Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
TV advert scheme is a major turn off
Were contracts to advertise in GP surgeries doctored?
THIS seemed like a great way to find new customers.
A sales rep allegedly claiming to represent the NHS told Hennie Gillam that she could advertise her optician’s business on a TV screen in the waiting room of a local doctor’s surgery.
The rep, says Hennie, promised that her ad would run for 30 seconds once every five minutes.
She signed a one-page contract – but was not left with a copy – agreeing to pay £624 up front for the first six months and then £104 per month after that.
The deal was with Patient Direct, a trading name of Multimedia International Services Ltd of Poulton-le-fylde, Lancs – although according to Companies House, one director, 54-year-old David Ravenscroft, lives in Thailand.
Hennie became worried when there was an unauthorised debit from her account, and decided to visit the doctor’s surgery in Holt, Norfolk, to check her advert.
“There were three waiting rooms and the screen, which was tiny and not even turned on, was in the smallest,” she said.
“The practice manager told me that he was trying to get out of the contract because the screen was often broken.”
She was refused a refund, even after seeing a Patient Direct log which showed that her advert was sometimes aired as little as once a day.
“The reply I got was that I should read my contract as they can show my advert whenever they want,” Hennie said.
She requested a copy of the contract and said that she was sent a version that included a second page that she had never previously seen.
Tomorrow Hennie is going to court, suing for the return of her fee. “They have counter-claimed for £2,500,” she told me. “If they win I will lose my business.”
I have heard similar stories about Multimedia International Services from other small businesses. Photographer Leigh Harrington of Sutton, Surrey, paid to advertise in four surgeries but later found the screens switched on in only two of them.
He was so angry that he launched a support group on Facebook.
“They have sent me a solicitor’s letter demanding the group be taken down, they receive a public apology and I pay their legal costs,” he said. “I have declined.”
Meanwhile, Lindsay Nicholas, a toy shop owner from Bristol, told me the price of her contract was not what she was promised by the Patient Direct sales rep.
“My husband and I both remember being quoted close to £300 but it became £624 a year plus VAT and an admin fee of £198 a year has been added,” she said.
“Our advert is being shown once every 21 minutes rather than once every five minutes as promised.
“There has been no response whatsoever to it.
“None of the chairs in the waiting room face the TV screen.”
Health therapist Julie Dunn, from Hove, East Sussex, also says that she has had zero response to her advert.
“It is poorly designed and changes I requested have not been made,” she said. “The TV screens are very small, poorly situated and frequently not even turned on.”
Tom Molloy runs a carpet cleaning business in Bradford and dealt with Property365, another trading name of Multimedia International Services.
He too has received no response to his advert in a local estate agent’s office and when he complained “they just said it’s a 12-month contract with no escape clause”.
Tom signed the contract on a tablet and says that he was never shown the hard copy version that he was eventually sent.
Multimedia International Services has not got back to me, despite several requests.
It operates in six countries including Australia, where it trades as The Community Network.
In May 2016 it was fined the equivalent of £130,000 by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which had received “numerous complaints” from small businesses about its tactics.