt, i had a call about a month ago apparently from a salesman for this “local charity” selling me advertising on 30,000 leaflets going to hampshire. I am also afraid i went ahead with their offer, i have now gotten to the point where they have a final proof advertisement for my company. i had a meeting today with fsb and once spoken to them realised im being ripped off. i have emailed vardis telling them to stop everything immediatly does anyone have any advise for me. they havent invoiced me yet.

Comment by Jordon — January 16, 2009 @ 3:03 pm

I have received numerous phonecalls since 13th dec 2008, first from Ashley at Forresters for kids wanting me to advertise, since then ive had the chief fire officer for strathclyde wanting me to advertise and the local community police wanting the same thing these people are morons they have the same patter every call, it doesnt matter what you say they still try to scam you have pulled them up on phone called them in Liverpool to tell them to get lost , still no difference. the other day i got an invoice and a cd through the post, i dont know why im being invoiced as ive not agreed to anything and have clearly told them im not interested. I havent let the cd near my computer and him taking it all into trading standards 2morrow like ive taken all the previous letters, i urge everybody to do same and send an email to watchdog on the BBC

Comment by ANDY — February 2, 2009 @ 8:58 pm

Last year was contacted by Vardis under the guise of the forresters for children, being for charity , i never questioned it , and ageed to a reduced payment of £95 .00 as i was a new business , however when the bill turned up it was £124 .00 ? by the by , then in nov of the same year they contacted me again for the following year, to which i again agreed , they have sent out the art work but i have recently been contacted by a double glacing company to warn me of the scam , i think this was probably the most decent act i ‘ve seen in recent years , he has explained to me what they do , how can a company thats set up for children work like this ,what is anoying is when i phoned to cancell , they said its gone beyond a cancellation period ? must be the 7 day thing , i have not payed for the second ammount ,because they said i would be the only plasterer in the mag , however there are several so surly thats a breech of contract for 1 , the other thing is i will contact trading standards and explain i will not be paying the bill , because of what they are , hopefully it will be resolved and it should be closed down , i have learnt from this experience , not to take things at face value,

Comment by Pen from APK Plastering — February 6, 2009 @ 12:56 pm

I to have fallen for the Vardis forresters fund for children SCAM.I first recieved a phone call in november 2008,from Forresters fund for children.They let me know of the suffering that some children go thought and also asked me if i have any children and asked how i would feel if it was my daughter.Using this emotional blackmail coupled with the fact that i had a new bussiness and was desperate for work and and cheap advertising,I agreed for them to send me some paper work.

When the paper work started to come thought my door i ignored it as i was no longer in a financial posstion to support this charity.Then out of the blue in january of 2009 i recieved a phone call asking for payment.To which i asked what this was for as i had`nt signed for anything.Her response was that i only had to sign to opt out!!!To this answer i said i have no money at all so she said she would call back.

For the last three weeks she has called on a friday.The first time not even explaining who she was and saying Please can i have your card number.To which i replied who are you?Not a very profesional way to open a call?Is it?On friday of this week she said i must pay so i said `i have no money you will have to take me to court`,She responded `there is no need for that`.I will call back.

Afer reading thes comments i am now not going to give them a penny!!Thank you all for your help.

Comment by Stewart — February 8, 2009 @ 10:34 pm

hi all just been reading. but the gets had me i just payed out £415 for the advert because there was going to take me to court and as a new business since 2007 didnt want bad credit.
i also came across this as it has happened to me think it will help others….

CDR This is the same company as Vardis. Crown Debt Recovery only recover debts owed to Vardis; although the debts themselves are very debatable.

Ignore the fancy letterhead. It is the same people working from the same place!

Do NOT send any money to these people if you don’t believe you agreed to a contract with Vardis.

This is not a real company. It is merely a name and letterhad used by Vardis to chase their ‘debts’ from their unsolicited invoices.

Do not be fooled by their letterhead with PO Box No an ’0871′ phone number. It comes from the same office address as Vardis, and the exact same people.

IGNORE ANYTHING RECEIVED FROM “CROWN DEBT RECOVERY”.

Search blagger.com now for ‘VARDIS’. You’ll find a wealth of information on who are quite possibly the biggest blaggers of all!
JUST WISH I CAN GET MY MONEY BACK IF ANYONE NO’S HOW PLEASE CONTACT ME ON stottey@ntlworld.com

Comment by dream tiling solutions — February 19, 2009 @ 7:34 pm

Hi guys,

Been on before. I told them to eff off but finally got sick of the letters and I’m afraid I paid in the end. From what I can find out, something like a fiver from every £100 goes to the charity, the rest goes into some guys bank in Liverpool (I think). Disgraceful! They are a legitimate company, just not a very moral one.

I also called Trading Standards (Glasgow) who seemed completely uninterested. The woman said they would get in touch with the local TS office in Liverpool to check them out and I asked her to call me back and let me know what they found out (six months ago-ish) and I’m still waiting.

Also, I can confirm to you that they certainly had my call recorded because whilst we were having words on the phone she played it back to me there and then. Not saying they record them all but they certainly had mine. Agreed to one thing the day before (a booklet) and when they called back the following day, assuming they were legit I just said sign me up… didn’t realise at the time that what she signed me up for on the day was a calender, like I said, not what I agreed to. Surprisingly enough when I asked her to play the original call back to me she didn’t have it!

Forresters Fund for Children is a legitimate charity (which is why I got caught out because when checking it out, I googled them rather than vardis), should we be writing to them for some kind of action?? I also considered calling all of the numbers on the calender they sent to me…

Comment by Gary — February 23, 2009 @ 5:34 pm

I can’t beleive these parasites are still trading, how the hell have they not been shut down and locked up to rot in prison?

I will just repeat a bit of advise that others have said for those that are worried about them taking you to court. They won’t take you at all, the last thing that they want is their dodgy practices being presented in front of a court so stay strong people. When they call just mention this website along with dozens of others about them, tell them that you now what their game is, let them know that you will be informing TS, the police, etc and tell them to eff off and they will soon leave you alone.

I did this and never heard from them again although I do occasionally get calls from similar companies all from the north west (maybe related?) but a few strong words to them gets rid.

Please don’t pay them a penny!
Good luck all and remember they will NOT take you to court.

Comment by kev — February 24, 2009 @ 11:29 am

Hi all

I already commented futher up this page but would like to add this in response to Gary (above).After finding this page and reading about Vardis, i rang every number in my booklet (forresters fund for children booklet)and sent an email to every one with a email address giving them this link. The only problem being every single number in the booklet was just dead didnt even ring mobile or landline…(very strange). Even more bizarly all more email slowly began to return saying failed.Even more strangly since writing on here on 8th feb 09 ive not had 1 single phone call from vardis long may this continue…

Comment by stewart — February 24, 2009 @ 12:13 pm

Hi, we to have been had by this company, luckily we have not paid anything, the first call from Vardis explained about the “forresters fund for children” and asked if we would take out an add in their yearly mag, which the price was around £445 + VAT, which we said we could not afford as we are a new business, this is for a half page add, so the guy on the phone said that we could have it for quater page price, we said that we would chack our finances. A few days later we got a call confirming our details, but not asking if we wished to place the add, which my husband did confirm our details.
it would be about a week or so later we recieved a copy of the mag, with an advert in for our business along with a bill for £528, i tried to phone to talk to them and was given a direct line to the guy dealing with our account, which did not work, it was a unreconised number. I eventually got to talk to someone and the got the guy to phone me back.
When he phoned he would not talk to me, only my husband, but after a while my husband convinced him to talk to me, i told him we could not afford this and that we never aggreed to take the add, to which he replied that my husband had aggreed and he proceded to play me the recording of the “comfirmation call”.
We then also reminded him that we were told we could have half page for the price of quater page, to which he said that the first call which that was offered meant nothing, which we thought strange.
He agreed to call back the next day to set up a payment plan (which he didn’t).And we recieved an answer machine message yesterday saying that they need payment urgently.
We will not be paying them any money, but do we just ignore this or do we contact the OFT or Trading Standards?

Comment by Lynne — March 6, 2009 @ 9:55 am

Hi Lynne

Your case is identical to mine if you look above you will see i have already commented twice.Hope my comments are usefull for you.since i commented on this site and sent emails to every one in there booklet(all emails returned as no email address and phone numbers dead)i have heard nothing from them for nearly two months so if they ring ignore them but also report them!Im no legal expert but this is not going to court trust me it will cost them and it will get thrown out of court.Let me know how you get on..

Comment by stewart — March 13, 2009 @ 11:41 am

ok im going to tell you’s all for the last time if vardis threaten you with court request a copy of your conversation because 9 out of 10 case’s they have falsely advertised ie. they told you it was for a local charity and the law for a local charity has to go through your parish they have not a leg to stand on in any court and for those who are worried the statute of limatations for such a crime is 6 months and after that its a civil matter and a charity CANNOT sue any person under a civil matter as a charity DO NOT have authority to hold any person under contract FACT….if anyone has any legal queries on this matter contact me @ phillip.souster@gmail.com we will all stick together to get rid of this scum….

Comment by phillip — March 13, 2009 @ 3:55 pm

I’ve also had the attempted Vardis scam pulled on me regarding the Foresters Fund, but thanks to sites like this they will be unsuccessful!
The sales people all had Liverpool accents and gave me the big sob story over the phone. I had just found out my wife was pregnant so accepted their offer but by the time the booklet arrived I had changed my mind. The advert was pathetic, it had my home address, home telephone number and even my Corgi number plasterd on it, information I never provided them with and would never agree to have printed in a magazine advert together!
They have attempted to call me on several occasions, I’ve told them that as I’ve not signed anything there is no binding contract, although I did agree to their offer on the phone and did not call them back within 7 days I’m not scared of them.
I find it sickening that they are using the childrens charity line to suck people into their scam. What a pathetic way to earn a living eh?

Comment by steve — March 22, 2009 @ 2:14 am

I got the call last november, the women talked about endorsements by leading sports stars such as Sir Steve Redgrave, she mentioned at least four of them on the call, since then they have been after £111.63 !! sounds familiar to others on this blog, The last letter was received on the 18th of february (this is when they wrote it arrievd in the post 3 days ago !! this isn’t a legal going to court letter more a pushy letter to pay with this paragraph ” The Foresters Fund for children relies on funding and support from the business community in Cornwall, therefore it is imperative we receive your remittance as soon as possible. ” they think just because they mention my county that I will pay !!

I have seen no nothing from this company no wall planer or magazine, I work with the children in my local community and mentioned this to them on the phone, no one I work with has had a penny from Vardis or the The forresters fund for children.

I spoke earlier on to day on the phone to Vardis, He seemed annoyed that I took it so laid back he wanted my money and I said maybe, then he claimed to get the legal team on me. Like others I have dealt with these rogues before hang in there, it costs them more to take you to court than a £100.00.

bottom line don’t worry about them they want the scared factor to make you pay, they tried the children line (which hasn’t worked ).

Most cases would be laughed out of court.

Comment by Nick — March 25, 2009 @ 3:08 pm

I have just written a complaint online to the consumer rights agency about vardis. I received a letter from Crown Debt recovery last week and decided to search online for information about them and came across this blog. Thank god for the internet. This had me stressed out over the weekend but my mind is at ease now. They will never pursue debts as they know they havent a leg to stand on. Can as many people as possible complain about vardis as they need to be shut down.

Comment by Mick Grogan — March 30, 2009 @ 1:20 pm

Today I found this website and wish I had seen it sooner. I am a young business woman who for the past year has been lead into to scams and cons, the usual threats of having recordings that I agreed to things which I did not! Vardis was one of these along with many many more! usually 0161 numbers or unknown which i am now too frightened to answer which is not good for business! Today Vardis called to see if I would continue support, and after seeing everyone else despair and anger I told them straight that they were a con and everyone was onto them, including consumer direct who I have a long file with and my local police who are investigating everyone who has contacted me regarding adverts for fraud
When you call, everyone answers with ‘Hello’ not very professional for such money making organisations and are very manipulative. I must admit Vardis are not half as bad as some others, people send tacky invoices with no-one to pay or business account and when you call them ask if you would like to rent a flat in Manchester!! Hahaha. Just some to look out for…. Vardis, Charities Commission (not the real one as charity commission does not take money!Clever play on words) Empire UK, Treetops Press, Forte LTD, and Changing Lives UK. Most are clever in leading you into more adverts which you have not agreed to, for some companies I ended up having about 3 from the same company! and the price got bigger every time!
I hope this helps some of you out there, my local police have been really supportive so are good to turn to if you are as deeply involved as I got.

Comment by Lucy Shadwell — May 26, 2009 @ 12:26 pm

This mob has been trying to get money out of me ,some of the businesses in the adverts don’t exist(no Third Av in Bristol) and those that do i’ve been phoning them not to pay!

Comment by Billy — June 6, 2009 @ 7:23 am

Play there game. send them an invoice from your company and keep calling them to pay it.

Comment by Treetop Press — July 3, 2009 @ 9:07 pm

iv just this second come off the phone with a guy called Tony saying he was from a childrens cancer charity Forresters, he is calling me back thurs morn to speak to me about advertising in the magazine for a fee and the money goes to the children, im not so sure after what i have seen on the internet so for every1 who has posted comments thank you

Comment by sandy — July 8, 2009 @ 4:36 pm

Does anyone knows the procedure to shut these guys down? I was called by them last year and again this year. As with many victims, they arrassed me and forced me into a contract I knew nothing about. I specifically told the saleman on the phone to call me back because I was driving but it sound like he was even more motivated to carry on with the selling. He told me he just needed a YES and he would sort everything out. At the end of the conversation he told me it was recorded and they would send me a confirmation letter. Instead I got an invoice for 106 pounds that I never paid and passed it on to my solicitor.

Comment by Home Removal Services — July 8, 2009 @ 10:18 pm

there threating me with legal action now what a joke !

Comment by Billy — July 11, 2009 @ 4:52 pm

Hi my husband recieved a phonecall from Vardis a few weeks ago from a lady asking him to support the Foresters Childrens Charity by placing an advert for €200+vat He told her no time after time on the phone and she said ‘look we will email you the advert and you can take a look at the proof and then see if you want to go ahead’ to get her off the phone he agreed. 5 weeks later an evelope arrived with the Foresters Childrens Charity booklet and an invoice for €200+vat! No email arrived previously with the proof of the advert either. In the booklet was roughly 12 adverts 10cm x 2 columns in size from very small buisnesses like tilers, plumbers, builders etc. people who in the current economic climate cannot afford to give away €200! and were obviously told on phone like my husbnad was that it was going to be distributed NATIONWIDE in IRELAND! the businesses were from Counties Sligo and Leitrim 2 of the smallest rural counties in Ireland. I think it is absolutely disgusting that this is going on. I work for a national paper and please be assured that if you do not PROOF your advert either by email or post (you get to see it and say ‘yes that is great go ahead please) you are under no obligation to pay a cent/penny! Best of luck and please do not pay if you sincerely did not get what you requested, or the book was not distributed where they promised. Kind regards, Tara

Comment by Tara — July 16, 2009 @ 4:03 pm

hi my partner recieved a letter today saying that vardis were going to take him to court if he didnt pay the remainder of the bill which is €300 i cant believe that they are even asking us for the money as i know that it is a big scam. i rang them and eat the head off them and your man was sniggering down the phone. it was aired on irish tv about vardis a couple of months ago saying they were a scam so i hope that will act as some proof if they do take us to court. feck them they aint getting a cent of us.

Comment by Aoife mc c — July 24, 2009 @ 4:07 pm

[...] can also subscribe to email updates.I’ve written a lot in the past about shady dealings and outright scams. I’ve also received legal threats on multiple occasions after writing about what I felt [...]

Pingback by Persimmon Publishing SEO Scam - Red Cardinal — July 29, 2009 @ 4:47 am

I have just had a call from Ashley representing the forresters fund for children asking if i would like to be ” the only gas engineer in the magazine”. I think i agreed to a ” beer mat” sized advert over the phone, for £150, he then said a woman will ring from vardis just to check if he had been courteous over the phone which she did. she started by saying that i had agreed to advetise with them, to which i replied i have’nt agreed to anything i am thinking about it. she then asked if she could ring me back on monday. after this occured i went on the net and found this site. i tried ringing back ( the number does not take incimimg calls so i sent a text to Ashley saying i have checked them out on the net and not to send me any mail or to contact me again as i am not interested. i will let you know how i get on. if they do ring they will be told exactly what i think of them.
i too am a new business which has just gone in the yellow pages.

Comment by Rick — July 31, 2009 @ 11:47 am

[...] feedback and comments about companies you have used ? Scam or not – Page 2 – UK Business Forums Forresters Fund For Children – Vardis Scam Warning – Red Cardinal Warning – Forresters Fund For Children – Vardis Scam Warning at Studiopottery.co.uk Blog [...]

Pingback by Forester's Fund for Children - Scam? - Scottish Business Forums — August 3, 2009 @ 5:51 pm

just to let you all know they phoned back 4/8/09 trying to say i’d committed to advertising, I informed them that i hadn’t and that i had looked them up on the internet and discovered what a con they were running, how disgusted i was that they were preying on new businesses using childrens charities as bait and that i would be reporting them to the OFT. the woman was very apologetic and said i would not hear from them again. i will wait and see.

Comment by Rick — August 6, 2009 @ 9:20 am

They called me again today. I have already been a victim and apparently they can not even recall having called me in the past.

Comment by Removal Services in London — August 24, 2009 @ 12:15 pm

load of robbers

Comment by bob — August 25, 2009 @ 2:44 pm

Although I was sceptical, in Oct 2008 I agreed to an ad in a wall planner/calender with Atlantic Media in Dublin,in aid of Children to Lapland Appeal.(I now know that Vardis is run by the same people) Received Invoice in November and calls requesting payment. Received planner in Jan 2009 from UK. As agreed I then paid the Invoice. They phoned me again April 2009 thanking me for my contribution to sick children and can they put me down for the next one. I agreed as long as I received invoice after I received planner, due Jan 2010. Needless to say invoice arrived in June 2009. I toid them I would n’t pay until I received planner. Planner arrived in August, (incorrect name spelling and dated Sept 09 to August 2010). Why do I feel it was printed specially for me. I’ve send the hundreds of phone calls from them since to voicemail.
I haven’t paid the invoice to date and have now received a letter threatening legal action for €195
Thanks to google & everyone I won’t be paying, as I am now convinced it is an elaborate scam.

Comment by DJC Eire — September 30, 2009 @ 1:30 pm

hi, i am in a bit of a pickle with vardis myself at the moment, they rang my business partner at home after saying that they saw our website on the net and thought it was such a great idea they wanted to include us in they’re publication, they said that they would have they’re ‘art department’ ‘design’ a logo for us and that they would send it to us for our approval, in the same day we receieved 2 phone calls asking us to confirm that we were interested. I hadnt even googled the company and thought it sounded dodgy so the day after we spoke to them I rang to cancel the order.The first time I knew there was something not right was when the lady who answered asked me for the ref number that my partner had been given on the original call,this was indeed my partners initials along with some numbers, at NO point was she told that by taking this number down it was an unsigned agreement of going to print!my partner was told it was just a ref number for if we needed to ring and speak to them, but i was told it was in fact an agreement The lady was very polite until I told her I was ringing to cancel, she then became quite abrupt, I asked her if I had to put it in writing as it was under the 7 days and was told no and that she had actually cancelled the order whilst we were on the phone.Before I put down the phone I confirmed with her that the order had now indeed been cancelled and she replied “yes”. I then opened my mail at my office 2 days ago, only to find a letter from Vardis including the picture of the design they’re ‘art department’ had ‘designed’ all they have done, is to take off our site the picture that is on there and add some text and for this they want £300! After the call I made to them I discussed with my partner that I thought she should put something in writing to them about the cancellation, which she did, so by receiving this letter with the ‘artwork’ it is to me a direct denial of receiving either the phone call or the letter, so another has been sent out by recorded delivery….we shall see!

Comment by susan — October 5, 2009 @ 12:04 am

hi there
this comment is for susan ! ignore the letters when my parner and i found out they were scammers we stopped sending them money and they also said they were taking legal action so i rang them up and gave them a piece of my mind. the so called ‘collections agency ‘ is actually vardis aswell its the same assho*e that runs it that was more then 2 months ago so just ignore them they are scum!

Comment by lilly — October 5, 2009 @ 1:21 pm

I am much relieved having found all the comments regarding Vardis. I too stupidly fell for the scam and agreed to place an advert in the ClassM8 Forresters fund booklet.I did so as I was led to believe that the charity was local and that the booklets would be distributed locally. The penny dropped when the booklet arrived and I realised that mine was the only local advert. I have had various unpleasant conversations with a gentleman from Liverpool and I have now received a letter from their legal department threatening me if I don’t pay up. What is hilarious is that all the letters come from the same man, Mark Andrews. He seems to be a one man show! I will not be paying after reading all the comments on the blog.

Comment by Madelaine Kelly — October 24, 2009 @ 10:36 pm

Yes, I too in principal agreed to some advertising. but it has been playing on my mind as something dubious. I got there letter today advising me that their graphics department would be working on my advert. It’s at this point that I decided to cancel and also seeing this blog…thank you….anyway, phone numbers just dial out. I have emailed each email contact but I doubt that they will reply. I am told that I do not have rights to cancel as another trader we are operating on at the same level. So, I presume they will ignore my requests. I notice someone comment aboce that they rang them and gave them a piece of their mind. I wonder what number did you ring?

Comment by Donna — November 27, 2009 @ 6:03 pm

My husband was contacted by Vardis this morning, asking him to advertise to raise funds for children with leukemia. He was told by a man calling himself Mark Brown that a woman named Gemma would call later to discuss the advert. Brown offered to supply artwork, which was declined, and fortunately I was home when he rang again.

I am trained in advertising telesales, and have trained sales teams in the past. This ‘gentleman’ has a VERY distinctive vocal style, and I instantly recognised him as the same person who had contacted us a couple of months ago. I challenged him and he denied that he had ever spoken to me before. I can swear that he has! He would not reply when I asked what he had discussed with my husband. I explained that I was a director and company secretary with the sole responsibility to authorise any advertising, and that we did not require his services. He became very smug and started to try and wind me up, accusing me of many things, but I remained calm and continued to assert that we did not want the advertising.

I asked if the call was being recorded, and Brown said that it was not. He then asked me what position I had within the company…too busy talking to listen, obviously, and I explained again that I was a director and comapny secretary. At that point I handed teh phone back to my husband, who again told Brown that we did not want an advert. He then asked my husbands ‘if he was lying about having placed the ad as his wife was standing by him!!!’

Tomorrow, I shall contact trading standards and the local Police, who were contacting all local retailers only 2 weeks ago about this scam. I shall wait to see if they try to follow it up.

Comment by Lynne Turner — November 30, 2009 @ 7:24 pm

Hi there, just had the call about children with cancer in the Dundee area, thought I would make an effort and said I would be interested. Took my name, address and told me the artwork would be with me in 6 weeks. Thought nothing of it, about 10 minutes later received another phone call(withheld) confirming order. It was at this point I decided to google Vardis. Thankfully I did.

The person who had phoned originally, had obviously forgotton to hide her number, so phoned her back. Phone was answered with ‘Hello’. By sheer chance it was the same person I had spoken to. Couldn’t remember our call but agreed to cancel my order, and asked why. What should I do now??

Thanks

Mark

Comment by Mark Gorton — December 7, 2009 @ 3:35 pm

Hi all,

Seems these guys are still at it !

I was taken in a few weeks ago as it sounded a good cause and yesterday received a proof, basically cut and paste bits of content from my web site, which was so amateurish that it got me wondering. After Googling Vardis and forresters fund for children magazine it seems there are a large number of people who have been caught out by this scam over many years.

I have found 7 forums so far with reams of bad reports about Vardis and the owner as well as a page on the Daily Mirror (2007). One forum entry from September 2009 stated that Merseyside Police have received a number of complaints about this matter and that Trading Standards would also like to hear from anyone who has been contacted by Vardis recently.

BTW – They are also the debt collecting company.

Comment by Steve Wood — January 24, 2010 @ 3:58 pm

Hello everyone!!!

How shocking reading everyones comments!

Vardis are clearly moving further down south as that is where we live.

My husband’s plumbing company has just been put on the web through Gas Safe and we had a call from Vardis within a week, asking my husband to advertise in their mag to raise money for a children’s charity Forresters??
My husband said that he was busy but if they could post some info he would take a look!!!
BIG MISTAKE
He has agreed to nothing either verbal or written!!
So far we have had 4 letters, 3 proofs and a bill for something he didnt agree to. Also the price quoted over the phone was said to be around £250 inc VAT, however the bill is for £550.0 + VAT!!! Clearly they are getting greedy!!!
Also when I telephoned to try and cancel it, a man was very rude to me and said only my husband could cancel the agreement. Every time my husband rings he gets no answer!!! Will the bills still come??? I’m not concerned now I know we’re not alone and hopefully an end will come to this scam!!

Comment by Tiffany Willings — March 5, 2010 @ 7:05 pm

I wrote an email and letter (sent by recorded delivery)to Vardis telling them I was not interested and would not be paying them any money and would be contacting my trading standards office. I forwarded details and copies of everything to my local trading standards office (Southampton) who were very interested and subsequently asked me to update them if I heard any more from Vardis. So far, I have heard nothing more from Vardis.

I recently had another similar call from a company selling ad space in a magazine supposedly for the Fire, Police and Ambulance services.

I started asking the guy questions and established that the company was based in Cheshire.

The guy got a little flustered after a few questions and rang off – I heard nothing more.

Comment by Steve Wood — March 17, 2010 @ 2:29 pm

Hi everyone!! We had another call today wanting to know why we haven’t paid the bill for the advertising we have agreed to?? (NOT)

They even played back a telephone conversation to my husband that they had recorded without his knowledge (don’t think this is legal??), but at no point did my husband agree to have the advertising, all he said was send the paperwork and I will take a look.

The cold caller didn’t seem really bothered when my husband questioned him.

The man on the end of the phone just said that he would get his manager to call my husband back!! Which he did, but unfortunatley we were not home and missed the call!!

BLOODY BUGGERS!!!

When will they get the message?? I have contacted trading standards and will be doing so again later!!
Watch this space!!! Will they ever leave us alone???
Glad we’re not alone!!
Tiff

Comment by Tiffany Willings — March 17, 2010 @ 6:20 pm

tried to contact them with no sucess! =[

Comment by Matheus — May 23, 2010 @ 5:42 pm

hi, we have just found this site, we have paid them £100 for a £245 bill, how do we get our money back? we can’t raise a dispute form, we’ve tried with the bank, what can we do? thanks

Comment by emma — May 25, 2010 @ 2:48 pm

hi all i got a phone call today telling me about vardis and that its a scam can some one tell me is this true as looking at the stores and it is im from barnsley the stores iv looked at start from scotland as any one add any help from the trading standards

Comment by MARTIN FISHER — June 6, 2010 @ 12:02 am

Hi, been checking out this vardis scam since I got the phone calls and all the letters and now the famous mag has popped through the letter box. So I thought I would do the right thing and phone all the adds in the mag and told them to check out vardis on google. On speaking to most of them there are a couple who knew it was a scam but still there add went into the mag even when previously cancelled. So far, by the response that I got no one is willing to pay them, one even told me that the mag was the same as last years the only thing that had changed was the people who had since been scammed.
In response to “Emma 25 May 2.48pm” your Bank should be able to dispute this item for you, the add was mis sold to you and not sold as described. If paid by debit card you should insist your Bank take more responsibility, if you paid by credit card then your Bank has a shared responsibility so you could claim back via a disputed item form, hope that helps.

Comment by Angry Jock — June 8, 2010 @ 10:19 pm

vardis the f’n. bees they got me last year, and this year there trying to scam me again. i told them i wasnt interested but the still went ahead and printed my details and are now looking for money. i have logged a complaint with trading standards and i am following there advice. i will keep you posted.

Comment by bob — August 6, 2010 @ 2:48 pm

Hi Guys

Seems that Ive found this out to late, ive been scammed twice over the passed year !!

Once with FFF.Children, via Vardis, who are now calling them selves Vision Publications Group and Aware Magazine
Im not sure if anyone else has seen or heard about the Aware Magazine, which is now the Be-aware magazine, its a Police magazine sent out quarterly to all emergency services staff … BIG LIE its not !!

So watch out for them as well !

Anyway I am packaging all details and sending them to Trading Standards and sending a copy of the letter to Vardis/FFF.C/Vision Whoever they are !!

Comment by Daniel Lea — August 9, 2010 @ 11:23 am

Hi All, (17 August 2010). I got a phone call today from Forrester’s Children’s Charity asking me to buy advertising space. Their publisher is now “Vision” (no mention of “Vardis”) who called me litterally within one minute of putting the phone down with Forrester’s. I agreed to what I thought was a good idea but smelled a rat within a few minutes and after talking with my husband and when I googled the company I came across your blog. I’m feeling very sick at the moment. Vision asked me if I minded that the call was recorded, I said “yes, I did mind”, she went on anyway. I told her my business artwork wasn’t ready yet but she told me not to worry – they’d make it up! Called Forrester’s back to cancel who told me the order had already gone through but Gemma would call me back to confirm the cancelation. I haven’t heard from them again and by the sounds of it, won;t until the invoice comes through…

Comment by Ellen Robinson — August 17, 2010 @ 5:30 pm

Oh…It seems that these guys have been trying to trick so many people so far! Thank you so much for all of you sharing your experiences – I thought I was the only one victim. I felt really sick, angry and upset about my experience with Vardis. Please, AVOID AVOID AVOID them!!!!

Comment by Martynas Smetonis — January 21, 2011 @ 2:37 pm

How can it be they are still trading – isn’t there a way to get the government to shut them down??

Comment by northlondonremovals — February 4, 2011 @ 9:14 pm

Hi, We here at the Foresters Fund For Children are trying our best to help worthy good causes but worded web associations about companies like Vardis (We are aware that Vardis is no longer trading)
does not help our cause.
Please remember your local nursery or scout group, may need a donation at some stage, and your unsupported blogged/ blagged content will deter someone else from donating or supporting FFFC.

I would suggest the next time you think of putting fingers to keys, please remember that you WILL affect your voluntary local services who need funds.

If you check out our past and recent grants on our website http://www.fffc.org.uk you can see what we are doing to help those who really need it.
Ja.

Comment by fffc — March 2, 2011 @ 6:41 pm

It’s a shame that companies like VARDIS demage charity reputation. Personally I am put off from any kind donation …you never can be sure whom you came acrooss….it’s a shame!

Comment by vanandmanhirelondon — March 9, 2011 @ 4:07 pm

I had a call today on the same lines as this – luckily I thought I’d check first and found this blog. The comment by FFFC above is all very well but I’d reccommend finding a ‘super local’ charity like a hospice or something that is very close to you geographically. Charities that fund raise like FFFC, even if legitimate, tend to spend huge proportions of their budgets on fundraising and not helping people!

Mat

Comment by Mathew — April 5, 2011 @ 7:32 pm

Hi there,

The stories on here seem all too familiar to me. Like a lot of other people who’ve posted, I too was ‘convinced’ into spending money on advertising which would go some way to what seems like a legitimate charity.

Alarm bells started to go off when they sent me a ‘pay immediately’ notice about a week after I received the ad – I really started to get concerned when the threatening letters kept coming – being someone who regularly donates to charity, I know the form with chasing money owed, and legitimate charities DO NOT get heavy, no matter how long it takes for them to get paid (regrettably I have gone through stages when I just didn’t have the funds immediately, but they were happy to wait and eventually got paid).

***BREAKING THE SCAM***
As I was about to send the cheque (it was in the envelope and ready to go) – I looked at the booklet sample to get an address when the penny dropped – THE BOOK WAS PRINTED DIGITALLY (i’m a graphic designer, it was pretty obvious!). So why would a company go to the trouble of printing a fully made up digital version of the book, i’d already had a paper proof of my ad in the post? And as I had been invoiced, and many follow-up demands had been sent, the assumption was that the book was already in circulation, so why hadn’t they just sent me a LITHO version of the book instead?

My only assumption at this stage, based on the evidence, was that DIGITAL VERSIONS were printed to satisfy the curiosity of the advertisers – the 25,000 LITHO copies claimed to appear in “schools, colleges, libraries, doctors and dentist surgeries, hospital waiting rooms, shops, offices, salons, restaurants” were never produced.

Based on this assumption I decided to ring them and get more information. ***Note – they never have a conversation with you straight off, they ALWAYS ring you back, which tells me that they record everything***. Over the next week or so I constantly asked for evidence of the actual print run, which their litho-printer should have no problem at all supplying – again, i’m in the industry, this is pretty standard. After going through various departments, each of which was stumped (and quite flustered) with my request, a manager got in touch with me, explaining the distribution details, but again appeared flustered when I pressed him for evidence of the print run.

That final phonecall was 3rd March 2011. Since then no evidence was forthcoming but more importantly the constant payment requests have stopped completely. Again the assumption must be that evidence of a litho-print run does not exist – this worked out great for me in that I must have spooked them into leaving me alone, but it raises a much more serious issue – should Trading Standards be investigating this company on the grounds of fraud? The evidence would lead to the assumption that this company are selling advertising space which simply does not exist, therefore miss-selling. If I have it wrong I am happy for Vision to provide the information I have requested, as well as a fully litho-printed version of the book.

So basically if you’ve already placed an ad with Vision, and are receiving constant demands for payment, just ask for evidence of the print run, as well as a litho version of the book in which your ad appears. Drop into your local digital printer who’ll be able to distinguish a digital job from litho.

IF IT’s DIGITAL DON’T PAY!

Good luch,
Roy Batty.

Comment by Roy Batty — May 29, 2011 @ 12:06 pm

Thank you for your comment Roy I recently had the exact same thing happen to me
I was thinking of advertising with vision group after they phoned me I asked for some information to read through
Next I got a digital copy of a magazine with my advert in it which led me also to believe that it must have gone to print its a lot of effort and money to waste doing digital copy’s for everyone as a sample
A short while later I got a invoice through the post asking for the payment or £375 I however had previously been told when enquiring that money could be paid and spread to cut the cost
Shortly later I got phone calls asking for the money up front I was then told they could split it into two payments luckily I didn’t have my card to hand when they called however I never paid as I missed a few calls from them then 5 days ago I got a call saying I could just pay as and when I can, I stupidly paid £50 on my card which has been taken from my bank. I had a missed call from them today and googled the number and have found hundreds if not thousands of threads like this. I feel I may have been scammed I don’t know if I can get my money back or not but I am defiantly going to ask where the book has been delivered and I will be phoning other company’s in my proof book to see if they are also legitimate and if they have had problems
Regards
Martin Davison
Wwwsanddwindows.com

Comment by Martin Davison — December 16, 2011 @ 12:48 pm

Had a phone call from a scouse lass before xmas promoting advertising for the foresters fund. She went thru usual advertising talk, when i asked if she could send me some info to my email she said their server was down!!!!! aye.. she rang me back the next day and i missed the call and she left me message saying she would call in the new year. She rang today! I answered the phone and it was tracie again from liverpool. She was fairly convincing with her sales approach and being a fairly new business i was interested when she said the magazine would go to 20,000 homes, hospitals and doctors surgeries etc in my local area. I again asked for info in the post or e mail and would look over the details before commiting. She took my address, home tel no. and said they would send a proof copy thru of the ad and that someone would give me a call in the next couple of days… Hey ho I received a phone call about 2 hours later. I cant remember the name of the operator but they asked for additional details which i explained i wasnt happy to give. They said I had already signed into a verbal aggrement over the phone, which i replied i didnt realise that i had and that could they send me some info and i would expect to have to sign something before aggreing into such a contract with a reputable company!!!!!! who really care about the welfare of children. She said ok and put the phone down without sdaying goodbye.. great sales tactics!! These scum want smashing. I am a small business and advertise in one local magazine which so far has worked well. These vultures obviously prey on new businesses and where they find our details is beyond me. Looking at this thread it has been going on for years so someone is giving details of new businesses to them.. Their approach from the first threads has changed in my experience, they were women and arent to aggresive with their approach but try to give few details and skirt around the charity issue. I would love to see these try and get any money out of me.. Let the games begin!

Comment by rio — January 6, 2012 @ 1:05 am

since advertising locally….(small plumbing firm) i have been pestered constantly….today 13 phone calls,yesterday 11 phonecalls……..i haven’t agreed to anything yet! thank god….a manager rang me and said thanks for agreeing to support us…. i haven’t and will not be supporting such a scam….BEWARE! THIS IS STILL ONGOING DAILY SCAM!!!

Comment by steve — June 21, 2012 @ 6:45 pm

In October 2012 they are still alive and well! I had a phone call about which I was very dubious and said I would think about it, would they send more information….I have just received a form of invoice! I now written a letter cancelling the “ad” and refusing to pay them, as well as stating very clearly that I wish to hear nothing further from them. I await developments!

Comment by Melangell — November 6, 2012 @ 6:27 pm

They are still going. Please don’t just post here. Report them. Agencies to report them to 1st. Citizens Advice Bureau who will advise you and pass the information to Trading Standards, after that actionfraud.police.uk and Advertising Standards Authority.

Have you ever heard “The squeaky wheel get the oil?” Posting in a forum is good to warn people but is reactive, reporting them and getting them shut down is proactive.

Comment by RJ — April 18, 2013 @ 3:12 pm

Hi we’ve been scammed by these con artists trading as ‘Vision Group’. We responded to countless phone call threats by proving that no contract was ever entered into. Despite this, 4 months later we have just received a letter from a very dodgy debt recovery agency (with no address, just a po box number and based in the same area as Vision).

I suggest anyone who reads this message reports them to trading standards via Citizens Advice Bureau. We will be logging our call today. There’s strength in numbers, please take heed and dont let these scammers win.

Comment by Mike — April 10, 2014 @ 6:08 pm

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