Inquiry into publishing firm over advert refunds claims
10:10am Sunday 20th May 2012 in News
A PUBLISHING firm is being investigated by trading standards amid allegations its bosses failed to refund clients who have paid for adverts that were never printed.
Bolton Media Group (BMG) is based in Halliwell Road, Bolton, and publishes a range of events maga- zines covering Bolton, Bury and other towns.
Companies such as Little Lever-based solar panel firm Eco Save Solar (ESS) paid to put advertisements in those magazines.
ESS managing director David Tyldesley claims he paid £300 for an advert to go into a directory that was due to be delivered last November and was not pub- lished.
Mr Tyldesley said: “I con- tacted BMG and they said they had problems with the binding of the publication. I asked for a refund and they told me I’d get it on Janu- ary 27, but nothing hap- pened.”
He claimed he still has not got his money back.
“It’s not really good busi- ness practice to not provide the service that you’ve promised to provide and then to not give money back,” he said.
“It’s especially bad now with money being so tight for all businesses.”
The firm is now under investigation by Bolton Council’s trading stan- dards department.
A trading standards spokesman said: “We can confirm we have received a number of complaints in relation to BMG but as investigations are still ongoing we cannot com- ment further at this stage.”
It is not known how many complaints trading stan- dards are investigating.
But a BMG spokesman said: “I have been working here five weeks and can honestly say there has never been a complaint in that time.
“I was unaware of Mr Tyldesley’s case, but now I know about it, I will contact him to rectify the matter as soon as possible.
“Like any company that deals with other businesses and members of the public, we are only as good as our name, so there would be no incentive for us to spoil that good name by being unfair to clients.”
Comments(2)
BMGBAD
says...
5:14pm Fri 25 May 12
exBMGx says...
1:19pm Wed 23 May 12
he never paid any staff or sacked them and refused to pay them. he did however pay himself a wage every month and spend advertisers money funding his tuxedo hire and night out on the town etc etc while staff were left to worry about their mortgages to pay and mouths to feed.. as for the BMG spokesperson claiming there had been no complaints haha... i could supply clients who complained 6 months ago and mr watson refused point blank to refund. he has left all his staff and clients high and dry and still walks the streets of halliwell smiling . the man is a parasite and he deserves everything that is coming to him