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Mother's Basement Closes, Owing Thousands

Mother's Basement has been a common sight in recent British shows such as the MCM Expos and Memorabilia, partnered with SciFi Now, with a strong online presence, selling high value items, toys and statues, priced with massive discounts,

Yesterday, we got the other side of that equation.

Their Facebook page has gone, their Twitter has gone, their eBay store is cleared out, and complaints going back months look very bad indeed. On January 30th, Kathryn Valler, co-owner of the store posted,

Hi Guys Just to let you know. I am in meetings all day and the customer service guy is ill so the phones will go to answer phone. Please feel free to leave a message if you wish. I will be answering emails though when I can throughout the day so you can email if you wish. Thanks Kate

But that was the last we heard. Comments on a variety of message board threads tell a familiar story,

Great idea to band together people. After saving for a while and awaiting for certain figures to be announced I ordered 13 hot toys figures from them at the end of August. Release dates were set for November. In December I was called to be told there had been a delay and that my order was on its way. I spoke to kate last Monday who assured me my order would arrive by the end of the week. If it wasn't for the excellent community, I probably would still be none the wiser. I am, however, out of pocket to the tune of £1725.66. No that's not a typo. I wish it was.

Well just stuck a claim in on Paypal for a refund from MB, however one item I paid for in full last June I can't seem to put a claim in for as it is over 45 days old. I have sent Paypal an email about that one and will see what happens.

I have pre ordered batman deluxe model from MB in July 2013 & paying by PayPal in instalments, Today i found out that company cease trading from today & i lost £340 .

PayPal can only refund me if i open a dispute in 45 days & every invoice gone to BM from my PayPal so i cant even go to my bank. is anything people can recommend to get my money back ?

(£299 they owe my mums CC. She placed an order on the 22nd of Jan, she talked to Kate asking about the Darth Vader Mythos statue. There was 2 in stock and was told 3 days to deliver. Then she got a call on Monday the 24th to say the 2 they had in stock were damaged but they had another one coming from the supplier in a day or 2 and not to worry. She was nice as pie and I talked to her as well as It was for me (I did not have an account with them but my mum did, and they were the only ones who had Vader in stock although I never did like them, the posts they made on FB were just not professional at times)

I can't get over how nice she was on the phone though.. She would have known then. I should have known better with all the problems they had over Christmas. But I? And I'm sure many others gave them the benefit of the doubt.

£289 Deadpool PF. They did have them in about a week ago but all three were broken when they checked them before shipping! But not to worry said Kate they can get more by the end of Feb………..hang on…..oh shit!!!!!!!!!!!

Hot Toys Tony Stark – paid in full – £179.99 – 20/11/2013
Hot Toys Igor – deposit – £48.00 – 17/10/2013
Hot Toys General Zod – deposit – £28.50 – 31/08/2013

I honestly feel for those who put alot more into this company, really shouldn't have happened. We put our trust in something we thought was genuine and no two ways about it, got hustled. If what really happened was due to their negligence or even fraud, I'm sure karma will sort them out.

Well this is turning into being more depressing than an AA meeting. I'm down £210 for an HT BD Terminator. Thankfully I received my HT Hulk on the 15th otherwise I would have been £500 down

£740 down, certainly better ways to start the week. Had the Hot Toys Amazing Spider-man, Man of Steel PF and Iron man 3 Tony Stark paid in full and deposits on 7 other items. Annoyed does not even begin to describe it, with myself also for ordering more stuff off them the past few months when it was clear something was wrong.

I've been done for £49.99 on a pre-orderd (paid In full) Ed-209 from july 2013… but this is not much compared to what others have lost. Most MB preorder customers are going to take weeks to realise they have ceased to trade and have lost money! I only looked to see where my order was as I've seen Ed209''s on forbidden planet & toyhq as in stock the last few weeks, didn't expect this when I went looking just!

Well where do I start, that owe me £428. Was all paid up on my 1/4 Batman and deposit on lots off other figures. Only been in this game since late May 2013 and am gutted by this. Took me ages to get money like that. PayPal and my bank can't help.so many figures on pre-order that now be hard to get. If could just get my 1/4 Batman it would be something.

£57.90 for me via PayPal from direct PayPal funds guess I'm out of pocket but looking at some of the other posts though I got off lightly I really hope you guys get your money back.

I'm down around £700 preordered hot toys robocop and a Harley Quin to go with my joker and paid a £100 deposit for 1.1 scale vader, paid over 6 months via payapl direct from my bank, no credit card. I rang companies house today they only registered as a ltd company about a month ago, as far as companies house are concerned they are still trading. I then rang the insolvency service as Kate told my mate that all their goods had been seized, the insolvency has no record of any bankruptcy or receivers taking anything, as far as they are concerned they are still trading, I sent this in a text message to both of them as i have both their private numbers, business and home address' and told them i was reporting them to trading standards coz something wasn't right. Then had an angry voicemail off liam stating that they had taken a secured loan out for the business and had not kept up with the repayments so their creditors had seized goods, if that is true that kind of thing doesn't happen over night, takes a few missed payments and stuff so they knew this was happening for a while. earlier on i had a phone call from the police asking me not to text them anymore hah

An audio recording of a message left for a customer by one of the folk behind Mothers Basement confirms the bankruptcy, tells customers to use credit cards to get their money back, condemsn what they call "Keyboard Warriors" and points out that they have lost everything – warning, there is considerable profanity.

Mother's Basement were big customers of such products in the UK, fro US firms. Expect large amounts to be owed to wholesalers and customers alike, and a lot of product coming into the country with no home to go to…

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