CNetwork.tv Advertising

Originally Posted by Toysgamesgadgets

“Has anyone had any dealings with these guys? I'm just about to start a 2 year advertising campaign with them.

I've paid £520 exc vat per year for 2 yrs, to have a animated advert on the post office screen in Crownhill plymouth to advertise my website. There is also a charge of £135 exc vat that takes into account 4 design changes per year. Good for me with Summer Xmas and big promo's etc!

My deal is that i get 60 sec's of advertising every 10 mins for 2 yrs. I can also change locations but i think there is an admin fee for this! They also spread the cost by direct debit which i suppose is good. I will also get first refusal on the ad space at the end of my advertising contract.

I will keep everyone posted as i think this in theory could work out to be a good method of getting your business advertised, plus it's quite cheap compared to some newspaper ads and way better than trudging miles putting leaflets through letter boxes!

Anyone else's views on this company would be most appreciated!! Just don't tell me they are a load of crooks!!! ”

We've just had a cold call from this company, the salesman has been today and I'm actually getting worried now that this company are crooks!

He told me that he could do me a deal of 40 sec screen time for £16.00 p/w forgetting to mention VAT, so it's £832 per annum plus £139.exc VAT for yearly artwork I've paid by debit card today £249.60 with the same amount in 30 days with 23 months of direct debit of £16.00p/m ex VAT.

I've started reading that the company are linked to hong kong and are not seen as trustworthy.

I phoned my bank to cancel transaction but I'm not getting much joy there as the bank are saying I should not of given my card details to anyone.

I phoned the company and they are saying that the salesman will call me and as yet nothing...I'm getting really worried now-I may contact watchdog as I really do think this company are scammers!!

If anyone has had a good experience that might give me a little bit of faith right now!!!

What shall I do??? Also on the contract is NO VAT NUMBER!!

help please....

Cancel the bank card as lost. They can't then take anything from it as your new card will have a new card number that they won't know.

And you can report them to HMRC customs & excise department and check if they are vat reg or not.

Looking at the amount of time this company has been trading, I doubt you can call them crooks, but it sounds like they have a good sales team. 

If I've said it once over the years... but I'll say it again. Never ever agree to anything or buy a product from a cold call. It doesn't mean a product or service is bad, but pressure selling is a technique as old as the hills, and any special offer that's been promised, will still be available after you have put the phone down 

If it's not, you've had a close escape!

If you think a product or service is of interest, get as much info as you want, be polite, and tell them you will get in touch if interested. Then spend 5 minutes on Google and do some research. You normally only need 5 minutes to work out if a company is worth doing business with.

If they give you the full hard sell and won't let you disengage from the conversation, just put the phone down and move on.

I know that doesn't help you mapps, but some good advice from Indizine ref the credit card if you are genuinely concerned. Make sure you give the company a chance to respond as well, how long before you asked them to get in touch?

Be interested to know how they do respond, but you must be careful jumping to conclusions and accusing companies of being scammers, when you've only just decided to subscribe to their services. 

Let us know how you get on.

I signed up with this company last year for 2 sites at Doctors surgeries, the sales pitch was good and the ideal itself is good but in reality its a waste of money.  Currently I'm trying to get out of my contract or reduce it to 1 year.  It took them 9 months from signing up to getting the TV installed.  There is a fixed frame around the advert, so in effect the screen/advert is reduced and therefore the impact is not as visually appealing, as a 32 inch tv is showing a 28 inch advert. The TVs are at least 5-10 meters away from sitting area. These tvs in the doctors surgeries are not in an ideal location as well.  I feel it is a bit of a scam and their customer service is appalling too.  I regret going ahead with this.

I hope I'm not too late but don't do it!!  If you do make sure you thoroughly read and understand the small print especially the parts about the 'rolling contract' and cancellation!

A Community Network TV agent called to me and persuaded me to sign up for one year of this rolling TV advert in my local Tax office. He gave me a special deal and assuered me that after one year I could renwe if I wa happy. He showed me where to sign and dismissed all of the contract as "just the usual stuff". Both my colleague and I was there and thought it would be a good idea. One month later I checked and there was no advert. Next I find that the office that is supposed to shoe my advert is closed so I get a letter telling me that my advert has moved to a local private hospital. I checked twice in the past week and there is no sign of any ads for anyone in the public area of the hospital. Now I have been billed for a second year and told that I had signed up for this. I have been threatened with debt collectors. I plan to fight back and am going to try to get on a national radio talk show to highlight this.

My advice to anyone being apporached by advertising sales people offering TV based ads from this company is think hard, very hard.