I had contacted this company in the hope of bringing in about 40 people for tea tasting and video it for a documentary I'm doing about the history of tea. I wanted prices and info. I first got an email from a Mary who wanted personal details from me before she gave any kind of info saying her hands 'were tied' otherwise, then when I co-operated she came back to me saying that she was the director of the company and had full decision making power! It took about a week or so to try and get any co-operation from this woman. She then started to call herself Maryam in her emails.
I asked her for a full price breakdown of hiring a hotel for 40 people, with lunch and tea tasting, and she came back with a figure of over £3,000 without VAT. When I asked her if VAT was included she then came back with VAT on top - it was like she took the opportunity to charge more where she could. I then had to change the date of the tea tasting and she again cameback with a higher cost for the whole day of £4380, saying that the cost can change if there was any information I had left out for her.
She also said she can cut back on anything she wanted on the day with no refund possibility - so I guess if we had paid for certain teas, she could have just as well produced tea bags from the super market and that would have been that...
She didn't provide any more details about the day, details or cost breakdown and refused to give me any sort of information. When I asked her again, this was coming to almost three weeks of going back and forth, and the event was due to happen in three days time, she then sent an email stating that she wanted full payment by the next day 10am! I stated that normally 50% deposits are required and 50% payment, after, she refused to accept that and said that the price can go even higher!
My final email to her was asking why she needed full money in adavance and she wrte this back:
jjjjjjjjj!!!!
I can not believe how unprofessional this company is! I wasted three weeks dealing with this fraudulent company and failed to secure filming for my documentary beacuse we were travelling from the US for only two days and didn't have time to organise anything else! She wasted my time and kept pushing the prices higher up then wrote jjj - whatever that meant!?
KEPP AWAY FROM THEM TO SAVE YOURSELVES HEADACHES
Maryam
Stockport,#2REBUTTAL Owner of company
Wed, August 21, 2013
I read the report on Himalayas Tea and i was dismayed by the lies and erroneous conclusion about the company.
The individual, who identified herself as Stacey Weller ( I did not believe that it was her true name)had no intention to give business to our company but instead , was trying to extract useful business information through devious and dishonest means.This indivitual gave us a wrong phone number to contact which the number was NOT in operation.
We had asked her the wire the money so that we may proceed with the reservation for the event but recieved NO reply. It appears that this indivitual was prying for corporate information for her own personal benefit. We call such people shysters.