affected by RIB seat scam - advice?
Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2020 10:44 am
Hello two and a half months ago we paid a camper van specialist with his own website, apparent limited company etc to supply & fit a new RIB rock & roll bed in our Bongo, as we do a lot of driving with our small son in the back and wanted to upgrade our safety ahead of the summer.
They sent an invoice, which we paid by transfer which included supply & fit of the RIB chair. We booked in a date immediately, at the start of July. Then the excuses started...
First, that the seat ordered had arrived but it was the wrong size/ a new one needed to be sent. Delay.
Then, that the chair (which was coming from French company Scopema apparently, which was news to us) could not now be sent until September 1 as Scopema had gone on French leave for 6 weeks. Big delay.
Then, when we asked for a refund as didn't want to wait 6 weeks to get it done, that the camper van fitter's dad had died and he needed to 'get his head together'.
Then, no more responses at all until today when he emails to say his business has gone out of business. I've since looked and it was actually dissolved in May 2019 despite his website saying they are still a company so he has actually been operating as an individual.
I feel that we have been scammed and the chap just wanted the cash upfront - we paid most of the bill upfront as the RIB seat needed to be purchased, but whether or not he actually did buy it who knows. Any advice on what to do next/ has anyone suffered similar? It was quite a lot of cash for the seat and fitting kit, so we are feeling extremely upset especially as we did all of this to ensure we had a super safe van for our 5 year old.
We will be reporting to our bank, trading standards etc of course, but if anyone has done legal action around this type of thing please let us know how that went? Would prefer DMs in case the absolute piece of shit himself is reading this/ comes to this site.
If anyone knows anyone at Scopema it would also be super helpful too.
They sent an invoice, which we paid by transfer which included supply & fit of the RIB chair. We booked in a date immediately, at the start of July. Then the excuses started...
First, that the seat ordered had arrived but it was the wrong size/ a new one needed to be sent. Delay.
Then, that the chair (which was coming from French company Scopema apparently, which was news to us) could not now be sent until September 1 as Scopema had gone on French leave for 6 weeks. Big delay.
Then, when we asked for a refund as didn't want to wait 6 weeks to get it done, that the camper van fitter's dad had died and he needed to 'get his head together'.
Then, no more responses at all until today when he emails to say his business has gone out of business. I've since looked and it was actually dissolved in May 2019 despite his website saying they are still a company so he has actually been operating as an individual.
I feel that we have been scammed and the chap just wanted the cash upfront - we paid most of the bill upfront as the RIB seat needed to be purchased, but whether or not he actually did buy it who knows. Any advice on what to do next/ has anyone suffered similar? It was quite a lot of cash for the seat and fitting kit, so we are feeling extremely upset especially as we did all of this to ensure we had a super safe van for our 5 year old.
We will be reporting to our bank, trading standards etc of course, but if anyone has done legal action around this type of thing please let us know how that went? Would prefer DMs in case the absolute piece of shit himself is reading this/ comes to this site.
If anyone knows anyone at Scopema it would also be super helpful too.