Tip Top Electronics

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Just wondering if anyone had used this website?
It looks like a scam to me, very little information on the company apart from they also have an Australian sister site under the same name.
They claim to price match any other store and so theyre products are very cheap.

As I say, it looks like a scam and the only method of payment is a bank transfer.

Anyone got any experience with them/can confirm they are scammers?

Thanks
 
Another .co.uk website but not a UK company.

Their own `In-house warranties`

We ask our customers to cover the cost of the shipping to the designated repair Centre and we will cover the cost of shipping the item back to the customer address

RETURNS
If you are not totally happy with your product we will take the item back within 14 days of delivery however a 20% restocking fee will apply.The item must be in its original packaging and be in brand new condition.

Order Placement And Import : By placing an order with Tiptopelectronics .uk, you accept all responsibility for ensuring that your purchase can be imported in accordance with the laws of the country to which you have requested Tiptopelectronics uk to ship your purchase and you also agree that you are the sole importer for the purchase of your product for all purposes, including but not limited to customs regulations, copyright and trademark laws and you agree to comply with all laws and regulations of the country in which the goods are received.

Passage of Risk : All items purchased from, and have payment settled to, Tiptopelectronics uk are made pursuant to a shipment contract. This means that the risk of loss and title for such items pass to you upon delivery to the carrier selected by Tiptopelectronics.co uk to deliver your order.

So if they ship it out & you don't receive it......take up your claim with the carrier! lol

Not somewhere i'd use tbh.
 
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Domain name:
tiptopelectronics.co.uk

Registrant:
Unreal Technologies

Registrant type:
Unknown

Registrant's address:
Po Box A2191
Sydney South
NSW
2000
Australia

Relevant dates:
Registered on: 28-Dec-2012
Expiry date: 28-Dec-2014
Last updated: 01-May-2013


2 other sites hosted on this server.

Reverse IP Lookup Results — 3 domains hosted on IP address 67.225.220.189

1. tiptopelectronics.co.nz
registrant_contact_name: Unreal Technologies
registrant_contact_address1: 207/15 Queens Rd
registrant_contact_city: Melbourne
registrant_contact_province: VIC
registrant_contact_postalcode: 3004
registrant_contact_country: AU (AUSTRALIA)
registrant_contact_phone: +61 390163949
registrant_contact_email:
admin_contact_name: Dhruv Chopra
admin_contact_address1: Karangahape Road Auckland 1010 NZ
admin_contact_city: Auckland
admin_contact_province: Auckland
admin_contact_postalcode: 1010
admin_contact_country: NZ (NEW ZEALAND)
admin_contact_phone: +64 98890607
admin_contact_email:

2. tiptopelectronics.co.uk

3. tiptopelectronics.com.au
Domain Name: tiptopelectronics.com.au
Last Modified: 26-Aug-2013 08:52:07 UTC
Registrar ID: WAR
Registrar Name: Web Address Registration
Status: ok

Registrant: GILL, KULBIR
Registrant ID: ABN 53466131163
Eligibility Type: Sole Trader

Registrant Contact ID: R-009243671-SN
Registrant Contact Name: Dhruv Chopra

electronicbazaar.com.au
Registrant: CHOPRA, DHRUV
Registrant ID: ABN 64194943617
Eligibility Type: Sole Trader
Eligibility Name: UNREAL TECHNOLOGIES

Source: http://whois.domaintools.com/tiptopelectronics.co.uk

See also:

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1094235

http://www.productreview.com.au/p/electronic-bazaar.html

http://www.digitalbalance.com.au/our-blog/measuring-customer-dissatisfaction/
 
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Thanks for the replies, payment by bank transfer rang alarm bells so glad I asked on here. Hopefully it warns other buyers too.

After some research of my own I discovered the owner on Facebook who had a strange display picture, a quick reverse image search shown he'd stole it off a New York artist. They have a Facebook page with over 700 'likes' but they post some strange things on it and they never answer questions, just tell you to give your number so they can call.

It just shows you can never be too careful these days!
 
We've had contact from Ben Broome of TipTopElectronics, concerned that he'd found this thread which contained "many false allegations surrounding our company"

This is a snippet of his email.

My name is Ben Broome I am the director of Tiptop electronics.co.uk

This morning I came across your thread with many false allegations surrounding our company and what we do.

We are a new business trading out of Bournemouth and it pains me to comments claiming we are not a UK based business and are a scam operation.How does any new business progress when there are people out there like this who want to bring us down before we have even started?

I would like the opportunity to have all theses comments reviewed.I understand everyone is entitled to their opinion but not one of these people have used our service.
Click to expand...


Part of my reply
I’ve just had a look at the thread and I’m curious as to which of the information put forward you claim is incorrect/false.

The domain name is registered to an Australian PO Box, so it would be pertinent for a buyer to think that you are indeed not in the UK.
The information about the courier and responsibility is indeed true as mentioned on your website.
Click to expand...



Now, I do have an idea of what may be going on here, but I won't say anything yet. Ben has himself signed up so I'll leave him to reply and set the record straight :)
 
Well a search of their Company Registration No.:08355174 shows one director in the UK (at a Bournemouth address) and one in Australia (Melbourne):
http://www.companiesintheuk.co.uk/ltd/d-b-technologies

As already pointed out the domain is registered to a PO Box in Australia.

The company (D & B TECHNOLOGIES LIMITED) is registered to an address in North London: (12,657 companies also use this postcode, this is probably a mail forwarding service address).

Their amazon seller FAQ states that:
Q. 2. What is the warranty on your products?

Ans. Imported products come with a 12 month Local warranty through our nominated repair center.UK stock carries manufacturers warranty.

Q. 5. How can I pay for my items?

Ans. We accept Bank Deposit.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aag/deta...tplaceID=A1F83G8C2ARO7P&seller=A13NQHVV1J5LKX

Their twitter says: "Tip Top Electronics is a UK-based online shopping portal that provides an extensive collection of electronic products and solutions to a wide client. "
http://BANNED/TipTop_UK

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ttelectronics.uk

Some of their social media postings: (Twitter and Facebook))

Toady is the " World Animal Day" ..... Save your Animal and them.

Just 3 Steps 2 end ur tensions,Ctrl Alt Del.Control urself,Look 4 alternate solution and Delete the situation that caused tension.

All your friends, music are just a simple touch away on the nicely affordable Nokia 5230.

Who Wanna to eat this ??

Hmm...
 
I don't like to put down a small business that's just trying to start up especially one I have no personal experience but there are some issues here that makes it seem all is not well. For an internet trading company they need to re-look at restocking fee's they are illegal in this country and as a genuine company they really ought to know that :nono: If they cant get the basic right it doesn't bode well for the rest :cautious:



Steve
 
And what legitimate online business does not accept credit/debit cards or at the very least, paypal.

Their terms and conditions go against UK and European law.

Scam, fraudulent or not, I would advise people to steer clear.
 
I just did a little more research myself, this company shares the same address with 12,000 other companies, who would buy from a company that cannot provide a real address?
As been mentioned before, in the T&Cs they say the contract is with the courier, therefore trying to avoid all responsibility once they say its shipped.
Also under the name of the company is: http://globalexus.co.uk/ again twinned with a site in Australia, registered to the same address too, interestingly its a web development/SEO company without a fully functioning website themselves, seems legit!
Only has reviews on two websites from accounts that have only left 1 review and are brand new members or guests.

Now onto the real stuff...
One of the directors is Dhruv Chopra (listed in Australia, maybe go under the name Drew Chopra) who also is affiliated with Electronics Bazaar, Top End Electronics and Unreal Technologies (of which there are many reviews on the internet) operating in New Zealand and Australia, obviously under this new alias they seem to think they can fool people again.

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/2097719
http://www.business.govt.nz/companies/app/ui/pages/companies/3952542/directors
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=689633&page=60#post14851377
http://www.abr.business.gov.au/SearchByAbn.aspx?abn=64194943617
http://www.topix.com/forum/world/australia/TIS1V74MUH1022BEK

Whether a scam or not id advise anyone to stay well clear of them, the websites above show why; many unhappy customers!
 
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lol. :LOL: Maybe it's a case of ANY publicity is better than no publicity? It won't take long for most folk to realise though (y) then maybe just another `re-launch/name change`? :exit:
 
Mark, that link (1st one) to the book of faces is no longer working. Wonder whether he realised he's been rumbled?
 
Still working for me Carl. Since the 'owner' has chosen not to post any kind of info here I think it's safe to say that site is on the iffy side of suspicious.
 
Yep, still working for me too and still active - she posted with a link to the Tip Top Electronics Google+ page only yesterday: https://www.facebook.com/tiptop.electronicsuk

If anyone on on here is on Twitter perhaps they could let Man Bartlett @ManBartlett know that some dodgy looking electronics store is using his photo for their Facebook profile? Perhaps with a link to this thread too?
https://BANNED/ManBartlett
 
applemint said:
Yep, still working for me too and still active - she posted with a link to the Tip Top Electronics Google+ page only yesterday: https://www.facebook.com/tiptop.electronicsuk

If anyone on on here is on Twitter perhaps they could let Man Bartlett @ManBartlett know that some dodgy looking electronics store is using his photo for their Facebook profile? Perhaps with a link to this thread too?
https://BANNED/ManBartlett
Click to expand...

I tweeted him about it (but didn't mention the thread)
 
I saw a single review with a few details about them on one of the review sites a few days ago, not sure which site now (possibly trustpilot?) but it seems to have been removed.
Presumably anyone can complain about negative reviews or feedback to have them deleted, which sort of defeats the object of having `Review` sites in the first place.
 
OldCarlos said:
I saw a single review with a few details about them on one of the review sites a few days ago, not sure which site now (possibly trustpilot?) but it seems to have been removed.
Presumably anyone can complain about negative reviews or feedback to have them deleted, which sort of defeats the object of having `Review` sites in the first place.
Click to expand...

Yes, am always wary of review sites as some of them may simply cave in to any threats of legal action from a company which gets bad reviews and remove the reviews rather than deal with any possible legal action however unlikely that action might be.

Trustpilot is an interesting one as I remember them removing bad reviews for camerabox and BigNorman - both no longer trading - but eg some reviews for big norman are still up and ALL of them are positive reviews despite lots of people having issues with this supplier: http://www.trustpilot.co.uk/review/bignorman.com Hmm - I wonder where all the bad reviews went? I agree, it does defeat the object.

I also had my reviews removed from sites like Pricerunner and Trustpilot when I left negative reviews about camerabox after a bad experience.

Also - not mentioning any company names but I have heard of companies buying positive reviews from people eg: on 'services for sale' sites like Fiverr.com ($5/ £3 for a review or testimonial). If you got to that site or similar ones and search for review or testimonial you will find people willing to provide fake reviews for money!

http://fiverr.com/gigs/search?utf8=✓&search_in=everywhere&query=review&x=-1093&y=-71&jls_se99912_1_auto=1

eg:

http://fiverr.com/justintime_/write-you-a-glowing-review

http://fiverr.com/lawsonpoole933/write-an-unique-tripadvisor-review

http://fiverr.com/gigs/search?utf8=✓&search_in=everywhere&query=testimonial&x=-1093&y=-71&jls_se99912_1_auto=1

Very easy (and cheap) for a dodgy company to get glowing reviews or to get shills to post on forums saying how wonderful they are.
 
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yeah Ive also heard of certain camera sellers offering discounts on future purchases for positive feedback ... makes you wonder about their actual service if they can't come by positive reviews honestly
 
Ok cool everyone,

Thanks for your input!!

We are learning as we go here.I'm glad you are all so quick to shoot us down before even using our service.Trading in the UK is totally different to what we have been doing in Australia and NZ so we are now seeking legal advice as we move forward and have changed our T & C's to suit the UK distance selling laws.We are not out to scam anyone or take anyones money.We are selling electronic items at pretty good prices and are not trying to make any enemies

We have just opened a new office at the following address,

unit 4 / 32B hawthorn road,
Bournemouth,
Dorset,
BH92QL

Our Company Registration No.:08355174
Our VAT number is : 174 0121 46

The information on companies house in relation to our address in being updated and the address above will soon be on our profile.

I really don't want to get into a war of words spending hours on here replying to comments as I really don't have the time or the resources.Everyone is entitled to an opinion here but paying us out before even talking to us doesn't seem like a fair way to go about this!!

Our number is 02032894349 if anyone would like to talk to us about exactly how we conduct ourselves then please come and see us or give us a call.

I will be on the forum once a week to answer any questions you may have?

Regards,

Ben
 
Well, respect to you for posting back & trying to clear up the doubts. Let's see how it goes.
 
as above, but could you clarify where on hawthorn road your 'office' is, as google street view seems to show that road to be entirely residential , appart from a church/ centre point building.

could you also clarify why if your registered office is in bournemouth your phone number is not a bournemouth dialing code (01202), but instead seems to be for Ewell in London ?

thirdly it would be good if you could clarify whether the bournemouth office is going to hold stock for customer collection or whether it will just be a postal address

and fourthly could you clarify the origin of your stock , are you importing from overseas (ie grey imports) and if so as a VAT registered company can we assume you will be able to supply a uk VAT receipt ?

Lastly can you confirm that customers will be able to pay using cards, as I have no interest in paying by bank deposit as this removes many layers of consumer protection.

I would be very interested in using your services once they are shown to be legitimate as your prices are indeed keen, and a location in bournemouth - not far down the road, would be very convenient. However I am sure you understand that the import and sale of camera equipment is a business riddled with dubious prractice and in some cases outright fraud, so in my view it is perfectly reasonable that the consumer expect a new company on the scene to demonstrate its bonafides before parting with large sums of cash, you will also forgive me if i'm not keen to call a number that is seeminly unrelated to your company address in order to discuss these matters privately... not to mention that it is in your interests to clear these matters up in public forum - something which would take far less time than repeatedly having the same conversation with each person who might be interested in using your services
 
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Ben Broome said:
I really don't want to get into a war of words spending hours on here replying to comments as I really don't have the time or the resources.Everyone is entitled to an opinion here but paying us out before even talking to us doesn't seem like a fair way to go about this!!
Click to expand...

Seems like an excuse for not answering some of the more 'awkward' questions above - such as why people using fake Facebook profiles with stolen photos were posting odd posts in poor English on behalf of your company?

You also wrote in your email to the forum that "We are a new business trading out of Bournemouth and it pains me to comments claiming we are not a UK based business" - yet in your post above you say "Trading in the UK is totally different to what we have been doing in Australia and NZ" - which along with your ignorance of basic UK consumer legislation makes it sound like you are actually based in one of those two countries.

As pointed out above the 02032894349 is not a Bournemouth number and appears to belong to a company called Global Exus who say they are "Melbourne-based" http://globalexus.co.uk/about-us/ and whose domain is indeed registered to an address in Melbourne, Australia: Suite 524, 1 Queens road, Melbourne
Victoria, 3004 Australia: http://whois.domaintools.com/globalexus.co.uk as is tiptopelectronics.co.nz on the same server: http://whois.domaintools.com/tiptopelectronics.co.nz
Same whois details as ElectronicBazaar.com.au who as mentioned in posts above have lots of complaints about them in various forums and again are not UK based:
Unreal Technologies (ABN 64 194 643 167)
Suite 524, St Kilda Road Towers, 1 Queens Road
Melbourne Vic 3004
Tel: Aus+61 3 90163949), NZ +64 9 889 4000
Email- sales@electronicbazaar.com.au


I look forward to your answers to the questions above as well as those posted by Pete.
 
as above, but could you clarify where on hawthorn road your 'office' is, as google street view seems to show that road to be entirely residential , apart from a church/ centre point building.
We are in a complex with residential above and offices below.Please come and visit us and you can see for yourself .Please send me your email and I will send you a picture of us.Google may not be have updated the images from this street It is quite a new build.

thirdly it would be good if you could clarify whether the Bournemouth office is going to hold stock for customer collection or whether it will just be a postal address.
Yes we hold stock of certain items.Mostly popular mobile phones and few other hot moving items.We have over 6000 products on our site ranging from a bluetooth headset to broadcasting camcorders.80% of items we drop ship from our suppliers and can have an item available for pick up in our Bournemouth office within 3 business days.We cover all duty and taxes on our shipments and ship locally through UKmail.com

and fourthly could you clarify the origin of your stock , are you importing from overseas (ie grey imports) and if so as a VAT registered company can we assume you will be able to supply a uk VAT receipt ?
We are importing a lot of stock from HK and Singapore and are now cementing relationships with US suppliers.Yes we can supply VAT receipt no problem.We have local suppliers of Black magic and Casio products at the moment and will look to source more local stock as we go on.

Lastly can you confirm that customers will be able to pay using cards, as I have no interest in paying by bank deposit as this removes many layers of consumer protection.
We are in the process of securing our Sage pay gateway for secure credit card usage.It has been very frustrating setting this all up but we did not want to miss the xmas rush by not trading at all.I understand why you dont want to bank deposit.At present we offer PAYPAL and AMAZON checkout will be available next week.

I would be very interested in using your services once they are shown to be legitimate as your prices are indeed keen, and a location in bournemouth - not far down the road, would be very convenient. However I am sure you understand that the import and sale of camera equipment is a business riddled with dubious prractice and in some cases outright fraud, so in my view it is perfectly reasonable that the consumer expect a new company on the scene to demonstrate its bonafides before parting with large sums of cash, you will also forgive me if i'm not keen to call a number that is seeminly unrelated to your company address in order to discuss these matters privately... not to mention that it is in your interests to clear these matters up in public forum - something which would take far less time than repeatedly having the same conversation with each person who might be interested in using your services.
I totally understand and that is why I am spending time to let you know how we operate.We are doing our best to go toe to toe on pricing with a lot of the big HK websites / value basket/ Eglobal/ Simply Electronics etc but our point of difference is the VAT and the fact we offer all our warranty repairs in shore.We use a range of repair centres given the range of products we have.At present for all photography equipment we are using the camera centre in Tumbridge Wells http://www.thecameracentre.com/contact.php These guys are a reputable registered repair centre for all major brands.The majority of websites who import grey items will not give you this sort of information.Instead you will end up having to ship the item back to HK or the country of origin and if they want to walk away from the repair as the company is not UK registereed it is hard to seek legal backing from the UK. Its funny to be honest all we want to do it be totally transparent about what we do.That was our point of difference because so many people have been burnt online and in particualr from overseas companies.We may source overseas stocl but we behave and operate as a UK business.Sure we may have to tidy up some of our content but we are doing really well as a business so far and already have a good database of happy customers!!

In relation to our phone number.It is a virtual VOIP number which at the time the 020 code was the only codes available for UK numbers. The virtual office address was setup as we originally set the company up with no office and we were working from home offices.We have notified companies house and the Bournemouth address will be listed in the next couple of days.I hope that clears things up for you.I am happy to offer a pick up service if you are keen on an item.Please contact us when you feel happy with it all and I guess we can chat!!
 
Seems like an excuse for not answering some of the more 'awkward' questions above - such as why people using fake Facebook profiles with stolen photos were posting odd posts in poor English on behalf of your company?
Hi Pete,No not at all this is not an excuse.I am totally unaware of any FB profiles being stolen.We have an overseas SEO company looking after social media in India as our marketing budget is not huge.I have already sent the content on here to them to see what is going on.We are looking to use local IT firms to look after all this once we gain some real traction in the UK and our marketing budget increases.If there is any fraudulent FB activity going on I will immediately get rid of this Indian firm and look elsewhere.

You also wrote in your email to the forum that "We are a new business trading out of Bournemouth and it pains me to comments claiming we are not a UK based business" - yet in your post above you say "Trading in the UK is totally different to what we have been doing in Australia and NZ" - which along with your ignorance of basic UK consumer legislation makes it sound like you are actually based in one of those two countries.
Pete you really dont belive we are UK based do you?Here is our Uk mobile number please call us 07543656933 or I can call you from a uk mobile number so you can understand where we are based.Or come to the office here to meet us!!
As pointed out above the 02032894349 is not a Bournemouth number and appears to belong to a company called Global Exus who say they are "Melbourne-based" http://globalexus.co.uk/about-us/ and whose domain is indeed registered to an address in Melbourne, Australia: Suite 524, 1 Queens road, Melbourne
Victoria, 3004 Australia: http://whois.domaintools.com/globalexus.co.uk as is tiptopelectronics.co.nz on the same server: http://whois.domaintools.com/tiptopelectronics.co.nz
Same whois details as ElectronicBazaar.com.au who as mentioned in posts above have lots of complaints about them in various forums and again are not UK based:
Unreal Technologies (ABN 64 194 643 167)
Suite 524, St Kilda Road Towers, 1 Queens Road
Melbourne Vic 3004
Tel: Aus+61 3 90163949), NZ +64 9 889 4000
Email- sales@electronicbazaar.com.au
The global exus is an SEO business we are looking to set up in the near future.The number is linked to our current office number.We dont expect to get many calls from this number.The number is a VOIP number and the 020 code was the only one avalibale at the time.
The Australian entity was from my contact in Australia when I originally set the business up.We have no direct ties to Electronic Bazaar.We will look to register tiptop under a different name ASAP as I can see this is tarnishing our reputation.

I hope Pete this clears it up for you.We are not here to scam or upset anyone with dodgy practices.We are already hitting some fantastic numbers and we will continue to grow.I hope you can learn to trust us over time!!!

Cheers,

Ben

I look forward to your answers to the questions above as well as those posted by Pete.
 
just for clarity I'm pete - applemint is mark ;)
 
Impartial observer here: blimey, this seems like a textbook example of how not to do PR...!

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Talk Photography Forums mobile app
 
Would just like to say that I received my new Sigma 150-500 sony fit lens today from Tip Top Electronics today as promised. There was a slight delay on delivery but Tip Top reassured me everything was ok. The lens itself was an absolute bargain coming in around £580 with paypal payment. After reading some of the posts in this thread I was quite anxious to say the least thinking the deal was too good to be true. Tip Top were very professional throughout & I wouldn't hesitate in using them again, in fact based on my own personal experience I would highly recommend to others. Give them a chance, stop doubting & start buying from them. As for warranties, it comes with 12 months as standard honored by themselves. I couldn't buy a second hand lens from Ebay for the money I payed with no warranty. Big thankyou to Tip Top Electronics
 
Hello Paul, welcome to TP, I hope you'll contribute elsewhere and stay around, as people signing up just to give credence to a company whose intentions have been questioned, are usually regarded as a shill and ultimately does the company in question more harm than good.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shill
 
andrewc said:
Hello Paul, welcome to TP, I hope you'll contribute elsewhere and stay around, as people signing up just to give credence to a company whose intentions have been questioned, are usually regarded as a shill and ultimately does the company in question more harm than good.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shill
Click to expand...

:LOL: - we should start asking for custard proof (ie a picture of the lens concerned with sales invoice, and a can of custard to demonstrate that its real not lifted off the net)
 
Haha, what a brilliant idea! :LOL: :clap:

Joking aside, is it possible to `delay` new posters from posting in this section, like it is in the classifieds?
 
i've got balloons on my avatar :LOL: sorry! people looking for a GOOD price that seems to good to be true deserve all they get, buy from some where you can use a card or paypal etc if they are big enough you won't need to check there credentials some of these DEALS will only save you maybe £50-100. spend your money get a proper warranty and have a very nice xmas(y)
 
I'd like to know if he got a VAT receipt too..........
 
OldCarlos said:
Haha, what a brilliant idea! :LOL: :clap:

Joking aside,
Click to expand...

who's joking - Barry boys have been asking for 'custard proof' on improbable claims of car ownership, for years
 
Is this Talk photography or is it the WI? If you lot want to run around with your head up each others arses that's up to you! I'm extremely happy with my purchase and Tip Top Electronics!
 
I suppose you've at least got to give these guys credit for their commitment. Hardest working scammers ive seen. Well done.

Sent from my phone as I cant be a***d to turn the PC on.
 
Paul Richardson said:
Is this Talk photography or is it the WI? If you lot want to run around with your head up each others arses that's up to you! I'm extremely happy with my purchase and Tip Top Electronics!
Click to expand...
Charming! :(

Obviously `price` was the overriding factor for you, which is fine, but eglobal are selling for £538. Why not save yourself another £40+?
 
Is this Talk photography or is it the WI?
Click to expand...

TP I hope, can't imagine a topless calendar from here would be a big seller let alone the basis for a film
 
Put your postal address on the Website, I would not buy from a website without a postal address on it.
 
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