Medlock Valley Orchids

[moorish47]

hi i not talking about plants which have been pre-ordered,i ordered 5 pleione albiflora from stuart,he sent 3 of the bulbs out but has not sent the other 2 out as yet.i have sent emails to stuart at the address maren listed but have had no response.so stuart if you reading any of these comments please get in touch as i find it most frustrating when people do not respond.i cannot even log into your site as it says no such username or email address.i am going to email him one last time to see if i get a response.derek

[moorish47]

hi ,has anybodys had problems with the email maren published on the forum to contact stuart at medlock in which she quoted i got a reply within a few minutes.i tried with no success once again. what is the problem with stuart at medlock i just dont know why he refuses to answer my emails.he will not allow me to log into my account it just says sorry no match for that email or password which i been using for very long time until the past few weeks.seems he just wants to bury his head in the sand & forget about his customers.derek

[Alex]

Hi Derek,

I'm afraid that everything I've read on this thread and elsewhere seems to confirm that...but to be more optimistic, some people do eventually get their plants after complaining, often to their surprise!

Alex

[Erwinia]

Hi, I feel like an invader when my first post in this great forum is on such an unpleasant topic. I'm sorry for that. I've noticed this thread only after I had placed an order with this enterprise ,so I am very grateful for all the information I found here. Doesn't make me feel better. A parcel is supposed to be on the way to me for 10 days now...
I have contacted two of the sources MVO is advertising to sell plants of. I've got bad news for those who are waiting for a shipment from China to arrive in the UK. Hengduan Mts. wrote me that they have not sold any Cyps to Medlock Valley orchids. They didn't know their plants were advertised there.
Can anyone confirm that plants he has received from Medlock Valley orchids are true to name?

regards, Carsten

[Steve Garvie]

Hi, I feel like an invader when my first post in this great forum is on such an unpleasant topic. I'm sorry for that. I've noticed this thread only after I had placed an order with this enterprise ,so I am very grateful for all the information I found here. Doesn't make me feel better. A parcel is supposed to be on the way to me for 10 days now...
I have contacted two of the sources MVO is advertising to sell plants of. I've got bad news for those who are waiting for a shipment from China to arrive in the UK. Hengduan Mts. wrote me that they have not sold any Cyps to Medlock Valley orchids. They didn't know their plants were advertised there.
Can anyone confirm that plants he has received from Medlock Valley orchids are true to name?

regards, Carsten

Did you ever receive your plants?

My email inbox is full of invitations from Medlock inviting me to partake of special offers!
I'm still waiting for a Cypripedium plectochilon that I ordered last September.

The only special offer that Medlock have delivered was of the buy one, get NONE type!

[moorish47]

hi steve,i managed to get my remaining pleione bulbs from medlock but these came direct from germany & not from medlock.my problem now is i pre ordered one of the rare cypripediums from holger for delivery in april.i have already paid over £90 deposit the remainder to be paid at a later date.i presume others have done the same i only hope the plants will be delivered & i only hope i dont have to go through all the problems again. .i am unable to log into my account at medlock it says no email address or password exits,yet he has just sent me 2 emails saying he is giving discount on orders on sunday gone.it seems my account has been blocked maybe because i have been complaining about medlock on this site.derek

[Erwinia]

Derek, see my post above. It is unlikely that he has Cyps from Holger since he hasn't ordered any. My advice would be to try get your money back asap. Glad to hear you've gotten your Pleiones, at least.
I've opened a case with Paypal and I hope to get out of this without being hurt. I've received four emails from Stuart Pointon after the case was opened, announcing that parcels were send (never arrived), tracking numbers provided (never happened), replacement parcels send (if I was the Royal Mail I've felt pretty much offended if I was accused of loosing that many parcels every week) plus special offers every time. None of these mails adressed any of my questions or requests I'd made to him.

[Maren]

Erwinia,

seems I have fallen prey to this impostor, too. After all I've done to present a balanced picture to save his reputation, I feel absolutely gutted and taken for a ride.

I ordered and paid for 2 x Cypripedium plectrochilum, total £84.99 and am still waiting; lots of promises and excuses and no delivery. I checked with the Perners and no order had been received. No wonder he can't deliver.

I have now reported this to Paypal. Of course, the Paypal time limit for complaints has long been exceeded, but they still want to know in case they need to protect other customers. I wish they did.  Paypal are going to extend the time limit for complaints to 6 months, but not until July 2014.

So what are we to do? how can we get redress from this fraudster?

[ashley]

Small claims court?
Police???

[Steve Garvie]

Maren I am sorry that you have had problems though I'm not at all surprised. As Carsten (Erwinia) posted earlier this guy did not have an order with Holger Perner.

I sent Medlock V.A.  a strongly worded email about 3 weeks ago as they (he) mis-sold me a Pln albiflora sending me a humilis instead. I also still had a Cyp plectrochilum outstanding. He replied as if he was the injured party stating that there was no need to come in heavy or to make threats as he was more than happy to deal with any customer relations issues! He explained there would be a few days delay in sending the Cyp as he was in Eire due to family illness. The Cyp was duly sent but was delayed by the Easter bank holiday weekend -on arrival it was clearly well into growth and had turned to mush in the post. Stuart also promised to refund the £125 cost of the Pln. albiflora .........I am still waiting!
Interestingly he told me that he could not understand how I had received a humilis rather than albiflora and blamed his supplier -Christian Schreiner for this mix-up. I'm sure Hr. Schreiner will be very unhappy to hear that he is being blamed for MVO's crooked dealings.

[Tim Harberd]

Perhaps the organisers of these plant fairs

http://www.flowerpowerfairs.co.uk/

Would be kind enough to tell an enquirer which ones MVO are booked into… (If indeed they are actually booked into any!) That would give the opportunity for a face to face discussion with the outfit!!!

Tim DH

[Graeme]

So what are we to do? how can we get redress from this fraudster?

Maren - if you actually have an address for this person then everyone who has paid for plants that have not been delivered need to write or send to the County Council where he lives Trading Standards Department - if there is a sufficient number of complaints and it can be shown that he is taking money and not supplying goods then they will take action against him.  So if you have a home address for this guy - look which County Council area he is in and send it to trading standards - if you can co-ordinate everyone on here to do this the more the better - they will need documentation
Also it may also be worth reporting him to HMRC as well because if he is fraudulently charging people and not supplying goods you can be damn sure he is not declaring the 'income' he is receiving for tax purposes.  http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/tax-evasion/hotline.htm
He won't want a visit from either of these agencies - he will be rotating paypal accounts and websites so he does not go over around £4,000 in income transactions to stay under the radar - if you can compile a list of websites & e-mail addresses he has used they will be interested in these

[Maren]

Hi Graeme,

the address given on the website is:

Medlock Valley Orchids
26 Derbyshire Road
Clayton Bridge
Manchester
M40 1QN
07847819817

I shall contact the Manchester County Council Trading Standards Department and see what they say.

[Maren]

This morning I contacted Manchester County Council Trading Standards Department, which referred me to their Citizens' Advice site for making a complaint. This has been done.

It looks to me that one has to make a separate complaint for each instance with a different date. Since I have not had deliveries for Cypripedium plectrochilum paid for on two different orders, I shall have to raise another complaint.

I'll let you know what transpires.

[Graeme]

Maren

can you post a link to the website page they pointed you to as this will help other people who have been defrauded

thanks