Ernest Wilson

[Midlands bloke]

Re: Ernest Wilson

Hi all

The contract was signed at my fathers business and there is no mention of a cooling off period in the contract. The contract States this shall be for a minimum of 6 months during which time you will (following in bold text) not be able to cancel the contract. Should there be info regarding cancellation within the 14 days be stipulated also? And my father has no evidence to show he attempt to cancel apart from the call he made to Roberts mobile number he gave to my father.

[MalcolmD]

Re: Ernest Wilson

The EU law is here is more clear. 14 days.The home office will back that There are some MP's standing up for this case. There is 100% proof now that EW are fraudulent.

Contact fraud squad

http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/BRT

[MalcolmD]

Re: Ernest Wilson

Hi ,
First of all the statement of Robert Williamson , who in my opinion a con man, is totally wrong. Any contract can be cancelled within 14 days.. that's UK and EU law.

Also, the best form of defence is attack, the next step is to contact the local police fraud squad and report the activities. I will support you on this. Ernest Wilson has cheated 100's of independent traders and I have the goal to have EW brought to justice. I refused to pay so am going first to the small claims court but ultimately I want to get the money back from EW .. many good people have been driven into serious debt because of them. I am writing to the courts with a FOI to get to know exactly how many people have they taken to court over the last 3 years.

If ALL of us get a reference number from the fraud squad then we stand a chance of not only having invoices revoked.. IMPORTANT revoke any invoice from EW because they are fraudulent.; but we can claim for expenses.

The EU law is here is more clear. 14 days.The home office will back that There are some MP's standing up for this case. There is 100% proof now that EW are fraudulent.

[Amethyst]

Re: Ernest Wilson

Just on this bit

Any contract can be cancelled within 14 days.. that's UK and EU law.

When was the contract entered into and was it entered into at home/place of work rather than at Ernest Wilson's branch?

It would be classed as a business to business contract so the consumer contract regulations might not apply.

[MalcolmD]

Re: Ernest Wilson

Hi

I hope you can help. My father has been an unfortunate victim of a business transfer agent. My father arranged a for a business transfer agent to visit him after receiving a mail shot and was verbally told by the salesman (and company owner Robert Williamson) the total price should they not sell his business would be £600. He was also advised by Robert the shop would be guaranteed to be sold. My father didn't look at the contract until a few days later and realised the fees advised were lies, he would have to pay £600 + approx £100+ vat per month for the 6 month contract which would roughly equate to £1600 at the end of the 6 months. He then decided he wanted to cancel, he called robert 4 days later but was told he cannot cancel. In the contract it states it is for a minimum of 6 months during which time you will not be able to cancel the contract (signed on 10th sept 2014) and there is no mention of a cooling off period. Where does my father stand in all this? Does the written contract supersede any verbal commitments given by the sales rep? The company in question is the notorious Ernest Wilson of Leeds.

I would appreciate any advice you could give

Hi ,
First of all the statement of Robert Williamson , who in my opinion a con man, is totally wrong. Any contract can be cancelled within 14 days.. that's UK and EU law.

Also, the best form of defence is attack, the next step is to contact the local police fraud squad and report the activities. I will support you on this. Ernest Wilson has cheated 100's of independent traders and I have the goal to have EW brought to justice. I refused to pay so am going first to the small claims court but ultimately I want to get the money back from EW .. many good people have been driven into serious debt because of them. I am writing to the courts with a FOI to get to know exactly how many people have they taken to court over the last 3 years.

If ALL of us get a reference number from the fraud squad then we stand a chance of not only having invoices revoked.. IMPORTANT revoke any invoice from EW because they are fraudulent.; but we can claim for expenses.

[Midlands bloke]

Re: Ernest Wilson

Hi

I hope you can help. My father has been an unfortunate victim of a business transfer agent. My father arranged a for a business transfer agent to visit him after receiving a mail shot and was verbally told by the salesman (and company owner Robert Williamson) the total price should they not sell his business would be £600. He was also advised by Robert the shop would be guaranteed to be sold. My father didn't look at the contract until a few days later and realised the fees advised were lies, he would have to pay £600 + approx £100+ vat per month for the 6 month contract which would roughly equate to £1600 at the end of the 6 months. He then decided he wanted to cancel, he called robert 4 days later but was told he cannot cancel. In the contract it states it is for a minimum of 6 months during which time you will not be able to cancel the contract (signed on 10th sept 2014) and there is no mention of a cooling off period. Where does my father stand in all this? Does the written contract supersede any verbal commitments given by the sales rep? The company in question is the notorious Ernest Wilson of Leeds.

I would appreciate any advice you could give

[EW Client]

Re: Ernest Wilson

A friend has kindly shared a copy of an old review from the web (sorry about the image quality). Looks like the history of disputes between Ernest Wilson and their clients goes back a few years at least.

[EW Client]

Re: Ernest Wilson

Our dispute with Ernest Wilson is going to court. Basically, EW sell only advertising and do not enter into any form of sales negotiations. Anyone want to support this argument?

On their blogspot site they claim to have sold around 250 businesses each year but how much involvement they have in the process isn't clear. Either way it's a minority of the 750 or so businesses they advertise on their website or the 2,000 they claim to have on their books.

There are some unhappy buyers too - here's another review from allagents:

I'm not going to spend two hours writing up all of my experiences of Ernest Wilson and Co.
To summarise, they lied to me. I eventually had to go to law to compel return of my deposit on a property they had flagrantly misrepresented.
Do NOT deal with these scam artists.
For further verification, put Ernest Wilson NFOPP into Google and find some of the disciplinary proceedings and punishments which have been issued against their staff for professional misconduct.
What could Ernest Wilson do to change your mind??

“Acted in an honest, honourable manner. After someone had explained to them what these terms mean.”

[EW Client]

Re: Ernest Wilson

Also as an observer - it really does fox me why people making adverse comments - cris de coeur - about this firm are so passionate and then disappear - pfffftttt - without trace.

It's a good point and one I've been pondering too. I can think of a few reasons:
Business transfer agents have something of a trigger happy reputation when it comes to litigation, particularly where libel is concerned. They also seem to be well acquainted with the legal system.
Once judgment has been made on a court claim it's not easy nor cheap to overturn it.
Small business owners (who are the principal targets of business transfer agents) often have plenty enough to do without taking on the extra work of fighting such companies, especially when they're faced with the unexpected double whammy of an unsold business and a large bill.
Some people may be embarrassed at having fallen for the agent's weasel words.
Nobody is doing anything to compel these agents to mend their ways and they won't self regulate because their current mode of operation is far too profitable for them to change it.

So it's conceivable that feeling ripped off, ignored by the regulators and threatened by the agent, people just chalk it up to experience and move on.

[MissFM]

Re: Ernest Wilson

As a lay observer I would think that's a credible analysis MalcolmD.

Also as an observer - it really does fox me why people making adverse comments - cris de coeur - about this firm are so passionate and then disappear - pfffftttt - without trace.

[MalcolmD]

Re: Ernest Wilson

Our dispute with Ernest Wilson is going to court. Basically, EW sell only advertising and do not enter into any form of sales negotiations. Anyone want to support this argument?

[EW Client]

Re: Ernest Wilson

The more I see about the business transfer agency industry, the more it looks like it's rotten to the core. I'm sure there are some honest, ethical agents out there but there are plenty that will happily take advantage of the lack of regulation to fleece small businesses.

I'd strongly recommend that anyone who's had this sort of experience contacts Trading Standards, their local MP and the Property Ombudsman Service - the Property Ombudsman is sticking his head in the sand about this issue at the moment but if enough people complain then he'll have to actually do something about it.

[MissFM]

Re: Ernest Wilson

Forgive me if there's already a link to this article (I couldn't spot one and hadn't seen it before):

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news...rnment-3288539

Rip-off 5: No sale? It still costs

No sale, no fee. That was the crucial phrase in the sales pitch that persuaded Carl Bowman to put his hardware store in Leeds on the market with Ernest Wilson & Co Ltd.
Now he says ruefully: “With hindsight I was possibly a little naive to accept the word of their sales rep and not query the terms of business further.”
His store didn’t sell and now Ernest Wilson is suing him for £4,765.
It was marketed at £205,000 without success, even though Mr Bowman says that he had been told before signing the contract that “potential buyers were very keen”.
He heard little until Ernest Wilson told him to cut the price to £160,000 and accept liability for their marketing fees.
When he refused, Ernest Wilson took it off the market and issued its court claim.
The firm insists that its terms and conditions are sent to every client and include the clause: “Advertising and marketing costs are payable upon withdrawal.”
Director Stuart Moorhouse said: “We were left with no option but to issue court proceedings.”
He pointed out that Mr Bowman’s complaint to The Property Ombudsman had been rejected.
Mr Bowman responded by reminding Ernest Wilson that they were fined in 2012 by The National Federation of Property Professionals.

Its tribunal ruling began: “We are disappointed that we have heard three further cases connected with Ernest Wilson, especially as there have been two previous cases, one in 2007 and another in 2011.”
The latest case, which resulted in three £750 fines, concerned “the giving to a seller client a copy of the agency agreement document for the sale of their business that is not identical to the version the client has signed”.

[MalcolmD]

Re: Ernest Wilson

Well that's the past,, however new laws regarding a product being "mis-sold" ,may help

[EW Client]

Re: Ernest Wilson

Wonder how many clients have been sued (on what grounds) and are there any who have who the case in their favour?

They seem to rely on their contract, which pretty much sews everything up for them... don't suppose there's a contract lawyer on here who'd be willing to have a quick look at it?