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Comments:
This lot are now in Northern Ireland. My other half had taken a call from them in December about advertising! What appeared was certainly not what they lead us to believe, the magazine thing is horrendous! I so far have refused to pay but today I have now had their office manager on the phone, who very calmly and politely talked about all the negative feedback, which is apparently unfounded, that they invite trading standards in, they were apparently with them two weeks ago! Also that they have never been conatcted by Merseyside police or been imvestigated for any wrong doing. He told me to look into the charity and I would see for myself the good work they do! He doesn't seem to be entirely sure where the so called publication would be placed! I would be very keen to also see an old copy of this CLASS M8 to see if it has changed at all! I am supposed to get back to him for us to come to an agreement for paying!
Girlie, just ignore them, they will no doubt treat you the same as everyone else has reported on here, but at least you know what's coming. Keep all the documentation they send you and take it all to Trading Standards, they won't do anything for you personally, but it will be another nail in the coffin, as Vardis will be investigated and closed down eventually.
My partner has just taken a call from this company and didn't know who they were and says he might be interested in an add and to send out some information. AAAhhh has he done something wrong, what will we do when the stuff comes through the door?? Help anyone?
I have just been sent an ad proof by Vardis after receiving a sales call on Jan 7th. After researching them I called to cancel but was told I was outside the 7 days. I phoned the Trading Standards and was told that legally Vardis do not require a written contract and for business to business sales a verbal contrat is binding with no cool-off period (unlike consumers who have protection in this respect). Vardis are not requesting payment yet but the only way I can legally cancel/not pay is if they fail to fulfil their contractual obligations or have been misleading in their original call (ie if they don't distribute the booklets/fail to send me an example booklet/do not put the ad in). I will now wait to see whether they produce/distribute the booklets as described before taking action. I thought other businesses may want to know what their legal position is with telesales calls as I was totally ignorant about how unprotected I was legally.
Hello, I too have had trouble with Vardis. Today (12/1/10) I received a letter from CDR (crown debt recovery) stating that I owe Vardis £340.00 for an advert with I never signed upto, and which I cancelled as soon as I received a letter. I am not going to pay, no matter what! I know CDR is part of Vardis but can this go against my credit rating? Has anyone been taken to court or had balif's around? Thinking about it, probably not as it would just be laughed out of court. I'm just worried about my credit rating! Any help would be gratefully appreciated.
I too have been stung by this company recently. They are now demanding £380 for an advertisement I thought I'd cancelled twice, in writing! I will not bore anyone with the details as my story is pretty much the same as every other on here. But firstly, and with thanks to this blog and its comments, I have now discovered the truth about this company. Unfortunatly for me I have just recieved the confirmation of registration email from blagger.com and have been advised that colourful language and offensive words are not permitted thus limiting what I would really like to say about these people! Trust me this is hard.
All I would like to do is post a link to some legal advice I have found recently regarding vardis and the way they trade. It may be helpful to anyone that wants to know where they stand if they have fallen victims to vardis.
Worth a look: http://www.freelancers.net/show_forum/20060805/181450.html
The only personal advice to anyone who is being harrassed is to ignore them. I will not waste my time with vardis anymore. Eventually the calls thin out and go away. If however, you do happen to answer by mistake as they do state they work for other companies sometimes (they told me they were the fire brigade once!), simply say clearly that your lawyer has requested all future correspondense with vardis in writing and based on that you are now terminating the call.
I feel I must tell you of my husbands experiences with this company. He received a phone call from Vardis in June 2008 asking him if he would like to place an advert in the Foresters Fund for Children Magazine, they said any profit they made would go to benefit children suffering from cancer, so of course my husband agreed because they told him that the magazine would be circulated in our local area. When he received the magazine - Class M8 (which my daughter said is of very poor quality and she should know she is a magazine designer!) there was only a few adverts inside mainly from around the Midlands area which is definetly not local to us. My husband emailed them (he tried to write to them by recorded delivery but the Post Office said that the address at 44 Liverpool Road, Lydiate isn't registered to Vardis) and told them that the advert was unsuitable - they'd not included his address, it didn't cover our area and he was cancelling it. They ignored my husbands email and request to cancel the advert and sent an invoice for £170. He emailed them again and repeated to them that the advert was unsuitable and he wasn't paying for it and as far as he was concerned the matter was now closed. Since then he has ignored all correspondence from them and avoided answering their phone calls. In the beginning Vardis sent the usual reminders and threatened my husband with court, which again he ignored and it appears now that they have given up because we haven't heard from them for more than a year, so our advice to anyone who is being hassled by this company after you've requested to cancel the advert is to just ignore them!
I also have had calls from them and I stupidly had said it seems like a good idea..not knowing that a verbal agreement would count. Last Friday I sent emails to all their email addresses to cancel my interest. I also sent a recorded letter cancelling my interest. I spoke to a Sandra who coincidentally has the same surname as me and she confirmed cancellation. I have also received an email confirming cancellation...do you think I have done enough:)
I will be interested to see if this booklet does go out to the thousands of locals advertising local businesses.
It amazes me that these people are still going, surely the word has got out by now.
I was involved with this company in much the same way as all of you about 4 years ago, after about 2 years they gave up and went on to find another sucker.
The truth is that if you give in, you will end up on a suckers list and have similar companies doing exactly the same to you again so you must fight on to the bitter end.
Write to Vardis telling them you refuse to pay.
Write to your MP, to Trading Standards and to Watchdog. Tell everybody you know about Vardis. Eventually the word has to reach everybody.
Try sending an e-mail to all in your address book with a warning about these people and asking them to do likewise.
If you are really worried speak to the Fraud Dept at Merseyside Police, they will re assure you, I have spoken to them on numerous occasions and they are well aware of Vardis and their tactics.
Put their number in your phone and refuse to take their calls. Eventually they will give in.
I have spoken to the Police, to Tradings Standards, Citizens advice and to a Solicitor Friend of mine along with my MP about Vardis and the advice has been universal.
"DO NOT PAY"
They will not take you to court. They have NEVER taken anybody to court.
The advice I have been given from official sources is that if they did they would be laughed out of court.
The Debt Recovery company is Vardis.....Yes they call themselves Crown Debt Recovery but it is Andrew Lownsbrough the Director of Vardis who runs Crown Debt Recovery and the Consumer Credit license is in his name.
They operate in a very grey area of the law, which is why it is difficult to shut them down, particularly so because they are not a limited company. The law really does need strenghtening to include these type of companies ( yes there are lots of them, mostly in Merseyside )
The booklets they produce are only sent out to the advertisers, nobody else, so the claim that they send them out to thousands of local businesses is baloney. If there are 25 advertisers then thats how many people they send to (along with the invoice of course).
The advert I received was quite frankly laughable, it told lies and I didn't even see a proof of it. I was discusted and would never pay for an advert until I had approved the copy before going to print like any newspaper add I have ever placed which has to be signed off before printing.
If you have your copy of the booklet, try ringng some of the advertisers and see what they think of it...you won't be surprised to hear that they feel the same way and gain some support along the way. I did and felt reassured when all of the advertisers I spoke to without exception agreed not to pay one single penny.
Be strong and let them make all the threats they want, eventually they will give up the fight in favour of easier money.
Happy Christmas to you all and the very best of luck
When it became clear that Vardis were not what they seemed, I wouldn't give them the time of day on the phone.
I approached Forresters who confirmed that their contract was the subject of a Charities Commission investigation.
Then I went back to Visa (I had used a Visa card to pay Vardis's bill) and filled in a payment reclaim form with a full description of what had happened, including a mention of this and other websites. Of course, Vardis didn't try to challenge this and the money was refunded to me.
If you haven't paid, then don't; and if you have, then get it back - it's your money, not Vardis's.
Just had a call in Leicestershire... "Mark Janvier" called at 15:33, "Gemma" from Vardis called at "15:45" asking if I was happy to go ahead with the advert. I (fortunately) said "I'm happy for you to send me your literature" as I had done to Mr. Janvier. So they have nothing on me on phone recordings.
I called back to Mr. Janvier at 15:52 (I had got his number when he called) to cancel and asked that he let Gemma know. I then called Vardis at 15:56 (Gemma called from a blocked number) and asked to speak to Gemma - impossible - and the receptionist, Sarah said she would let Gemma know that I want to cancel.
Who would like to place bets whether I receive the proof/advert/bill? This is some hassle I really don't need. I will not be paying no matter what.
Awful company. It's good that people have put their experience here so I know I can safely tell Crown Debt Recovery where to go!
Please be aware that this company is now operating within the Gloucestershire area! I too have had dealings. Despite cancellation via email numerous times within the period (as phone calls dont work) they have ignored ALL and continued to print. I am now in receipt of many harrassing calls while trying to go about my daily business. They will not get a penny out of me and further more if they want to take it to court... Bring it on! So come on Vardis, stop hiding behind the phone with your bully boy tactics and show yourself, I'm very irrate but also ready and waiting...
Here's another story. I've actually had legal advice on this (as can be seen here http://www.justanswer.com/questions/28gbv-director-small-company-few )
just to sum up:
I am a Director of a small Company and a few months ago we were asked to place an ad in a charity booklet. We were offered a credit card sized ad for just over £100. When we received the booklet, the ad was just over half that size. I informed them that I wasn't happy with the size and asked them to contact me to discuss. A few months later, we have started to receive invoices, to the wrong address and in the wrong name (my Fiancé (F)). I have tried to contact them repeatedly via email and phone, and always receive a standard response. A few weeks later I received a phone call from a distressed future mother-in-law(M), saying that this company had been in contact with her, asking to speak to my F and when told she hadn't lived there for over a year, the man got irate and accused F, M and my company of Fraud and was generally unpleasant. Despite attempted contact, I still have no response from them, except Invoices in F's name.
My F is now receiving calls to her personal mobile (god knows how or why!) from their legal dept threatening court action. We have also received a letter to my F to the same affect.
I have been reasonably throughout and offered to pay half the price, but they refuse to respond to me.
I am going to send them a cease and desist letter now and threaten legal action to them.
I too have had the same problem as everyone else. I told their debt collection company to take me to court then. They wont - they are nothing but pathetic bullies who will not get away with their illegal trading. Lets get them shut down!!
Unfortunately, I have had my first encounter with this company today and I welcome any advice you can offer. My Husband was cold called at the end of September and thought he was doing a good thing (inexperience!)
I tried to cancel today (within the 7 day approval of artwork period) and I was told because it had gone beyond the 14 days following the telephone conversation, I was told that I could not cancel and that the article will run regardless and that we had to pay £189!!!
I enquired that my husband had not signed any contract agreeing to these terms and they gave me the "its a verbal agreement" at which point I then got very annoyed and have asked for a copy of the phone recording to verify this.......
I dont want to pay them a penny but am obviously worried about debt collection and the effect of my credit rating.
Any success stories, advice and who can help would be gratefully appreciated.
I like many others have had dealing with this company. Last year (2008) they harrassed me into taking advertising. I cancelled this a couple of days later by letter and email. The next i heard from them was a poster they sent me. When i rang them they said they didnt receive any letter or email. If you check out the law on this it states that in posting a letter the law says that it was received. They said that as they had already printed these posters (none of which i have ever seen anywhere) it was too late to cancel. I have since rang them repeatedly and been unable to talk to anyone. They have now forwarded it onto crown debt recovery, who it seems is just another name for Vardis. They are threatening to take me to Liverpool crown court (who have never heard of them). I have contacted a very helpful person in the fraud dept of Merseyside Police who have informed me that they are keeping an eye on these people and not to pay them. I would like to discuss what we all do as a group on this matter, if we as a group contacted watchdog or the national press i am sure it would hold up more than doing it as individuals. If there is agreement on this put a comment on here and we will see if the pressure will put these people out of business, so that no-one else is bothered by them again.
hi im so glad i found this.
i am having the exact same problem although i just came off the phone from one women who hung the phone up on me after not listening to any thing i was saying.
my husband sent them a 4 page long fax saying that he never placed an order he sent it on the 15th aug and only had a phone call today 26th aug stating that it was to late to cancel ext.
i phone to ask why it has took so long to respond to the fax and was told that sandra has been on holiday.... which she is entitled to. this wiould have been ample time to so called cancel what ever this is... i dont know what to do next.
they seem to be under the impression that what they are doing is correct.
I feel so much better that im not the only poor mug who has felt the mighty force of vardis! they called me in july asking if i would like to advertise the company i work for, i said to them that i would like an advert it would be a great idea (me being soft and gullible) but i would like to look at the paper work and artwork first before i agreed to anything. i never received any letters or information regarding there company until yesterday when i received a shoddy example of artwork which wasn’t even the size i wanted and i hadn’t even had the chance to send my own design. i couldn’t cancel my order by phone so i emailed them (as stated that was my only option) and one of there snotty tart employees called me back saying i couldn’t cancel i was tied into a so called verbal contract and that i had to pay them £105.75 by the 6th of september! they state that i received paper work previously and if i wished to cancel i should have done so when i received my first letter. i received no paper work before then. they are a ruthless vindictive fraudulent company who will not get a penny out of me. i contacted trading standards which advised me to put my cancellation in writing and send it on special delivery to make sure they got it. when i went to the post office the address that vardis have given me wasn’t even legit! it came up as a funereal parlour! i have looked into verbal contracts and they are not legally binding. any one who ever receives a call from this company tell them to f*%k off and put the phone down!!!!! you just have to read all the comments from other poor people like myself who have been bullied by this charity company! if they persist to call me i shall go to the police and get them done for harrassment and fraud i suggest others do the same. we know our rights! xxx
I too am so glad I have found this site. We too were contacted by Vardis about placing an advert in the Foresters publication. We never agreed to anything, just asked for details to be sent through the post. The next thing we know is the advert has been out in the publication & the only way we found out was because a copy was sent to us. The ad was incorrect to start with! We are now receiving final notices etc for 454.25 for something we never agreed to & is incorrect. I have rung Trading Standards today & they are reporting them for investigation - please please please can everyone do the same. It has taken up a lot of our time and feel really sorry for the people that pay just to get rid of them or for the fear that they will be taken to court which they cannot do unless they prove that you entered a contract with them - and this has to be in writing!
I also have been having a nightmare with Vardis, which has resulted in them threatning court action at Liverpool County Court. When I contacted the court they did not seem to know Vardis or Crown debt recovery. But to be on the safe side advised I went to Trading Standards who forwarded me on to Consumer Direct in my area. Consumer Direct advised I am covered under the 'supply of goods act 1982' and that the yearplanner was not as described on the phone and reasonable care & skill had not be taken in producing it. I have written to Vardis with this information and await thier response. I have on going support with consumer direct in this case and advise others to contact your local consumer direct with details of your Vardis complaints.....GOOD LUCK!!!!!!
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 envelope 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 am employed as a sales manager for a national paper in Ireland therefore please be assured that if you do not proof your advert either by email or post (you get to see it and send an email confirmation that states you are happy for it to go ahead) you are under no obligation to pay a cent/penny! - please dont feel threatend by this company, what goes around comes around and they will eventually be shut down.
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
Hi, yet another bad story for Vardis, like many people I had somebody call saying they were from the police and asking for support for Forresters Fund for Children, through a publication called ClassM8 - all seemed above board, but what a nightmare. They made a total mess of the advert, ignored all efforts to get it corrected and then went on to send numerous invoices for payment. I have refused to pay the invoice and kept a record of all written correspondance and fully expect to hear from their debt recovery people. For a small firm like mine, this is taking up an inordinate amount of time and it would have been far cheaper to simply pay the invoice and write it off to experience, than continue with the argument, put you get to a point where principles definately have got to come first - no matter how expensive it is.
I would strongly recommend anybody to avoid any financial arrangements with this company
Add mine to the complaint list as well - they are a complete nightmare for sole traders just setting up in business. I have now received a letter from Crown Debt Recovery demanding payment or they will take me to court. Has anyone actually been taken to court by these people?
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Visitors to the site are reminded that the details contained within user comments are uncorroborated and as such should not be read as fact but as the opinion of the person who left the comment.
Comments:
M
All I would like to do is post a link to some legal advice I have found recently regarding vardis and the way they trade. It may be helpful to anyone that wants to know where they stand if they have fallen victims to vardis.
Worth a look: http://www.freelancers.net/show_forum/20060805/181450.html
The only personal advice to anyone who is being harrassed is to ignore them. I will not waste my time with vardis anymore. Eventually the calls thin out and go away. If however, you do happen to answer by mistake as they do state they work for other companies sometimes (they told me they were the fire brigade once!), simply say clearly that your lawyer has requested all future correspondense with vardis in writing and based on that you are now terminating the call.
Good Luck everyone, hope this helps.
I will be interested to see if this booklet does go out to the thousands of locals advertising local businesses.
D
I was involved with this company in much the same way as all of you about 4 years ago, after about 2 years they gave up and went on to find another sucker.
The truth is that if you give in, you will end up on a suckers list and have similar companies doing exactly the same to you again so you must fight on to the bitter end.
Write to Vardis telling them you refuse to pay.
Write to your MP, to Trading Standards and to Watchdog. Tell everybody you know about Vardis. Eventually the word has to reach everybody.
Try sending an e-mail to all in your address book with a warning about these people and asking them to do likewise.
If you are really worried speak to the Fraud Dept at Merseyside Police, they will re assure you, I have spoken to them on numerous occasions and they are well aware of Vardis and their tactics.
Put their number in your phone and refuse to take their calls. Eventually they will give in.
I have spoken to the Police, to Tradings Standards, Citizens advice and to a Solicitor Friend of mine along with my MP about Vardis and the advice has been universal.
"DO NOT PAY"
They will not take you to court. They have NEVER taken anybody to court.
The advice I have been given from official sources is that if they did they would be laughed out of court.
The Debt Recovery company is Vardis.....Yes they call themselves Crown Debt Recovery but it is Andrew Lownsbrough the Director of Vardis who runs Crown Debt Recovery and the Consumer Credit license is in his name.
They operate in a very grey area of the law, which is why it is difficult to shut them down, particularly so because they are not a limited company. The law really does need strenghtening to include these type of companies ( yes there are lots of them, mostly in Merseyside )
The booklets they produce are only sent out to the advertisers, nobody else, so the claim that they send them out to thousands of local businesses is baloney. If there are 25 advertisers then thats how many people they send to (along with the invoice of course).
The advert I received was quite frankly laughable, it told lies and I didn't even see a proof of it. I was discusted and would never pay for an advert until I had approved the copy before going to print like any newspaper add I have ever placed which has to be signed off before printing.
If you have your copy of the booklet, try ringng some of the advertisers and see what they think of it...you won't be surprised to hear that they feel the same way and gain some support along the way. I did and felt reassured when all of the advertisers I spoke to without exception agreed not to pay one single penny.
Be strong and let them make all the threats they want, eventually they will give up the fight in favour of easier money.
Happy Christmas to you all and the very best of luck
TLC
I approached Forresters who confirmed that their contract was the subject of a Charities Commission investigation.
Then I went back to Visa (I had used a Visa card to pay Vardis's bill) and filled in a payment reclaim form with a full description of what had happened, including a mention of this and other websites. Of course, Vardis didn't try to challenge this and the money was refunded to me.
If you haven't paid, then don't; and if you have, then get it back - it's your money, not Vardis's.
I called back to Mr. Janvier at 15:52 (I had got his number when he called) to cancel and asked that he let Gemma know. I then called Vardis at 15:56 (Gemma called from a blocked number) and asked to speak to Gemma - impossible - and the receptionist, Sarah said she would let Gemma know that I want to cancel.
Who would like to place bets whether I receive the proof/advert/bill? This is some hassle I really don't need. I will not be paying no matter what.
Awful company. It's good that people have put their experience here so I know I can safely tell Crown Debt Recovery where to go!
just to sum up:
I am a Director of a small Company and a few months ago we were asked to place an ad in a charity booklet. We were offered a credit card sized ad for just over £100. When we received the booklet, the ad was just over half that size. I informed them that I wasn't happy with the size and asked them to contact me to discuss. A few months later, we have started to receive invoices, to the wrong address and in the wrong name (my Fiancé (F)). I have tried to contact them repeatedly via email and phone, and always receive a standard response. A few weeks later I received a phone call from a distressed future mother-in-law(M), saying that this company had been in contact with her, asking to speak to my F and when told she hadn't lived there for over a year, the man got irate and accused F, M and my company of Fraud and was generally unpleasant. Despite attempted contact, I still have no response from them, except Invoices in F's name.
My F is now receiving calls to her personal mobile (god knows how or why!) from their legal dept threatening court action. We have also received a letter to my F to the same affect.
I have been reasonably throughout and offered to pay half the price, but they refuse to respond to me.
I am going to send them a cease and desist letter now and threaten legal action to them.
I tried to cancel today (within the 7 day approval of artwork period) and I was told because it had gone beyond the 14 days following the telephone conversation, I was told that I could not cancel and that the article will run regardless and that we had to pay £189!!!
I enquired that my husband had not signed any contract agreeing to these terms and they gave me the "its a verbal agreement" at which point I then got very annoyed and have asked for a copy of the phone recording to verify this.......
I dont want to pay them a penny but am obviously worried about debt collection and the effect of my credit rating.
Any success stories, advice and who can help would be gratefully appreciated.
Garethbiker
i am having the exact same problem although i just came off the phone from one women who hung the phone up on me after not listening to any thing i was saying.
my husband sent them a 4 page long fax saying that he never placed an order he sent it on the 15th aug and only had a phone call today 26th aug stating that it was to late to cancel ext.
i phone to ask why it has took so long to respond to the fax and was told that sandra has been on holiday.... which she is entitled to. this wiould have been ample time to so called cancel what ever this is... i dont know what to do next.
they seem to be under the impression that what they are doing is correct.
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 envelope 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 am employed as a sales manager for a national paper in Ireland therefore please be assured that if you do not proof your advert either by email or post (you get to see it and send an email confirmation that states you are happy for it to go ahead) you are under no obligation to pay a cent/penny! - please dont feel threatend by this company, what goes around comes around and they will eventually be shut down.
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
I would strongly recommend anybody to avoid any financial arrangements with this company
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