The Real Bad News Including Nigel Payne and his Company Maine Installations LTD of Reading by the Friends of Sherwood Forest.

As part of our business expansion programme I secured finances to purchase some new Equipment, quite a bit of new equipment actually. On my shopping list were Two Epson Wide Format Printers, I noticed an Epson 7890 Wide Format Printer on eBay that looked just right for my needs so I purchased it and a week later I noticed another printer an Epson 9890 Wide Format Printer on eBay from the same Company i.e. Maine Installations LTD of Hurst Nr Reading, so I purchased that one to complete my print room set up. I had an Epson 4800 printer for my calendar work together with a Couple of other Epson's so I felt quite chuffed. There was one snag however I was ill with Bronchitis, very ill in fact but arrangements were made for storage at the Companies premises so I had no need to worry, strange how sometimes we miss the odd bits that should sound alarm bells

Perhaps one day someone will tell Nigel Payne it's rude to point....you never know who is looking.

Meet the Maine Installations Mob

Nigel Payne Sole Director

Ashley Payne Directors Son

Labourer General DogsBody

Place you mouse over to see how an ANGRY threatening Mob Behaves

Bear in mind I had made several phone calls prior to purchase and everything seemed OK afterwards, until a PayPal demand arrived for 453 pounds, I phoned up asking what this was all about but nothing was said and I never did get a satisfactory explanation as to what this was all about. The first time I realised there was a problem was when I arranged to go down to Reading to see the Printers and arrange my own transport to bring the printers up to Nottingham. I had several favourable quotes from the white Van Brigade. I arranged to go down to Reading a 300 mile round trip looking to get the printers back to Nottingham. On arrival I found myself on a defunct Poultry Farm and the Company trading from a Poultry Shed. Felt really good about that, well I entered the premises and met Nigel Payne, we spoke briefly and I left him with 350 pounds as a Token or Goodwill payment towards storage. Payne said his son would show me the printers and as I was led up crap creek his son blurted out that the two printers that had two full banks of cartridges valued at 800 pounds had been stolen by them and placed in other printers to sell on, bloody GOBSMACKED, I had paid 1,400 pounds for two printers and I find Payne's son acting like a lunatic boasting about stealing 18 professional printer cartridges. How the hell could I arrange transport up to Nottingham when the very heart of the printers had been ripped out of them, I paid a good price for these printers and I had been had hook line and stinker.

With very little evidence or paperwork all I could do was return home with a receipt for the part payment of storage which Payne described as a UNAUTHORISED PAYMENT, can you believe that one, I was starting to believe I was in the Land of the Cuckoo Monsters.

I felt gutted driving back up the Motorway home, the one thing I did not have was evidence, of anything, virtually no paperwork at all with the exception of a grubby receipt for 350 pounds that was laughable, well a total mess. That was one wasted visit and Nigel and Ashley Payne knew that the Printers were not collectable. Despite that fact they had knowingly allowed me to drive down to Hurst Nr Reading to waste my time. I strengthened my resolve and made a second visit down to Reading another 300 mile round trip, this time only Nigel Payne was present but I had my Body Cam running AND MY COMPACT camera TO RECORD AS MUCH INFORMATION AS POSSIBLE. Nigel Payne was looking very nervy and said little or nothing, when I had the evidence that the printer bays were empty and had the serial numbers I told Payne what Ashley his son had said about the Cartridges, he stated that in fact Ashley had placed the cartridges in a box and they had been stored away for over 6 months, this is against all know advice and good practice as it will allow the print heads to dry up, again GOBSMACKED and as expected on this second visit where they knew I was coming down to see them the printers were not fit for collection..

Returning home it was time to chase up on some initial inquiries I had made to start with, the Police were a total Womble, good for nothing. Trading Standards were the same, took seven calls to try and get through, they were in fact totally obstructive. My only hope was to draw up papers for a criminal prosecution against Maine Installations Ltd and it's sole Director Nigel Payne. While this was underway I had a secret fear that they would claim to have found the Cartridges and it could possibly disrupt the prosecution, but not seriously.

My worst fear was well found as they now claimed to have found the cartridges and stated they were in a box by the WINDOW, codswallop, total rubbish, the cartridges had not been found, they had taken delivery of several printers and raided the lot to replace the cartridges they had stolen from my printers, sadly most of the cartridges were rubbish being mainly empty so the printers would not work, in fact I never did see the printers working.

I realised this was bait but had to investigate to get to the bottom of the matter, Faster Payments Code Check

so I made a surprise visit, except for the fact another tenant ratted on me and told them they had a customer waiting, that was enough to alert them as I had arrived to find their chicken shed with no one at home, they arrived Mob Handed, but no worries as I had already logged in with Thames Valley Police and had my BodyCam running, goes on record for 9 hours plus, the evidence obtained against the Paynes was incredible, Nigel Payne flew off into a Rage giving the game away by threatening, Intimidating, Insulting and Blaspheming.. At the end of the day the money was spirited away into his sons private bank account and not into the Companies bank account, Attempts to recover the money by the bank failed because is son Ashley had emptied his account so nothing was there to be had. The Police were an utter insult, eventually saying I was an "Associate "of Maine Installations, where the hell the fools got that one from I do not know, they refused to deal with the case and left me to bring proceedings against Nigel Payne and his company.

Please remember that if you are given a Bank account number check as above with Faster Payments that the account tallies with the Account of the Company involved and not with a third party, You cannot wonder why I did not get any paperwork for the transaction, once they had my money that was it, threats, lies and abuse were the order of the day. The BodyCam footage was not only excellent but shocking, I may well consider placing it on YouTube and linking it in here.

No paperwork ever arrived for the Transaction, No receipts, No Invoices and no storage contract, felt a bit uneasy at that but I had a record of my payment on my Bank account and To reassure myself I took a copy of the eBay listings as a comfort and left it at that.

Worried always trace your Bank Transfer by Sort Code ............KNOW WHERE IT 'S GOING BEFORE IT GETS THERE..

This is a scam that happens and you don't get to find out about it until weeks after

I purchased an engineering component from India and the listing stated free shipping, the cost of the item was well under the limit for which Customs were chargeable so no worries. The Component arrives and it's the wrong size, far too small to be useful, so I contact eBay and I'm given a full refund with no return to make, I should have been happy apart from another bit of junk I don't need.

Two weeks later a letter from FedEx arrives demanding just over forty pounds in import duties, Gobsmacked.

FedEx in conjunction with Customs and Excise lumped a huge carrier bill onto the cost of this item and I'm scammed for forty quid, does not make sense, my only advice on this is to Pay our and never purchase anything from India ever again, always check where the Origin of the item is, INDIA, FedEx and Customs and Excise all get the thumbs down. P.S. Try contacting C & E, total disgrace, the phone system is shambolic, a good way of cutting down on the number of callers employ sheer ruddy frustration as a weapon.