Mother's Basement

[Frank Jaeger]

Hmm that is strange. I'll let you know tomorrow

 

[Gasdoc]

They invoiced me via Paypal, so there goes your S75 protection. It's been three months on Wednesday so well out of Paypal's terms of 45 days.

Ah ok. Understand now. I paid directly so it seems the bank is perfectly happy with that. You never know though. Knowing banks there will be lots of trying to get out of it if possible lol


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[nemo]

Not scammed by mother's basement, but I was by Comix_Bazar on eBay. I paid with my barclaycard linked to my paypal account. Barclaycard sent me the forms and about 10 days later informed me that they could not refund me as their agreement was with paypal which had been fulfilled. PayPal were useless as the 45 day window was up. I complained to Barclaycard about the entire situation. They gave me £50 as a token of good will. Shocking the lack of protection offered on preorders and I really hope you guys get some recompense here.


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[Gasdoc]

Yeah paypal and google pay are seen as electronic money providers thereby bypassing the section 75 protection. As far as barclaycard was concerned (conveniently) the transaction was for cash to paypal not the seller!!!


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[Collectorcol]

Not scammed by mother's basement, but I was by Comix_Bazar on eBay. I paid with my barclaycard linked to my paypal account. Barclaycard sent me the forms and about 10 days later informed me that they could not refund me as their agreement was with paypal which had been fulfilled. PayPal were useless as the 45 day window was up. I complained to Barclaycard about the entire situation. They gave me £50 as a token of good will. Shocking the lack of protection offered on preorders and I really hope you guys get some recompense here.


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Quite simple really, never pay in full for a pre-order. If the company want full payment move on.
10% should be a sufficient deposit to secure any order.

 

[nemo]

Lesson learnt the hard way. Hopefully fraudsters like this will pay the consequences of their actions at some point!


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[Captain Hindsight]

This article is dated 09/01/13, at the end of their first year of trading they are predicting a £350,000 turnover!! And hoping to double that I assume it goes on to say. I assume their outgoings were more than that or they've retired to sunnier climes.

https://www.thebusinessdesk.com/wes...-no-fantasy-for-action-figures-business.html#

 

[Minimodel]

It may be worth thinking about that also if all the 1/6 threads are to be believed the lady who owns/owned this site is an ex-police fraud officer ?

She was.With Staffordshire Constabulary.They met through a dating site.How sweet.

 

[Wheels]

It's really bad that people had to get messed about and lose money. They were alright to begin with, and wonder if things just went south or was intentional. The changing of the business on the 10 is very ? They knew then. I do feel sorry for Mark he was helpful , and people who have lost money and jobs.

 

[darthman]

Quite simple really, never pay in full for a pre-order. If the company want full payment move on.
10% should be a sufficient deposit to secure any order.

I'm wondering about this. I just read paypals buyer protection t&c and it states that items that have been paid in multiple payments - I.e a deposit, are excluded from buyer protection. Bit annoying if so because that suggests although I'm within the timeline, I have stitched myself up for the sake of a £6.50 deposit.

We shall see.

 

[ditch]

I am sorry to hear about any one losing there business but a lot more so for the customers who lose any money.

This was coming the rest of us who retail knew it was coming. Mothers Basement were trying to compete with well esatablished businesses and it was not possible to sell at the same sort of price point and make enough profit.

Hell i've been doing this for 20 years i have seen these guys come and go and im still going because i use legitimate UK distributors,i don't make promises i can not keep and i stick with realistic prices.The worst thing that MB did was make excuses and blame others.

 

[davidw]

Don't know if any here is aware but there is a Facebook group, Mothers Basement Has My Money been setup now and is full of horror stories similar to here including a right gem - a voicemail from Liam with some very 'choice' language ha

https://www.facebook.com/groups/mothersbasementhasmymoney/

 

[Collectorcol]

It's really bad that people had to get messed about and lose money. They were alright to begin with, and wonder if things just went south or was intentional. The changing of the business on the 10 is very ? They knew then. I do feel sorry for Mark he was helpful , and people who have lost money and jobs.

Who's Mark?
I hope you're not suggesting pity for the owners of MB?

 

[El-Vi-Riachi]

Phew, man I am really lucky, my Tony Stark Workshop only arrived a couple of weeks ago, plus the pre-orders I made was when they did that special at Christmas that required no deposit. I had most my pre-orders with ForbiddenPlanet.com and decided to move them to MB as they were cheaper and postage was free. I hate paying deposits for this reason and tbh, even if it costs slightly more than elsewhere ALL my future orders/pre-orders are going with Forbidden Planet.

Luckily I re-ordered with Forbidden Planet and that's where they will stay from now on. I am not going to brand all the smaller retailers the same, but after the Mothersbasement fiasco I am not ordering with companies that require deposits again, too much risk to the customer imo. I understand why to take deposits to secure orders but in this day and age I would rather pay a little more, pay no deposit with no risk and get the item, rather than pay a deposit and run the risk of something like this happening. No company is immune from financial problems or going under and from now on I will be shopping with a company that bears the least financial risk to me.

Looks like my cautious nature has paid off, was wise to be cautious it seems, not been in the collecting game long, I've always disliked paying deposits or in full almost a year before an item even comes to our shores. A lot can happen in a year.

I was a bit paranoid after recent events, so I wanted the extra protection that Amazon affords. Are discontoys OK?

I can vouch for Discontoys, spent well over £1000 with them when I first got into the collecting game and was paying catch up. Dave takes no pre-orders to avoid disappointment, its first come first served. I live close to to him so have arranged to pick items up to save on postage. He is a really friendly guy sat and had a cuppa and a chat in the past when I went to pick items up.

If you missed the pre-order boat and really want a figure can not think of a better place to order from.

 

[V8_Club]

It's not the deposit policy that's in question. Its the intent and basic business ethics. BBTS, Amazon, HLJ , Amiami don't take a deposit for almost all items and only charge once in stock. Sideshow require a small deposit for only some items which is well within reason. The basic fact is as I see it MBs owners were not able to do the math correctly and instead of coming clean or revisiting their business strategy, took the easier dishonest route to try and get as much money back. The message on the FB page tells me just that. Let the banks give you back the money and you will be fine. Typical Criminals.

 

[El-Vi-Riachi]

It's not the deposit policy that's in question. Its the intent and basic business ethics. BBTS, Amazon, HLJ , Amiami don't take a deposit for almost all items and only charge once in stock. Sideshow require a small deposit for only some items which is well within reason. The basic fact is as I see it MBs owners were not able to do the math correctly and instead of coming clean or revisiting their business strategy, took the easier dishonest route to try and get as much money back. The message on the FB page tells me just that. Let the banks give you back the money and you will be fine. Typical Criminals.

Well from my perspective, as I am quite new to this, only a couple of years collecting and in that time I've seen two high profile companies go bust (Modelzone, and now MB) and I have had to re-shift my pre-orders sometimes paying more than I originally ordered for. So to me personally deposits are an issue as it means my money going towards something that will not come for a year or more and in some instances it involves multiple orders so it all adds up, £30 here £60 there and before you know it you have paid almost £200 and no sign of the item and hardly protection for the customer in situations like this.

It's bad enough UK collectors buying from UK suppliers have to wait for an age, now we have to content with instability with UK retailers. Who's to say another won't go within a year? End of the day I don't know the full story with MB and I would not assume to know every detail. All i know is I would be pissed too if I lost money and no item to show for it, I was simply commenting on my game plan from now on so I don't ever experience losing money like the other poor souls that had loads pre-ordered with them.

Now if deposits were a small amount like £5 then perhaps I would be a little more inclined to risk it in small amounts of pre-orders. Still would hate to lose money but if I have only 3 or 4 orders it would only be like £20 which I could live with if there was no chance of getting it back under these circumstances. This is just my opinion and the risks I am not willing to take for this hobby.

This past year has left a really bad taste in my mouth with stuff like this seeming more and more common place.

 

[V8_Club]

That's a fair view. I respect your opinion. Rightly said unless we study the financials of these companies we are in the dark of their true financial position. With the rising prices of collectibles the companies could also make the same argument on customers canceling and static stock etc. Either way , this is a dark start to 2014 for many of our fellow collectors.

 

[El-Vi-Riachi]

That's a fair view. I respect your opinion. Rightly said unless we study the financials of these companies we are in the dark of their true financial position. With the rising prices of collectibles the companies could also make the same argument on customers canceling and static stock etc. Either way , this is a dark start to 2014 for many of our fellow collectors.

I have to agree, this can only hurt UK collectors and retailers/suppliers, not because it has lost another retailer but due to the fact its going to throw the UK consumer base into panic and distrust. Clearly because I feel it, I find myself looking at places like OSB or ToyHQ and while I am sure they are great companies I find myself looking at the items and thinking "well what if I order it and they go bust?". Don't get me wrong I have ordered 3 items from ToyHQ and was very happy but such a high profile incident like this is going to make a lot of consumer wary and that's only going to hurt other smaller retailers imo.

Already I have seen a lot of posts on Facebook and forums asking if company A or company B is any good/reliable. Very dark start to 2014 indeed. If things carry on like this and more go under I may have to call it a day on this hobby as I don't like the idea of ordering from China and as for Sideshow the import fee's are a killer and works out sometimes more than buying from the UK, really wish Sideshow would open a Europe branch the demand is obviously there, least there would be little to no import fee's then.

Feel for all you guys that's lost money, and my all my best, hope you get it back.

 

[Lord Turel]

Don't know if any here is aware but there is a Facebook group, Mothers Basement Has My Money been setup now and is full of horror stories similar to here including a right gem - a voicemail from Liam with some very 'choice' language ha

https://www.facebook.com/groups/mothersbasementhasmymoney/

happy to see that pop up here, I am the guy who runs the group

 

[El-Vi-Riachi]

Something interesting to note too, the website is still there just the front end that's missing and showing that message. I was able to log onto my account and view my pre-orders. It's weird as when other companies have gone under/into administration the website vanishes completely. Are they really in administration or have they just decided to call it a day? One would assume hosting the website costs money.