 Help needed urgently - Sportizus / Famous Retail
Dear all,
This probably isn't the place to ask about this but I really didn't know where else to turn. I know there are some very clued up people around here so I'm hoping that there'll be someone there who can help me.
In 2003 I bought a signed Gold Vinyl disc of the "Live Peace In Toronto" album signed by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. It cost £2900 from a memorobilia store called Sportizus in Cheltenham and although my boyfriend is a big Beatles fan, we did at the end of the day buy it as a bit of an investment.
I'm 8 months pregnant now, just gone on maternity leave and thought I'd see if the value had increased any. If it had, I would think about selling it. So, I contacted a couple of Beatles experts who came back to tell me that the autographs are NOT AUTHENTIC. I just can't believe it. It's not only the money but the fact I've been looking at it on the wall for the last 3 yrs thinking wow John Lennon signed that ...and he didn't!
Anyway, one of the people I contacted told me that Sportizus were in administration. I then found out that they had been taken over 2 months ago by "Famous Retail Ltd".
Famous Retail Ltd tell me that the assets and NOT the liabilities were acquired by themselves and so that it is difficult for them to comment on authenticity issues. They say they will contact the leading Beatles Memorobilia expert (this is tracks.co.uk who also said my piece is not authentic) and they will get Tracks to check all the items that Famous Retail acquired from the administrators. They are also willing to contact the administrators on my behalf to see if they are able to assist me. This is all in a letter from their CEO to me. At the end he says "Perhaps you could advise me if this is an appropriate way for me to help progress your enquiry."
So, it sounds like they don't want to take any of the responsibility whatsoever.
Well, quite frankly it's not good enough, I want my money back!
Someone told me that they thought the company were honouring mistakes that Sportizus had made but onbiously not in my case ...so far anyway.
Does anybody out there know what I should do? ...or anyone I could contact for advise? Should I try to get money out of the administrators? out of Famous Retail? ....do you think I have a leg to stand on?
Failing all that, I thought about contacting Watchdog because I think Nicky Campbell is a Beatles fan, so maybe he'd be interested in pursuing this for me.
Any help would be really appreciated
Thanks everyone for your time in reading this ...as I said, I had no idea where else to go.
Jackie | 
