Angels Films Ltd - Stevi Glasspell - Has anyone used them?

Hi

Never heard of them before and had a look at their site. Just a look at their Terms and Conditions and the fact they say, 'No booking fees, No deposits and no forms to sign' would make me suspicious and espcially, their cancellation policy.

It could be the 0800 number they are advertising, is no longer valid? Have you tried writing to them and sending letter by recorded mail?

Yes I have heard of him!!!

He filmed my wedding in December and has done the same thing to me, we are in the process of taking him to court and I have found out that we are not the only ones he has done this to.

Pointless sending him recorded delivery letters as he refuses them and they get returned to sender.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but like us I don't think you will be getting your DVD.

Hi there

Looking at Companies House there is a proposal to strike off the company which I understand as meaning that they haven't filed accounts etc and can no longer trade as a limited company as they've not complied with the law that limited companies need to do!

Sorry to hear though that you've not had your dvds that is just shocking tbh!

xxx

On no i am worried now just booked them for my wedding next year paid £100 deposit gonna have to cancel but guessing i will loose my deposit now :-(

Guess i have to start again!

I'd rather have lost £100 than nearly £600 and my wedding DVD!!!

He has been removed from the IOV (Institute of Videography) as he has done this before so it would be hit or miss if you get your DVD.

Yes definatley, i'm so sorry about yours. How can people be like this!

Looking at his new Terms and Conditions on regards to cancellation there is no mention that you would lose your deposit.

But on the other hand he is generally not one to stick to his own Terms and Conditions!!!

I thought I read on his terms that they take no booking fee/deposit at the time of booking! Is this not true.

Another thing I would be most concerned about is their cancellation policy - should they cancel a week before your wedding - what would happen then, I think though that the Unfair Contract Terms may offer some protection! Definitely no way of running a business seems that he could choose not to film your wedding as late as the day before just by sending a quick email/text etc and as a bride i'd definitely take out wedding insurance if I were hiring him lol!

Although looking at his online availablity diary he has lots of weddings coming up!!!!

x

Mrsspoons, I am sorry to hear you are in the same boat as us, but on the other hand it is good to know we are not the only ones.

I work for a finance company and got one of our agents to go and visit him, he promised the guy that I would have my disks within a couple of days, surprise, surprise, no discs!

Our agent then went back again and gets no answer at the door.

Once the company goes into administration I am going to see about registering myself as a creditor with the adminstrator, I am also waiting for a claims form to come through from our insurance company, hopefully they will be able to help too.

I cant believe he still hasnt sorted out your video from December but yet still turned up to film our wedding in March!! The cheek of it!

What advice have you been given on taking him to court?

Videogal, i have also looked at his online diary and if it is true he has got 8 weddings booked for August alone! I think about these poor people who are going to be in the same boat as us in a few months time, if he even turns up at all!

P.s. I also downloaded a copy of his terms and conditions from when I booked him (which are a lot different from his t&c's now) and it says that the DVD will be ready within 4 months! No wonder he has put new ones on!

xx

Same here, i haven't heard about it yet, but it looks to be interesting.

OMG, just found this thread and looks like my worst nightmare has come true!, we got married in May and i have not been able to get hold of him since via e-mail or telephone and now the 0800 number is disconnected. I paid in full too.......is there nothing we can do now to either get money back or at least get unedited film??

sooo upset...

Hi,

Looks like im in the same boat....... we got married in May and can not get hold of him at all.... i wanted to ask you if the Hemel Hempsted address is his home address?

Hi WWW,

Sorry to hear you have been let down too. It appeared to be his home address at the end of July, but who knows now! I also feel really sorry for the brides that he is booked to still go and see, cannot believe he is still going to weddings when he obviously cant afford to edit the film.

I cannot believe the cheek of him.

xxx

I'm so shocked at the appalling way you poor ladies have been treated and have lost both your money and your DVDs, as it stands at the mo. You have trusted this company to record your special day and have nothing back in return. Contact Trading Standards/Watchdog make the relevant authorities know that this company has taken your money and hasn't supplied you with the goods!

Watchdog would track this company down! You can contact them via the BBC website - surely its worth a punt - even if you're protecting future brides from the experience you have had. Not all video companies are like this!

xx

Hello ladies i also paided him to video my wedding on the 4th august 2010 and he just did not show up, so not only did i pay 600 pound but got no dvd i have tried to get in touch and have now taken legal action against this man, i have also informed trading standards about the company i urge all you people to do the same as he is still taking bookings for weddings so more people will be in the same boat as we are, if anyone has paided the deposit cut your losses and book with someone else. we were very lucky that our wedding co ordinator at the hotel manged to get us a replacement videographer who turned out to be lovely and not a rip off merchant if anyone is looking for someone relaible visit visions uk. do not let this go seek legal action

You are better off cancelling now and losing 100 pound than being out of pocket 600 pound with no dvd

Hi we are in same boat,how can someone do that on any couples big day,we are upset,we got married in may 2010,he turned up and said dvds would be ready and sent out within 2 months,so we emailed and we were told the dvds were being sent out the following day,that was 1 month ago and we are still waiting now,have tried ringing the number on the website but is discontinued he is not replying to emails,how did you go about taking legal action against this man.

Joanne have you managed to get in touch with this man.

Hi no unfortuanetly i have emailed dozends of times, tried phoning the contact number i have and have sent letters to the address i have had no reply

I phoned my local police and they gave me the number for trading standards and we have just been in touch with a lawyer, also if u paid the money on a credit card or visa debit card you can trya nd claim money back through the bank or credit card company that is what we were advised to do. i would advise everyone to do the same

I booked Stevi Glasspell for my wedding last year on the 21st June and paid upfront. It took him two weeks short of a whole year before we had a moderately decent version of our DVD, though it is still not right. This man has not a clue how to run a professional business or treat his clients, and his technical editing ability is questionable; he couldn’t even get the aspect ratio of our DVD right or the rolling end credits to work with logos. Following months of ignored communication, I threatened him with legal action 3 times which did finally spur him to contact me, and then after 3 face to face editing sessions at my home, I eventually received 10 DVDs and 1 BluRay. He was contractually obligated to provide us with the raw tapes of our wedding also but to this day we still have not been able to obtain them, so I am unable to get our memories edited elsewhere to our satisfaction. I cannot begin to tell you the incredible volume of emails, Facebook messages, recorded and hand delivered letters I have written over the last year to this man (and his partner Shelley Healy) and the stress he put me and my new husband through, but I can tell you this: His company ceased trading on the 1st September. He no longer lives at his rented address of Hancroft Road but I will happily publish his new address as soon as I can confirm it. His 0800 telephone number is not a registered line, though you may like to try his mobile: . (It does still ring, though whether you’ll ever get an answer is another matter). He has traded under other names prior to Angels Films and “gone bust” before. He comes from a family of photographers and videographers.

Before he moved my husband visited his home countless times and he would NEVER answer the door. He has taken peoples money and dashed their dreams of a moving memory of the most precious day of their lives and he has no guilt about this. He comes across as a nice chap, but he is honestly one of the strangest characters I have ever met. He simply lies constantly, even to himself, and has no remorse at the damage he does. He never once apologised to us for the way he conducted himself or for taking almost 12 months to provide our DVDs. I have spoken 4 times over the last 12 months to trading standards about Angels Films (Case Ref: SE****) as clearly many other people have, and I recently advised them that, though he has now ceased trading, he is still taking bookings and money. Please feel free to contact me if you want to know anything else about my dealings with this man. My advice for anyone who has parted with money for a booking in the future is CANCEL NOW and recover your payment via PayPal or your Credit Card Company. You will be covered by third party indemnity as the company is no longer trading. My heartfelt sympathy to all those couples that have experienced what we did.

Hi SolsticeBride I am pleased to know you are as persistant as me....I will not walk away without recieving at least the raw recordings of the rest of our wedding day! We got married on July 3rd this year and thanks to my husbands clever thinking he got Stevi to download (what we thought was all) of the raw recordings from the day onto our portable hard drive at the wedding, on the night! When I asked where the rest was in an email follow-up he explained that the speaches etc were recorded on some other format which he didn't have the equipment to transfer for us that night also but would be on the video. He went as far as to create a half hour video (incompleted) for our viewing and to advise him if this was ok or would we like changes etc. He has not come back to me! I have sent many emails, my husband has sent many emails, tried calling many times and nothing. I am beyond mad...more like flaming furious at this man.

My husband, after trying to chase him again today, has pointed out all your forums about this guy. The booking was last minute and I didn't investigate more into this like I normally do when booking someone for something especially when it's a once in a lifetime wedding! Argh! We will want to take legal action. I don't know if anything can be claimed from our Wedding Insurance but I'll look into this. We dont live far from Hemel Hempstead so I think we can make a trip for the good will of all to see if he still lives there.

If by any chance you do have another address for him, please would you be so kind as to let me know. I don't even care about the discs I just want the raw recordings of the speeches etc. I can deal with the rest. I will persist until I get some kind of result.

Oh BrideFury, I'm so sorry to hear of another Glasspell victim. I can sympathise with your anger. I have shed many tears of frustration and disbelief over the lack of, and then the astoundingly poor quality of our DVDs. VivaEspana has done a great thing with this post by giving us all a place to tell the truth and warn others of this charlatan.

I did research Glasspell before booking him and what convinced me to use him was that he had a background in TV and Film as a camera operator and I felt he had a creative flare from what I read on his various Blogs. My initial email conversations with him prior to my wedding gave me every reason to think I had made a good choice, but boy did that turn out to be wrong. Face to face he comes across as very personable and competent, but there is no substance backing this up. I gave him the benefit of the doubt so many times, but he deserves none. He takes on too many bookings to cope with (he does other filming / editing work also) and then simply ignores you till you threaten legal action, and even then you may have to do it several times. For me, it took three. After our wedding on the 21st June, I had a few Facebook conversations with him at the end of August when I was enquiring about the deadline for the DVDs (which back then was 10 weeks from the wedding day). It wasn’t until the 30th December I actually managed to get him to communicate by email with me again! He gave me excuses of family deaths, poor health, snow and even a "nervous breakdown", so I conducted myself with sympathy and understanding but he just threw all that back in my face with the quality of his final edit. As a designer myself, I eventually worked many, many hours with him at my home in Kent, and watched him using his editing software (Sony Vegas) on his laptop. In fact he visited us 3 times and my husband cooked us all dinner each visit whilst Glasspell and I worked on the editing. His initial attempts were so awful that we didn’t even have any shots of us cutting the cake. You wouldn’t have even known we had a Wedding Breakfast. There isn’t enough space here to detail just how bad it all was, but the fact it took 3 face to face visits gives you some idea. Eventually I got the edit how I wanted it, but even now there are technical errors with the final DVD production so I can’t watch it without seething with fury. What annoys me the most is that he is so slack at deadlines, attention to detail, quality checking and customer communication and all these things are essential when providing a service such as his.

He now seems to have added a new angle to his repertoire of dirty tricks as reported by Joanne Taylor, by taking the money and then not turning up at all. Marvellous! As for his T&Cs – they have changed so many times over the last year it is just laughable. He told me at our last editing session that he wanted to film weddings free of charge and not take any money at all until the client was happy with their finished DVD. Ooohhh Purrrrrlease!!! What planet is he on?

Like you, I have given up trying to get a decent edit of the wedding from him which is why I simply want the raw tapes but he just refuses to part with them, and now of course he has moved which was the only way we had of keeping tabs on him. I know for a fact he had stacks and stacks of tapes at his house.

Please don’t waste your time visiting Hancroft Road as he has most definitely moved and there may be innocent, unsuspecting new tenants there now. (Can you imagine what it’s going to be like for them if people keep turning up for Glasspell – poor things!). As for taking him to court, I really don’t know if it’s worth it. I’m not sure if he has just ceased trading or has gone into administration. I’m hoping that VivaEspana, with her finance background, may be able to shed more light on that shortly. In July I actually prepared a 67 page document (yes, 67 really!) that detailed all the events and communications I had with Angel’s Films over the past 12 months with a view to taking him to court to recover our tapes, but my legal insurance finally advised that they would not cover a case for property, only monetary compensation, and of course I want my memories not the money (though I do feel justified in wanting my money back too!). The cost of taking him to court vs the likelihood of a successful outcome (eg: where is he to serve notice? Does he even still have possession of my tapes 16 months after my wedding?) is simply not justifiable for me now. I wish Trading Standards would take some action against him and at the very least force him to cease his website. His audacity to continue trading, taking bookings and money, and publishing his old address where someone else could now be living is illustration enough of just what an unscrupulous character this man is.

As for his new address, sadly my main source for that has not come up trumps but I will persist in my search. I have heard however that he has split from his partner **** (the mother of his young son, ****) and this could well be true as Hancroft Road looked very unkempt with an overgrown back garden for a number of months which is odd for someone with a toddler. Also, the house seemed to have been half moved out for a number of weeks before he left towards the end of August. Anyway, **** seems to be living in ****, so lets hope he chooses to remain in the Hertfordshire area. Between 2006 and 2008 he lived in 3 places in ****, before they both moved to *** I believe his ********, so who knows where he will next surface.

Personally I’m of the opinion the only way of us obtaining our raw tapes is to track down where he is now and pay him a visit, but I hope others may post some alternative ideas here as such a confrontation is not something I would ordinarily endorse. Besides, Glasspell is well known for keeping his curtains drawn, his letter box taped down (seriously!) and his door (like his phones) unanswered. Before he left Hancroft, he even took to parking his car round the corner from his house so that gives you some idea of just how many people had paid him a visit. Stevi Glasspell is NOT a popular man!

My hope is that we can, at the very least, ensure that the name Stevi Glasspell becomes synonymous with Rogue Trader and that he is finally ousted from the Wedding Industry so that he cannot prey on other couples like he has on us.

Hi ladies,

I cant believe he has been doing this since at least last June, absolutely disgraceful, here is my update:

Wedding Insurers say they cannot do anything until the company is confirmed as going under via Companies House, as stated above, this was due to be 1/9/10, as yet no update on Companies House website (still states 'Active-Proposal to strike off'). The London Gazette (where these things are published) seems to be released weekly on a Monday, so in theory, it should be confirmed tomorrow, at which time I am going to go back to my insurers again.

I have also been busy scouring the internet to find any items on Angels Films, any advertisements and using the 'contact' button on those websites to send messages to Stevi. i have also sent him messages on Facebook but as you can probably guess, no replies!

I have also found some sites where he has adverts which allow you to leave reviews, so needless to say I have left some very non positive reviews!

Also my agent who went to visit him has been back a few times since and as people have said, it appears that he is no longer living there.

One last thing, I have been advised by some colleagues in our credit and risk department, that if the company shows as going into adminstration, then we will be able to register ourselves as creditors to the administrators. If this does happen I intend to do this also and will let you all know how to go about it if you are interested?

I am beginning to get stressed out and upset about it all now, you think that all the stress is over with once you get to the wedding day! How wrong you can be! ;o)

I been onto the Watchdog website and contacted them with the problem, maybe Rogue Trader might be an idea too! I havent heard anything back from Watchdog though.

I feel so helpless, I wish there was something we were able to do, at the very least to stop this man trading!

xx

Well I have just had the biggest shock!!!!

Postman has just delivered my 10 wedding dvds!!!

I have had no contact from Mr Glasspell but they just turned up in the post this morning so hopefully there is hope for all you other brides as well!!!!

Fingers crossed!!!

We have just had the same thing!! I sent him a heartfelt email friday and low and behold my dvd's have come today in the post too !. Lets hope he has finally realised he could no longer carry on this scam and every bride now gets her dvds!! I really hope so as this was such a cruel con us brides are ripped off showing our biggest day off to those who could not be there and that is way more important then money !!

I really hope this does mean that everyone will get there DVDs now.

We started a court claim last week so I thought that might of had something to do with it, but maybe not!!!

I'm actually really happy with mine as well!! Shame it has taken 9 months and a lot of stress and heartache but at least it is here now!!!!

I am delighted to hear some of you are now getting your DVDs. This does not surprise me. Glasspell has a habit of sending them out after threats of legal action, and they will turn up without any letter, note or apology for delay. Did any of the parcels come via registered post? If they did, please try to track it back to find out the address from where they were sent.

Once your relief at finally having some DVDs in your possession has passed, please sit down and play them through to make sure they are what you want. Glasspell did this to me too. 10 DVDs turned up 6 months after our wedding and 2 threats of legal action. They were atrocious. So many aspects of the day were missing, and hardly any guest messages which was something I really wanted. Another month and a half of unanswered emails and letters complaining about the poor editing and missing footage, and then 10 more DVDs arrived. These were worse than the last lot with sound tracks erroneously overlaid to create echoes. Finally, after more persistence, Glasspell eventually communicated first by email then by phone and eventually at the end of February we had the 1st of 3 face to face editing sessions. It took that many because he never got it right! He turned up on the 2nd session having done absolutely NOTHING since the previous one, and he was supposed to be coming down to show us the finished version. Even now, the final DVD has technical faults on it, so that any enjoyment of watching our wedding day is marred. Therefore, I urge you to watch your films carefully and make sure that you are happy with the content, editing, quality, aspect ratio, sound levels etc and check all the DVDs to ensure they play properly on both PC and TV as some of mine don’t. If you are not satisfied, my advice is to forget trying to get him to re-edit – and just get your hands on the raw tapes from you day. This is what I am now trying to do.

For those of you still not in receipt of your DVDs - I have today taken further legal advice and spoken to companies house and I can advise the following:

Companies House are striking off Angels Films as they have not returned their necessary documents to remain registered. If Angels Films is struck off, you will not be able to take legal action against the company unless it goes into either Administration or Liquidation. There is a chance that neither of these will happen and that Glasspell is not even aware that he is being struck off. Therefore, it is important to keep Angels Films registered. To do this, you must send an email TODAY to *********@**************.***.** with the title “Objection to Dissolution” and request that Company No. **** is not struck off. This will buy you some 3 to 6 months grace in which time you can take legal action against the company.

Now, if the company does go into Administration, as VivaEspana advised, you can register as a Creditor. However, if it goes into liquidation, as an unsecured Creditor you will be at the very bottom of the list of those who will get a payout – the tax man will come first…… that is of course if there is any money from which to pay out! As Glasspell rents, it seems likely he has no assets in property, and therefore there is not likely to be much after a liquidation.

In any case, please be aware that you cannot take this man to court if you do not know where he is living! The best recourse you have for obtaining a refund is via either PayPal or your Credit Card Company. Fingers crossed, you will have paid by one of these methods.

I sincerely hope that those of you who have now received your DVDs are happy with them. Glasspell is capable of producing good editing, but his time management and slapdash attitude often results in sub-standard work so please check carefully. My advice is to watch your DVDs several times as, after the initial thrill of seeing moving images of your wedding day have worn off, you may just start to notice all the things that are missing or not quite right.

I hope that this information is useful to you all, whether you have now received your DVDs or not. As I am still desperately trying to recover my raw tapes, do please post any new address for him should you come across it. Many thanks.

Hi i havnt watched my dvd yet waiting for hubby to come in from work there is no address on the packaging just says on the stamp M16 is the area its come from sorry couldnt provided any more information i did also send off report to watchdog so fingers crossed if enough of us have done it he will soon be appearing on rogue traders!

So he sent you 10 DVDs, with a monetary value of at least £600, via standard post. Typical! Lets just be grateful they actually arrived. Do let us know if you are pleased with them when you finally watch them. I wrote to Watchdog over 6 months ago about Angel's Films. Never heard anything back. I think, as consumers, we often sit here in the knowledge that we have Trading Standards, the Small Claims Court and the media to fall back upon in our hour of need. Sadly, when it comes down to it, this is often very far from the truth. Going the legal route is not easy, not cheap and risky - particularly when you are dealing with someone like Glasspell who will not communicate, has no known address and shows a blatant disregard for professional conduct. Trading Standards have no interest in a “small fish” like Glasspell, and the media – well, from past experience, there is just no rhyme nor reason for the stories they run with and those they don’t. It seems to be just luck of the draw.

Hey peeps,

Another update for you, I tried the mobile number given above by Solstice Bride and left a message asking for a callback. I received a call back from a gentleman explaining that this is his daughters number, he advised he didnt know who Stevi is...whether or not this is true I dont know, but I dont think anyone should call the mobile number again.

Mrsspoons and Nicola, how was the quality of your DVDs? are you pleased with them?

Does anyone else have any updates?

xx