Hi Guys,

As some of you collect other lines apart from SW,i'm just letting you know to completely avoid buying online from WHO blackpool as they are nothing but scam artists that have ripped a lot of people off!

This is their website:
http://www.whoblackpool.com/

And here are some reviews about them:
http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews168812.html

I live not far from blackpool & if anyone desperately wants anything that they sell,i'm more than happy to go & pick it up for them.Just don't order online!

Mark.

Christ those reviews are pretty dire! Thanks for the heads up Mark!

The store looks like its got cool stuff!!!!

:scratch: :scratch: :scratch: :scratch: :scratch: :scratch: :scratch:

coachk28 wrote:

The store looks like its got cool stuff!!!!

:scratch: :scratch: :scratch: :scratch: :scratch: :scratch: :scratch:

They do have some nice stuff james,its just a shame that its run by wankers!

Those reviews are the worst i have ever seen!!!

The will piss the wrong guy off one day and they will go to the shop to hunt them down lol

Cheers for the heads up Mark

jaymassive619 wrote:

Those reviews are the worst i have ever seen!!!

The will piss the wrong guy off one day and they will go to the shop to hunt them down lol

Cheers for the heads up Mark

Quite right Jay!

I don't understand how trading standards haven't done anything about them,surely this is blatant online fraud they are commiting!

It would be funny if they do end up on watchdog!

This www.whoblackpool.com shop is a thief! I ordered over £100 worth items last Christmas and until now still received nothing, no goods, no refund! Contacted them many times, via email and phone, Spoken to Catherine Simpson and David Simon (owner of the shop) promised the refund it's on the way but they never send anything.
I'm going to take them to the police and trading standards to get my money back.
If anyone lives nearby, I wouldn't mind them going in and smashing the place up for me.

It's just simple theft, I'm surprised they haven't been shut down!

I searched on line and found so many poor people have been ripped off by this horrendous shop! :

http://www.begoths.com/forum/topic6807-0.php?postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=&sid=769291c0231f29bad906b9d47a055c16

http://www.ripoffreport.com/hobby-shops/whoblackpool/whoblackpool-who-took-money-4e54a.htm

http://www.ripoffreport.com/Hobby-Shops/WhoBlackpool/whoblackpool-took-money-for-or-pb8fe.htm

http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/330130/anyone-got-any-advice-not-recieved-?p=8002927#post8002927

http://sideshowcollectors.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28923

Really sorry to hear what's happened choco_pie!

I don't know how these nasty pieces of work keep getting away with it either. Guess they fulfill just enough orders to keep it looking legit. At least you're spreading the word and helping others to avoid the same problems.

Please let us know how you get on with Trading Standards. Be prepared for some dirty tricks though , make sure you've got as much hard evidence as you can.

Hi banoffee & choco_pie, interesting place to have your first posts. Hi there

Welcome to the TIG Form banoffee & choco_pie!

When you get chance post your intro's in the Who's who introduce yourself thread

http://www.imperialgunneryforum.com/vintage-chat-f1/who-s-who-introduce-yourself-here-t33-360.htm

Hey guys,

They're filthy tricksters, I know what they're trying to do because I've seen posts from other people about some of their scams. Whenever i speak to Cathy, she's always like "I promise I'll go downstairs and get your refund processed right now." Then nothing happens until I phone back the next day.
Eventually I gave them an ultimatum by mail saying if the refund wasn't there by tomorrow 1pm I was calling trading standards and the next person they hear from will either be them or Blackpool police. Funnily enough she then phones me the next morning with an offer of a 'cheque'.
This is where their funny business starts.

I want to know why they want to send a cheque out and she says it's because they're 'switching' paypal accounts and the new one isn't ready yet and will take several days - a cheque will be faster. You can smell the bullshit a mile off. She says "I'll send it by recorded delivery tomorrow and you need to sign for it ok?" I DO NOT trust the cheque, she's trying to get my signature on something and she wants me to sign the envelope for some reason. 2 minutes later I phoned her back and told her not to send me anything - if she does I won't sign for it, just turn it away.

Basically they scammed someone else who opened a paypal claim by providing tracking and delivery information of the product he ordered. He lost the case. What did they send him? A receipt in an envelope sent by recorded mail.
Clearly they're trying to pull the same shit on me.
They are crafty scammer! She'd tell trading standards the goods were sent and she has a signature to prove it and I'm lying about everything else.

I do hope they're reading this, checking up on what's happening on the net regarding their store. If so, hiya! I've phoned trading standards and they've begun an investigation into your dodgy shop. Don't bother refunding me because I'd rather take you to the cleaners through legal channels and get my money back that way - I can even charge you for all the phone calls I made through a small claims court, so look forward to picking up the bill on those for me.

Everyone else reading this, don't go near the shop unless you're going there to firebomb it.

Blimey, these guys sound terrible.

Hope you get things sorted out choco!

Lot of bad vibes from that place ive seen loads of complaints, hope you get something sorted m8y

Welcome to the forum Choco & Banofee!

Sorry to hear you've been scammed by these fuckwits!

Maybe you & banofee could contact watchdog about these idiots as they love investigating scum like them!

Hope you both manage to get your money back(eventually!)

Ring daily and report them to trading standards.
I had a nightmare with them over a refund.
Pathetic excuses from Cathy about deliveries due in, inability to refund payments, reasons for not ringing back etc. I can't believe this woman can appear to be so sincere and helpful whilst, in reality, is lying through her teeth and trying to avoid paying back what people are legally entitled to.

Have a look at http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews168812.html - have you noticed that most of the positive reviews have similar errors - poor punctuation and spelling, using lower case 'i', over the top comendation and generally poorly written. Could they all be written by the same person?

There are other issues serious issues that happened after this was finally resolved. These have been passed on to the appropriate authorities to look into.

Best of luck with these people - pass on your experiences - these people don't deserve to be in business. They put buyers off buying online and affect the honest business out there.

Again another interesting first post attacking this business from a new user that's 3 now on this thread!

We have actually been contacted by whosblackpool as they believe there is a internet campaign by 1 disgruntled customer who is going to great lengths to sully there name on the internet.

Can you please provide your details and vintage SW collecting interests as ultimately that's what this site is for.

Jay

joeblob wrote:

Have a look at http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews168812.html - have you noticed that most of the positive reviews have similar errors - poor punctuation and spelling, using lower case 'i', over the top comendation and generally poorly written. Could they all be written by the same person?

Maybe but I have also looked at the 3 new users who have posted on this thread yourself, choco_pie and banofee and your use of language and grammatical structure is also very very similar.

I will be speaking to whosblackpool today regarding whats going on and will also be looking into this further.

Can the 3 new users who have post here provide there details to one of the Admin or Moderation team.

Jay

After completing check the users who have only post once on this thread are all from completely different parts of the UK and are not the same person.

The all highlighted on going issues with whoblackpool and apparently trading standards are involved.

Whoblackpool have also contacted both myself and the moderation team threatening legal action unless we take the user comments down after talking with my solicitor this morning they have confirmed that the Imperial Gunnery Forum is breaking no laws by allowing posters the freedom of speech that UK citizens and international site members are granted.

Its also worth noting we are just one of at least 10 major websites where users have set up warning threads / comments about this company.

I want to draw whoblackpools attention to the forums disclaimer located in FAQ's

Site members and visitors shall remain solely responsible for the content of their messages. Information obtained in a forum may not be accurate or reliable. All messages made available as part of this discussion group (including any bulletin boards and chat rooms) and any opinions, advice, statements or other information contained in any messages posted or transmitted by any third party are the responsibility of the author of that message and not of The Imperial Gunnery Forum (unless The Imperial Gunnery Forum is specifically identified as the author of the message). The fact that a particular message is posted on or transmitted using this The Imperial Gunnery Forum web site does not mean that The Imperial Gunnery Forum has endorsed that message in any way or verified the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any message. The Imperial Gunnery Forum shall not be liable for any statement, misstatement, inaccuracy or omission of any type for any content submitted by a site member or visitor on any forum. We encourage visitors to the forum to report any objectionable message to admin@imperialgunneryforum.com. This forum is not monitored 24/7.

Whoblackpool are also welcome to join the forum and put forward there side as well.


Jay

hear hear!
good job jay

Sorry to hear about the hassle you've had from these idiots Jay but as i started this thread,i should set the record straight & tell everyone about the horrible experience i had when i tried to buy something from them online.The reason i didn't go into detail at the time i started this thread is because i couldn't be bothered to type out a small novel describing my experience but now is the time!

On 15th May 2009,i purchased Darth Maul's Sith Infiltrator from WHO Blackpool's online store & paid by paypal.£29.99 for the toy & £3.95 for delivery making £33.94 in total.

After a couple of weeks of waiting & receiving nothing,i emailed them & eventually got a reply from someone called Cathy who said that the Sith Infiltrator they had in stock was damaged & that they had ordered some more & should be arriving in about a weeks time.After waiting another couple of weeks,i emailed them again asking if they had received the new stock & when could i expect to receive my item & still i heard nothing from them.

After about another week of waiting & hearing nothing i was starting to become concerned & emailed WHO Blackpool asking for a refund as it was now getting close to the 45 day limit for making a paypal claim.After about another week i emailed them again saying that i would be making a paypal claim against them for item not received & received an email from Cathy saying that she thought my refund had already been actioned & processed & that she would issue my refund immediately.

I decided that i'd had enough excuses & timewasting from WHO Blackpool & initiated a paypal claim for item not received & on 18th July 2009,paypal notified me that they found the case in my favour & that they had managed to recover all of my £33.94.

After i had received my paypal refund,i tried to log into my WHO Blackpool online account only to find that my account had been blocked!!!

I believe that WHO Blackpool had no intention of refunding me before the paypal time limit for making a claim & were deliberately wasting time fobbing me off with excuse after excuse hoping that i would believe their pathetic lies of promising to refund my money so i would then miss the threshold for making a paypal claim so they could steal my money as they have done with numerous other people judging by the shocking reviews they have received for their online service.

I can honestly say that my experience with WHO Blackpool has been the worst online shopping experience of my life bar none & i was lucky that paypal managed to recover all of my money as numerous other people have not been so fortunate & the people that run WHO Blackpool need to take a good hard look at themselves & the way they operate as they have no one to blame but themselves for their current predicament!

Jay,if you need anymore info or copies of my paypal statements pm me mate!

Mark.

Thanks for taking the time to post Mark.

This to me confirms the reviews and reports of this place are 100% truthful as Mark would never lie about a situation like this
and he is a trusted member.

As for Who Blackpool threatening the site with legal action, if they put the same amount of effort into operating their business
properly as they do trying to silence their customers on the internet they might not be in this mess...

Terrible business by the sounds of things.

good investigative work,jay..Dan

Ha ha, thereatening the site with legal action! That's a joke considering they're basically operating a service which appears to be nothing but carefully organised theft.

Jay, I'm extremely sorry for not logging in earlier to check back on the developments. I would have been happy to help you determine that I'm definitely an individual who found this site and thread and came looking for help. It doesn't surprise me at all that they're doing everything they can to have this thread closed down, it's a beacon to anyone who doesn't want to get royally ripped off. At least my bad experience will help other people NEVER take the risk of spending money with them again.

At the moment I'm extremely busy with other things in life, but not too busy to take the company to the cleaners. That's still on the agenda and they know it, and I'm planning to move the authorities in in due course. I've got no fear of reprisal because they're rotten to the core. I'll definitely update here to let you know the developments. In the meantime I hope this thread grows and grows - people should have more freedom of speech in the world to be able to warn people about stores like this.

I'm glad to hear trading standards have acted on this now, I did report them a while back so it's good to know they're doing something. I am going to call back to find out what my next proper action should be.

Just out of interest, did anyone ever manage to force the sugar tongued Cathy to provide a full refund without managing to get a return through paypal?

That woman has a hard job man, having to continually lie to people for a living. Don't know how she sleeps at night. :scratch:

I have had my review on reviewcentre.com removed at the request of whoblackpool for the third time. Each time I ask that it is put back on and it goes back.

My review simply says "Avoid at all costs. Pathetic customer service. Do a google search and see how many people have had problems with these people. Make excuse after excuse to avoid paying back what they owe you."

Nothing there that isnt true and I stand by my opinion.

I have noticed that the positive reviews are all very, very similar though - have a look for yourselves - http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews168812.html

Awful spelling, punctuation, grammar and another give away - almost every I which should be a capital is written as a lower case i. Looks like English is the writers second language or they have some learning disorder.

I'm surprised nobody has clicked on 'report this review' for all the similar posts and pointed this out to the admin team at reviewcentre.

Hi Joeblob, I'm glad you signed up here to discuss this. Obviously Poo Blackpool are watching the internet carefully and (as they did with this forum) are attempting to quell the amount of fallout from their actions.

An update -

Phoned Trading Standards again just now. I spoke to them about my next options which I'm not going to disclose just yet (I know they're reading this daily) but I will carry out and then call them back in a little while.

I also asked them to escalate the matter within trading standards because I believe they're operating criminally. They did say the more people they get reports from the easier it is to launch a full investigation. Thankfully, it's a peice of cake. Here's a quick bit of info to help us help each other:

REPORT WHO BLACKPOOL TO TRADING STANDARDS:

Anyone who has had any issue, in the past or otherwise (it doesn't matter to them, they just want info), please take a few minutes to call the numbers below. It's really simple and only takes a few minutes. You'll get straight through on the phone, no waiting, and the guys on the line are always really helpful.
At the end of the call they'll give you a reference number, so have a pen handy to write it down. Total time you'll be on is less than five minutes normally, and if you're making a claim for money back they'll give you instructions on what to do, if you'd just like to report them for illegal practice and bad experiences, that's absolutely fine too. It all helps.

The number to call if you live outside of Blackpool is: 08454 040506

If you live within Blackpool and want to make a report, call: 01253 478 375

Please, if you have had a bad experience, you owe it to yourself to make these guys pay for ripping you off. it really is quick and painless and we'll all be helping each other. The more reports made the more likely these punks will get what appears to have been coming to them a long time.

I resent the fact that they prey on figure collecting communities expecting us to apathetic and accepting, almost like hobbyists don't really matter they can just be ripped off and then they'll go away.

Let's do something about it.