Scammed by a horsebox hire company

[XelaM]

Last week we arranged to use a horsebox hire company to transport two horses to a competition. All was agreed and I was asked to pay £120 the day before, which I did immediately. The horsebox never turned up and despite the woman who runs the company (Chelsey in Herts - AVOID if you ever come across her) promising me a full refund, not only has she not refunded the money, she has blocked my number to avoid me. She claims that she is shutting the company down, which gives me zero hope that I will ever be paid back even if I were to go to the small claims court. Although the shut-down is probably a lie, as I know she is still taking bookings. Speaking to people on my yard, apparently she is a well-known scammer who rarely/never turns up and never refunds. Numerous people I know are waiting to get refunds from her.

Is there anything I can do? It's completely outrageous behaviour. Apart from being upset over the money, her behaviour has been so awful that I don't want to just let it go.

[BeforeGodAndAllTheFish]

Also, go to the Resolver website and use their help form. They're bloody brilliant!

[BeforeGodAndAllTheFish]

Have you spoken to your bank?

You paid a ltd company and you paid into a business account, and you can show this is a scam. Banks have been getting a bit better at reversing accidental payments and scammed customers. It is worth speaking them.

Maybe go into a branch and speak with a the branch manager, show them the evidence of the scam (including posts from other people saying the same thing) and ask for help. Bank transfer reversals need to go through a lot of approvals and often dont happen but you're not going to lose anything by asking someone how to go about starting it.

[XelaM]

Apologies for all the typos/grammatical errors. I was typing in a hurry on my phone.

And it's the company's bank account I made a transfer to. It's a limited company, so if she shuts it down, I can't pursue it, even if I obtain a judgment against the company.

[XelaM]

Hi All, sorry for the delayed reply. She was meant to be driving us and my daughter, I and my daughter's friend (both 12) who was also competing waited and waited for her to turn up (having got up at 4:30am to get themselves and the horses ready as we were leaving at 6:30am). She just never turned up and text me at around 7:30 after having ignored all my calls and messages that she had broken down (an excuse she always used apparently) and that we should try someone else, but she would of course refund me my £120 deposit and the competition entrance fee. We spent hours that morning trying to find alternative transport, but of course no one was available on short notice. Hugely disappointed kids and a complete disaster of a day spending it on the phone to endless horsebox hire companies.

This woman then text me asking for my bank details to transfer the money (I paid by bank transfer unfortunately) and that's the last I ever heard about my refund. She then blocked my number (I know because I also tried texting/calling from my daughter's phone and it was going through, but not from mine).

I even went to her company's registered address where it turns out her mother lives. Her mother was very friendly and said to leave a note for her daughter and that it would be sorted out. I was extremely polite and just explained the situation. Since then, the daughter sent me a long rambling text about how I'm harassing her mother and she would report me to the police 🙄 I tried to respond, but of course I am still blocked so any texts are not going through

[TheFnozwhowasmirage]

Was the box for you to drive or was the price including a driver to transport your horses?
If she is trading as a horse transporter,she'd need to be registered with DEFRA,have tachographs and relevant certificates and insurance. I'm guessing that she has none of these,so reporting her to the relevant bodies would be worth doing.
If she's just hiring it out for the customer to drive,you are more limited,but I'm sure that the Inland revenue would be interested in her 'business'. I'd bet money on the fact that she's not declaring her income from her little scam.
As previous posters have said,share far and wide. There is a FB page called 'Dodgy horse dealers and Sellers' who were set up to warn of exactly this sort of scammer.
Good luck and don't give up,that's what these sort of people rely on you doing.

[drpet49]

First I stick a post on all the local social media. Keep it factual, something along the lines of Hi, I’ve paid £150 for a horse box hire but the lady didn’t deliver and has now blocked me. Does anyone have any other contact details etc?

Then I’d make a police report and report to trading standards.

[BuanoKubiamVej]

How did you pay? If it was paypal or a credit card then the organisation who transferred the money can get it back for you. If it was a bank transfer, was the name on the account a personal name or a business name (ie with Ltd on the end) - important for working out if she owes you as an individual or as a business.

If she's well known for this then maybe you could compile a list of victims and if there's enough then either it might amount to sufficient evidence for a group action (criminal or civil)

[Pleasedontdothat]

How frustrating, especially when you were presumably also dealing with your daughter’s disappointment at missing the competition.

Have you reported her to Trading Standards? The small claims procedure is very simple so even if she wriggled out of paying somehow you’d still have the satisfaction of having a judgement against her. And name and shame on as many horsey Facebook groups and forums as possible. You only got scammed because you didn’t know of her reputation - do what you can to make sure as many people as possible know now.