Cooper craft - Cautionary notes for customers - Its fate and thoughts on an alternative

[Andy Y]

For now, I am going to put this topic on hold.

 

Hopefully he will get a grip and start resolving all outstanding complaints.

 

If anything fresh comes to light please get in touch via PM. I'm off to see if we can get some 'I've been Dunn' souvenir T-shirts.

[TheTurfBurner]

Andy has opened this thread for one post only so I can give an update.

I contacted Citizens Advice on 30 January asking if they could obtain an update from Trading Standards regarding what action, if any, Trading Standards had taken against Dunn. Citizens Advice replied they were unable to give any information due to Trading Standards “protocols” and if I wanted to know what was happening, I had to make a Freedom of Information application to Somerset Council. As I found this utterly bizarre, I decided to ask Jessica Gorst-Williams, My Money Editor of The Daily Telegraph to use her influence to have Cooper-Craft’s WordPay facility withdrawn, and/or have the web site shut down.

I had a telephone call from Ms Gorst-Williams this evening. She contacted Dunn by telephone and he has agreed to repay me at the sum of £10 per week. Ms Gorst-Williams commented she found Dunn to be very unsophisticated. He also seemed utterly unaware of his situation (despite my ‘phone calls, e-mails, letters and Court papers) and has his head firmly buried in the sand.

It appears he has virtually no assets and is solely dependent on income from Cooper-Craft.

It remains to be seen if I will receive anything. However, it is clear that the chances for full recovery are very slim – as are the chances for anybody else receiving anything from this man. Also, there would appear to be no prospect for Cooper-Craft getting back to business, and probably no chance of its assets (such as they are) being sold to anybody interested in reviving the brand.

Ms Gorst-Williams did not contact WorldPay or Sinclaire Knight (his web site provider), so the web site remains up and can still take money. However, from what I have been told by Ms Gorst-Williams, it is doubtful Dunn knows how to close his WorldPay account or kill his web site. Hopefully, the comments on RM Web and Trust Pilot will prevent others parting with money they will probably never see again.

[Bucoops]

Good luck and thanks for the update

[TheTurfBurner]

I asked RMWeb to reopen to Cooper-Craft thread so I could post an update, and this will be my last update as there is nothing more to say.

Needless to say, despite his promise to Ms Gorst-Williams, I have received not a penny from Dunn. Nor has he made any effort to contact me although, as I agreed with Ms Gorst-Williams, I am willing to vary the terms of repayment if it would help his financial situation. However, if Dunn will not contact me, I can only assume he is not a man of his word and take what action I can for recovery.

Ms Gorst-Williams has been advised of the situation.

I wrote to the Financial Ombudsman about WorldPay and their inaction in closing Dunn’s WorldPay account, although he is clearly in breach of WorldPay’s Terms & Conditions. The Financial Ombudsman replied that, as I am not a WorldPay customer, they cannot take any action. Once again, an official body established to protect consumer rights proves utterly worthless in the face of a rogue.

On another RMWeb thread, I discovered Scalefour had a link from their site to the Cooper-Craft web site. I contacted Scalefour and they kindly agreed to remove this link – which they have done. My thanks to Scalefour for that.

However, I saw from the Scalefour site that Cooper-Craft was attending Scalefour North in Wakefield on 14-15 April. Accordingly, I advised Scalefour North I was instructing the Somerset Bailiffs to ask their colleagues in Wakefield to attend the Scalefour North event and demand my money from Dunn. I see the Cooper-Craft name has now been struck through on the Scalefour North site. One very tiny victory and the Bailiffs have been advised.

As has been clear for some time, Dunn is utterly untrustworthy. The only step left to me is the employment of a debt collection agency. I WILL get something back from this man. Although much less than I am owed. A web search has found an agency who act on a “no win – no fee” basis, so they have an incentive to “pester” Dunn until something is paid.

However, before that, I am writing to the Editor of his local newspaper – the Somerset County Gazette – and will tell him my sorry tale. The people of Somerset probably already know all about Dunn, but having a reporter camped on his doorstep will hardly be good for business.

At no time have I sought to put Dunn out of business. But his failure to do the right thing by his customers together with a broken promise to Ms Gorst-Williams gives me little option but to seriously hurt his ability to trade. He has no one to blame but himself.

Please do not respond to this post as I am signing out of RMWeb after I have posted this message and will not see your reply.

Best regards and thanks for your past support.

[Andy Y]

JZ has been in touch to say he's noted the following has been added to the web page.

 

 

 

A replacement machine has come and hoping to start production for the Cooper Craft, Mailcoach & Kirk LNER in the near future.

 

He's also off to Wells show to see if he can pin him down with any useful information.

 

Good luck with that one then!

[Andy Y]

Some snippets from a few members about Cooper Craft at Wells show.

 

 

 

New machine not working correctly evidently. He says he is waiting for an engineer to fix it as he has 6 months warranty on it. Then he says he will start test mouldings in a few days. Unfortunately for him, his stand was in a corridor, so everyone passing could hear the conversation, which may not have done his sales much good. Then he started quoting how much he had spent on the new machine, that varied between £15k and £30k. Not giving up, I pressed on the point that over the last three years I had spoken on the phone on at least 4 occasions  and been given this ###### before. Finally he suggested that I might be interested in something else from the stand and I walked away with an etched coach to the value of what was owed.

 

 

 

Paul was there, with quite a lot of etchings and plastic wagon bodies. The only method of payment he would accept was cash. I didn't speak to him myself, but he is still operating. Not sure if this is any use to anyone, but money was certainly changing hands there! 

 

 

Paul Dunn was there and l asked how things were. I didn't want to get into other folk's gripes as l have no issues with him. His new machine has a few things which are being resolved it would seem. Regarding stock l saw that he had a good new supply of all sorts of bags of Coopercraft wagon body parts at £3 (IIRC) which looked encouraging. His etched 'Blacksmith' range is quite extensive and available but no castings as the moulds are worn out. They at least are available as a good basis for those of us who like building stuff

 

It does look like he's getting his act together, albeit slowly. My worry was that all the vitriol could've had a negative effect and force him out of business with the threats or advice of legal action in the same way as a small number of individuals on here did with 'Falcon Brass'. lt seems that there are fewer and fewer cottage industries in our hobby that are surviving and l would be sad to see him bite the dust.

 

Regarding contacting him he said that the phone would always be the best way. I don't think that he's very computer savvy.

 

Thanks to those who've been in touch with the latest information!

[Phil Parker]

A little update. Yesterday, I received a package from the new owner.