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Transcriptors - Dubious Business Practices?

Styles B

Styles B

Member
Hi folks,

I'm normally not one to complain publicly about a company, but I've in the midst of a very sketchy transaction with Michael Gammon at Transcriptors. In short, six weeks ago, I ordered and paid for one of their sweep arms for my early Hydraulic Reference turntable. I've not received it and Michael only sometimes replies to my emails with an excuse. If I dig around the internet I can find several stories of people getting the same treatment (should have done this before) and many people say to not expect to ever receive anything. I'm wondering if anyone here has had a similar experience and if they ever received what they ordered. It feels very much like a scam, but the fact that they have been around for so long and have an active website and social media accounts, it must be legit. I'm really confused.

I contacted him in early May through the email on their website asking about details. Every time he replies within minutes. He then requests a Wise transfer (okay, maybe that's a red flag) and I wire him £175.00 for the arm and delivery to Canada. Didn't hear from him for about two weeks, so I email asking about package tracking info. No reply. I email a week later asking again. No reply. I email a week later saying that I will have to assume this is a scam and report it. He replies immediately saying it will be shipped "next week." Ten days later, I've not heard anything so I email demanding shipping information. No reply. The next day, I say that if he does not have stock or is having a problem I would like a refund. He replies quickly saying "We are currently making them and will be shipped as soon as and I will let you know the shipping information." I reply asking if that means days, weeks, or months? No reply. I emailed a few days later asking for a ballpark date on this. No reply.

As I write this all out, I feel pretty dumb for being so patient for so long.

Two questions: Has anyone else had a similar experience with Transcriptors? What would you do?

[And yes, I know these aren't even a needed accessory, but I just wanted to complete the full Hydraulic Reference kit.]
 

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Thanks. His email address now has an auto reply telling people to write a letter to him if they would like to get in touch. I have reported him to the UK authorities and his bank, but expect no action, as this has clearly been going on for more than 15 years. Seems bizarre that he can operate like this with impunity in the UK.
 
I seem to remember some bad feedback about him a few years ago,possibly regarding his Ebay account.I have tried to find the reports,up to now I've not had any luck but I'm certain they are out there.
By authorities that would be Trading Standards?
Good luck.
 
Ice White said:
I seem to remember some bad feedback about him a few years ago,possibly regarding his Ebay account.I have tried to find the reports,up to now I've not had any luck but I'm certain they are out there.
By authorities that would be Trading Standards?
Good luck.
Click to expand...
Authorities, as in "Action Fraud UK."
 
Styles B said:
As I write this all out, I feel pretty dumb for being so patient for so long.
Click to expand...
I'm sorry you have to go through this mess. I've had "stalling tactics" with suppliers and contractors before. My brother-in-law is a lawyer. What he has done is write a registered letter with his business logo on it to the people who are the problem. Just asking what is going on and what the time frame is. No legal stuff or threats.

You can't believe how fast these half-@ss people who can't respond to you directly, suddenly become super responsive once they see those letters.

It's so stupid that one needs to play hardball with these guys. But that's how some of these bozos operate. Every stupid excuse in the book!

Good luck with your transaction! And thanks for posting this, for the sake of others! :thumbsup:
 
Mr Boochie said:
I'm sorry you have to go through this mess. I've had "stalling tactics" with suppliers and contractors before. My brother-in-law is a lawyer. What he has done is write a registered letter with his business logo on it to the people who are the problem. Just asking what is going on and what the time frame is. No legal stuff or threats.

You can't believe how fast these half-@ss people who can't respond to you directly, suddenly become super responsive once they see those letters.

It's so stupid that one needs to play hardball with these guys. But that's how some of these bozos operate. Every stupid excuse in the book!

Good luck with your transaction! And thanks for posting this, for the sake of others! :thumbsup:
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Yes. I can only hope that this will prevent someone from making a transaction in the future. I've tried reporting him to Action Fraud, UK (they closed the case basically saying there's nothing they can do), tried reporting a scam to the Welsh police (they only take complaints from people in the UK), Tradking Standards (they only take complaints from people in the UK). Basically, this guy has figured out that he can keep doing this and nobody has any recourse. It's quite amazing, actually. I might have expected it if I was ordering from Sudan or Somalia...

When I wasn't getting anywhere, I wrote to the businesses that he shares an address with in Wales (Unit 8, Village Workshops, Llanerfyl, Powys, SY21 0AS) to ask if he is a real person and if they have seen him. A really nice woman got back to me confirming that he is who he says he is and added "he’s owed me a deck for almost 1.5 years and I’ve given up asking him. He has my money..." Absolutely bonkers!
 
Styles B said:
Yes. I can only hope that this will prevent someone from making a transaction in the future. I've tried reporting him to Action Fraud, UK (they closed the case basically saying there's nothing they can do), tried reporting a scam to the Welsh police (they only take complaints from people in the UK), Tradking Standards (they only take complaints from people in the UK). Basically, this guy has figured out that he can keep doing this and nobody has any recourse. It's quite amazing, actually. I might have expected it if I was ordering from Sudan or Somalia...

When I wasn't getting anywhere, I wrote to the businesses that he shares an address with in Wales (Unit 8, Village Workshops, Llanerfyl, Powys, SY21 0AS) to ask if he is a real person and if they have seen him. A really nice woman got back to me confirming that he is who he says he is and added "he’s owed me a deck for almost 1.5 years and I’ve given up asking him. He has my money..." Absolutely bonkers!
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He has prolly gotten away with this behavior his whole life. He knows it's a pain to drag him into small claims court. And especially a pain to try to deal with him long-distance. There are these guys who have no problem doing this kinda crap and look themselves in the mirror every day, as if it's all okay. :(

People complain about PayPal and eBay, but I've gotten refunds (though it may take time) when transactions go south.

It's sad. Sorry!
 
Update: I've had a series of back and forth emails from Michael Gammon. I was very frank with him about my expectations from a business, which I think are pretty reasonable. Either the merchant sends the product or they explain that they are delayed and they apologise and are clear about when it will ship. Once I made him aware of this thread he quickly offered a refund and to also send me the arm. I said I wouln't need both and I would settle for a refund. To my surprise, a full refund was sent to me earlier today.

I really don't know what to make of Michael and the current state of the Transcriptors business. Odd is probably the best way to describe it. I would genuinely be interested in hearing from anyone who has actually ordered and received something from Transcriptors (a turntable or any of the accessories). For my part, I'm going to stick with looking on ebay and elsewhere for a vintage sweep arm, as they do seem to turn up sometimes. I may even get a local machinist to put the parts together for me - it's not very complicated.

transcriptors_sweeparm.jpg

Thanks very much to you all here for your advice and commisseration. I'm glad it had a somewhat satisfactory ending.
 
I registered on this forum specifically so I could reply to this thread, because unfortunately I’ve had — and am still having — exactly the same experience.

I first contacted Michael with photos of my original Transcriptor, including the original tonearm. He was very friendly initially, dated the turntable and confirmed that it was completely original.

I needed a sweep arm, brush and lid to complete the restoration. I paid £550 for these on 2 December 2025.

Since then, communication has been extremely poor. Every now and then I receive a brief explanation or promise, but the products still haven’t been sent or haven’t received a refund either.

So, unfortunately, I can confirm that the experience described in this thread. I've heard from other people in the audio community here in Belgium that he indeed has a very bad reputation. I don't think his father would be very proud of what he's doing to his company and reputation.

So yes, be very careful (or refrain from) before you send him any money.

Since the OP has apparently managed to get his money back, does anyone have any suggestions for the best way to get mine back?
;):p
 
Thank you for posting this. I'm sorry you're struggling with this person, but I'm glad you brought up these problems.
 
Mescal said:
I registered on this forum specifically so I could reply to this thread, because unfortunately I’ve had — and am still having — exactly the same experience.

I first contacted Michael with photos of my original Transcriptor, including the original tonearm. He was very friendly initially, dated the turntable and confirmed that it was completely original.

I needed a sweep arm, brush and lid to complete the restoration. I paid £550 for these on 2 December 2025.

Since then, communication has been extremely poor. Every now and then I receive a brief explanation or promise, but the products still haven’t been sent or haven’t received a refund either.

So, unfortunately, I can confirm that the experience described in this thread. I've heard from other people in the audio community here in Belgium that he indeed has a very bad reputation. I don't think his father would be very proud of what he's doing to his company and reputation.

So yes, be very careful (or refrain from) before you send him any money.

Since the OP has apparently managed to get his money back, does anyone have any suggestions for the best way to get mine back?
;):p
Click to expand...

I tried everything noted above in my post but what seems to have made the difference is reporting the transaction to Wise (which he was using to request money at the time) along with screen shots of our email communication. Wise reported back that they blocked the user from receiving money in the future but there's nothing they could do to get my money back. I assume that returning my funds was part of his being able to use their financial services again, but I honestly don't know. If you used Wise, I would lodge a formal complaint. I'm sorry you're going through this. He's basically the only option for finding these parts and his website is slick. It's a crafty scam, actually, because the authorities in the UK don't seem to care. People like us just wire him the money because of his name and desperation for these parts.
 
whoaru99 said:
Is it really a scam, or is a very poorly managed business? Not to imply the latter acceptable but it is different, IMO.
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I've reached out here and on other platforms like Reddit to ask if anyone anywhere has ever recieved something from him in return for payment and there has never been anyone who says they have. Some people have said they've mailed him their entire turntable for service and never received it back...
 
Styles B said:
I tried everything noted above in my post but what seems to have made the difference is reporting the transaction to Wise (which he was using to request money at the time) along with screen shots of our email communication. Wise reported back that they blocked the user from receiving money in the future but there's nothing they could do to get my money back. I assume that returning my funds was part of his being able to use their financial services again, but I honestly don't know. If you used Wise, I would lodge a formal complaint. I'm sorry you're going through this. He's basically the only option for finding these parts and his website is slick. It's a crafty scam, actually, because the authorities in the UK don't seem to care. People like us just wire him the money because of his name and desperation for these parts.
Click to expand...

He made me pay through Sumup.

I tried filing a complaint with sumup, but that must be the most unuserfriendly thing ever. So I gave up.
 
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