leaflet distribution! scam??

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C

CEGraphicsUK

  • #1
    Hi all.

    I wonder if anyone can help me here. I used a leaflet distribution company 'DPL Distribution' based in Cardiff. I came accross them through a random site (cant remember what site), had a look at their site, spoke to them on the phone, all seemed very professional and legit.

    They collected 10000 brochures from me, delivered them as promised in the timescale stated and in the areas i requested, so all seemed good!

    I thought Id do a bit of checking myself so i randomly called about 200 houses in the area and not one of the houses say they have received it!

    I know a lot of houses will just bin flyers without looking, but I then tried to contact the company and too myn amazement i cannot find them anywhere on the web! The number on their invoice in not in use either??

    Have this company taken my (and probably lots of other peoples) money and leaflets and just dumped them??

    If anyone has any advice on how i can trace these people that would be great!

    I payed by cheque so can a cheque be traced to an owner? Who would i contact about this?? Im really at a lost end and im fuming that there are people out there that do this but maybe there might be an explanation??

    Any advice would be great

    Adrian
    ceguk.co.uk
     
    C

    CEGraphicsUK

  • #8
    To be honest i cant remember if I asked / they said where their offices were. They collected the leaflets from me which I should have found strange, thinking about it now!

    Yes I found dpl southampton but it was 100% not them.

    I paid £32.50+vat per 1000, & yes it does give the industry a bad name, its a shame really!
     
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    M

    MH1

  • #9
    Unfortunately it's a very hard industry to find anyone decent in, I have even contacted companies who come recommended from other members on this forum only to find very poor service, emails often answered after several weeks, hard to pin the companies down on when an area could be done etc.

    As such I have yet to find a company who I would feel happy to pay for the job, how hard is it to answer a phone call or reply to an email within 48hours? If people are not answering their mobiles, it suggests to myself they are doing other work where they are unable to answer their phone, which means they are not leaflet dropping full time.

    Hopefully one day I will find a decent company.
     
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    C

    CEGraphicsUK

  • #10
    CEGraphicsUK said:
    To be honest i cant remember if I asked / they said where their offices were. They collected the leaflets from me which I should have found strange, thinking about it now!

    Yes I found dpl southampton but it was 100% not them.

    I paid £32.50+vat per 1000, & yes it does give the industry a bad name, its a shame really!
    Click to expand...

    THERE WAS NO VAT PAID (I JUST CHECKED INVOICE)
     
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    C

    ChrisAITY

  • #11
    I'm not very good with the whole VAT thing, but if they did not add on VAT, this means they are not a reputable company??? Or am I mistaken...

    As I said, I am from Cardiff myself, and I have not heard of this company before...
     
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    B

    Billmccallum

  • #14
    Was the cheque made out to DPL Distribution or an individual?

    You can ask your bank for advice on tracing the person who cashed it.

    Also does the invoice have an address on it?
     
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    C

    CEGraphicsUK

  • #18
    I had the invoice handed to me when i handed over the cheque. which was just a printout with a logo. I did think that it was a bit unprofessional.

    They kept me updated every day stating where the drops had been made and then after day 4 they posted me a photocopy of a map or the area with highlighted roads that they have been down to deliver (no ther correspondance).

    I left the cheque blank (the said it was so they could just pay someone else with it)!!! I just cant believe how stupid ive been! looking back now there are so many tell tale signs that i should have picked up on!

    1. the request for a blank cheque!
    2. they specifically requested to pick the leaflets up from me (at the time i thought this was more convenient for me).

    It just all seemed to sound legit at the time! I have spoken to trading standards (not that that will do much good) and hopefully they might be able to give some advice.
     
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    M

    Mpg

    Free Member
    Aug 18, 2009
    1,514
    287
  • #19
    I cant find the thread but it sounded VERY similar one customer complained that they had a phone call from there local ASDA Manager to say a load of leaflets had been dumped in there bins.

    I think things may have got a little risky so the thread was removed
     
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    C

    CEGraphicsUK

  • #20
    just thinking, even if i manage to track these people, and say they havnt delivered the whole 10,000 how can i prove this? I guess I cant. If they say they did, I dont think there is a way to prove them wrong???
     
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    T

    tnichs

  • #25
    MH1 said:
    Hi All,

    really sorry to hear about the bad experience. It looks like it a fraudulent practice as opposed to sloppy work.

    MH1, I note your comment, what area have you looked to get leaflets delivered?

    You've got to be really dilligent when picking a leaflet marketing partner. We've got loads of competition in our area who will market themselves on price alone, but don't deliver a first class quality service.

    Questions you need to be asking are:

    What is your capacity, i.e. how many houses can you visit per week?
    What guarantees do you have in place?
    How are your distribution staff tracked?
    What's the average age of your distributors?
    How much do you pay them?
    When will my delivery start?
    How many leaflets do you deliver to each house?

    And there's loads more. Have a look at my blog for a further explanation of why these questions are important and for some further questions to ask.
    Click to expand...
     
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    M

    Magsite

  • #26
    When you say someone picked them up from you, was it a courier or a white van? Any marking or names you can remember? Any CCTV where you did the handover that might identify the person or van. This all sounds very fraudulent, maybe more of a police issue than a civil dispute
     
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    J

    Jonny - Flyerettes

  • #28
    tnichs said:
    What is your capacity, i.e. how many houses can you visit per week?
    What guarantees do you have in place?
    How are your distribution staff tracked?
    What's the average age of your distributors?
    How much do you pay them?
    When will my delivery start?
    How many leaflets do you deliver to each house?
    Click to expand...


    All great questions, which all my clients ask apart from two.

    The age of a distributor should not matter, and in fact if you hire people based on their age you would be in trouble with the Law. I have staff across the spectrum and they all work as hard as each other. Yes some of the younger ones can be lazy, will turn in hungover etc etc but aslong as its clamped down quickly then theres no further problems.

    What has it got to do with a client what my staff are paid? Irrelevant in my opinion
     
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    T

    tnichs

  • #29
    Jonny - Flyerettes said:
    All great questions, which all my clients ask apart from two.

    The age of a distributor should not matter, and in fact if you hire people based on their age you would be in trouble with the Law. I have staff across the spectrum and they all work as hard as each other. Yes some of the younger ones can be lazy, will turn in hungover etc etc but aslong as its clamped down quickly then theres no further problems.

    What has it got to do with a client what my staff are paid? Irrelevant in my opinion
    Click to expand...

    HI, I agree with you on the age, perhaps the question should be phrased "Are you using adult distributors or children" This makes a big difference.

    With regards to how much the distributors are paid - This is not irrelevant it is vital. Let me explain. On average, in our area, we deliver approximately 140 leaflets per hour. So it takes on average just over 7 hours to deliver 1000 houses.

    I've seen companies pay as low as £25 per thousand houses, which therefore equates to on average £3.57per hour.

    If the distributor is earning £3.57 per hour, how diligent are they going to be with your marketing material.

    Therefore I'd suggest that knowing the people actually doing the work are being paid a fair rate will give you more peace of mind that your leaflets are going to get delivered.
     
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    J

    Jonny - Flyerettes

  • #30
    I see your point, but if the average distribution is 3 leaflets (which ours is) then 3 x £25 = £75 per 1000 houses.


    The distribution game is very competitive in my area resulting in our prices varying between £20 and £25. Its tough sometimes to ensure you always make a profit from the distributions but regardless of how many leaflets are on a distribution the staff are paid the same.

    I can happily say i limit my distributions to a maximum of 5 leaflets, as putting any more through like alot of my competitors do (up to 14!!!!!) only effects peoples response levels
     
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    T

    tnichs

  • #31
    We've got more competition too. I'm not interested in getting into a price war with people that want to charge silly amounts - They won't be able to run a profitable business and won't be here for too long.

    Find ways to differentiate from your competition and then price is not an issue.
     
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    hilldavenport

    hilldavenport

    Free Member
    Jul 13, 2009
    32
    3
    London
    hilldavenport.com
  • #33
    tnichs said:
    Questions you need to be asking are:

    What is your capacity, i.e. how many houses can you visit per week?
    What guarantees do you have in place?
    How are your distribution staff tracked?
    What's the average age of your distributors?
    How much do you pay them?
    When will my delivery start?
    How many leaflets do you deliver to each house?

    And there's loads more. Have a look at my blog for a further explanation of why these questions are important and for some further questions to ask.
    Click to expand...


    [FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']This is excellent advice, however one important question to ask is 'who are your clients?' ASA Distribution is a professional door to door distribution company and we are often approached by companies who have had unsatisfactory services from other leaflet distribution companies. Our immediate response to queries relating to our integrity is to speak to our clients. We provide up to five references from large to small businesses, local authorities to charities in order to give our potential clients peace of mind when utilising our professional leaflet distribution services. [/FONT]
    [FONT='Verdana','sans-serif'] [/FONT]
    [FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']In going forward, you may wish to adapt this practise in order to protect your investment.[/FONT]
     
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    hilldavenport

    hilldavenport

    Free Member
    Jul 13, 2009
    32
    3
    London
    hilldavenport.com
  • #34
    tnichs said:
    Questions you need to be asking are:

    What is your capacity, i.e. how many houses can you visit per week?
    What guarantees do you have in place?
    How are your distribution staff tracked?
    What's the average age of your distributors?
    How much do you pay them?
    When will my delivery start?
    How many leaflets do you deliver to each house?

    And there's loads more. Have a look at my blog for a further explanation of why these questions are important and for some further questions to ask.
    Click to expand...


    This is excellent advice, however one important question to ask is 'who are your clients?' ASA Distribution is a professional door to door distribution company and we are often approached by companies who have had unsatisfactory services from other leaflet distribution companies. Our immediate response to queries relating to our integrity is to speak to our clients. We provide up to five references from large to small businesses, local authorities to charities in order to give our potential clients peace of mind when utilising our professional leaflet distribution services.

    In going forward, you may wish to adapt this practise in order to protect your investment. Please visit http://www.asadistribution.co.uk/resources/
     
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    O

    OptiRick

    Free Member
    Jun 4, 2010
    321
    48
    East Lancs
  • #36
    On the topic of leaflets....

    We sometimes print our own leaflets and deliver them by hand. We get a reasonable response, presumably as the reader gets just the one leaflet and is more likely to have a look.

    When we have used leaflet distributors they have delivered many thousands of leaflets but we have had poor response. This is because they are delivered in a bunch with a load of others and as such are much more likely to end up in the bin.
     
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    G

    Gaskell

    Free Member
    May 2, 2010
    158
    21
    East Sussex
  • #37
    The distribution price here seem very cheap, I personally delivered 2500 of my own leaflets a few months back and it takes ages to get a thousand out, I'd say a couple of days, especially if your in an affluent area, large driveways etc.

    Who is willing to work two days for £35?

    Personally, I only trust myself to do a job like that. I know 10,000 brochures is a huge amount but I'd ask friends to help. At least you know they're getting delivered.

    I'd also wear leather gloves, at least on the hand that opens the letterbox because I got bitten severely by a dog on the otherside of the letterbox during my 2500 leaflet stint.
     
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    M

    MH1

  • #38
    I'd also wear leather gloves, at least on the hand that opens the letterbox because I got bitten severely by a dog on the otherside of the letterbox during my 2500 leaflet stint.
    Click to expand...

    I've never been bitten in 20+ years but I am always getting cuts from nails deliberately nailed in such a way to jam into your finger tips when pushing an item through the letter box.
     
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    O

    o'Churchill

  • #39
    I just had 15,000 leaflets distributed for me in North London. The company i used is called JogPost Ltd and I actually got a fairly good response (around 0.2%), which to be honest pleasantly surprised me. I am fairly pesimistic when it comes to leafleters in general. This company works a bit differently which i liked, their prices are slightly higher imo more realistic. The point is i got results that im satisfied with, i think they cover the whole Uk but i'm not sure. I suggest if you want a good professional company to call them they seemed to care just that little bit extra.
     
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    T

    tnichs

  • #40
    Watch out for another one - National Flyers of Norwich - I was just browsing the net when I noticed my blog articles appearing on their site. I had a further look at their site and found that most of their content is a direct copy from my site. They've even added our testimonials to their list of "Clients". It looks like the site's in the process of being built as they've still got my contact details and my company name in the content. Complete rip off merchants. They will be getting a call from my solicitor in the morning.,
     
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