Tonight:
9°c
Two Left Feet putting the boot into RBS
01.04.09
One of Britain's biggest baby and nursery products retailers today blamed the Royal Bank of Scotland for its collapse into administration.
Bedford-based Two Left Feet, a family-run, online business with a £7 million turnover, was securing a £400,000 loan through the Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme when consumer TV programme Watchdog reported customer complaints. The funding deal collapsed and RBS called in administrators KPMG.
Richard Bone, managing director, said: “Two Left Feet has been forced into administration by the Royal Bank of Scotland.”
Reader views (9)
Quite simply these guys were disgusting- I had the worst treatment ever from them, goods delivered faulty, returned to them and never got money back (till credit card co refunded me). Staff were sarcastic and runde after days of trying to get through and literally hours on hold. Im glad these scam artists are gone. Good riddance
- Jasmine Cohen, angryland
Thank god this company is gone! We ordered £600 worth of goods and never received either the goods or a penny in refunds from these charlatans. After 6 months and tens of mails, call, letters and threats of legal action without any proper response I got my money back from Barclaycard under the consumer credit act. Thanks god for that law, otherwise i'd be out of pocket.
- Mike, Staffordshire
I can't believe that the former staff member above has said that they had wonderful service. It was the worst that I have ever come across. I was one of the compainants to Watchdog and put bad reviews all over the internet wherever I could. I have lost £200 that I won't see now after the company went bust before refunding the final part of my order (that was already 3 months late and was only cancelled because I threatened them with legal action), but I'd willingly lose double that to stop other expectant parents being scammed by this terrible, terrible outfit. I'm so glad it went bust.
- Peter, London
after reading all the info on the website, why was RBS allowed to send conformation letter agreeing to loan, but then after seeing the watchdog programme allowed to back track, strange now we all have to pay,
- Knightley, sutton
we had wonderful service, the showroom was lovely, staff very helpful, ok they only had email for after sales, well it was an internet company, but they quoted us 6/8 weeks it arrived in 4 weeks, to me service was great and would have loved to use them again, shame
- Alison Neville, poole
Although the staff were amazing in their knowledge and professionalism, this was a poorly run business!!
Orders were in effect missing without a trace (usually somewhere deep in the warehouse!) and customer service was poor! But only due to poor management!
As stated on the latest watchdog programme, aftersales were only available via email and refunds were not given to many!! With regards to the aftersales dept being a separate entity, this was a complete management fabrication!!
It is a shame this company has gone down as it could have continued to be a brilliant service to many, it was just also a shame it was run by amateurs playing a professional game.
- Anon, London
I read the emails from RBS offering a Government Loan Scheme to this company then after the watchdog program pulling proposed funding. Typical RBS, come on Labour you need to get involved considering the speeches to help small businesses through a global financial meltdown. Apparently they had roughly 24 members of staff according to the original statement, my heart goes out to all involved.
- John, London
Carlos
I think your memory fails you! Two LEft Feet nor Watchdog ever stated that orders were lost without a trace. This is such a shame - they were a good company deep down with an excellent business model - I purhcased from them in 2006 and never had one problem - I recommended to friends and they had never experienced a problem until the "global recession" ie Greedy Banks get the fingers burned - I don't know how many employees are impacted by their closure but I wish them every success!
- Jonty, Braintree, Essex
Saw the Watchdog programme concerning customer complaints against this company. The computer system was blamed for the problems - if I recall, orders were lost without trace if the company did not have the goods in stock --- great! Customer service was also a problem - they wanted emails and not phone calls. Once complaints like this come to light, how can a company expect to raise money!
- Carlos, FAREHAM, Hants
