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cash is king. I have some alert signals going off with this. I would get someone to do a collection before handing money over. £300 quid is a tidy sum to loose if it goes tits up.

b1zbaz wrote:ask him if we can organise picking them up in person are they in wales now i could pick them up one saturday afternoon cash on collection then nobody gets ripped off as i will set the factory on fire if he tries anything dodgy on me

I hope the factory does not go up in flames now you've written that on an open forum. I'd just stick to the usual petty vendetta stuff - you know, let his tyres down, put dog crap under his car door handles etc.

tee hee.

Or as Gnasher would say "arf arf"

manifold wrote:cash is king. I have some alert signals going off with this. I would get someone to do a collection before handing money over. £300 quid is a tidy sum to loose if it goes tits up.

I must admit as I watch this from the outside, there's bells ringing on this one.

Hans, the 5 3/4 rings took at least a week to get to me.

Hello Hans,

Hi Alan,
Are you sure he is talking about pounds? He doesn't mention it, just the amounts. Doesn't he mean euro's? In the email posted the price of the 5 3/4 was mentioned. It is about 1 euro more expensive than the 7 inch. Therefore I bought a pair on French Ebay, including shipment they cost me 22 euros for 2, although they have not yet arrived.

I asked to to confirm if he was quoting pounds or euros in an email and when he came back just changing the price to pounds when I new he was quoting in euros originally. That and the bank transfer started alarm bells ringing. I don't do internet banking anyway. So at the moment I'm not sure which way to go! we need the rings but I don't want to be ripped off. Buy the way they are being shipped from Belgium, which is were the operate from, so I'm not quite sure what the Welsh address is all about!

Alan

Copy of emails,

Good morning Harold,

Thank you for your pro-forma order form.

From the response on the website I think I need 20 units or 10 pairs of 7” headlight rings or crowns as you call them.

I have a number of questions if I may.

Is the price in Euros?

Can I pay you by credit card?

What is the expected delivery time?

Regards Alan

Hi Alan

See attached for modified pro forma

Price is in GBP

You will have to make a bank transfer on our account (top of pro forma)

As soon as we have the money on our account, 2 days to get to you

Regards

Harold

Hmm. I'll admit to an uncertain feeling about this too, and for the present, I think I'd rather withdraw. Sorry, but I think the refusal to accept credit card payment is what really bothers me; surely a business should be able to cope with that sort of thing?

I am also slightly peeved by his exchange rate calculation; it just seems unreasonable.

He may well be on the level, but I'd rather not risk my money on this.

It is all quite weird. I have sent a Belgium member a pm to ask for help. It's best to have someone walk in at the Belgium address and speak to them in person.

Okay, I have spoken to forummember Brammer. It is not in his neighbourhood, but his son is coming near the address in 2 weeks time when he drives to his girlfriend. I've asked to make pics of the building and if he drives past during openings hours, maybe he could pick up a brochure or even meet this Harold. So until we hear from him, we'll have to wait. If this isn't going to be succesful, we'll have to start looking for an alternative.

On a sidenote I run a small business and for foreign transactions I ask a banktransfer as well. Credit card payments can be made with stolen or false cards, so within the euro zone it is not uncommon. But it is strange that the doesn't give you a good rate. Alan, maybe you can ask. Also you could propose him to have a local pick up and pay in cash/euros via a Belgium member. Interesting to see how he reacts on that.

Just got an email back from Denis (Boxer, not Brammer) and he said on the location is a small building where 1 or 2 people work and every day trucks arrive. They do mainly import (not surprising since most of the stuff is produced in China) So it seems to be an acting company. Still it would be best to do a local pick up of the parts and pay cash. If that's possible from Morette's side, it's just a matter of sending the money to the Belgium forum member. If necessary I can act as an intermediate since payments in the euro zone are free (the only good thing about the euro). But I suppose PayPal can be handy as well (marked as gift is without cost).

Hi Hans,

Thank you for your efforts. So we have established that they do exist. I'm guessing that they have had their troubles in the past and are trying to rebuild their business. So I think, that rather than troubling anyone else. I am going to put an order in for three pairs of rings (crowns as they call them). This will come to about 100GBP's, so I think that I will risk that amount of money. In the grand scheme of things I've wasted much more than that on Midas's. I will wait until after next week and when I'm fit again I will place the order, then report back to the forum. Delivery is promised in two days! So we have not long to wait to see if they are an OK company.

Alan