I received the item via CityLink on 13 October 2011. The item seemed to work OK in the first 4 weeks (despite the fact that it was only switched on occasionally in those 4 weeks) but then it suddenly stopped working altogether. I phoned XS-Clearance to report the matter, but I could not get through to anybody, so I left a voice message on their answering machine. Since then I heard nothing from XS-Clearance, I started to think the whole thing was a bit suspicious. Anyway I decided to leave a neutral feedback to XS-Clearance on eBay, and out of the blue XS-Clearance responded to my neutral feedback and also sent me an email to ask for information about my purchase.

I emailed XS-Clearance everything that they asked for. Then I heard nothing from them again. I sent XS-Clearance an email every day to chase for a response, and I have no luck here at all. I really do think XS-Clearance IS a dodgy trader.

I tried to search for some info about XS-Clearance on the internet, but all the results were related to their eBay shop. Then I remembered the item was delivered by CityLink, so I phoned CityLink to see if they could give me some further information about XS-Clearance. I gave CityLink the tracking reference and the sender’s account number. I was told by CityLink that the item was sent by a company called General Contracting UK Ltd. CityLink could not expose any further details about this company but they did suggest me to do a google search to look for this company.

I googled General Contracting UK Ltd and discovered they are based in 38 Bluestem Road, Ransomes Euro Park, Ipswich, Suffolk IP3 9RR. And their telephone number is 01473 271272. Then I remember XS-Clearance responded to me via email before, so I started to track down who owns the domain name of cc-promotions.co.uk. It turns out cc-promotions.co.uk is registered to General Contracting UK Ltd trading as Pikapak. So I googled Pikapak and found its website. I went to the ‘contact us’ page on the Pikapak website. Pikapak has not included its postal address on the website but the company exposes several telephone numbers and email addresses. One of these telephone numbers is 01473 271272 which is the same number for General Contracting UK Ltd.

I also googled the telephone number 01473 271272 on the internet and discovered the manufacturer (Igenix) who produces my domestic appliance uses the same telephone number as well. I managed to find an instruction manual online for my domestic appliance and on the back of the manual, it says the appliance is distributed by Pikapak. It means XS-Clearance produces and sells the items.

I decided to phone Pikapak to chase for an response for my broken domestic appliance. A chap called Dan answered my call. I told Dan his company sold me a faulty item and I needed to know what was going to happen. Dan denied his company sold me anything. He described his company only distributed items for different companies. Dan told me to contact the person on eBay to resolve the issue.

I have now found a business directory which includes Pikapak in it. Pikapak advertises themselves as a one-stop-shop for all electrical domestic appliance. So if Pikapak is a one-stop-shop for the domestic appliance, why would Dan say his company was only a distributor earlier? I could really smell a dodgy business here.

So now I understand that XS-Clearance from eBay is the same company as General Contracting UK Ltd which trades as Pikapak and Think Electricals (discovered it from another source). The question is, why would XS-Clearance need to use a different name to trade and why has XS-Clearance submitted a fake address on eBay? The only answer I can think of is that XS-Clearance do not want to be traced for its dodgy trading.

I went back to eBay to read through XS-Clearance’s thousands of feedbacks. Without a doubt, XS-Clearance did get a huge amount of positive feedbacks on eBay, but that does not mean XS-Clearance has traded fairly and honestly. I can see some neutral and negative feedbacks left by XS-Clearance’s buyers in the last 30 days. These buyers claim, ‘Havn’t received my items, No reponse to emails/phone calls. A VERY DODGY EBAYER’, ‘Item and replacement damaged. Poor communication and no refund. Under dispute’, ‘The product was faulty.tried contacting the seller but had no response.not happy’, ‘Advertises items that they do not have in stock, listing stated 10 available!!’, ‘cheap and nasty product,unionjack is plastic transfer not painted onPOOR QUALITY’, ‘damaged and dirty’, ‘inferior product supplied’, ‘I’ve tried contacting the seller through E-bay twice , but had no response.Poor!’, ‘Wrong item, they asked us to send it back, havent refunded or responded since!’, ‘The whole transaction was not satisfactory and they spent ages sorting it out’, ‘Poor service: ignored delivery instructions and failed to respond to messages’, etc..

These buyers are just like me, they received a faulty item from XS-Clearance, tried to contact XS-Clearance to resolve the issue but XS-Clearance do not respond to them at all. If XS-Clearance aimed to have a fair trade, they would not act the way they are now and treat their buyers badly!

I have contacted Trading Standard to report XS-Clearance (or General Contracting UK Ltd) for bad trading. I was advised to send a letter to General Contracting UK Ltd to resolve the problem. If the problem cannot be resolved, the next step will be the small claim court. A company like XS-Clearance or General Contracting UK Ltd or Pikapak or Think Electricals should never be allowed to trade at all. This company should be banned and fined for what they have done to its customers. The owner and the staff from this company should be hung in shame!

A dishonest company is now named and shamed!!!

I went back to eBay to check Brian Keates’ eBay profile, apparently I discovered someone else had also bought a Dell laptop from him 2 weeks before me. So I made a contact to this person to see if he had any problems/issues with his purchase. It turned out this other buyer, called Richard, is a RAF commander in Portsmouth. Richard replied to me via emails saying he had the same problem with his purchase. He bought a Dell laptop from Brian Keates in June 2009 and when he received the laptop, the laptop was in completely different specifications to what it was advertised on eBay. Richard claimed it took him over 2 weeks to get his money back from Brian Keates, fortunately Richard paid Brian the money via PayPal.

I discussed the matter to a friend of mine who is a retired West Midlands Police Officer. The first thing he suggested me to do is to contact the Staffordshire Police to report a fraud crime. Basically Brian Keates has mis-sold a Dell laptop on eBay before, and now he sold me another Dell laptop in the same way, he did it deliberately and it was seen as fraud. I reported the matter to the Staffordshire Police. The Police Civilian Staff who I talked to from the Staffordshire Police said he would call Brian Keates to clarify my case. Brian Keates told the Police that he did know he did not describe his Dell laptop correctly on eBay but he was not prepared to give me any refund, not even a single penny. So I filed a proper claim for a fraud crime to the Staffordshire Police.

I was asked to visit a local police station in Atherstone to give statement. I spent 4 hours at an interview room to give my statement. The Atherstone Police Station agreed to get Brian Keates in for an interview as well, but the Police Station believed it was a civil matter instead, despite the fact that Brian Keates had already done the same dishonest trading on eBay before.

A few weeks later, I received a phone call from the Atherstone Police Station telling me that they have interviewed Brian Keates but they did not think Brian has committed the fraud crime. I was suggested to resolve the matter via County Court instead. At the moment, I understand why so many people cannot be arsed to report any crimes to the Police, cos the Police is really useless and hopeless.

So now, I filed a small claim to a County Court, I was taking Brian Keates to the Court for owing me £421.19. I was given two hearings from the County Court. In the first hearing in May 2010, as expected, Brian Keates denied everything that he did to the sale. One minute he claimed the eBay advert was placed by one of his staff even through the eBay account was setup for personal use. Then next minute he claimed he knew nothing about the Dell laptop, so this is why he described the laptop incorrectly. He really tried hard to get away from his fault, but furthermore it also showed how dishonest he was, he was constantly making different lies!

In the second hearing in October 2010, Brian Keates claimed that the Dell laptop was sold to me from his closed company, but not from himself. What a convenient way to escape! He ran a company called K Freight in Polesworth but the company went into administration in 2009, so he thought if he could make the Judge believe the laptop was sold to me by his company, he wouldn’t need to pay me any money back. After over an hour of hearing and the Judge has read a big pile of evidence, the Judge has decided that Brian Keates was responsible to the sale of the Dell laptop. The Judge ordered Brian Keates to pay the money that he has owned me, and it has now become £506.19 (inc. court fees).

Even the Judge has now ordered Brian Keates to pay me the money that he owes me, he still found his ways to refuse to pay, so I applied for a warrant of execution to try to recover the debt. He then declared to the Court that he and his wife were unemployed and on benefits. He submitted a finance cash flow to the Court saying he now owes three High Street banks thousands of pounds, therefore he could only pay me 50p a month for the next 100 years. He is just unbelievable!

I rejected his offer and requested the Court to go ahead to send bailiffs to his house to recover the debt. I was asked to attend to the County Court again for another hearing in May 2011. In the meanwhile, I discovered Brian Keates has set up a new business with his wife. They are both now working at home and the new business is called EB Cargo (www.ebcargo.co.uk). The new business started in April 2010. Brian and Emma Keates even advertised their business on eBay. They are really crooks!

Until this very second, I have still not received my full refund (£606.19 inc. the warrant fee) from Brian Keates. I am hoping the bailiffs can recover the debt for me here. The whole case will have been going on for two year in 2 weeks time. Someone like Brian Keates and his wife Emma Keates should be named and shamed and hung!! They deceive money from other people. They deceive money from the benefit office (claiming jobseeker’s allowance £400 a month) while they are working at home. They are truly a pair of scumbag which is a waste of space in this world.