Complaints probe into TV show winner’s firm
A KITCHEN company run by a former Come Dine With Me winner has received hundreds of complaints from unhappy customers.
National Trading Standards are looking into the dealings of Rochdale-based GD Designs Ltd, run by Sadiya Hussein, after the case was passed to them by Rochdale council.
Keith Batcheltor, of Birmingham, paid £1,383 for new kitchen units but says he was disgusted with what arrived.
He told the M.E.N.’s sister paper the Mirror: “More than half of what was required was missing, and of what was delivered, some was damaged and other parts didn’t have the required holes to fit together.”
GD Designs, based on an industrial estate at Fieldhouse Road, arranged a new delivery, but some parts were still missing.
“On contacting the company, I got a lot of abuse,” said Keith.
“Then they said I was in breach of contract because I had called a gas fitter in as the hob was leaking from every pipe.”
But his efforts to sue GD Designs Ltd failed last month because the company appears to have vanished.
When another customer complained that some of her units were missing, she was accused by GD Designs of hiding them.
“I’ve had a nightmare with this company,” said Joanne Greenley, of Hull, who paid £1,480.
“After numerous cancellations, I held them in breach of contract.
“I started court proceedings that went as far as bailiffs, only to find out they had abandoned the premises.”
Rochdale council has received more than 300 complaints about the firm from across the country, and has referred the issue to National Trading Standards.
But Ms Hussein, pictured here after winning Come Dine With Me in 2013, says she can’t help because she’s been locked out of the building after failing to pay Rochdale council around £20,000 in business rates.
She told the Mirror: “I would love to help but I can’t get to the papers or stock.
“I am not out there to rip people off. I have lost everything, I have got to start again.”
Ms Hussein also claimed she had been issued with a police notice, known as an Osman warning, because there is a threat to her life because of the disputes.