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Orchid Studio, was formerly Sapphire Studios. They have changed their name and continue to elicit Londoners contact details falsely claiming they have won a competition and a PRIZE for makeovers. They then elicit a deposit for photographs at the end of the session. They then charge your bank card anyway. They are misleading the public with false advertising of competition being offered and won, and fraudulently transacting on bank cards for services NOT received and without the permission of the card holder. As they had changed their name, I was unaware of the scam until I received an email with the old name on it and conducted a google search to find hundreds of complains of the same nature against the former company 'Sapphire Studios'. They are deliberately defrauding the British public. Many have called on public forums for action to be taken against this company. Yet, they have changed their name and continued to defraud the public with false claims they have won a competition. Society gives company' a licence to operate, society is asking that this company's licence to operate is revoked permanently and the operators brought to justice.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
hi the same happened to me.thy took 100 pounds out of my bank.after a lot of emails and threat's and phone calls later thy said i will get my money back...to anyone who has spoken to this company my advice to you is to stay away..go to the police phone trading standard's..
I have just received a phone call from this company claiming I had won a free photo shoot experience! they fed me some speel about committing to the booking with a fully refundable deposit! Instantly alarm bells were ringing, that they wanted me to just hand over my credit card details without even and email or letter of proof! is quite unbelievable, I am concerned that others will not be as suspecting and could fall foul to handing over their details without really knowing what they are getting. What can be done about this disgraceful con enterprise?
They have £150 from stupid me, and now I cant get the money back. Since it was a telephone conversation and account details were given over the phone, I am wondering if I can report it as fraud with the bank and try and get the money back. Could someone give me advice?
Hello,
I was approached by the salon, after entering a contest for the makeover. I DID enter the contest, so at first I was quite pleased that I had won the prize. The lady who called then began to "sweet talk" me, and mentioned a deposit of 49.00 for each person (the prize was for me and a friend). I told her that I am not giving my card details on the phone, that she should send me an email with whatever I won, and all the details, and I will sort it out.
Then she started insisting I say the exact day and time I want the makeover booked, completely ignoring me telling her that I won't pay a deposit. I told her that as I live in Cambridge, I can't tell her without some planning in advance when I will come. She continued to insist on me telling her at least if I want to come on a weekend or weekday, I told her AGAIN, to send me an email, and I will get back with the details, but it was like talking to a robot.
For 20 minutes she kept me on the phone, (I think in the end she must have picked a date for me) at the end she asked for my credit card details. I told her, AGAIN, that I am not paying anything to her. She told me that this deposit is necessary, so they will have an insurance that I "won't waste their time", and make an appointment and not show up. I repeated that I am not paying a deposit, even if they give me the money back, I can't afford to stay without 100 pounds in my account until i get there. At this point, she changed her tone completely! she became very rude and ### and started to yell at me! She asked me why I entered the competition in the first place, if i was unwilling to claim my price. And then I told her to give the price to someone else as I can't afford to pay the deposit. She SCREAMED at me for wasting 20 minutes of her time. In the end, I was almost feeling sorry for her...but her insistence did seem a bit fishy, so I google searched the competition and found this forum, and the one related to Sapphire Salon.
My point is, that this is clearly a very well practiced scam. I NEVER in a million years thought it would be possible for things like this to happen in the UK ( I am from Romania). Is there no official place where you can complain about scamers like this? I feel very sorry for all the people who did pay and never got their money back.
Same thing happened to me yesterday, they took £199.96 from my account. I have reported them to trading standards and watch dog. I have also reported it as fraud as I thought it would only be 49 quid, and I have signed no contract or seen any terms and conditions. The bank fully understand and are currently in the process of retrieving the money! Please beware of these nasty people!
Absolute thief's, Thank God I said No, The guy called me at 12.40pm before Easter weekend and says"I won VIP tickets for 4"
I knew from there my alarm bells were ringing, why is this allowed in the UK?
Just snakes
They rang me a minute ago offering me this and that; then wanted a deposit! yeah right! I'm not giving anything away when its meant to be free! Spoke to a Thai sounding person; said it was a man but sounded like a woman!
Did you get your money back in the end? the same thing has happended to me, this happened to me on Firday 23.03.12. they told me a deposit of £49.00 is required and you get free tickets and they took 199.96 out of my account without even telling me! im soo pissed off and im not sure how im going toget my money back :(
They are a f*kn joke! I had a argument with the manager about taking money out of my bank account after so called "winnin" a competition, and was not aware of hw mch would be took out of my account only tto realise it was 100 quid! I str8 away rang them back, took me a week to finaly get in touch of someone for then to chat utter crap about not being able to refund the money unless i turn up on the day! Whether i have a session or not which is free and do not buy and pictures makes no difference to giving me a refund! The manager was very rude tellin me what i had been told when she was not even the one that had booked the session with me so how would she know? She would not give in and would not give money bk unless i turned up tp a stupid session! This company is a joke iv heard nthn but bad stuff about them!