‘Lock up the traders behind this chair chaos’
Probes a world of scams and scandals
Mrs S.E. writes: We read with dismay the sad tale last Sunday of the 95-year-old lady who has not received her chair from Westminster Recliners. I purchased two made-tomeasure chairs in July, one being for my seriously ill husband. We paid a deposit of £2,398, followed by £2,397 on September 1. Just as you reported, this was strangely reduced from the original astronomical price. We were told we would get the chairs in two weeks, but repeated letters have brought nothing. Now we are taking the company to the small claims court, but as pensioners we do not need court costs added to the money we seem to have wasted already. YOU are far from the only reader to have complained since my report last week about the woman who paid £1,500 – reduced from an amazing £6,000 – but is still waiting for the chair she hoped would be delivered in August.
As I revealed then, Westminster Recliners is now a limited company but before that it was a trading name used by Mobility UK Limited. Not that this makes much difference, as the business is run by a father and son team, David and Oliver Waters, of Felixstowe in Suffolk.
David was also a director of the similar UK Mobility Direct Limited, until he stepped down earlier this year, to be replaced by Oliver. David has recently set up yet another similarly named business, Anchor Mobility Limited.
An elderly couple – he is 90, she is 85 – from Hoylake on the Wirral, say they paid UK Mobility Direct £1,682 as the deposit on a chair last July, since when they have heard nothing more, despite telephoning and writing.
A 79-year-old woman paid £3,594 for a bed and an armchair which she expected to receive this month, only to be told in October there were ‘delivery problems’. Then there is the 82-year-old husband who paid £2,300 last January for a chair for his wife. She died during the cancellation period, but despite telling Westminster Recliners what had happened, he is still waiting for a refund. His son told me: ‘They need to be disqualified from trading and locked up, as what they are doing is as good as robbery.’
I put all of this to Oliver Waters. He said: ‘Things went wrong when we could not pay the factories in a timely manner and our funds were frozen.’ He did not explain why his business’s cash had been frozen, but he did admit the order placed for the customer who died should have been scrapped.
He said: ‘I can only state that there has been a failing in the administration of this refund and I will certainly take steps to get this actioned.’ He then added: ‘I am unable to do anything right now due to cash restraints.’
Waters suggests that anyone who believes a refund is due should contact their bank and ask to use the chargeback procedure. He told me: ‘We would not contest it.’
Suffolk County Council offered the same advice about the chargeback system. A spokesman said the firm and those managing it had already been prosecuted twice for breaches of consumer protection regulations. If you believe you are the victim of financial wrongdoing, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TS or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Because of the high volume of enquiries, personal replies cannot be given. Please send only copies of original documents, which we regret cannot be returned.