'Importer' fails to deliver the goods

By JOSIE CLARKE consumer reporter

A mail-order business that offered cheap adidas shoes and computers has vanished leaving customers fearing they have been scammed.

The Commerce Commission has confirmed it is investigating Budget Imports, which advertised over the past month as a parallel importer selling adidas shoes for $39.95 and Pentium 120 laptop computers for $399 plus GST, postage and handling.

Commission spokesman Vince Cholewa said the investigation centred on whether Budget Imports ever intended supplying the goods it advertised.

Auckland police said they had received several complaints about Budget Imports.

Customers raised the alarm when the shoes and computers failed to arrive but cheque payments were debited from their accounts or appeared on credit card statements.

Budget Imports' Newmarket premises were deserted yesterday and phone calls to the business were unanswered. The business is not listed with the Companies Office.

One angry customer said the deal had been popular among schoolchildren lured by the offer of fashionable but usually expensive adidas shoes.

June Hirst said the shoes she ordered were supposed to have been delivered within 10 days. When they did not turn up, her efforts to get in contact with Budget Imports failed. She is now concerned that the company has a record of her credit card details.

Another woman said Budget Imports told her she would have to pay $149 for a pair of the shoes if she bought them from the Newmarket shop.

She opted to send a $212 cheque for four pairs, which had never turned up. The money was debited from her account two weeks ago.

Advertisements for Budget Imports offering a limited number of shoes and computers with a money-back guarantee, appeared four times in the Herald.

The advertisements invited wholesale inquiries but said the business would take orders only by phone or fax.