What you can do in 5 MIN

If not done already I would recommend that you make a complaint about Parish & Bell (and Foot Pain Pioneers) to the following organizations:

Consumer Which Magazine on email at extra@which.net

Trading Standards on internet at www.Consumer Direct.gov.uk (you just need to fill in a quick form to make the complaint)

BBC Watchdog on email at watchdog@bbc.co.uk

I and others  have done this already and their general response is that they will act if they get more complainants.

Here I paste model letter in case you want to save time (please modify it according to your case):

To Whom May Help

A foot treatment company called Parish and Bell offered 99% success rate of being cured of a very common but difficult to treat problem –plantar fasciitis-. They offered “unique” orthotics at extremely high price in comparison to other clinics, but they ensured full refund if the problem was not fully solved.

A few months ago the company went under. They did not communicate this to me (and I am quite certain to any of their clients either). The result is that treatments are incomplete and they of course did not give any refund.

The amazing thing is that a new company has emerged with almost exactly the same strategy. It is called Foot-Pain-Pioneers. The owner of Parish and Bell, Les Bailey, seems to be the boss of this new company.

I tried to contact them asking for continuation of my treatment and did not get any answer back, and I know other cases with the same experience.

Over the internet it is obvious that many people have been affected. Actually it is surprising how this company also upset professionals.

Please visit

http://www.podiatry-arena.com/podiatry-forum/showthread.php?t=31533&page=2

https://parishandbellaffected.wordpress.com

http://whatconsumer.co.uk/forum/other-goods-services/3365-parish-bell.html

Hope you can help

Les Bailey is BACK!!

Here is the advert from the Daily Mail (sorry for the distortion, did not find a better way to make the text readable).

Enjoy…

And here is an advert from P&B April 08, from the Sun, to compare…

And please have a look to previous comment in the previous entrance (Paul Bishop and myself) about organising a march to the new clinic.

This is what I just left at Podiatry Arena:

Dear all

As P&B has come back with another name I would suggest the following:

1. Write an email to the new company asking for continuing the treatment (unless you simply want your money back). We have to consider that perhaps the company will now take responsability of the previous clients (I doubt it but you never know). To me, if they don’t do it, they will have to pay a considerable price for it.

2. If the answer is not positive, we are organising a march to the clinic, calling the press. Please visit [URL=”https://parishandbellaffected.wordpress.com”%5D

(Please, leave a comment there if you want, at some point, to receive an email with the details about any action.

3. Again, if the answer is not positive I would also suggest that we should write to the Daily mirror to inform them about what happened. They should know what they are advertising.

Parish & Bell bankrupt has affected me. What about you?

Apparently Parish&Bell  was  gone under in 2008. In my case they did not notify they would not be able to continue my treatment, modify my orthotics, or refund me.

My intention now is to really know what happened and to contact as many people as possible to see if all of us together could do something to get our money back and to investigate if there were irregularities in this company, and, in that case, try to make a formal complaint in relevant sites and media.

The most surprising thing to me is how a company that gets thousands of pounds for something that should be very cheap for them and only a 2% of the people claimed for refund, goes to bankrupt.

Additionally, the 98%  success rate calculation was calculated considering the number of people that did not ask for refund, not the number of people that had their problem solved. They were told by ASA (not just recommended) to remove that success rate from their newspaper adds.

http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudications/Public/TF_ADJ_43935.htm).

They actually did not remove it but substituted it by a 90%  using the same missleading method. And, amazingly they did not change it in the website!!

Finally, P&B claimed their orthotics would last a life-time. Well, mine are already quite deteriorated after 2 years of normal use and non-sport (because I can´t).

I would like to insist that by now there is probably no evidence for something illegal. Their adverts are very misleading IMHO, but wether that is illegal should be considered by a court in case we decided to do something. I would encourage everybody visiting this site to make polite comments, not accusing anyone without being able to probe it.

If you are happy to collaborate telling your case  please just leave a post. I should be able, as administrator of this blog, to contact you by email if necessary. It would be nice to have a list of affected people (either patients or profesionals)  in order to communicate between us easily and try to think what can be done to recover our money and, in case there was something wrong with the company, avoid this happening again to other people.

You can also visit other websites:

http://www.podiatry-arena.com/podiatry-forum/showthread.php?t=25175

http://heelspurs.com/cgi-bin/_search.cgi?a=yes&n=new&keyword=parish+and+bell

http://whatconsumer.co.uk/forum/other-goods-services/3365-parish-bell.html#post6771