Web shoppers fear Wii Fit con

Hundreds of people who have placed orders with an online shopping site called Zavvi Direct fear they will not receive their goods.

Computeractive has learned that more than 2,000 consumers may have placed orders with the company, many of them trying to buy the hard-to-get Nintendo Wii Fit device.

However, customers have flooded internet forums voicing fears that they have been conned.

At least one customer reported to us that she had been charged twice for goods that have not arrived.

To add to consumer concerns the website, which took its first orders on 3 June, was forced offline shortly after 13 June for infringing the trademark of high street retailer Zavvi, formerly known as Virgin Megastore.

“We believe that they were misleading people by using our brand name and colours,” a Zavvi representative told Computeractive.

Claire Pinner, who ordered a Wii Fit, agreed: “I feel really stupid, but I thought I was dealing with the high street retailer Zavvi,” she said. She has not been alone in making this assumption

The website in question, www.zavvidirect.co.uk, is registered to a sole trader named Paul Clayton in Brighton. We talked to a Paul Clayton in nearby Hove who is showing in Companies House as the director of this company. However he denied any connection with the site or the company.

We contacted Zavvi Direct by telephone and one Simon Bishop denied any wrong doing told us the company had given refunds to some customers and would have the Wii Fit in stock by 20 June. The company director Paul Clayton also emailed saying the same thing. However, doubt has been cast on whether it will be able to fulfil the orders it has received.

“We would love to know where this company is getting its stock of the Wii Fit from. In the UK and Europe it is in such high demand and short supply no one can get their hands on enough – even us,” a representative for the high-street chain Zavvi told us.

Andrew Goodwill, director of anti-fraud specialists the 3rd Man, said that people have to be careful when shopping online.

“If goods are in short demand and a site claims to have a lot of stock, people should be suspicious. This is a common modus operandi and is used regularly by people committing fraud online,” he said.

The zavvidirect site and other websites using the Zavvi name that have nothing to do with the high-street chain are linked to a company called Zavvi Direct Ltd. It was incorporated as company No. 06495386 on 6 February 2008. The Zavvi Direct company director is Paul Clayton and the company and all the websites use the address: 20 Old Steine, Brighton, BN1 1EL.

Additional sites include Zavvisports.co.uk, a site selling sports clothing and accessories. They have different suffixes such as .com or have hyphenated names. These are also being investigated by the high-street chain Zavvi’s lawyers.