[PLEASE READ THIS TEXT BEFORE READING THE STORY BELOW]
After receiving a threatening letter from Ablestokes solicitor the client in question who was a member of Perfect Day Ltd would like to state (AND QUOTE):
Perfect Day Consulting Limited (“Perfect Day”) went into administration on 19th December 2008. The goodwill and assets of Perfect Day were purchased by Ablestoke Limited. Ablestoke Limited is an entirely separate company from Perfect Day and the trading practices of Perfect Day bear no relevance to those of our client [Referring to Ablestoke Limited]
So the client who’s story you are about to read feels they must get this message firmly across as due to the goodwill and assets of Perfect Day being purchased by Ablestoke Limited, that would explain the reason that the director who the client dealt with at Perfect Day Limited now is a director at Ablestoke Limited along with ALL the relative staff and employee’s who the client had dealings with when the client was a member of Perfect Day Limited (Bar Phil Nunn) where they simply work from the same address as Perfect Day Limited and are where their business trade some could argue as being very similar or the same. It simple isn’t a coincidence but again simply due to the assets of Perfect Day being purchased by Ablestoke. Once again the client would like to stress after receiving a letter from Ablestokes solicitors that Perfect Day Limited and Ablestoke Limited are two separate companies and Ablestoke IS NOT “merely Perfect Day trading under a different name”. Thank you for reading this section.
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This is the story of a client who got involved with Perfect Day when they was cold called by Phil Nunn (A representative of the business) back in 2005. (http://www.perfectday.tv/. Like above the client adds once again that Ablestoke (who purchased the goodwill and assets from Perfect Day Ltd) now operate their company out of the same premises and have employed many of the Perfect Day consultants. And apparently Ablestoke consultants are telling their original Perfect Day Clients the following: “There is NO change to your affairs and the admin of it. We have just changed our compliance route back to Intrinsic and hence new company set up.” Back then Perfect Day Ltd claimed to be a company to help the client in question in financial needs. The client back then became a paying client on a monthly direct Debit subscription and they remortgaged a buy to let property they had (at an additions fee to the monthly Direct debit), transferred a pension pot to a better (they claimed) pension provider and introduced the client to a new and better (again they claimed) accountant from the one the client was currently using at the time. All of which wasn’t the case as the client found out the remortgage had a 5-year tie in at 4.75% and as we all know the base rate is now around 1%! So the client was and still is stuck with this deal for another 2 years yet, when a better re-mortgage should had given an option for better rates if and when the base rate dropped considerably! Also the client found out they switched the £16K pension pot to a company who is solely based on the stock market and the U.S stock market at that! So you can only imagine the state of that Pot of funds now what with the state of the U.S Market at present. Hopefully as the client doesn’t come to retired for another 30 years things can turn around! And regarding the accountant, the client wanted an accountant to be able to charge a set FIXED fee for looking after the Taxes the client was to pay on any extra income excluding the 1st main income the client paid PAYE taxes on, but they actually introduced the client to an accountancy firm who after the clients first year CHARGED the client BY THE HOUR!! So you can only imagine the clients horror when an invoice came to from them totalling well over a THOUSAND pounds. The client then had to negotiate with the director of the accountancy firm in question over several months where the client was threatening court action if payment wasn’t received in full!! Instead of it costing the client around £300-500 as expected the client ended up paying just over £700 in total if you added up extra funds the client had already send through Direct debits every month through out the year to this accountancy firm! The company’s rep who the client dealt with at the time did NOTHING to help rectify this problem, a problem the client might add which was down to THEM placing the client with the wrong type of accountancy firm to start with as they didn’t do a PERMINANT fixed fee rate as the client requested from the start. As you can imagine the client wasn’t happy and left Perfect Days services around that time.
Unfortunately the client didn’t leave sooner, as halfway into the clients year subscription and on the advice of the clients representative the client took out a bank loan of which the client STILL to this day has EMAILS from the clients then representative of Perfect Day asking the client NOT to tell anyone he advised the client to do this regarding raising the extra 50% capital the client needed to invest in that off plan apartment in Parnu/Estonia!! (Which the client believes is against FSA rules as the FSA wrote to the client after the client wrote to them about the clients’ business experiences with Perfect Day. The FSA went on to mention they plan to investigate the client’s complaint! The client STILL holds a copy of this letter!) They convinced the client it was a “No Brainer” as the client was assured by the representative for the company that the client would NEVER lose any money even if the development wasn’t built as the Banks were acting as guarantors (The client took that to mean that all money along with other clients too was being put into Escrow accounts) So the client then paid the 30% deposit fund of £9525 to Churchills as Perfect Day claimed the deal was good as they presented it to other clients too. 3 years later the client and others have all been SCAMMED and left with nothing! No property, no money back… A BIG FAT NOTHING!! Perfect Day at that point left the client (and other clients who also invested) to fend for themselves as their Administrators sent out a standard letter with words to that effect (you can see a copy of that letter on the http://www.perfectday.tv/ site, when you click on the Estonia investment section) as the contact details they left for Churchills were none existent and old of which they must had known before sending out that pathetic excuse of a letter to all the investors who put down funds for the off plan Estonia deal on the sound advice of Perfect Day. The Client wrote them back and they never replied. The client didn’t give up there, but tried contacting their offices by ringing and emailing and still NO ONE contacted the client back after numerous answering machine and emails messages were left! The client even contacted their solicitors who was acting on behalf of Perfect Day Ltd and was told after speaking with their solicitor that they (the solicitors of Perfect Day) would be in contact again with the client once they had their file sent over to them from Perfect Day so they could have a better picture on matters. Needless to say the client NEVER heard back from Perfect Days solicitors so the client has NO official documents in to what exactly has happened to the money the client was advised to send to Churchills by Perfect Day Ltd! They couldn’t give a damn the client reckons and still to this day don’t want to accept that they got this whole investment deal wrong and from what the client and others gather NO Perfect Day client who invested in the Off plan Estonia deal has ever been compensated for their poor investment judgement and lack of due diligence on the companies behalf! The client would however like to add that the former representative for Perfect Day who left the business did make contact by email and in an exchange of emails did offer to give the client his commission he made on the Estonia Deal. The client declined as it wasn’t anywhere near the thousands lost through this scam he advised the client to get involved in when he was an employee of Perfect Day and after emailing the former representative emails showing him past emails where the representative clearly broke FSA rules, the representative didn’t reply back! Absolutely shocking as to anyone reading those emails and the counter offer made by the representative it’s clear some acknowledgement of guilt was present from his part to the client!!! And yes… AGAIN the client kept copies of ALL those emails too! The client tried emailing the former rep once again only to have the email bounce back. The client thought to send the email to the reps networking site due to the fact of not being able to get through to the former Perfect Day rep by email. Several weeks later the client received a threatening letter from Ablestokes solicitors regarding the apparent “Tone” of the wording in the email sent to the former Perfect Day rep along with the former director of Perfect Days who is now also the current director of Ablestoke.
You can read this whole Churchills/Estonia story on the “Action Against Churchills” Blog website as it explains it a lot clearer and shows Perfect Days involvement with this off plan investment for it’s clients! Lee Wells a Director from Perfect Day even sent the client an email clearly LYING as he told the client this group wasn’t taking any further action! The client found out later it was probably a blatant attempt to throw the client off the scent of how involved Perfect Day were with this Churchills/Estonia off plan Scam!! And YES… The client DOES STILL have that email sent from Lee Wells along with various others from employees from Churchills claiming the clients money was indeed safe when the truth was it was GONE!!! The client also wrote to Mr Karl Goldthorpe (The Owner of Churchills Overseas/Solutions based on the Isle of Wight) where the client tried to negotiate an alternative property along with trying to obtain answers. Also by the request of a police officer on the Isle of Wight the client was asked to contact the Estonian developer directly. The client did indeed do that and an email was received from the Estonian development company headed up by Katherine D’Costa where she clearly made reference to the letter the client had sent to Mr Karl Goldthorpe. It was no surprise to the client, as Katherine D’Costa happened to be the SISTER of Mr Karl Goldthorpe! The client was then offered to switch to a different Estonian property and was sent pictures from Katherine D’Costa showing the new Villas. The client asked for a few more updated pictures and after waiting many many weeks finally heard back, but after a New Hampshire police investigation is currently taking place it was agreed by both the client and Katherine D’Costa that waiting for the outcome of the police investigation was the sensible way forward. The client then contacted the Isle of Wight police officer (DC Hatch) by email, as it was he originally who advised the client to contact the developer by emailing the client the developers email address. As of yet the client still has not heard back from the police officer. The client rang the station where the officer was stationed and spoke with another female officer and she confirmed that particular day that DC Hatch was indeed working, so the client cannot understand why contact from the officer never happened that day and still hasn’t happen even by now well over a week later! Once again the client has EVERY email sent and received regarding this matter from both the developer AND the police officer involved.
So in summing up… The clients concludes that you’d be a brave person to ever go near Perfect Day (and Churchills too) let alone using their services and trusting their advice, but as that business is now no more that is not likely to be the case! The client also later found out that an ex director of Perfect Day called “Dale Pilkington left and then went on to become a director at Churchills! Now that fact alone highlight and spell out something un towards as the client went on to add that Mr Pilkington was the person who put forward to Perfect Day the whole off plan Estonia property Investment deal! Finally former and possible future employees of the business mentioned their working experiences on line http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1502353 and in a blog below!! It would be interested to know if anyone else has had a similar experience good or bad? If so post your story and tell all!
ANONYMOUS
Hunter_51
REVIEW OF PERFECTDAY.TV - AN INSIDERS PERSPECTIVE
I'm here to Expose Perfectday or Ablestoke or City Financial for what they are MAKE YOUR OWN MIND UP.
HISTORY/ BACKGROUND
I worked for Perfect day for just over a year and this is my account of they way I saw things as a consultant at Perfect day.
Perfect day came out of a Company called City financial back in the early 90's with some of the directors starting the now Perfect day or Ablestoke.
City financial were shut down then by the govt. for pension and mortgage miss-selling and to quote one former employee of city financial "I remember the last day there I quickly packed my things as the police came into centerpoint (the large tower block on Tottenham court road) and ran down the back flight of stairs thank god we were on the 25th floor"
Now to Perfect day, I remember I had a 5 stage interview process where it was revealed to me at the final interview after offering me the job that I would be on commission only and self employed.
So how did I make money you ask? In the first few weeks I was forced to call family and friends to come in and sign up to become a client of perfect day, this meant I fell out with a few friends over the time I was there. I stopped being a human and became some type of sales hungry vampire stalking my prey irrespective of who they are and what they do.
To be a client of perfect day you pay a monthly subscription ranging from £25 per month to £100 per month. As a trainee I received 40% of this monthly subscription and (here is the complicated part) commission from policies taken out from our clients, which worked out to be total commission - 30% - 60%!!! (Hardly enough to live on!!!).
I soon ran out of friends and family to harass and was then told to cold call my boss said anyone is fair game as long as they had a job. Some shocking practices were born from this and was standard throughout the company from some people buying leads (names and phone numbers) from companies, to calling any name and number you could find on the internet from businesses down to people looking for houses to rent on gumtree!!!
We were forced to cold call all day and forced to stay until very late at night (well until the cleaners kicked you out circa 9.00pm).
We were constantly pressured into delivering results to line the pockets of the partners and humiliated if we failed to deliver. I remember a colleague being forced to wear women’s underwear over their suit and refused lunch.
The structure of promotions could only be described as some type of pyramid scheme were the higher you got in the company the more money you made through a preferable income.
LETS TALK ABOUT THE SERVICE
Someone at Perfect day will give you a call and tell you some BS about getting your information from some questionnaire (THIS IS COMPLETLEY MADE UP AND YOUR NUMBER PROBABLY CAME FROM A LEAD GENERATION COMAPNY/ THE BT PHONEBOOK/ ANYWHERE ON THE INTERNET YOU LEFT YOUR NAME AND NUMBER) they will use techniques to get you to commit to coming to a free financial review.
ps: I EVEN REMEMBER WE WERE GIVEN CV'S OF APPLICANTS TO PERFECTDAY WHO EITHER FAILED THE INTERVIEWING PROCESS OR DECIDED NOT TO TAKE THE JOB IN ORDER TO CONVERT THEMINTO CLIENTS. SHOCKING!!!!
When you or if you turn up you will be greeted by a neatly dressed consultant the same person you spoke to on the phone. You will be offered a drink and that is when the sales process starts it is now the consultants mission not to let you walk out of the office until you become a client of perfect day. The sales process reminds me of a Time-share pitch!!! They will go through your finances using a fact find and begin to expose you which will include asking you probing questions and putting you in situations such as how will you cope if you get hit by a bus or who will look after your family financially when you die??? After exposing you they will show you the solution and guess what the solution is becoming a client of perfect day!!!
The service itself has very little value unless you are a serious investor or earn over £70k per annum.
You pay a monthly subscription and for that you consultant will load you up with a bunch of policies, life insurance, medical insurance, pension and pretty much any piece of kit they can flog you!!! The company will take the commission from any business you do. If you already have any protection don't worry they will rebroke it and take the commission from that too.
As a client of perfect day you can expect to be harassed by your consultant for the numbers of colleagues, friends and family so they can become clients and expect the same treatment.
SO WHO IS ABLESTOKE and SAGE and INTRINSIC.
PERFECTDAY will say to you they are independent INCORRECT!!!!! They are appointed representatives of INTRINSIC FINACIAL SERVICES, intrinsic offers a panel of leading product providers and are not INDEPENDENT!!!!!!
When I started at perfect day we put all business through Intrinsic financial services this was up until late 2007. They jumped out of bed with intrinsic and jumped in bed with SAGE this deal meant that they could make more money in commission from providers and also allow access to SAGE's database of dead clients (people who are with a financial adviser or have been with one) this excited perfect day as there were potential hundreds of thousands of leads they could call and convert to perfect day clients. Unfortunately for perfect day this did not come into fruition and meant a very sour end with SAGE. This happed end of 2008 around the time PERFECTDAY went into administration. SAGE accused Perfect day of a breach of contract by refusing to place any further business through them!!! SO the directors of Perfect day decided to place Perfect day into administration, with many deals being investigated by their administrators and start a new company ABLESTOKE.
ABLESTOKE...a new beginning? I DON'T THINK SO
the Newly formed ABLESTOKE (Perfect day) are back being appointed representatives of INTRINSIC and will rebroke all policies whilst under SAGE (I got this information from a close friend and consultant of ABLESTOKE) and those good old shady business practices will still be continued the relentless cold - calling, harassment of clients for referrals (numbers of friends and family etc.) self employed consultants getting numbers any way they can by surfing the net.
THE REAL SCAM
The real scam is the way employees of self-employees are treated If you enjoy ritualistic humiliation, racism, working very long hours, cold calling friends and family, very poor commission structure, bad pay, poor working conditions, and generally being hated by people then become a consultant at Perfect day/ABLESTOKE.
MY FINAL THOUGHTS
IF YOU ARE NOT A SERIOUS INVESTOR OR EARN A SUBSTANTIAL AMOUNT OF MONEY I PERSONALLY WOULD NOT BOTHER WITH ABLESTOKE/PERFCETDAY.
I RECCOMEND YOU GO ONLINE DO SOME READING ABOUT FINANCIAL PLANNING AND GET ON A PRICE COMPARISON SITE AND GET THE BEST DEAL FOR YOURSELF!!!
ALTHOUGH THIS POST IS ALL DOOM AND GLOOM ABOUT PERFECTDAY THERE ARE SOME GOOD ASPECTS!
THE IFA'S OR SEMI-IFA'S AND MORTGAGE BORKERS ARE VERY GOOD AT WHAT THEY DO!
IT’S A REAL SHAME ABOUT THE SHOCKING THE BUSINESS PRACTICES EMPLOYED BY THE PARTNERS/DIRECTORS/CONSULTANTS AT THE FIRM.
