Blueline Publications Liverpool - Frontline Magazine

Ok so here we go on our journey with Blueline Publications Liverpool and how I was sooo nearly conned out of £90!

Blueline Publications Liverpool is NOT to be confused with the real publiations company Blueline Publications Ohio who are a reputable publications house, even though they use the same logo (copied?).


So we begin in August 2009 when I received a call from a nice sounding chap who told me that Blueline Publications Liverpool were promoting a fire awareness magazine in my local area and would I like to advertise. The magazine would be distributed to 30,000 homes in my local area. I should have sussed when he didn't know where my local area was.

Well, being a nice sort of chap myself I thought 'Mmmm dosen't sound too bad'.

I was upside down in a loft at the time so needless to say the call did catch me 'on the hop' as you might say.

So he says 'Well we can offer you a 3"x2" advert for the special price of £150'. 'Bit pricey' I says, so he then asks his 'manager' if he can do me an 'extra special price'. After some seconds of hard bartering he lifts his hand from the phone and says 'look mate I can do the ad for you for £86, and that's the very best price I can do, I've lost all my bonus for you'.

Well, feeling a little sorry for the lad I agree to place an advertisement in their fire awareness magazine, 'Frontline' which would come out to 30,000 homes in my local area in 2010.

He says that someone from their legal department will call me within the next 10 minutes to confirm the ad placement and go over the terms and conditions.

5 minutes later my phone rings and another chap (Liverpool accent) goes through what seems a long list of legal jargon and then asks for payment. Now being (still) upside down in the dark confines of a loft space I didn't really have the time to go to the van and get my credit card so I said that I would pay when I received an invoice. Very well he says, but he can knock me £10 off the price if I pay now. No, I say, I will pay when I get the invoice. This set my alarm bells ringing.

So I gets home that evening and having not come down in the last shower I do a bit of 'digging'. No website and no mention of a Blueline Publications apart from one in Ohio, USA.

So I decide to wait to see if an invoice arrives and low and behold it drops through the letterbox 2 days later. Looks like a regular invoice (I've seen a few) and seems kosher.

But wait, the logo, it looks familiar, I've seen it somewhere before...

Blueline Publications Ohio use the very same logo! Mmmm...

I contact Blueline Publications Ohio and ask them if they know that someone is using their logo.

'Yes, and we have been having some very strange emails.' Bet they have.

Blueline Publications Liverpool are also listed here:

http://www.advertisingprotectionagency.org/Monitoring.htm

Which doesn't seem a particularly good place to be for an advertising agency.

So I rub my brow and let out a big 'Phew that was close' and hope never to hear from them again. I then receive invoices from them again in November and December, both sounding menacing with threats of legal action if I do not pay them. Knowing a bit about debt related matters I wait for them to send court papers through so I can confront them face to face, find out just what they are playing at and laugh them out of court. None arrive.

January 2010 - and I get a phone call from Blueline Publications Accounts department asking for payment. I ask them for a copy of the Frontline magazine so I can see the advertisement and the magazine.

2 weeks later the magazine arrives. My advertisement is in it. Looks good too.

If this is going to 30,000 homes in my local area I will gladly pay the £90.

Now call me a busybody but I just had to call a few people in the magazine just to know what their experiences with Blueline Publications Liverpool had been like. One business I call (in Kent, hardly my local area being from Manchester, but nevermind) say that they had received calls from Blueline Publications Liverpool asking for further payment when she had (unfortunately) already paid them.

So I ring a few other business advertisements in the magazine but the telephone numbers do not connect and all the numbers seem similar. The companies do not exist and the numbers do not either. Far be it from me to claim that these are false advertisements but 2 + 2 is 4 isn't it?

When I finally connect to a company who also advertises on the internet he says that he too has been called again by Blueline Publications Liverpool asking for payment when he had already paid. Beginning to see a pattern I delve deeper and found that 80% of the companies in the magazine did not exist.

So I kept hold of my findings and hoped that Blueline Publications Liverpool would not bother me again.

March 2010 - A 'nice' chap called Mr. Nathan Stone calls me asking (demanding) that I pay him £90. I say that I will not and he gets a bit cross nearly spitting down the phone at me. I ring consumer direct who start a case for me.

So this is where I am now. I am not worried in the slightest because I know and so do Blueline Publications Liverpool that this will never go to court. They are just hoping that by continually calling me and sending threatening official sounding letters that they will be able to extort £90 out of me. Not a chance. I'd sooner give it to charity thanks.

I just feel for the people who have paid them ANY money. You should call your bank an DO NOT just think 'oh well it's only £90' - this what they rely on. Ask your bank to process a chargeback immediately and put a stop on your cards.

For those who have paid them by debit card the road to seeing your money again may be a little longer. Call your bank and explain the situation. Then call consumer direct:

0845 04 05 06

And tell them about your dealings with Blueline Publications Liverpool.

As things happen I will keep posting on here.

This blog is for anyone else who has had dealings with Blueline Publications Liverpool, feel free to leave comment. Oh and a final hello to Mr. Nathan Stone (if that's what your name really is) if you are reading this. You tried it on with the wrong person.