Hello all,

Didn't really know where to post this thread, but i thought i should start somewhere....

Anyone been scammed by these bloodsucking vampires?

My mum has just been scammed out of a hundred punds, and need some help complaining and getting her money back or reporting to this and taking legal action.

If anyone can help and has had a similar exerience, please post and help me.

Thank you very much

x

Hi,

I would recommend getting in contact with Consumer Direct for advice.

Check out Consumer Direct

Hope it helps and your Mum gets her money back!

-Nadeem

Just received a phone call from Sapphire stating that I had won a competition for a free makeover in London for myself and one guest. Included full makeover & wine. All of this free of charge but you had to give a deposit of £99 to show your commitment to attend. You were promised this back once you turned up for your appointment. At this stage I made my excuses and hung up. As I explained to the woman on the phone 'If you win something then why are you expected to pay a deposit!'

On checking out this company on the internet I was right to give this a miss.

Thanks for posting this. It was really helpful.

I wish your mum looking getting her money back.

This '[problem]' has been going on for many years by the sounds of it.

A friends teenage daughter got caught up in this about 5 or 6 years ago and ended up with a final bill of just short of £600, just for a few photos. Unfortunately, the girl and her friend didn't really look into what it was all about and just took a trip into London by themselves, expecting their free make-over and photos. At the end they had to do a runner because of the pressure they were under to pay the extortionate amount and although I don't remember what happened inbetween times, I do know that they never paid a penny because they argued that they hadn't gone home with any photos.

It all sounded too good to be true and I am always very sceptical. As soon as they requested a deposit I declined. Hopefully others will google this company before committing themselves to this con. Thanks for your feedback.

This '[problem]' has been going on for many years by the sounds of it.

 

A friends teenage daughter got caught up in this about 5 or 6 years ago and ended up with a final bill of just short of £600, just for a few photos. Unfortunately, the girl and her friend didn't really look into what it was all about and just took a trip into London by themselves, expecting their free make-over and photos. At the end they had to do a runner because of the pressure they were under to pay the extortionate amount and although I don't remember what happened inbetween times, I do know that they never paid a penny because they argued that they hadn't gone home with any photos.

My friend and I were also taken in by this [problem] - I wish I had of researched them before going. We paid a deposit of £99.98 as was told on the phone that the photos start from £50 each and that if we didn't have a photo we could have our deposit back or put it towards a picture. Little did we know that after the shoot had taken place we would be taken in to a viewing room, shown 84 photos and completely pressured in to purchasing photos on a disk. When we asked the price we were told it was £80 + VAT for ONE photo on a CD, when I said that was expensive, I was faced with "well thats what you expect to pay in Central London" to which I replied "well we had no choice of your location, we were told this was a free experience and could have a photo if we forfitted our deposit." This point the woman got quite snotty with us, accussing us of coming to the shoot with no budget, to which the reply was "well, we weren't informed your photos were £100 each and we were EXPECTED to buy!"

In the end we managed to get 5 photos for the price of 2. Then she tried to pressure us in to taking finance out for 12 months to purchase all 84 photos - for which she said she could charge £1000 (£500 each.) Hmmmm...at £100 each, 84 photos should be £8,400 - a nice £7,400 discount. When asked to justify the MASSIVE drop she said it was because we were under 25 (even though I'm not!)

Complete [problem] - no consultation with the hair and makeup as promised - ushered in to the shoot and out again robotically, all they are interested in is getting the money out of you for the photos. I had to ask twice for my complimentary drink - I really did not think the "experience" was how it was portrayed it would be on their website.

They ask you to give 10 friends names and numbers for which you get an item of makeup (this is how we "won" the "experience". This is asked BEFORE you even have the shoot and definitely before you find out the prices!!!!!! STAY AWAY!

I wonder what sort of item of makeup you get for giving them the names of 10 other people they can try to [problem]? Expect it's more of a market stall lipstick than something by Chanel and probably worth all of 25p.

I have had the misfortune of seeing a couple of photos bought by someone who went on one of these photo shoots and the make up looked like it had been styled for a drag queen, and a rather tarty one at that! Obviously not applied by anyone who could claim to be a professional makeup artist.

These companies certainly do seem to give you an experience, but not the sort you would like to repeat.

I have just been called up to tell me I have won this makeover etc all fine until she mentioned the £49 deposit. Then the alarm bells started ringing in my head so firmly hung up. The worst part is I know that they will be about to call someone else who might actually end up going. Hopefully more people check this site or google them before going ahead.

Sapphire Studios is a TOTAL [problem]! What should I do?

I received a phone call from them & they said that I won professional makeover in their studio worth £300 and I'm allowed to bring guests with me who will enjoy the treatment for free also.

They said they needed a deposit to ensure that I come. I was stupid enough to give my card details to them and now they've charged me £199!!! How can this be? One person should be £49 deposit?

They ensured me that it is fully refundable but on their website it says that only £49-£99 is refundable on the day provided you completed the session.

Can people please give me advice on how to claim my money back please.

Did you pay by credit card or debit card? If it was a credit card then the credit card company may be able to help as you have far more rights than if you paid by a debit card. If it was a debit card, then it might be worth contacting your bank and explaining that money has been taken without your consent and ask if they can help at all. It might also be worth giving Sapphire a ring and asking them to justify why they have taken nearly £200 when you were told that it would only be £49 - no doubt they will give you a load of old bull, but stick to you guns and get the information you need.

I should imagine that there would also be some kind of distance selling regulation that would cover this, which would allow you a certain amount of time as a 'cooling off period' and that if you choose to cancel then you should get a full refund. I'm sorry that I don't know exactly what the regulation might be, but hopefully someone else will read this and will be able to give advice.

If they refuse point blank to give any refunds or even to discuss the matter then you can probably threaten them with court action to get the money back. Again, not my field of expertise, but there are other caggers who know how to claim for small amounts of money through the courts and how you can go about it, so I expect someone will be able to give you further information.

You may have a bit of a battle on your hands while this company tries to convince you that they have done nothing wrong, but you have had 4 times the amount of money taken that you were expecting and they should at least justify to you (in writing if you can) why they have done this.

Good luck.

There was a lady doing this down the local high street over the weekend, closely observed by a 'town centre surveillance man' who was approaching people who seemed to give a name to them. She asked me for mine and other interested parties and I said 'Met police...' she shot off.

This is a very long term style [problem], the phone calls are easily dealt with by me (and other members of my family, especially my dad, who has a 'Masters' in playing the 'doddery old man' on the phone and wasting their time... but other unsuspecting people do get sucked in.

The latest one on the phone was a holiday timeshare lot, "You entered a competiion and we have good news..." I don't enter competitions so I strung the guy along by not passing security...

Anyone receiving a call should see if they have a record of the number and name of the company and a recording if possible and immediately contact Trading Standards and the Office of Fair Trading.

Sapphire Studios is a TOTAL [problem]! What should I do?

 

I received a phone call from them & they said that I won professional makeover in their studio worth £300 and I'm allowed to bring guests with me who will enjoy the treatment for free also.

 

They said they needed a deposit to ensure that I come. I was stupid enough to give my card details to them and now they've charged me £199!!! How can this be? One person should be £49 deposit?

 

They ensured me that it is fully refundable but on their website it says that only £49-£99 is refundable on the day provided you completed the session.

 

Can people please give me advice on how to claim my money back please.

Did you get your money back? just gave them my details and i am soo worried..!! Answer pleaaase!

hello all,

didn't really know where to post this thread, but i thought i should start somewhere....

Anyone been [problem]med by these bloodsucking vampires?

My mum has just been [problem]med out of a hundred punds, and need some help complaining and getting her money back or reporting to this and taking legal action.

If anyone can help and has had a similar exerience, please post and help me.

Thank you very much

x

hi there,

yesterday i was contacted by saphire studios telling me about the wonderful offer i had won.

They seem to have had all my details, date of birth and so on.

They wanted me to put a refundable deposit of £49.99 and booked me in for a vip day .

But they called my mobile, there for i was able o check where the phone call was coming from, "not the uk" so that was enough for me to buy myself some time to search. It was from the philipines and when i tried to call the studio directly i was never able to through to them.

So further investigation took me to you here.

They are suppoused to call me back today to get my card details, but they will not have it. As from previous experience when you do "win" something you are sent a voucher and never have to pay.

Wonder how we can stop this [problem]. As i know there are a lot of more people ou there that are caught off guard and lose.

Please if anyone else knows about it, then... Let together do something to stop it.

I get coled called all the time telling us that we have won one competition or another. pretty simple at the end of the day to verify if its a [problem] as we didn't enter into any competition in the first place

Thanks.

The one thing that made me listen was that I did enter a competition not long before. Am turnnig 51 this year and last year on my 50th was not well so didnt get to make a photo record. But things started to be to good to be true and when they asked for the deposit I knew I had just waisted a few minutes of my life.

Never mind, live and learn, just hope someone else out there doesn't fall for it.

Thanks.

The one thing that made me listen was that I did enter a competition not long before. Am turnnig 51 this year and last year on my 50th was not well so didnt get to make a photo record. But things started to be to good to be true and when they asked for the deposit I knew I had just waisted a few minutes of my life.

Never mind, live and learn, just hope someone else out there doesn't fall for it.

Actually, any advice would be nice:

I too received the famous “you have won a fantastic photo shoot” call...

I never win anything and was pleasantly surprised with this, and stupidly fell for it, even though I’m not comfortable giving details over the phone, and we didn’t really have the money. We paid the £98.

We just recently had talked about this as we have a 6 month old and no family photos.

We rearranged due to the riots in London, and went only 3 weeks ago.

Anyway, it was a really nice day, and we thought well this is swell. I had been hoping to help my wife get into modelling so I took the opportunity and she looked so great!

Anyway, at the end we went to the room, and they showed us the 128photos they had taken and we started a selection process.

We got it down to 70 photos, and we couldn’t decide on anymore, so then he lays it on me that the photos were gonna cost £3800!!! I was like WHAT? (Shock, horror)

Obviously he could see that we were not comfortable, and said hang on: and he fiddled the numbers and reduced it to £2000.

We still shook our heads, and he reduced it to “the biggest discount he could give” to £1900. (this then minus the deposit and a payment of £80 we made at the end of the day reduced it to £1500)

I looked around and felt very under pressure as I knew I couldn’t leave London without some photos, but knew we couldn’t spend that much.

In my indecision, I could see him getting flustered and my kids were tired and one was crying, and we were there already an hour after closing. I was really feeling crappy.

He then “threw in” a canvas print, and he then said (in a flustered way I must admit) ok, you can have 2 CDs, one with all the prints and the other with the special selection of photos.

We kind of figured that all prices must be that high and we must be getting a deal.

Anyway we signed it all, went for the payment plan (next big mistake) and got out of there quick sharpish.

I’m feeling so depressed now and angry because now I have come to learn and realise that the photos are only for personal use (no good for modelling agencies). When I asked on the phone in the original sales call, if my wife could use these for modelling, and they said that all the photos were professional... and I didn’t ask anymore. Why do I allow people to get away with this?!

Anyway, I have tried to get out of the payment plan but they have delayed in answering me so that the time went over the 14 day “cool off” period.

Now I'm feeling really trapped and angry as they wont accept returns on photos, and I cant get out of anything.

Any advice for someone trying to do something nice for the missus and getting totally trapped and conned out of his witts?

Do I NOT cancel the payment plan and wait for the finance company to get pushy with us, or do I discontinue with the payment plan and play cat and mouse with Sapphire?

Help!?

Once you say that you want out of the payment plan, it should be taken from that date and not from the date that they took to reply. Have you received the photos yet? If not, then I should say that they don't have much of a leg to stand on and you could claim that you signed the payment plan under duress. I'm sure others will be able to confirm whether or not this is possible.

One option open to you is to contact your local Trading Standards and tell them what happened. You could explain that you feel misled by this company. They may refer you to the Trading Standards who are local to the photo studio but I think you need to do something, and you could well find that there are plenty of other complaints!

Today I received a call form Sapphire Studios and was told that I had won a pamper day in London. Lots of talk about what it all included. I asked several times that I am a busy person so would i be able to cancel and what time limit applied to the cancellation. I was told yes not a problem. I could cancel any time and the deposit was refundable but to secure the booking I had to pay a 'Refundable' deposit to ensure that i turned up on the day and didn't waste their time. Fine I thought, If I can cancel any time and went ahead with the booking. I then asked about their pricing structure at which point I was told there was no such thing and the prices were set according to individual customer budgets. That set the alarm bells off so I asked for the session to be cancelled and was told in no uncertain terms that it won't be cancelled and I would lose my deposit. Luckily I paid on my credit card and have contacted the bank who will dispute this on my behalf once the money is taken.You can't Trust a word they say. They only want your money. Give Sapphire Studios a WIDE BERTH as they will fleece you keep the appointment and fleece you if don't.

Hello all,

Didn't really know where to post this thread, but i thought i should start somewhere....

Anyone been [problem]med by these bloodsucking vampires?

My mum has just been [problem]med out of a hundred punds, and need some help complaining and getting her money back or reporting to this and taking legal action.

If anyone can help and has had a similar exerience, please post and help me.

Thank you very much

x

Unscrupulous profiteering no morals and underhand marketing

WARNING ALL POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS

A daughter of close friend of mine who has limited understanding of written English was telephoned recently, The company informed the 10 year old daughter she had won a competion!!!!!!!!!!! "never entered any such competotition"

free makeover,free photographic session,note the free element!

Mother then asked for £49.99 deposit,

Company then searched by myself and i have read the awful reviews about them.

cancel appointment and try to get re-imbursed deposit and informed the company policy states---------bla bla bla,

In a nutshell no refund unless you complete the complete sitting,make over ,photography,hard sell!!!!!!!!!!!!

My friend is a single mum with Three children

PLEASE PLEASE BE WARNED

do not deal with this company!

for your information a digital image on a 25 pence cd rom will set you back £45.00 plus VAT a veritable bargain in a resession dont you think?

Next stop; county court for a small claims form!

Thread has been moved to General Consumer Issues.

Hi everyone!

I've been a victim of this [problem] myself, the usual story.... last year before my birthday they've called me that I won this competition, so I thought let me treat myself and stupidly paid the deposit. After reading online about them, I've been trying to get my £50 deposit back but no luck! It's been a year now they have my money! They insist I have to go and complete the session to get my money back, but I work 7days/week and don't have time for this nonsense! Anyway, I've managed to make some time, I'm going there in 2 weeks. I'm ready to waste their time and money and walk off with my deposit! I'll let you know how it goes...

These guys are sneaky! Do not deal with them!

Be aware, SAPPHIRE STUDIOS HAS CHANGED THEIR NAME TO ORCHID STUDIOS!!!! They're trying to trick more people!

Please be aware: SAPPHIRE STUDIOS = ORCHID STUDIOS! Same location, same people, same scheme to rip off people!

Hi there

Just wondering if anyone has managed to get their money back from this company or if anyone has had the same problem with Orchid Studios?

Lizzie

Interesting thread. I'm a professional model and quite recently I applied for a casting for a photographic studio who wanted to update their website with new images to advertise their packages. The studio is Orchard Studios

Yesterday I had a missed call, no voicemail - so I googled the number & up popped this thread. Double checking the address on the Orchard website and the one listed for Sapphire on Google Map, they are the same place. Looks like Sapphire are trying to get rid of their bad image by changing their name! The Sapphire website no longer works.

I'm really sorry to hear about your bad experiences. Packages offered by companies like this are never a good deal and as someone mentioned, you can't use the images for a professional portfolio - only personal use. There are a lot more reputable photographers/studios that offer professional packages which allow you to keep all of the images taken on the day on a CD and often a certain amount of touched-up images both on CD and in print for your portfolio. And often if you want more touched-up than what is included in your package, it is only something like £10 extra per photo. And the prices are not that bad - certainly in the lower hundreds and not the thousands that someone else mentioned in this thread! Obviously most of you seem to have been conned into being a competition winner ... I have yet to encounter a 'free photoshoot/makeover' that is a good deal from companies like this. They will always charge you an arm and a leg for the end product. Beware!!

Sapphire Studios should be investigated and closed down. Typing their website alone their page doesnt come in the first line, they are either second or third. the first two are complaints about this "studio" ([problem]).

This is the consumer action group, isn't there anyone out there that can take action against them? trust me...I was at that place and they are very good "marketers". after they've done taking your money, they will laugh in your face.

Please, closed this skimming studio down, that's the only way our money will be safe (that's in the "contract").