Medieval Market

[Dafydd]

Thank you for that information about Renaissance Magazine. I am definitely going to email them about this, so that at least they are aware - and hopefully revoke the ad publishing in any further editions. The more people who send an email to them, the more serious it will be taken.

Kiss-me-Kate:
Definitely do file a claim with the BBB! Even if nothing comes from it at this time, at least it will be registered there too.
But don't stop there, don't just leave it at that. I know you are glad it wasn't more than a 100 $, but that is in fact alot of money when you never get anything in return. So please consider taking the following steps as well:

* Contact your own credit card company, and ask your money back through them.
* Contact theplanet.com at abuse@theplanet.com and tell them you've been scammed by themedievalmarket.com.

Only when enough people do this, the problem will be taken serious and be dealt with by the proper instances. And you still might end up getting your money back in the end!

[Dafydd]

I have just emailed the two email addy's of the Renaissance Magazine that you posted here... The email I sent them is the following. Please email them in your own words too, so that they understand this is serious.

Dear sir/madam,

I am writing you concerning the advertisement in the Renaissance Magazine, of the webshop "The Medieval Market" (themedievalmarket.com), also listed on your website's link page.

I felt that it may be important for you to know, that The Medieval Market is in fact a mere scam, where several people have already lost their money at.  I myself am one of the victims of this fraud, as I have never received the item I ordered, nor did I receive a refund; all emails are ignored, and there is no way of contacting the shop's owner Sandra Bradley by phone (I found 3 phone numbers, who are either wrong or disconnected).  It appears that Sandra Bradley does not want to be contacted, and has been providing false contact information to business registrations; including the domain name registrar that handles themedievalmarket.com.

When I learned that not only me, but in fact several people, had experienced the same problems with The Medieval Market, I began to suspect a scam and decided to investigate further.

At the URL below, you can see that the problem is already known by the Better Business Bureau, where I have recently filed a claim as well:
http://mobile.bbb.org/commonreport.html?compID=145149642#CustExp
As you can see, three issues were handled since april this year (with mine and at least one other not yet included), with as result "company did not respond" - exactly as it is the case with me. Their rating is "unsatisfactory".

I also discovered that The Medieval Market had a webshop on eBay at one point, which has suddenly disappeared entirely, with vendor account and all. I suspect that this account was removed by eBay when fraud was reported too frequently.

Meanwhile I have also contacted my credit card company, as well as Paypal, to investigate this case.  In addition, the webspace provider of themedievalmarket.com is also looking into the issue and may possibly be removing the website as a result. I have also begun legal action against The Medieval Market directly; not with as only intent to receive the refund for my order, but also to prevent other people from losing their money to this scam.

I hope that this information may be useful for you, as it might damage the good reputation of the Renaissance Magazine when it will become more publicly known that The Medieval Market is a scam.  Assuming that you do not wish to be connected to cases of fraud, I recommend that you remove their link from your webpage, and stop publishing any other advertisements of The Medieval Market.

I hope that with this email, I may have been of help to you.

Thank you,

David Dom

[Dayna]

Brilliant!  Clear, Concise, Calm, Polite, you told them what had happened, provided evidence for independent verification, told them what you'd like them to do and told them what's in it for them if they do vs if they do nothing.

I'm Impressed, and I write things like this Often in my side-line as an advocate for the disabled.

Dayna

[BrokenArts]

I am so sorry you all have had this trouble!  I hope some restitution will be made from this.

This also let other people know about them too.  I appreciate the heads up on this.

[Dafydd]

Thank you, unilady. I do my best, though I'm no professional at this or anything lol.

So far I haven't received any response from the Renaissance Magazine though and the link is still on their website... So much for trying to warn people that way eh lol.

Anyway, I'll keep you all updated once I have more news! Meanwhile, please do continue to spread the word about this!

[verymerryseamstress]

Dafydd, hi

I'm not sure if you're aware of it, but Renaissance Magazine only posts links and runs ads that have been paid for by the advertiser.  I'm sure they probably have a contractual obligation to run the ads and list the link on their website if the company has already paid for it.  That's probably why they haven't removed the listings.

[white trillium]

I ordered from this vendor before I found this forum, so I've been anxiously waiting (hoping that everything would turn out ok).  Amazingly enough, it did!  My package arrived yesterday, but since it was shipped express mail someone had to sign for it, so my dear spouse (not sure how he puts up with me) ran over to the Post Office this morning to pick it up.  Based on earlier posts in this thread, it sounds like they may have moved across country, but I do have a working phone number (not entirely comfortable posting it in a public forum...Is it ok to post a phone number?).

[Trillium]

I think it may be best to send a PM to Kate and Daffyd with the info.

[white trillium]

Good idea, thank you!

[Dafydd]

Sorry it took me awhile to reply here, I've been away on vacation.

On August 13, I received the following brief reply from the Rennaissance Magazine:

Dear David,

Thank you very much for your comments.

Sincerely,

Tom Hauck
Editor

The link to the Medieval Market has not been removed from their site though. I would think that if you discover that one of your advertisers is in fact a scam, any legal contract you have with them no longer should bind you. If the webspace provider of themedievalmarket.com determines that they are indeed a scam, then no doubt they too will terminate the account regardless of previously agreed contracts, even if they did pay their webspace fees.

White Trillium: I got your pm with the phone number and replied, thanks I will keep that phone number as extra option for now, and meanwhile await response from my credit card provider to see what they intend to do first. If that is unsatisfactory, I will contact The Medieval Market on that phone number directly and take further steps.

It is of no concern to me - or any other customers - really where they moved off to, even if it's to the moon or to Mars. It is no excuse for ignoring all emails and providing no refund. Maybe they didn't dare ignoring your order because you've been in more frequent contact with them. Assuming that you live in the US (as they don't ship overseas), I suppose that The Medieval Market didn't want to risk being sued by you, while they apparently think that someone who lives overseas can't touch them. That may be a serious underestamation from their side though.

Regardless, I would recommend that you don't place any more orders with them. If not for ethical reasons, then at least to prevent falling victim to the scam after all - because now that they have won your trust, you may place an order for a larger amount of money that you may then in turn get nothing back for. Scammers work in sneaky ways.

[dameoftherealm]

TheMedievalMarket.com
2960 Huffman Rd
Valley, WA 99181
509-690-8452
She claimed my package would be sent Monday

[dameoftherealm]

By the way I trusted the link because I saw the add I am a Hurricane IKE person who was
having a dress made powers still out in some of our area so I order a dress email her she told me
it would be sent out Monday. What I plan on doing is filling with my Attorney General wish I had seen this first
I would of bought else where and I will hold the Mag at fault for allowing false adds in it.
It is even worse to know a IKE victim was scammed. I have just enough money to get there.

[Dafydd]

I'm sorry to hear you have fallen victim to the scam as well... and it's horrible how they even dare to falsely play victim of a hurricane 

I did as much as I possibly could to warn people who possibly may come across a link to The Medieval Market, and let them know it's a scam. But an ad in a magazine is something I can't stop... I have already informed Renaissance Magazine about this, but they seem not interested in stopping this scam.

Please do me a favour - and more particularly, a favour to all other people that are possibly victims of this scam by seeing the ad - and contact Renaissance Magazine. Tell them you've been scammed, and that they are printing advertisements of a false business which will ultimately also damage their magazine's name.

It seems that through this magazine, The Medieval Market obtains most of its victimized customers... so it's important that we try and change that.

Please keep us updated here. Good luck!

[Sweet T]

Greetings all,

My hubby last spoke with Sandra at Gulf Wars, where she was downsizing. She indicated plans to attend Acadiana before moving up Seattle way because her hubby is in the military. She always seemed like such a nice and honest person who may be dealing with some big life changes.

Having said that, business is business and the customer is always right.

Regards,
Sweet T

[Dafydd]

Hello,

Succesfull scammers can usually ascribe their success to their ability to "act". These people will seem the nicest and most honest people in the world, and when you're not looking they rob you clean. This Sandra person is clearly one of those people, and no excuse is valid for not returning money or sending the order as requested, without any word of explanation and ignoring customers completely.

The Better Business Bureau has also informed me that they received no answer from The Medieval Market - they too were being ignored. There should thus be no doubt that this Sandra is a first class scammer.