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

Jamie Purch · Aug 24, 2020

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!!

Division Detailing · Oct 15, 2020

This just arrived so I can complete the rig!

Thanks to everyone on this forum. What an amazing community. I don’t think without the pressure applied via this thread, any of this would of happened.

Jamie Purch · Oct 15, 2020

Division Detailing said:
I got this from him last night.

View attachment 412864

He seems to be righting some wrongs. But this can only be for selfish reasons. ‘Taking orders and not delivering on time and struggling to keep up’ is clearly the card he’ll be playing when the police come calling.

He’s now deleted his Facebook profile.

Jesus, i posted on here right after i checked my emails amd bank this morning that i had been refunded. As i have just said to him on a message, what more can i do??
Thank god its ending and people are being refunded or are receiving their orders.
As i have said, i only started the thread to warn others to tread carefully.
I hope what i done has had an impact.

public protector · Oct 15, 2020

Lets hope he goes as far as to pay the 12-16k he owes the delivery company and the 23k he owes his metal supplier.

carson79 · Oct 15, 2020

I don't for one second believe any of us should feel guilty about sharing our experiences here or elsewhere.
If he was a legitimate businessman we'd not be here in the first place.
Its obvious from all the people still coming forward that this was happening from the very start.
Probably borrowing from Peter to pay Paul,
Not shipping, not paying suppliers or shipping companies.
I'm an honest person and only shared facts.
So I'm delighted with my refund and very happy to share that too.
Like my partner and @Mr Latte said its the stress its caused and the poor people still getting caught.

FindingBarryHayward · Oct 15, 2020

Thats exactly how it works, its like a Ponzi scheme. He gets a few more orders in, and uses some of the money to finally make the occasional refund. Those who have placed new orders will never receive anything, or they might get some returned items, or anything he can borrow to make it look like he's doing something.
He'll never pay his suppliers, they've all provided credit to his limited company, and he has already applied for the company to be struck off the register.
We've shut him down, and we'll shut him down again next time he appears, and we'll keep dragging up his past, because its not his past, its his present, and his future. He's a weapons grade convicted confidence trickster and has been for 20+ years.

TedBrosby- · Oct 15, 2020

Apparently they are officially closed, if you check the site http://www.sim-rigs.com
What's the over-under on people who haven't received stuff, finally receiving it?

Seriously people, payment insurance + charge backs.

Division Detailing said:
Crikey this really has grown in only a few days since I last checked. I just got a message from him saying he was closing down and I've just seen the post on FB. I thought now would be a good time to update you guys on where I am.

So after hounding and hounding for the partial refund (that he optionally offered) he sent me screengrabs of refund being processed. This refund could apparently only be done from the unit and his hour long journey back to the office somehow took 7 hours!! What's hilarious is that the screengrabs he gave me were off his phone and the tool he was using was WooCommerce - a wordpress plugin accessible from anywhere, on any device. Not requiring a dedicated computer system based in the unit, like he kept claiming.

After that, I said, 'now that you're there, you can send me my tracking info for my missing rig pieces'. But oh no, that's not possible because that's on the home machine. Of course it is matey!

Unsurprisingly I didn't hear anything in the 10 minutes he said it would take to get home. However he then suddenly got in contact after he discovered I had been telling my story on this forum.

View attachment 412564

- "Hi James/Barry, I'm sure you're reading this" -

After a bit of back & forth he offered the below screengrab

View attachment 412559

I think he figured he covered his tracks but the Parcel2go logo is clearly visible, and once I searched the reference number it was for a parcel sent out in July. He clearly needed the home computer for a bit of photoshop trickery.

View attachment 412560

Obviously once I confronted him on this it was of course Parcel2Go's fault and he'll give me an update in the morning. I actually heard from him the next day and despite apparently posting out the gear a week ago, he's somehow managed to get the stuff back and is now sending via TNT because it was overweight and it'll be with me Monday (Oct 11th). He's now blamed FedEx, Parcelforce, DPD, DHL - I wonder when Hermes & Yodel will get their time in the spot light.

Of course nothing arrived on Monday and I'm now getting the same lies as always. "I'll check when I'm back home, I'm on the motorway" etc, etc. Tonight I got "I've been closing down, I'm back at 9 but will check". Nobody believes for a second I'll hear anything back.

I have been one of the more fortunate ones however. I got 75% of what I ordered (although I can't attach my pedals, the uprights are too short and I wasn't given enough bolts & connectors) but to my absolute shock I actually received a refund of £150 from him on Monday.

So I really don't understand what crazy game he's playing. Totally screwing some, and partially honouring others. Maybe it's a well known tactic in the con-man/a**ehole handbook.

I hope James/Barry the absolute worse and that the police once again catch up to him.

Just a heads up for anyone else who reads this.
About 10-15 years ago, and I'm not proud of it, but I was kind of a crappy trader. Note, I always shipped stuff out... Eventually.
But in my "shitty ways", I discovered that you could generate a tracking number online, and even if you've never even printed it, it will start to show up online. So if I was still using something I already agreed to sell, or I was lazy, or I just forgot about it, I would quickly print the tracking and send it to them and then blame the courier for being late when they would ask where it was after a few days of no updates. I've since cleaned up my act, I have very positive feedback on my trades on a local marketplace in Japan, and I've realized to not post things for sale when I'm too busy to pack them/deal with them, but either way, here's my warning to you.
They usually have very obvious "hasn't been picked up or dropped off" statuses.
"Ready for Dispatch", is very obviously "just the label has been made, nothing has been received by the courier".
Other similar "dude is late as F" statuses sound like "Tracking information received", "Electronic shipping information received".

If you want to know if an item has indeed been handed off, the tracking HAS to say something like -
"Arrival Scan",
"Picked Up",
"At FedEx facility", etc.

Anything that has "information received" on it, you should be cautious of, especially if they tell you that they totally super honestly just dropped it of. That's 100% guaranteed to be BS, because I guarantee you that as soon as a parcel worker scans it into their system, the status will automatically change to "Picked Up" or "In Transit". This is logistical liability. The hand scan systems that drivers carry also update tracking automatically.

JohnAgius52 · Oct 24, 2020

Wow guys.... I have been missing out. Turns out that while this has been going on I have been silent about an identical experience. I ordered a rig from this guy sometime in August, after 4 weeks of failing to send me a tracking number using all the same excuses mentioned in here he agreed for a refund, up till now. Nothing, when things got arrogant out of frustration he sent me a transaction via Paypal which was labeled as received - pending. Cancelled 5 days later just yesterday. Said he was gonna speak to paypal and they will send me an instant payment. Complete usual bullshit. I have decided to stop wasting time with him. I finally decided to go public and legal against him. I had enough. I bought this rig for my mate. Ended up fabricating a rig for him myself from my own company locally. James shared one of his designs with me, which was decent but I doubt it was his design anyway. His only defense is that he shared a design with me so no intention for him to scam me. After reading all this I doubt the design was even his. He said that he sold the company and will be solely focusing on sim racing shifters. So if you see a shifter that looks like this, its probably James Barry whatever name he uses Hayward is behind it. Will update how it progresses.

public protector · Oct 24, 2020

JohnAgius52 said:
Wow guys.... I have been missing out. Turns out that while this has been going on I have been silent about an identical experience. I ordered a rig from this guy sometime in August, after 4 weeks of failing to send me a tracking number using all the same excuses mentioned in here he agreed for a refund, up till now. Nothing, when things got arrogant out of frustration he sent me a transaction via Paypal which was labeled as received - pending. Cancelled 5 days later just yesterday. Said he was gonna speak to paypal and they will send me an instant payment. Complete usual bullshit. I have decided to stop wasting time with him. I finally decided to go public and legal against him. I had enough. I bought this rig for my mate. Ended up fabricating a rig for him myself from my own company locally. James shared one of his designs with me, which was decent but I doubt it was his design anyway. His only defense is that he shared a design with me so no intention for him to scam me. After reading all this I doubt the design was even his. He said that he sold the company and will be solely focusing on sim racing shifters. So if you see a shifter that looks like this, its probably James Barry whatever name he uses Hayward is behind it. Will update how it progresses.

He has not sold the company as it worthless because he has syphoned all the the money out of it paying for his missus’s new nose and t*ts whilst leaving customers and suppliers high and dry. He has however attempted to have it struck of the companies house register thinking that this will be the end of anyone chasing him for what he owes. The sc*m is deluded.

ipeaceonu · Oct 26, 2020

I had dealings with this guy. Bought some inverted V3 pedals back in July. Saw it on Facebook and within a couple of hours he had come to my house to drop them off , great deal for me and perfect service.
So he mentions he has a business and he sells rigs. I said I will probably look at getting one in august.
In the meantime he got in touch about a wheel rim as I must have mentioned I was looking for one for a dd wheel I was having delivered soon. So he says he has some , I go collect it from his house, again great service. I would have bought the rig the next month but the wheel he sold me was made in a way that it had to have some kind of adapter to change it from the hole pattern it had (50mm) to the 70mm hole pattern I told him I needed. My own fault for not checking before i took it. Anyway, I straight away messaged him on Facebook when I got home to tell him it would need an adapter and as he told me he had 200 of them I said I would assume they all need one. He said his supplier in Belgium would send some. That was the first lie, he then over the next few months kept me on the hook , supplier has sent it, must be lost , supplier has sent another to me, must be lost , he will get one for me , he will 3d print one etc etc etc
It’s probably lucky for me as I would have bought an Ali profile rig from him but got this nonsense. I send him a message every few days , he sends some voice message back with lies. I assume so he can’t be copied and pasted and posted in forums.
Anyway , I am looking for an adapter to go from the wheel rim to a 70mm 5 hole. I will post a pic of the wheel in case anyone can work out what I need as it seems to have been made in a strange way. The paddles are in the way so I can’t just put a normal circular adapter on.

I guess I was one of the lucky ones as I actually lived close enough to get most of what I paid for.

Brushwood69 · Oct 26, 2020

If you have access to a 3d printer this guy has an adapter to download. Maybe what you need? https://amstudioprojects.com/product/steering-wheel-adapter-50mm-pcd-to-70mm-pcd/

ipeaceonu · Oct 26, 2020

Brushwood69 said:
If you have access to a 3d printer this guy has an adapter to download. Maybe what you need? https://amstudioprojects.com/product/steering-wheel-adapter-50mm-pcd-to-70mm-pcd/

thanks but the way the wheel is made that adapter won’t work maybe if I put some spacers to brig it over where the paddles connect it might.

ao1977 · Oct 26, 2020

ipeaceonu said:
thanks but the way the wheel is made that adapter won’t work maybe if I put some spacers to brig it over where the paddles connect it might.

Like this? https://opensimracing.com/collections/adapters-spacers/products/spacer-50mm-bolt-pattern

ipeaceonu · Oct 26, 2020

ao1977 said:
Like this? https://opensimracing.com/collections/adapters-spacers/products/spacer-50mm-bolt-pattern

Not really, two sides would need to be flat. I will have to get the proper measurements and probably get one printed.

Racing Sim Rigs UK · Oct 26, 2020

Try Simon at SRM he may be able to help

NobberUK · Oct 27, 2020

Little update from my side:

Had the same thing as JohnAgius52, PayPal via 'eCheque' which shows as cancelled 7 days later. Said it was a PayPal or bank issue, I can't remember now as one lie just blends in to another.

He's now telling me he's done an instant, no wait, next business day bank transfer but that hasn't shown up either. No great surprise really!

I'll be heading north again soon to see my parents so I plan on going via Preston to collect the cash if the refund doesn't miraculously appear.

Oh and James, if you're reading this, which I know you do as you commented on my 'nice post' via WhatsApp, then just refund the money. All of this constant bombardment won't stop. The bailiffs will still keep showing up and legal actions will continue. The way you behave can't be good for your mental and physical health either and you're constantly playing the 'people bringing up my past' card, yet continue to conduct yourself in the exact same way. You need to break the cycle before you put yourself 6 foot under pal.

FindingBarryHayward · Oct 27, 2020

Yes thats the thing, people aren't bringing up his past, they're bringing up his present! He hasn't changed, he never will change, he's a con man, its just what he does. It's a sad and lonely life he lives, watching his back all the time and planning the next con. Bailiffs aren't going to bother him, remember, he doesn't exist, there is no James Hayward, it's all part of Barry Haywards con. Best thing to do is turn up on his doorstep, he's a coward, you'll get the money that way.

NobberUK · Oct 29, 2020

Another update from my side.

Last night I received my refund at around 11pm after a post popped up on one of the Facebook Sim Groups that I commented on! Which was a very welcome surprise.

The Facebook post was a considerable eye opener to just how far and wide things are. It's here for anyone that wants to read/comment: