KY Cygni

3rd time was the charm

 I had a second go at it. The biggest difference was using Generalised Hyperbolic Stretch for the 1st time which I liked a lot and brought out much more detail. However I prefer the 1st image, to me space is hostile, grubby and dusty, the second is too happy   

Really nice image.

I cant like image 2 enough, superb

Not the best data but it’s came out OK

Should be the phoenix nebula, there's no justice.

Sii 7 x 600”, Ha 7 x 600”, Oiii 7 x 600” Processed with Pixinsight and final tweaks in Luminar.

I just had a read through the HOUK threads to get a rough idea how many are out of pocket and the deposits paid.  This may not be 100% accurate as some are from old posts and info may not have been updated.

1. Myself £1,450
2. SDN £?
3. Steve Lintott £3,500
4. tdinneen £1,900
5. Ben Whittle £?
6. Mount Longlevens £3,100
7. CarerSterennow £?
8. Andrew G48 £?

If we assume a rough average deposit of £1,500 for the missing figures then we get to £15,950. 

On 18/12/2022 at 13:56, wesdon1 said:

Hi Steve. It really saddens me reading this. I think maybe if you asked the high court for them to send those high court enforcement bailiffs who have basically cate' blanche to turn up at any business and clean them out, if they won't pay the debts ? Harsh, I know, but there comes a point when you can't wait any longer and continue allowing these people to cause you any more distress and hardship! You paid a substantial sum of money to that business in good faith, so you are well withing your legal and indeed moral rights to expect to receive the services and/or goods you were paying for! I sincerely hope you get your monies back and the nightmare can end for you asap!

Clear Skies.

Wes.

Hi Wes 

Bailiffs have been to the workshop address and there was no sign of activity. They also went to the address I found for Gareth Thomas a mile away which turned out not to be our guy. I ended up having a phone call with this chap to explain and he was really good about it. 

I'm too long in the tooth to get distressed about it, I do feel for other people that may be more affected by this.

I fully believe he will surface and be held to account.

On 23/10/2022 at 18:20, Shimrod said:

Have you considered using a tracing service? If you've truly written the money off and it is substantial enough, a debt recovery service (which would do the tracing for you) might be an option although it would cost a fair chunk of the debt.

Thanks for the reply, the problem is that every step in debt recovery costs something. I guess this has already added 25% to the original loss. I will play the long game and wait for an address tip. My guess is someone on here will know where he lives and may read this thread at some point.

I will reply in general to some of the comments based on my experience with HOUK

Trading standards are no longer public facing, you used to be able to go to them direct but now it’s all filtered through Citizens Advice who are volunteers that will help you with court action etc but not much else. It could be worth several of us contacting them, that should get us to Trading Standards.

The courts and bailiffs will not track anyone down for you, you have to do all of this legwork. HOUK have concealed themselves and none of the addresses add up. I tracked down a Gareth Thomas that lives less than a mile from the ind est. It wasn’t him. 

Non refundable deposit is meaningless if the contract is broken by the vendor as in this case.

I posed as a prospective customer making an enquiry via the website and he didn’t reply. I don’t think he is savvy enough to take it down. I think it is due to renew next year so it may vanish if he doesn’t pay up.

I have written off the money but am keeping an eye on things, if a valid address for Gareth Thomas becomes available I will send bailiffs back in.

Steve

Lots happening today 

The address I have may not be the correct Gareth Thomas. There are several bits of info pointing in that direction that don't seem like coincidence, however the Gareth at that address actually called me and we had a very civil chat, he said it isn't him but was very understanding of the situation. He has agreed to confirm his identity against the image of the actual Gareth from another thread that I have supplied to the courts. Another person inconvenienced by HOUK Gareths poor character. 

So it's probably back square one for now. I will issue another warrant if I obtain an actual confirmed address, someone knows where this man is. 

I remain philosophical, it's not taken over my life but I will exhaust every avenue.

51 minutes ago, AndrewG48 said:

As an update, I am aware that Gareth attended to complete an installation mid January. I am keeping my fingers crossed that he is still operating as I await my install ordered in April 2021

Hi Andrew

Can I ask how you came about this information?

From communications received it seems that Gareth Thomas is no longer in the observatory business. The mobile # also appears to be no longer active.

There are at least 2 customers that haven't received their orders or a deposit refund.

Thanks for looking Cyril, I did the same myself just in case he wasn't a sole trader.

Shimrod thanks for that, had a look myself and did notice that the domain is about to expire in April. I assume he would have to re-register otherwise the site would cease ?

Another update

I am pretty certain I have his actual address once confirmed by the bailiff team I will publish here.

Just some clarification on addresses. The address I supplied to the court was the one given on the deposit receipt and is the one that comes up blank.

 Unit 9B Roudham Park Industrial Estate, Roudham road, East Harling, Norwich, Norfolk, NR16 2SN

The address on the website is missing the 1st line so is not useable and it has a different post code.

Roundham, Norwich Norfolk, NR16 2QN

17 hours ago, Gfamily said:

If you paid using a Credit Card you'll be able to claim back from them.

Of course but they don't have that payment option. At the time HOUK still had an excellent track record.

Quick update on my action against Gareth Thomas

The case is still ongoing as this stuff seems to move at a glacial pace. A warrant has been issued and the 1st attempt at collection has revealed that the Industrial Estate address gives on his website does not seem to exist. 

For anyone thinking of using HOUK please remember he is supplying false contact info on his website.

If anyone has a legit address for this person I be would very appreciative if you could PM me to save time.

It's nearly a year since I paid my deposit.

Has anyone had contact at all recently? There used to be the odd email or phone call to customers but it seems like those have stopped. Ive not heard of an install being done for ages.

On a positive note I got some 1st light test images from the observatory that I ended up building myself.

Hey Malcolm 

Unfortunately there's no guarantee I will get anything at all even with a CCJ, this is the world we live in, people can just take from you and thats it.

I fully believe my deposit has gone.

I am being philosophical,  my obs is up and running, the cost even with court fees, the donor shed and all the power tools I bought is still less than HOUK would have charged. Sad but true.

An update

So the court has issued a CCJ against Gareth and directed him to refund me plus court costs.

I really don't want to do this but he has left me no choice, I emailed him one last time to avoid bailiff action but he's ignored  that as well. I tried I really have.

I know if he had got to installing my obs that it would have been a good job but he has blatantly just kept my deposit 

If he sees sense I will report back but from Monday its in the hands of county court bailiffs.

14 hours ago, tomato said:

Just a suggestion, you could put some low power red LEDs on each leg if you find yourself tripping over them in the dark confines of the observatory. I don’t have much space at all in my dome, and although I have a pier I still bang into the counter weight arm quite regularly.

Im not exactly a waif so will definitely do that, thanks for the advice.

15 minutes ago, malc-c said:

It's not sounding too good if he's ignoring the courts... and through efforts of various people he is probably aware of this (and previous) discussions so it's strange that he does appear on the face of it, burying his head in the sand, hoping it will all go away. 

Good luck Steve, and hope you get your deposit back soon

Thanks Malcolm, its a damn shame its got this far, theres no need for any of it. Being as reasonable as possible I emailed  him at every stage to give him every opportunity to act. I’m hoping the CCJ will nudge him to see sense before debt recovery.

26 minutes ago, tomato said:

Really nice, any reason why you haven't gone with a central pier?

Cheers, only really because I had the tri pier already. So far its been rock solid but I may amend to a central pier later on.

I used a Rowlinson Security shed. All I really did was beef up the walls and roof sections with some extra woodwork and just added castors to the roof, plus the roll off frame of course. It works brilliantly Im very pleased with it. I will be hinging the upper part of the back wall to get a touch more sky.