[oliver collins]

I received a phone call about a month ago from a advertising company called barclay media telling me i had agreed to a verbal contract to advertise in one of their publications. I was supposed to have agreed six months ago they told me that i could not back out and wanted £500 quid off me for the privilege. Any way the only thing i confirmed last month was my name and address and i know that i would not have agreed to a one off advert for £500. So i rang them asking for proof of the conversation ie transcript and audio have heard nothing back since; hope i dont. I contacted trading standards who were very interested to hear my story and told me that this happens all the time to self employed people and they want all the documents so that they can follow up this case.
So be warned, don't be scared by threats of recorded verbal contracts.
Dont forget Barlay Media based in Leeds - avoid like the plague.
O Collins  >:

[colley614]

I had the same last week. Company saying that we had arranged advertising in a previous telephone call. I said I don't remember talking about it. I then said If I agreed to it then I would have already told you that I was the person responsible for advertising, but you didn't know who was. The phone call ended faster than Terry Burrows can squeegee!

[barry woodward]

I get calls from companies saying this sort of thing, I just put the phone down as most of the time they are going through the yellow pages and calling the 0800 numbers, so i'm paying for the call aswell.

[windowwashers]

I get calls from companies saying this sort of thing, I just put the phone down as most of the time they are going through the yellow pages and calling the 0800 numbers, so i'm paying for the call aswell.

thats why I dont use 0800, I used to do this long time ago (not scam people but call the 0800 numbers first for selling domain names and websites.

[bluez]

ya right, I believe you ww

[chrismroberts]

Got one like that a while back.... I'd supposedly bought advertising space in some booklet going out to schools. They even tried to guilt trip me about the money going to a charity for kids..... but as soon as I said "I don't buy anything over the phone, so I'd certainly remember if I'd agreed to shell out a hundred quid", she hung up! Just stand yer ground guys

[windowwashers]

ya right, I believe you ww

[S.A.J]

Got one like that a while back.... I'd supposedly bought advertising space in some booklet going out to schools. They even tried to guilt trip me about the money going to a charity for kids..... but as soon as I said "I don't buy anything over the phone, so I'd certainly remember if I'd agreed to shell out a hundred quid", she hung up! Just stand yer ground guys

Just had one off these people phone me up!! As soon as I questioned it she hung up. She said she was calling from the crime prevention act 

Stuart

[chosker]

yeah - we had one from some drugs sponsoring at school claiming we had agreed 6 months ago to paying about £350 to sponsor a magazine in a local school.
they were hard to get rid of but i'm the only one who deals with advertising and no way i'd have agreed to that. stood our ground and we never heard back from them - despite threats...

[Richard Holt]

i've had three calls in the last few months, all from different people saying that they are putting together a police magazine and looking for businesses to advertise.
i phoned trading standards and they weren't able to tell me if a company was legit. they would only want to know if i'd spent loads and been ripped off!!