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Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2010 6:20 pm
by London Stone Paving
We got scammed today for £1600 and there is nothing we can do about it whatsoever.
About a month ago "GB Builders" based in Wembley (cough, cough, bullshit) called our office and ordered 100m2 of fosill mint to be delivered to Noak Hill just outside Romford. They paid for the order over the phone by card.
Our delivery trucks are generally busy so we often use pallet lines for deliveries which fall outside our main delivery zone. The delivery went out on Palllet line as normal and was signed for at the property.
This morning we get a phonecall from the bank saying that the cardholder had denied any knowledge of the transaction and that they would be pulling the money back out of our account. Exactly the same thing had happened to us back in May so we knew that we were very unlikely to get anything back. Just on the off chance I grabbed one of the lads from the yard and we sped across there. When we arrived we reached a semi derelict house. I spoke to the guy next door and he said that the place had been reposessed about six months ago.
I have never been in this area before but it absolutely reeks of pikies. a bit like our very own Wraysbury but on the East side.
My sister was a bit gutted because she sits on the sales desk and she was the person who took the order from these scum bags.
Its a real shame we didnt make the delivery on one of our own waggons because my driver would have sniffed it out straight away
SODS
Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2010 6:41 pm
by lutonlagerlout
normally you can hear the pikey syntax,its very hard to disguise the way they talk,its like irish meets hillbilly
they can cover the accent but its what they say that gives them away
they use the word "gentleman" a lot and also "sir"
feel for you mate,thing is without credit card orders its hard to trade these days,
LLL
Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2010 6:46 pm
by ken
have you been and taken your stone back, or had it allready been moved when you got to the site address?
Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2010 6:48 pm
by ilovesettsonmondays
noak hill not a bad area either.
Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2010 6:54 pm
by lutonlagerlout
ken wrote:have you been and taken your stone back, or had it allready been moved when you got to the site address?
its a scam ken,stone probably never touched the kerbside
a mate of mine got done in a similar way over a lorry load of windows,they were delivered ,but when he went to the site it was a derelict house
LLL
Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2010 7:10 pm
by dig dug dan
i always thought that once a card payment had been done over the phone, its accepted. who was the card holder?
No one is safe these days
What happened to peoples web links on this site. Tony, yours says text goes here, and another one points you to greggs the bakers!!
Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2010 8:19 pm
by GB_Groundworks
see the other post is the craic re signatures
Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2010 9:26 pm
by rab1
most likly a stolen card.
Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2010 9:59 pm
by lutonlagerlout
the problem with card payments is that the merchant gets very little protection
the consumer and visa/mastercard get a fair bit and since chip and pin its supposed to be harder ,but of course telephone transactions all they require is the 3 digit number on the back of the card.
i use verified by visa now for online transactions but not sure if you can do it over the phone
dont need this at this time of the year
LLL
Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2010 7:48 am
by London Stone Paving
They do the scam at the start of the month, so chances are that the customer will not find out for a few weeks. By which time they are long gone.
Same happened about six months ago for £6000!!! which was extremely painful.
We understand the drill now and hopefully it will not happen again. As usual it just makes it more difficult and time consuming for the average punter looking to buy stone legitamately because we will ahve to be a lot more cautious.
Got a good mind to prepare a few booby trapped crates, that would teach the buggers 
Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2010 8:49 am
by 47p2
How about looking at the delivery address on Google street view!!!!
I know it's a bit out of date but it will give you a rough idea of what the address/area is like and should help you make your mind up as to whether you want to send the order or not.
Also take a contact phone number and call them back before sending, usually a day or two after they have placed the order.
Visa/Mastercard won't help. As the vendor you are the fall guy and as expected to make relevant checks to ensure the card is legitimate.........Crap I know but I don't know any way round it.
Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2010 9:56 am
by haggistini
i was done on ebay for £750 sent a 9 oz gold chain (full pikey style) to nottingham spoke to the buyer over the phone and his mother ,funds cleared and it was recived and sign for special delivery and insured job done.......3 months later pay pal who dealt with the money transfer and profited from it was charged back by the card company and that was that i had to pay back the £750 and no chain and with all the proof the tw*t's did nothing .............. www.paypalsucks.com
Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2010 11:04 am
by London Stone Paving
We always take a telephone number anyway but even if we did call them back before the delivery went out, they would still be able to bluff it. We dont find out there is a problem until at least 3 weeks after the event. The google maps thing is worth a look.
Thats a bit of a sting haggi. I would have thought that paypal would be protected against that, It should not be your problem as you have paid a fee to use their service.
I had a mate who bought a couple of tickets for the Michael Jackson concerts on eBay (before he sadly passsed away :;): )
The tickets turned out to be fakes. He reported it to eBay who credited his account with the cost of the 2 tickets (£1000)
Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2010 4:34 pm
by msh paving
pay pal and ebay always side with the buyer,paypal in the event off a problem will always side with buyer,i know as a ebay sellar with 3000+ feedback its not even worth trying to argue with them MSH 
Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2010 4:55 pm
by topgrafter2007
Going back few years here, 5 or 6. I ran a mail order company selling very expensive shooting kit and to get round the cards bank 'snatch backs' as they were called where you lost your dosh after sending items. We used to address check every single order over £100.00.( Would take 5mins extra to ring and check all the address and personal details)
Now im not sure if that service is available anymore but we managed to stop 99% of that happening. It was well worth the extra 5mins to check then ring customer back, if it was dodgy they would rarely ansa the phone.