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Main Boards => General Walking Discussion => Topic started by: madabout on 20:40:15, 31/07/08

Title: Please help - www.northwestwalks.co.uk
Post by: madabout on 20:40:15, 31/07/08
Does anyone have any experience of this company? I'm beginning to think they're a rogue trader. I've never used any company before, but thought it would save time/effort to use a middleman. :(
Title: Re: Please help - www.northwestwalks.co.uk
Post by: KIDSTYPIKE on 21:01:21, 31/07/08
Does anyone have any experience of this company? I'm beginning to think they're a rogue trader. I've never used any company before, but thought it would save time/effort to use a middleman. :(

What makes you think they are rouge traders?.....Have you phoned them?

Dave
Title: Re: Please help - www.northwestwalks.co.uk
Post by: madabout on 21:04:09, 31/07/08
Sent cheque, phoned 3 times a day for a week and no answer.
Title: Re: Please help - www.northwestwalks.co.uk
Post by: mike knipe on 22:51:38, 31/07/08
Thats not looking good - have they cashed your cheque?
Title: Re: Please help - www.northwestwalks.co.uk
Post by: snowslider on 23:23:06, 31/07/08
if it's a sole trader then maybe he's out on the hill for a week trip and no access to email? we've not all got iphones  :)

the website looks good, I'd be more concerned that there's no obvious mention of any sort of qualifications personally.
Title: Re: Please help - www.northwestwalks.co.uk
Post by: Skinny Walker on 08:22:31, 01/08/08
Sorry not heard of them.

As snowsliders says they might be a sole trader (especially if you put the address into google maps, it is a residential property, nice conservatory!  ;D)
Title: Re: Please help - www.northwestwalks.co.uk
Post by: Ridge on 09:27:35, 01/08/08
With a bit of help from Google it looks like the address given is residential. I guess it is one bloke with a computer in his spare room so it may be that they are either working or away on holiday.

If you were going to set up a rogue site just to try to get money out of people then this is probably not the most lucrative area to try and there would be no address.

Edit: I am obviously going mad, I thought I read all this thread, then Googled only to find that ChubbyWalker had done exactly the same thing an hour ago. :idiot2:
Title: Re: Please help - www.northwestwalks.co.uk
Post by: madabout on 10:18:56, 01/08/08
Thanks guys/girls. Its £150 deposit for one of the 2009 walks. I think I'll cancel the cheque and contact them again nex t week. If they are on holiday an ansaphone message saying so wuold be helpful.

Ta
Cynthia
Title: Re: Please help - www.northwestwalks.co.uk
Post by: Skinny Walker on 11:36:26, 01/08/08
Ridge, great minds think alike!! ;D
Title: Re: Please help - www.northwestwalks.co.uk
Post by: chorleydave on 21:40:36, 01/08/08
I may be confusing this with something else, but I'm sure this company advertises in Country Walking magazine classifieds.  The reason I noticed it was that the phone number is a Chorley number, so it caught my eye when I was perusing the magazine in the library.

Title: Re: Please help - www.northwestwalks.co.uk
Post by: Ridge on 21:51:25, 01/08/08
Ridge, great minds think alike!! ;D

....and so do you and I ;D
Title: Re: Please help - www.northwestwalks.co.uk
Post by: inkent on 08:20:33, 03/08/08
Hello madabout - perhaps they're just on holiday? I sent a cheque for the full amount for a lastish minute walk, but the cheque hasn't been cashed. I assume they're away for the week - kids broke up for summer last week.

Snowslider - I'm interested in you comment about qualifications. Care to elaborate?
Title: Re: Please help - www.northwestwalks.co.uk
Post by: snowslider on 10:48:52, 04/08/08
Snowslider - I'm interested in you comment about qualifications. Care to elaborate?

For leading walks in the UK qualifications would be the WGL (walking group leader) or Mountain Leader Summer/Winter. There's no legal requirement for anyone to hold either but someone leading groups commercially without them isn't likely to be insured as the insurers require that the responsible person is suitably qualified. In some environments your own personal insurance can be invalid if your leader isn't qualified, this is more an issue in the alpes but I wouldn't be surprised if a life insurer declined payment if the policyholder dies while under supervision from an unqualified person.

In France it's a legal requirement that leaders are qualified and that means holding an IML (international mountain leader) ideally with local equivalence, in that case anyone operating without it in France is not insured and is also breaking the law. For other European destinations, typically the alpes it's the same and the qualification required is either an IML or an IFMGA. If I might make a suggestion for the site, it's that the listings section only contain providers who are qualified and insured.

I'm not making any judgement on the skills or experience of some of these operators which I'm sure can be excellent but they should be qualified and anyone booking trips like this should be checking the leaders are qualified. In the first instance, ask the operator and if you need to check further then you can contact the governing body and confirm it personally.

I've no reason to think there's anything wrong with this provider and they quite possibly hold an ML already but didn't put it on the website.

just my twopenneth worth !