Laneset - www.laneset.co.uk

I would not recommend this company to anyone, they are dodgy and not trustworthy, they told me they could reduce my business rates then as soon as they got my e-mail bombarded me with e-mails then frightened me into paying them some money by saying I'd signed a contract with them and they would take me to court and put me on a bad debtors list if I didn't pay so much towards their costs. I did check with the council that they were having my rates reviewed to which they told me an application was waiting, so being naive I stupidly paid them some money. They then withdrew the application straight away and when I kept telephoning them they conveniently weren't answering the phone and when I left a message they didn't get back to me. My advice is to you don't trust or use these people.

Received a phone call from these guys claiming they could reduce my business rates.

Very hard sell over the phone so I asked if a representative of the company could come to my pub to show me all the details.

Was told "no, not possible, this is a one-off offer, blah blah blah" and REALLY wanted me to go for the contract.

Once they had my email address, I was immediately presented with a cotract of agreement, "which must be signed and replied to ASAP"...

I read the small print and once I saw the amount of money they wanted upfront (over £2500!!!) immediately declined the agreement and had to send 3 emails back to get cofirmation of cancellation.

Also, just to be doubly sure, I sent a Registered Letter to their head office, within the required 7 day cancellation period, and made sure it was acknowledged.

I never received a reply, telephone or otherwise, but they never got in touch again.

My advice is, steer well clear of this company!

Stay clear, took £400 of me, no response after writing and calling

They started by repeated cold calling telesales, When you agree to see them full of very convincing claims.

They claimed to be able to reduce our business rates significantly and as they had just about doubled then it was of interest.

Once they got there money out of us, then absolutely nothing happened.

At least I am glad to sea I was not the only sucker.

As with many reviews, contacted, assured, money taken with guarantee.

Told no fee would be payable if the case was not water tight.

Told we were due for a large rebate as defined by the valuation office.

Asked for fee then deadly silence, contacted them to be told it could take up to 8 weeks for a reply, try to contact them again only to find out their website has been suspended and no way of contact.

Like an idiot I paid the fee, the valuation office visited my premises and the rates actually went up!

Feel very stupid but I guess I am not the only one that has been sucked in.

The names I found from companies house are:

Directors and Secretaries

Chris Barlow

21 Apr 2009 ⇒ Present (3 Years) Company Secretary

Timothy Robinson

1 Apr 2011 ⇒ Present (1 Year) Director

If you see these guys involved then do not use, trading standards should take these guys to the cleaners

Gut insinct is a valuable asset, don't ignore it if these people contact you, my story is the same as the majority of peoples. Do not let these people get the better of you by going anywhere near them, they are a con. Although I feel for everyone taken in by these con men I'm glad I wasn't the only one and again I have cynicism on my side, should have listened to what my head was telling me, but 'NO' just didn't seem to cut it with these people, I was being phoned at least once a week if not more, until I gave it a go. Stupid me!!! At least we may be able to save some others from this fate.

We took over our pub 16 months ago. We were phoned by Laneset and me being me trying to save money was taken in by the women on the end of the phone. She was very helpfull and I even had a laugh with her. I sent them everything they asked for and stupid me sent them £475 before they had done anything for me. Agian the kept in touch for the first couple of months keeping me upto date on my case. Then nothing!! I tried phoning them to be either greeted by a constant engaged tone or going straight to a answer phone message. I even tried to email them again getting no reply. Finally got through to them this year with a reply of them being to busy because of the new valuation year. With the promise of somebody getting back to me I waited again. The only thing ive had through the post since regarding this "SCAM" company was a letter of the VOA telling me they had gone into liquidation.

So you theiving scum bags where is my money?? Yes i was stupid sending it you in the first place before you actually did anything, which i now know you never had the intention to do. Where do find out who the liquidators are and how do we get our money back? I think they deserve to be named and shamed then jailed for fraud.

Dirty flithy rotten theiving scum bags!!

The directors of this company should not be allowed to trade again.

They phoned with promises that they new could not be delivered ,

Isn't life hard enough for small businesses. More fool me!! I am usually a very astute business woman and fight a hard bargain BUT I am amazed I have been taken in by such plausible telephone sales people. I placed 2 business premises with them about 18 months ago. I made all the follow up telephone calls and was given "progress reports" regarding various stages at the Valuations Office and dates of "hearings" etc. The smaller premises - I did hear had been refused.

Today on discussing another issue with my local business rates authority - I decided to phone Laneset to no avail. Went on website and found they are in liquidation.

I wish now that I had visited this Review Centre much earlier. There seems to be no indication when they went into Liquidation. Information seems very hard to come by.

We also have lost a lot of money we can ill afford to do in these difficult times. I have now gone direct to voa.gov.uk. and hopefully they will help us. I could have done this myself in the beginning. But companies like Laneset get all your company details and then hound you into letting them HELP you and save you valuable time you could spend elsewhere developing your business.

Where does one go from here, I need to get my money back. They do not divulge the names of administrators or liquidators so that one claim off their assets, if they have any. Owners of companies like this should not be allowed to trade again. No doubt they will crop up somewhere else in some other guise and con unsuspecting businesses out of more money.

If anyone else who has suffered badly with this now defunct company can give advise please do so. How many more companies are there? It seems they have been trading till very recently. But judging by the many reviews listed here difficulties seem to be within the last 9 months, although as one reviewer points out previuos reviews have been removed. Why is this? At least no unsuspecting business will deal with these people again.

Be aware of any other like companies offering plausible services to help busy small businesses. They cannot sort things out and unfortunately we are left with the task of dealing with all government agencies ourselves, which takes a long time.

Since writing this review I have now heard direct from voa that my case is still ongoing and I will hear from them in due course.

Good luck to everyone else who has an appeal outstanding. But how do we get our hard earnt money back from this defunct company?

Well what a surprise. 3weeks after sending me a letter threatening court action if i didnt pay them and succeding to get my payment by means of a collecting agency( now i wonder if they really were) , i see they have finished.I am so angry!!

These people are cons , they dont care about small businesses who suffer from thier actions!!