Bolton #7

grapegro · Dec 27, 2016

Hello Albert,
Ben and his wife seem very good people, good to deal with and appear honest. Have you contacted Ben with the whole story and get his answer? Seems he would have responsibility to at least help in your case. Ask him if he is committed to previous orders. Good luck.
Norm

AlbertdeWitte · Dec 30, 2016

Guys

Like I said before, Ben is fully aware and not able to assist, He did speak to Kelly that what I know.

Thanks

Cogsy · Dec 30, 2016

Have you gone back to Ben now that Kelly has failed to refund you? I'd be contacting consumer affairs again http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/ft...ontact_us.page if he won't help. If the new owner does not support you I will certainly never be purchasing from him and I'll make aware anyone considering a purchase of this conduct. We're a fairly small and tight-knit community so I don't think the business will last long if word gets around of poor business practices like this.

XD351 · Dec 30, 2016

I think Ben is as much a victim as Albert and it wouldn't surprise me if there are more people that have been ripped off.
I doubt that Ben would have been told of the outstanding orders and may not have them in stock anyhow.
I ordered a book in late November 2015 and it took many emails and phone calls to to the previous owner to finally get what i ordered and about 4 months waiting time .
I purchased a casting set for a flat twin two stroke from them about two years ago and ended up pegging most of it in the bin , worst castings i have ever seen but they were old stock from the original owner who sold the business to kelly .
Consumer affairs should sort it out as they can possibly hunt down the previous owner and look at getting your money back or at least point you in the right direction .
I have recently ordered some materials from Ben and it landed on my doorstep inside a week and considering he was still sorting through boxes of stuff to see what he had in stock i think that was a pretty good effort.

Cogsy · Dec 30, 2016

XD351 said:
I think Ben is as much a victim as Albert and it wouldn't surprise me if there are more people that have been ripped off.
I doubt that Ben would have been told of the outstanding orders and may not have them in stock anyhow.

From the sounds of it I highly doubt he would have been told of outstanding orders but when you buy a business you take on the warranties and outstanding orders and you have to honour them. I've looked at his website and it makes a big deal about the long history of the business and it's integrity. If you're going to trade based on reputation you have to uphold it.

I feel for Ben if he got stung on the purchase but he has to follow the law, and good business practice, and either honour the purchase or refund the money. Then of course he's free to pursue the previous owner through a civil action for recovery of his costs (something which is virtually impossible for Albert to do from overseas but simple and inexpensive for Ben).

It's a good measure of a business by how it deals with difficult situations rather than 'normal' transactions.

Jasonb · Dec 30, 2016

It would be interesting to know if Ben is actually running it as a new company, I see the name is now "EJ Winter - Bolton Steam Models" which was not what it was called before the changeover in which case you are not dealing with the same company and they may have no legal obligation to honour old orders.