Playing Santa to families firm left without any toys
CITY BUSINESS ‘RUINED CHRISTMAS’ CLAIM DISGRUNTLED CUSTOMERS
PARENTS have been donating toys to children whose families have been waiting months for Christmas presents bought from a company operating out of a Facebook group.
Christmas Toys Low Prices, headquartered in Nottingham, sold products including scooters, computers and a variety of children’s toys.
But, as the Post reported earlier this month, many complained that they were yet to receive the products they paid for.
They said they’d not been refunded, despite reassurances from the company.
But it did not deter some parents of Walkden, Manchester, from getting into the Christmas spirit.
Instead, they decided to get together to create a Facebook page called Saving Our Children’s Christmas.
The page was dedicated to buying gifts for the children of parents who had spent money with the company.
Alysha Childs, 24, who works as a carer for her child, helped set up the page.
Ms Childs said: “We were going to do a Gofundme but, with people already handing over hundreds and thousands, we didn’t want people donating money so all the admins came to a decision we would do presents instead.
“I think it’s gone great; our small little community pulled together and we managed to get enough presents to give to the families who were without.
“The other girls did a fabulous job distributing them out to the families. We all as a community just wanted to help people.”
She added: “It’s just nice knowing we all managed to help the families who spent loads.”
People affected said that their Christmas had been “ruined” due to their gifts not arriving in time.
Tracey Mcmanus – whose daughter lost £700, having ordered items in early October – helped get the campaign group up and running.
She said they helped donate toys to around 40 families.
She said: “We made the page and we just went from there. We put a thing on saying we were collecting to help the parents. We were just completely packed out picking stuff up.
“One of the young girls – her bedroom was full from the floor to the ceiling and we had like three carloads that she got donated.
“People would phone in saying ‘I’ve got this... do you want to come and collect this... I’ll donate this.’ “One man who lives in Bolton – we don’t know him or anything – he donated £250-worth of toys out of his warehouse. We’ve had a very good response – it was amazing.” Both women said that, along with many others, they are yet to receive refunds and that some people appeared to have been blocked by Christmas Toys Low Prices.
Earlier this month, the company said they had order confirmations and information had been sent to a bank.
The operators explained that an account had been blocked, meaning at the current time they were unable to refund people. Some people were refunded before the account was blocked, they said. The operators said they hadn’t scammed anyone, and they were “not sat holding their [customers’] money”.
In an update, a spokesperson for the company said: “They have said that they can only pause the account for 30 days so looking at by January 3/4 for it to be unblocked. I have been keeping people updated with this too.”
It’s just nice knowing we all managed to help the families who spent loads
Alysha Childs