Hi
During last winter I received two cold calls from very convincing sales people claiming to act on behalf of the police. After lengthy phone conversations both adverts dropped price from £120 inc Vat to £108 inc Vat as they “appreciated my support and that I was a new business”. It was my understanding that these advertising costs were for a year at 1/8 of a page. These publications are called safeguard and streetwise magazines.
I have since been contacted by them again claiming that I owe an extra £108 inc vat to cover the remaining 6months and that I have verbally agreed this in the original conversation. The fact of the matter is I was only starting out and would never have agreed to spend £216.00 per magazine for a year.
I have since received a fairly glossy safeguard magazine with lots of info about the emergency services and statistics; however they contain adverts as far as Aberdeen- I’m a small business based in Edinburgh, why would I choose to advertise there. The sales pitch stated I would be the only landscaper listed and the magazine that would be
distributed to my ‘local’ area. I have asked for a distribution list for which I have little hope in receiving.
Since having contact with these companies, similar sales people have contacted me-
police federation, brake magazine to name a few. The opening speech “Thank you for your
continued support for our emergency magazine, we would like to send you a
letter of appreciation for your support. The next issue is now due for publication for which you owe £xxx”. On both instances I have said I have never heard of the said publications and never agreed to anything and they just hang up.
Has anyone been taken in by similar magazines? If not I hope this post will help to raise awareness to these cold callers.
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Replies
i am sorry to hear your story,as soon as they phone me up,i just hang up .
They basically prey on small businesses ,and hope they cant remember agreeing to a advert or are to busy and just say yes.I have learned the hard way- If its too good to be true, it probably is. However on future calls I aim to waste as much of their time as possible. I will try to gain as much information as possible should I need to contact trading standards or the police.
All the calls I received were from the liverpool area. In fact both of the publications I bought into are based only streets away and claim they havent heard of each other!
Peak" resin" Surfacing said:
I put a run of adverts in our local free paper a couple of months ago and have recieved a lot of work from it however my phone rings everyday with other companies pestering me to advertise with them , i also got an email from a chap wanting me to advertise in a childrens football magazine which i ignored only to recive a call from him a couple of days later , he gave his speech and i declined saying it wasnt for me to which he gave me verbal abuse down the phone saying i should be helping his company rather than the local paper and i should be ashamed of myself , this really wound me up so i got the wife to call them up to find out where they operated from , we got his home address and phone number so i rang him a few times late at night followed by a visit to his home address , im a very laid back kind of guy but after some very strong words in his ear he has never contacted me again .
I understand that these companies need to make money but they are like leeches who dont let go , usually a strong no gets them off the phone and i explain to them that if i wanted to advertise with them i would contact them not the other way round lol ..
Hi Colin,
I am married to Drew Magill who is a garden maintenance landscaper in Belfast .I am a freelance interior designer and i fell for the same trick back in 2008 .I went to great lengths to find out about these gangsters and reported them to Trading Standards on every occasion when i was threatened by them both verbally and by letter for money they said i owed for advertising.I had my details sold unto 5 different false businnesses who withdrew money from my business account until i closed it and reopened a new account (my fault).I reported them to the PSNI as they proclaimed to be representing small bissinesses here in NI and along with myself many other small busssinesses advertised in the magazine and had no idea that they were a bogus company .It is unbelieveable that these guys get away with this and from a bedroom in a house and a rented office space in liverpool and manchester. These gangsters work under lots of different names but the "safeguard " magazine backed by the "police " iscompletely bogus!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i had them call me to they got nothing from me
Made the same mistake a few years ago for a single payment. I was never sure if it was genuine or a scam.... though l am leaning towards the later. They still phone police, ambulance, fire etc... usual patter about continued support or your adverts ready! Being associated with a police mag does on face value seem to be a smart move. Horrible to feel you have been mislead but you will learn from it!
Generally l now tightly vet any advertising - any cold callers l say email me details. Their response is often we have to do it today etc... nothing emailed.. then they're not genuine.
Would suggest you email them stating you feel you have been mis-sold with respect to areas, pricing etc etc and do not wish to continue. Should they persist restate in an email mis-sold etc etc and copy your trading standards office... see where that takes you.
These tactics whether genuine or scam targeting small business owners who are trying to make a living, feeding their families and possibly supporting others through employment in this country is so unethical.
Good luck - keep us posted.
We get these all the time! i now make a point of saying that we don't sign up for advertising over the phone. Also if people hide their number I always ask them to call me on an unhidden number- the scammers soon hang up!
Susan
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