little heads up about the company called Sim-Rigs in the UK

[Jamie Purch]

Hi all,

Just a little heads up about the company called Sim-Rigs in the UK

Wasn't sure whether to do this or not as "mud slinging" is not my scene. But after what i have went through and times being what they are financially wise, i thought it best just to alert the good people on here about this company.

I ordered a rig in May and was told after an email inquiring about delivery times that it would be 7 - 10 days.

Well after countless lies from the company including 3 bogus tracking numbers and trying to shift the blame onto everything and everyone else for not getting my order, i cancelled and requested a refund. Which was met with an email saying your rig is getting shipped tomorrow which was about the 8th time i had heard that. So i emailed back asking for a tracking number to prove that it was ready to be shipped and got one. Only problem was, after a live chat to TNT, the tracking number turned out -again - to be completely made up.

I mean, what company or person would do that??

I am now in the process of legal action to get my money back as the company just keeps fobbing me off with -

you have been refunded do you not have it?

Its not our fault its Stripes (an online payment company like paypal)

I have bank transferred the money you should have it now.

I will look into it and get back to you etc etc.....

Its been an absolute nightmare which, at a time like this, i'm sure anyone can do without.

I am sure there will be happy customers out there that ordered from Sim Rigs but i would imagine there will be a few in the same boat as me and for that reason i have decided to put this post up so as people can make up their own minds whether its worth the risk placing an order.

Hope this does not come across as sour grapes. I wish this post had been up the day before i decided to whack £600 down the drain!!!


Choose wisely folks!!

 

[CC]

Done!! I would still like to donate more though, I have sent a message on the contact us tab to find out how to do this...

Just buy yourself a nice seat and show us some cool pics in the show your cockpit thread

 

[Cameron moss]

Mod Edit:

Removed the insults... so mainly the whole post. You have joined yesterday. That' s a record. Why ? Because now you can have fun in Simberia.

 

[Jeremy Ford]

Wow. and i do mean wow!!

Ok, i actually logged on to give an update on the situation. I have kind of kept away as i was given some false hope the other week so i wanted to see how that panned out before posting anything else.

So i messaged him on the 1st September stating that i still hadn't been refunded after him asking for my bank details. And basically saying to him if he has no intentions of refunding me, just say so i can stop asking and leave it to my solicitor. He responded with a long message (unusual as normally they are just one or 2 sentences) saying he was sorry for what had all happened, he was not a prick and he due to his bank account being frozen - the fault of another customer! - that all refunds would be completed before the week was out.
He also said he after refunding me, he would send me a free rig. I replied saying that if that did happen, i would donate a sizable chunk of the refund to a charity of his choice.
So the week ended, then another week past and still nothing.

I emailed him on the 12th September saying enough was enough, I offered him another 2 weeks to refund me or i was calling the police to report fraud. I said i did not want a reply to my message, just to be refunded.
he did not reply.

The today at 4.30ish i get an email out of the blue asking (for the 4th time) for my bank details so he can refund me.

Then i log in here and come across all this!!


My partner actually had a tear in her eye.

I am overwhelmed by this show of generosity. CC and Racing Sim Rigs, thats unbelievable what you are offering me. But please dont feel like you have to do it.

Honestly, just being on here and having so many people see my story and fingers crossed, if it can help not a single one of you having to deal with what i have had to, is enough for me to feel so much better about the situation.

Now, if you will excuse me for a bit, i need a beer......

I hope you do finally get refunded and if that does go through please do let us know. I will post an update on my YT channel. My video was to share a warning and it would be fair to sign off with hopefully a positive outcome.

I also received a direct email from Sim Rigs Ltd (info@sim-rigs.com) yesterday afternoon accusing me of libel and to remove the video. It was a very strangely written long sentence paragraph with no punctuation and poorly written. There was no name listed at the bottom of the email which was quite strange.

I suggested again they should engage on this forum thread. I don't think this will happen, but the nameless individual replied stating details will be forwarded to their solicitors. I'm not concerned about that.

I imagine Sim Rigs Ltd is following this thread.

 

[Jamie Purch]

Of course i will let everyone know if/when i get refunded. Remember there's 2 people on here i owe money too!!!

And just to reiterate, me starting this thread was just to give the good folks on here an insight into my experience with the company.

As i said in my first post, i am pretty sure there are plenty of people who have dealt with them and had no problems at all. Of course there must be or i would imagine they wouldn't be in business now.
Unfortunately my dealing with them turned sour because of them.
Why they have let it gt this far i have no idea. (and i have pointed that out to them on more than one email)

They didn't/still haven't refunded me my money so i just thought i would warn people to tread carefully.

I would have appreciated if someone else done the same no matter the company or product because its been ****. Really ****. Checking your bank every day, getting false hope and constantly believing it, not because you think they will come good but just because your desperate for your money back.

If i had a £ for every time my partner told me to stop being so bloody gullible, i could of bought another rig by now lol

For what Chris at Racing Sim Rigs and CC have done for me, i am forever grateful and hope to god i can pay them back one day.

Anyway, i have sent my details again to them so i live in hope. Fingers crossed.

 

[TedBrosby-]

I had spoken to the owner of Sim Rigs on Facebook. I was interested in the front mount he has (mounts Small MIGE or SC2, 8mm thick steel I think he said?).
But I noticed something strange. The front mounted wheel deck is exactly the same as the horizontal wheel deck "with cupholder", but just with a small mige bolt pattern in the middle instead of the TM/Fanatec bolt pattern on the horizontal deck.

The only problem with this is, it means you have to mount it rotated 90 degrees which means instead of having horizontal slots to move the wheel deck forward and backward, you have "vertical" slots to slide it... vertically? I felt nervous because this means less structural stability. And you won't be able to adjust it much anyway because the slots are not perfectly parallel so there's only a certain range where they'll fit 8040 slot dimensions.

I can't comment on whether he's a scammer or not, no personal dealings with him. But be aware that it's pretty obvious he recycled his wheel deck design but didn't consider the mounting position. When I brought this up, all he said was "I've sold over 60 of them and no one has issues with it". I asked for a pic showing it installed and got no reply.

At this point, I feel like if you can't afford a rig from guys like Racing Sim Rigs, Motedis, Sim-Lab or equivalent, just DIY with a local aluminum distributor. There's a lot of people trying to cash in on the "Sim Racing" popularity growth this year that haven't done a lot of research into their products.

 

[Jeremy Ford]

Unfortunately, comments posted under my video are building a picture that this problem is not isolated regarding the promised refunds that never come through. I think the only course of action would be to take Sim Rigs Ltd to the small claims court and should be reported to trading standards.

▶ https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/c...if-you-need-more-help-about-a-consumer-issue/
▶ https://www.tradingstandards.uk/

2 Comments posted on my video.

1.
"My partner had pretty much EXACTLY the same experience with this disgusting human being. He is a con man, a convicted fraudster and a thief as well as a pathological liar to a most extraordinary degree. The story’s he told and the lengths he went to - fabricating bank statements and bank emails, stuff constantly on its way, refund after refund that never happened. Disgraceful."

2.
"I ordered a rig in july still not had it number of phone call only to told lies all time"

 

[ImpKat23]

Hi Guys, it's really interesting reading this.
I too had a problem in May and I've not spoke publicly at all because well. ... Its not very me and I'm also a little nervous honestly, of the repercussions. Mainly because James from Sim Rigs is a convicted fraudster, which I found out AFTER spending £5.6k with them.

I bought a complete kit from him and guess what.....exactly the same situation happened to me too. Shocker I know! ‍

At the start (back in May) - James (SIM rigs) in writing confirmed it would take less than 2weeks to receive a full kit, however It ended up a living hell for several months.

Just the PC alone cost me £2.2k. I'd given a clear breakdown of what spec PC I wanted and that's what I ordered.

After endless waiting, I had to chase week after week to find out why the whole rig and components hadn't arrived. Again lots of lies, stringing me along and making excuses.

Finally I got a random old battered brown box with simply a PC dumped in it. No paperwork, spec, receipt. Plus no rig, no components.

Sadly the PC wouldn't work and it kept crashing instantly and running VERY HOT.
I was instantly nervous and very suspicious, so asked again for paperwork, along with where the PC came from and who built it. Obviously every excuse possible was used.

I decided it would be best to get the PC checked by two independent PC experts. Guess what.... the PC was worth basically nothing.
It was all 10year+ parts, all obsolete and the power supply wasn't certified by the safety regulator, so deemed unsafe to use.
This was only one part of this awful experience.

At this point, I still hadn't received everything I ordered.
I'm convinced if I hadn't kept the pressure on, I'd of received absolutely nothing.

I had to chase so hard and wasted endless days waiting in for my rig to arrive, after being sent fake messages pretending to be the delivery man, fake locations, fake updates.

In the end I received only one thing I actually ordered. Everything else either didn't arrive at all or was cheap nasty "equivalents!".

So Id had enough by this point, I knew he had ripped me off and I wanted my money back. In return I'd happily drop all the junk back.

This is when I started receiving fake refunds, fake bank correspondence and false bank statements.
Followed by the usual excuses, like blaming the bank, PayPal and even his "business partner". The list was endless.

I then found out James Hayward from Preston is only one of his alias names. His real name is Barry David Heywood from Preston.
Authorities confirmed he has several alias names and is a convicted fraudster. He even stole £144k off of a small IT company.

He is a compulsive liar and a passive aggressive character. Really worrying how many of us have fallen foul to him. Hundreds now in the SIM world, in just a few months really!!

Thankfully everyone else in the industry have been brilliant, helping me truly recover. I cannot thank those people enough.
After such an awful experience and losing so much money.. it reminded me how many good people are out there still.

I've raced in real life from a young age but SIM racing is completely new to me. It's been a difficult journey but I'm starting to settle and feel happy to be involved.

I could go on and on but I don't want to bore everyone to tears. It gives you an idea hopefully.

I'd strongly recommend to keep away from Sim Rigs or any other versions James Hayward (Barry David Heywood) has potentially now created! He has a lot of fake reviews online, different business names too, so please don't make the mistake I did.

Thanks everyone, keep safe.

 

[Neilski]

Puzzled and seriously annoyed about how people can get away with this kind of crap.
Multiple people have asserted that he has been convicted of fraud. I naively thought that a conviction for fraud would disqualify him from being a company director for a long time (or forever?) but I see that a company of that name has a James Hayward listed as its sole director on the database at Companies House.
Glad to see the great support from others though!

 

[Deleted member 197115]

Shocking really.
Sounds like we need a list of verified resellers for sim stuff. Not sure what would be the best format and who and how can support it though.
May be subforum with thread per resellers and users posting feedback, similar to mods section where the rating is calculated based on that.

 

[Jeremy Ford]

Shocking really.
Sounds like we need a list of verified resellers for sim stuff. Not sure what would be the best format and who and how can support it though.
May be subforum with thread per resellers and users posting feedback, similar to mods section where the rating is calculated based on that.

Great idea.

 

[CC]

Shocking really.
Sounds like we need a list of verified resellers for sim stuff. Not sure what would be the best format and who and how can support it though.
May be subforum with thread per resellers and users posting feedback, similar to mods section where the rating is calculated based on that.

Yes I mentioned this before in another thread quite some months back,
A dedicated list of trusted suppliers, PC,s, Rigs, parts and such really be helpful to the community, although in saying this I think this particular company is a rare case, I have never heard of this carryon before for simgear.

 

[Keetchyboy]

Paid by debit card so i dont think i can charge back with using that.

I would strongly advise you contact your bank and ask them about the 'chargeback scheme', or simply google chargeback scheme and your banks name, that should direct you to their procedure.

The bank will provide you with a form to fill out, you state your case, attach correspondence and then the bank will review it. If they agree the seller has not adhered to the consumer rights act they will take the money straight out of the sellers bank. Its then up to the seller to dispute the case, not you.

I had a similar problem with an online retailer - nothing to do with these people - I was losing my mind with the endless lies I was getting, but no money. After 2 months I spoke to my bank and had my money back within 12 hours, I wished I'd done it sooner.

I think you have 120 days after the expected delivery date to use the chargeback scheme.

oh.. and report the retailer to Trading Standards, they don't get your money back but they take companies like this to court all of the time.

The solicitor route is a dead end, you're just throwing good money after bad, For you it's a consumer rights case not a criminal case, the only person winning out of that one is the solicitor. It's probably best to leave that kind of stuff to Trading Standards.

Hope it all goes well for you.

 

[Phil Mann]

I wonder if this is the same James Hayward that used to work for the team that organised the Autosport show and was well know to the MX5 community?

If so there are many unsavory stories about him.

 

[Jeremy Ford]

There's a picture of him here from a few years ago with regards to fraud. https://www.lancerregister.com/showthread.php?t=80134&page=9

 

[Phil Mann]

Definitely not the same person. Maybe it’s just a common name for fraudsters. And it’s strange it’s in a car/motorsport related field.

 

[public protector]

There's a picture of him here from a few years ago with regards to fraud. https://www.lancerregister.com/showthread.php?t=80134&page=9
And on the Sim Rigs Ltd facebook here:
View attachment 407738

That’s not him, this is him

 

[public protector]

That’s not him, this is him
View attachment 407748

More recent one

 

[Deleted member 197115]

Ian Bell gained weight?

 

[Jeremy Ford]

Ian Bell gained weight?

I hate to say this, at a distance and squinting, I might sort of look a bit like him. But with 300% more hair, and 100% less fraud.

 

[Jamie Purch]

Keetchyboy - Cheers for the heads up on that. Will check it out tomorrow and give the bank a call.

Impkat23 - Jesus, i feel for you man. And heres me whining on about £600. Thats on whole new level.
Have you tried out the bank cashback idea?