D-D Photographics Sydney, Under new ownership, refusing to honour outstanding sales.

[Davi5678 (Dave)]

I have a camera and two lenses on order with D-D photograhics in Sydney, been waiting a month. Checked the website today and there is a banner claiming they are under new ownership. A google search reveals they are refusing to honour outstanding sales.
I'll contact my bank on Monday and request a chargeback.
I would have thought that if you purchase a business then you are also purchasing their sales contracts. Not sure how they can legally claim to not be responsible for outstanding contracts. If they are continuing to trade and still using the original website then that should amount to fraud.
Caveat Emptor!
Crossing my fingers the bank can get my money back.

[Baddad (Marty)]

Contact Office of Fair Trading. They will help. I have had a few issues with scamming companies and had success.

Cheers

[Davi5678 (Dave)]

I'll start making phone calls on Monday. I'm unemployed at the moment and have lots of time on my hands.

[MortonH]

So the message is saying that the owner up to 29/10/2013 was "DDP Australia Pty Ltd" but since then it is owned by "Discount Digital Pty Ltd". I guess if the original company has genuinely gone bust then the new one isn't necessarily liable for old orders, but I don't see how they can simply take over the existing business, keep the name and everything else and expect people who happened to get caught out at the wrong time to shrug their shoulders and move on.

You could also consider a campaign to boycott them if they don't honour the old orders. I certainly won't buy from them.

[Stardrifter_WA]

Originally Posted by MortonH

So the message is saying that the owner up to 29/10/2013 was "DDP Australia Pty Ltd" but since then it is owned by "Discount Digital Pty Ltd". I guess if the original company has genuinely gone bust then the new one isn't necessarily liable for old orders, but I don't see how they can simply take over the existing business, keep the name and everything else and expect people who happened to get caught out at the wrong time to shrug their shoulders and move on.

You could also consider a campaign to boycott them if they don't honour the old orders. I certainly won't buy from them.

Hi Morton,

It happens. Check out this link: http://www.allens.com.au/pubs/pdf/insol/pap4apr07.pdf

They are known as "phoenix companies". See page 2, What are phoenix companies? I have seen this happen a number of times and people have lost their deposits, or not received their goods.

Cheers Pete

[MortonH]

Yeah, have seen this a few times myself. Luckily I've never been affected (so far).

[KenGee (Kenith Gee)]

maybe I've missed something but hae you contacted them directly rather then go on a google search?

[Davi5678 (Dave)]

Contacting them directly is proving somewhat difficult when they don't reply to emails and phones go to message bank, but I'm persisting at this stage.
Since their customer communication is so poor, you can hardly blame anyone from assuming the worst when there are so many negative reports about them.

[tlgerdes (Trevor)]

Originally Posted by Davi5678

Contacting them directly is proving somewhat difficult when they don't reply to emails and phones go to message bank, but I'm persisting at this stage.
Since their customer communication is so poor, you can hardly blame anyone from assuming the worst when there are so many negative reports about them.

Give them your wifes number and tell them to ring you back about purchasing a new Nikon D4 DSLR Camera and maybe a Nikon AF-S 400mm f/2.8 IF ED VR Lens to go with it (totals around $16k). that should make them move a little.

[Davi5678 (Dave)]

I phoned them today under the pretence of being a new customer, while they didn't have either the body or the lenses in stock, they claimed to be able to have them delivered within 7 days.
Being that it took over 5 weeks to not be able to deliver my original order, I suspect they are up to the same tricks again.
They seem to have an affiliation with a company in Singapore; D-D Electronics, but I could be mistaken about that.

[Davi5678 (Dave)]

Received an email today from the administrators, fingers crossed the chargeback should go through.