Originally posted by penguinbars
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Hi Beagles,
Thank you for all of your help, I mulled it over last night and thought over my response - I'm going to send the following to the company, clearly stating my position. See what you think?...
Dear Nikki,
After receiving the letter from your solicitor I have now taken legal advice.
In 2013 I paid your company a large amount of money and was told a lot of half-truths and very much misled as to what my company would be getting for that payment. However, to summarise the conversation I had with your salesman – advertising on the Oxford Uni Nhs intranet.
During this conversation, I also explicitly said that I would not enter into an automatically renewing agreement, at which point your salesman crossed out the standing order mandate so that no further payments would be taken
The company whom I made this agreement has since been liquidated with HMRC https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08165625 and no longer exists, I was not informed at any point that this happened, or that my contract would be assigned to any other company, including ‘Internet media experts (UK) limited’.
There have also been no reminders that a renewal was approaching, or that the 12-month renewal period had lapsed (despite me giving my notice verbally upon commencement of the contract
Your contract also breaches just about every guideline there is regarding ‘Fair Contracts’ – including the OFT guidelines, the Consumer Credit Act 1974, and the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977.
There is plenty of record online of people who have had a similar experience to me with your company.
Finally, and most importantly, your company does not do what it claims – this has led to no business for me. www.staffbenefits.co.uk does not appear on the Oxford Uni Trust’s Intranet site.
I was explicitly told by your sales rep that on the Oxford Uni Trust Intranet, there would be a link to my advert. This is incorrect. There may at one time, have been a link to your website, which NHS staff must then register on, they must then enter your website and do a search within Oxfordshire before they come anywhere near ‘my advert’. This is very different to there being ‘a link to my advert’.
Having been in touch directly with the Oxford Uni Trust Human Resources Team who runs their Intranet, it was also explained that I was able to place an advert directly on their intranet for free.
[I'll then include screen grabs of my e-mail conversation with Oxford Uni Trust]
I’d like to now draw your attention to one part of that e-mail from the trust which says “I have discussed it with one of our senior managers and I have taken off the link to staffbenefits.com”
Therefore the invoice you have sent me for the following 24 months can now be disregarded as this is not a service which you offer (despite the fact that you never offered this in the first place).
The way I see it, there are now two options available to us:
Option 1
You confirm to me that any charges or invoices between your company and mine are cancelled, after which point there will be no more communication between us, and I live with the fact that I wasted money on your company.
Option 2
You continue to send me invoices and threatening letters and e-mails, I ignore all of them. I then contact every single company who has no-doubt had the same experience that I have and inform them that there is now no link to staffbenefits.com on the Oxford Uni Trust intranet. – Fortunately, I know where to find them, even if NHS staff does not. I then seek to claim back the £1000+ I have already spent due to all of the evidence above.
I will leave it up to you which of these options is more favourable to you.
Regards
Thank you for all of your help, I mulled it over last night and thought over my response - I'm going to send the following to the company, clearly stating my position. See what you think?...
Dear Nikki,
After receiving the letter from your solicitor I have now taken legal advice.
In 2013 I paid your company a large amount of money and was told a lot of half-truths and very much misled as to what my company would be getting for that payment. However, to summarise the conversation I had with your salesman – advertising on the Oxford Uni Nhs intranet.
During this conversation, I also explicitly said that I would not enter into an automatically renewing agreement, at which point your salesman crossed out the standing order mandate so that no further payments would be taken
The company whom I made this agreement has since been liquidated with HMRC https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08165625 and no longer exists, I was not informed at any point that this happened, or that my contract would be assigned to any other company, including ‘Internet media experts (UK) limited’.
There have also been no reminders that a renewal was approaching, or that the 12-month renewal period had lapsed (despite me giving my notice verbally upon commencement of the contract
Your contract also breaches just about every guideline there is regarding ‘Fair Contracts’ – including the OFT guidelines, the Consumer Credit Act 1974, and the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977.
There is plenty of record online of people who have had a similar experience to me with your company.
Finally, and most importantly, your company does not do what it claims – this has led to no business for me. www.staffbenefits.co.uk does not appear on the Oxford Uni Trust’s Intranet site.
I was explicitly told by your sales rep that on the Oxford Uni Trust Intranet, there would be a link to my advert. This is incorrect. There may at one time, have been a link to your website, which NHS staff must then register on, they must then enter your website and do a search within Oxfordshire before they come anywhere near ‘my advert’. This is very different to there being ‘a link to my advert’.
Having been in touch directly with the Oxford Uni Trust Human Resources Team who runs their Intranet, it was also explained that I was able to place an advert directly on their intranet for free.
[I'll then include screen grabs of my e-mail conversation with Oxford Uni Trust]
I’d like to now draw your attention to one part of that e-mail from the trust which says “I have discussed it with one of our senior managers and I have taken off the link to staffbenefits.com”
Therefore the invoice you have sent me for the following 24 months can now be disregarded as this is not a service which you offer (despite the fact that you never offered this in the first place).
The way I see it, there are now two options available to us:
Option 1
You confirm to me that any charges or invoices between your company and mine are cancelled, after which point there will be no more communication between us, and I live with the fact that I wasted money on your company.
Option 2
You continue to send me invoices and threatening letters and e-mails, I ignore all of them. I then contact every single company who has no-doubt had the same experience that I have and inform them that there is now no link to staffbenefits.com on the Oxford Uni Trust intranet. – Fortunately, I know where to find them, even if NHS staff does not. I then seek to claim back the £1000+ I have already spent due to all of the evidence above.
I will leave it up to you which of these options is more favourable to you.
Regards
How did this conclude? I have had experience of this outfit.
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