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This shit head (ANDREW PLAYFORD) and his fucking company (SIGNATURE DAYS) owe a TON of people money. (including me)
His website SignatureDays.com has filed bankruptcy and has yet to contact myself and many others. This pisses me off double-time because I used his site this past Christmas to purchase a gift for my mom. And now the gift is fucked and so am I for the $$$$. I get to now stand in line to MAYBE (most likely not) try and get my money back. (so I can then get my mother something else)
So this post is to you Andrew Playford. I hope Google indexes the shit out of this little post. So others who were fucked by you can leave “happy comments” too.
Karma is a bitch!
So here is a final farewell to this post. I’m going to end it with a link to another talk going on about Signature Days (www.signaturedays.com) Andrew Playford’s shit site.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/signature-days-chicago
(I hope this post was keyword stuffed enough with the words
Andrew Playford, SignatureDays.com, and bankruptcy, gift card, giftcard, out of business, gift experience, experiences, Signature Days LLC, Scam
So you bots can get a crawlin’)
_____________________________________
More shit below to stuff for organic search so others find this post:
300 W Hubbard St
Ste 302
Chicago, IL 60686 (800) 330-4166
playford.com, Signature Days scam, signature days owes me money, bankrupt, chapter 7, Signature Days LLC, gift certificate, scam, credit card, money back, giftcards, gift cards.
(he also owes money to Elegant Acquisitions LLC, FedEx Corp., and Epic Media Relations LLC)
__________________________________________________
Update: more information below for those that need contact info. to “try” and get money back.
(like any of these poor people this asshole ripped-off could have just casually gone to Chicago for this crap. Not to mention the meeting date was 8 days ago and I still have not received any sort of info. from his reps.)
debtor:
signature days
300 w. hubbard street
suite 301
chicago, il 60610
attorney:
peter a. siddiqui
katten muchin rosenman llp
525 west monroe street
chicago, il 60661
phone: 312-902-5455
bankruptcy trustee:
catherine l. steege esq
jenner & block
330 n. wabash avenue
chicago, il 60611
phone: 312-222-9350
address of bankruptcy clerks office:
eastern division
219 south dearborn
7th floor
chicago, il 60604
phone: 888-232-6814
clerk of bankruptcy court
kenneth s. gardner
court date: april 10, 2008
time: 03:00pm
location: 219 south dearborn, room 800, chicago, il 60604
all debtors are required to attend and bring picture id and proof of their social security number to the 341 meeting.
4-28-08: New interesting post I found. Dated 2/18/08 via tmronline.com
(this is dated info. now. But really shows how shady this company has been for awhile now.)
” 5. The management team of Signature Days ( www.signaturedays.com) cleverly (or inadvertently) disabled the link to the page on their website that describes the team. Are they hiding out? Who knows.
But never fear! The May Report has retrieved the information and I have printed it in the “Scoop section” in this report. Now, the reason for all the focus on this is that there are rumors of unethical behavior on the part of Signature Days. I would like to have more hardcore information but the fact that this page has effectively been hidden from view tells us that when there is smoke there may be fire. Recall that the rumor is that they are not honoring gift cards because they already spent the money they collected. Serious charges if true but I don’t know if they are true. Does anyone?”
4-30-08: Posted at www.flyertalk.com
“I spent 70,000 miles on catered dinner party with Signature Days through United Auctions. As of last month, Signature Days is bankrupt and I am out 70,000 miles. I asked Mileage Plus if they would refund my miles and the person in the Philappines who answered the phone said that they could not refund the miles.
Did anyone else get caught in this situation? It seems fair that the company I purchased the service from (United) return my miles for services NOT delivered.
Help.”
This contact info may or may not help people with trying to contact whomever they can to get their money back. It could be outdated. I dont for sure. But wanted to throw it out there as well.
SIGNATURE DAYS
Andrew Playford
CEO
Phone: 312-494-9604
Email: andrew@signaturedays.com
Diane Freeland
Phone: 917-767-7547
Email: diane@signaturedays.com
Also below is the whois contact info for the signaturedays.com site
Administrative Contact:
PLAYFORD, ANDREW andrew@playford.com
215 W Illinois St
Apt 3C
Chicago, IL 60610
US
646-326-2589 fax: 123 123 1234
Here is something else I just dug up. Again, I don’t know if it will help. But if it does help someone then great.
Here is the “contact” page from signaturedays.com’s site from the Archive.
NOTE: Anyone who is owed money from Signature Days/Andrew Playford’s company leave a comment below.
This thing has 53 Comments
I have two gift cards that I am not able to use now. If you find any information out about what we can do let me know. Thanks.
Will do Darbie. Only info. I have at the moment is what I had listed above.
Still have yet to receive a single piece of mail about any of this crap.
I will keep this post updated with any information I do get or find.
And if anyone else reading this has something please do the same.
Sure would be nice to get my $$$$$ back!
My kids gave me a gift certificate with thier hard earned money for a flight class in Dallas. Looks like we got screwed as well. Website is definitely disabled. This sucks…Lets get a rope & string em’ up!
Sorry to hear that Greg. I know a lot of people must be in our same situation right about now. This post has been getting a ton of traffic. So I assume a lot of people have been scammed as well.
The sick part about all of this to me is the fact that Mr. Andrew Playford and his company Signature Days LLC. were taking peoples money for gift cards and packages up until the last day of their site being taken down.
I’ve read other places where people had order days before and then went back to the site and it magically was gone.
Karma is a bitch. And It will come back to them. It always does.
They owe me money for a g.c. i bought for my husband for our one year wedding anniversary!!!!!!!!!
Me too. I spent $400 for a nice birthday gift for my brother. Ten laps in a NASCAR car. Then when I call to arrange the date, find out they are bankrupt. What the hell. Now I am out the money and an awesome gift for my bro.
I donated a Signature Days Gift Certificate to our School District’s PTA auction to raise money for our schools…. This is horrible.. I hope karma finds Andrew Playford ten fold.
i have a gift card for a fighter pilot for a day almost $1,200 that i cannot use
hi, I bought 2 signature days gifts as xmas presents totalling $240. Please let me know if you find out anything helpful. Thanks!
PLEASE help!! What a rip off,,Iam SO upset. Purchased a gift certificate for brother at Christmas and now find out it is worth nothing. This is not fair. Please let me know what to do! Thanks
i purchased a gift certificate for my boyfriend for valentines day. I thought the website stated someone will be contacting me
Marquita I thought the same thing as well. That was obviously not the truth though. Because myself as well as many others above and elsewhere are still out hundreds or thousands of dollars.
Ill still be updating and adding any new info I can find. And if anyone else finds something please feel free to add it as well. I will move it up to the top of the original post.
OMG! I have been searching the internet for a couple of days trying to find the Signature Days website to redeem a gift certificate I received from my 5th grade class. I just happened on yours. I had no idea this crum went out of business. Please keep us posted if there is any source of restitution in the future.
Looks like I’m not alone in failing to redeem a gift voucher my family bought me for my birthday… This guy should me made to pay. What are the chances of anyone getting a cent from him though if he’s filed for bankruptcy? Does he legally have to pay up?!
I purchased the NASCAR gift certificate for my son-in-law as a gift. He tried to schedule the date and was told they were bankrupt. Someone would be in contact with the purchaser. Obviously, that hasn’t happened! This guy has robbed of all of us of money, time and gifts given with good intentions.
Argh! I was psyched for going for a ride on a hang glider. Looks like I’ve been taken for a ride, instead.
Thank you SO much for posting the info though, or I would have never been able to figure out what was going on.
My friend gave me a gift voucher at Christmas and now we have no way to redeem it. Is there a way for us to file a formal complaint if we missed the April court date? Can we all pull together and get some sort of class action or form a single group so the total debt outstanding is material?
Ricky - Thank you for gathering all of this information!
Naitik,
I’m not really sure what those owed money can really do. I am all for a class action or whatever else can be done. Not sure the steps but I can try to contact those above and whomever else posts here once I find out the steps. I’ll look into what can be done and update the information here.
I purchased a stock car drive for my husband for christmas and he finally decided to redeem it. He tried to find the website and found this site instead. I was so heart broken when he said that it appears the company I purchased the gift card from is bankrupt. I believe in karma also. I would alsolike to know if any information is found so that I can get my money back.
How about trying to contact Mr Playford via one of his other ventures: http://nelsonmandelaart.com/about.html
Thanks so much for posting this information! I am yet another person trying to redeem a now worthless card. Please let me know if anything comes up where people can get their money back.
I too have been fucked out of a wonderful experience. Me and my wife received a gift for a lunch cruise and when I attempted to redeem it today all I found was this site. Bastards should have to pay up!!!!!!!!!!11
Thanks for the information. I’ve been trying to find out what happened to that website for a while now, they never even sent out a notice saying they’re closing down. If anyone knows how we can do something to recoup some of the money lost, please keep us updated.
ok add me to the list - got a gift card for xmas - my bad for not using it - i was thinking i was nuts for not being able to find the web site - let me know if you find out any info
thanks - now i know i am not nuts - just screwed
I’m with Mystery Helper - everyone needs to contact Mr Playford through nelsonmandelaart.com and let him know that he will NOT get away with this. This guy has the balls to take hard-earned cash from people like us, declare bankruptcy and continue to earn through other websites!
I too got screwed… got a nice balloon trip for my wife and I and now I’m out the cash… couldn’t even find anything out about this a-holes until I contacted xperiencedays.com (thought they just changed the name of the site)…
Further to my prior note… Here’s the email I got from Andrew Playford…
From: Signature Days (aplayford@gmail.com)
Sent: Wed 5/28/08 8:54 AM
Reply-to: andrew@signaturedays.com
Hi Dan I recently got your email via my Nelson Mandela Art site. Trust me I would have preferred not to have gone into bankrupcy. Thereare no winners in a bankrupcy, least of all me. Most people understandwhat an aweful process it is. It seems like you think I benefited insome way. I can assure you that was not the case and you have everyright to be angry. Regarding you not getting a letter. Our whole database was handed overto the bankrupcy trustee so if you aren’t on it and you think you havea claim then you should let her know:
Catherine Steege,
Trustee for Signature Days LLC
330 N. Wabash AveJenner & Block LLP
Chicago, IL 60611
Regards
Andrew Playford
Dan,
Thank you for posting the info. you got.
God, Mr. Playford is a serious tool. Must be nice to not give a fuck. And then he tries to get sympathy in the email by stating how hard it was for him going through bankruptcy. FUCK OFF MAN!
I bet Andrew is really hurting financially. I got an idea for him. How about he gives everyone he fucked over a few of those $10,000+ Nelson Mandela prints he still sells.
Finally I love how the email says “you think you have a claim”. WHAT THE FUCK???
Andrew, I am sure Dan as well as everyone else you owe money KNOWS you DO. I don’t think this is all some sort of mix up and we are all confused on if we spent money with your failed company. I am certain it was YOUR company Mr. Playford that charged my card.
Again thanks for posting this email Dan. It just certifies my feelings on how much of a douche-bag Andrew Playford and his company are.
I too got the shaft. I purchased 8 gift cards for a river boat cruise and wine tasting for my family for Christmas.
Now when I go to schedule it I find out this crap. As a creditor I should have received a notice, but never did.
I will attempt to contact the trustee, but who knows where that will go. I guess it’s a buyer beware world. Sucks!
This guy should pay!
I contacted this bankruptcy trustee and received the following reply:
I am not working on behalf of Mr. Playford. I am the appointed bankruptcy trustee and my job is to determine whether any funds can be collected for creditors. There is nothing you can do at this point to collect. If I find any money, you will get a notice with instructions as to how to file a claim form.
Frustrating….
He screwed me over as well. If you want to hit him where it hurts, I would suggest making a complaint to The Institute of Chartered Accountants for England & Wales. He is a member and I am sure the membership is pretty valuable to him. If enough people complain, they may revoke his membership. Follow the link below to fill out a complaint. Go to the bottom of the page - fill out the document. I would suggest filling it out in a professional manner - however let them know about his unethical practices.
http://www.icaew.com/index.cfm?route=139178
Linked IN Public Profile http://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewplayford
Thank you so much for all the info you have given us. I purchased a $400 gift card for my dad for Christmas to drive 6-8 laps in a Nascar. He tried to schedule the date and obviously found out they were bankrupt. I’m sure I’ll never get the money back, but he has loved Nascar his whole life, and this was the best gift I’ve ever given him, his dream of driving one on his own, and now it will never happen. I’ll never trust another site that does it either. Anyway, I’m going to contact them and see what happens. Thanks again!
Just a quick note in response to Dan’s comments above.
We’ve been contacted by numerous customers of Signature Days, who also assumed that Xperience Days has either an affiliation with the failed entity, or probably worse, that we are merely a rebranded version of Signature Days. While some may think that as a direct competitor we would be rejoicing at the news of Signature Days demise, the fact is that it harms our industry in general.
The gift certificate industry relies on an inherent trust that consumers will always be able to get what they’ve paid for. The principle is the same whether you’re cashing in for a NASCAR Ride or a DVD; and anything that undermines that trust damages all gift certificate companies, particularly those in exactly the same industry.
My advice, for what it’s worth, is to try your credit card companies first. Companies in the gift certificate and travel industry such as ours are sometimes required to leave a balance with the merchant processor to help cover the risk involved with purchases where the merchandise or vacation/event is provided at a point in the future rather than at the time of purchase.
Lastly (sorry to go on), I’m not entirely sure I’d agree with Mystery Helper 2. On more than one occassion Mr. Playford’s business practices forced us to resort to threatened legal action against Signature Days. Each time it was difficult not to take it personally, especially given Mr. Playfords’ feigned innocence each time. However, I’m not sure a witch hunt which will probably result in little or no actual compensation would be the answer.
Robb Young
Xperience Days Inc
Andrew Playford (andrew@playford.com)
+1.3124949607
Fax: +1.3128969167
215 W Illinois St
Apt 3C
Chicago, IL 60610
What a tool!
I am absolutely distraught that I have been unable redeem my signature card for a spa treatment that my son purchased for me after he returned from Iraq. In December 2007, he purchased the card for me as a Christmas present and because I was on a diet and I really wanted to cherish the opportunity to do the spa treatment, I save it and attempted to redeem the card a few days ago. To my total shock I could not get a link or a phone number to call. My son, a young Army soldier, who served 15 months in Iraq to fight for our nation’s freedom really wanted me to relax and enjoy myself; but Andrew took my son’s hard earned money and kept it without providing the service my son paid for. How could Andrew do this without having any conscience? My son was never notified that this Andrew guy filed for bankruptcy. No call, no letter, nothing! Does anyone know how to go about getting my son’s money back?
My wife who is the sweet mother of my two girls, used her hard earned saved money (housewife) to purchase a 3 lap drive in a NASCAR for my 2007 Christmas present. This jerk who filed bankruptcy will likely just turn over a new company without having to pay retribution to all of us that are screwed. Nevertheless, I am sure that he will get what is coming to him in life, as it always works out in the end. If there was some way to get my wife her money back, I would do it. I certainly would do whatever it takes to get it back, but I know that he was surely insulated enough to never have to pay personally any of the money back. I just hope that this website and hopefully others will force this charlatan to have to change his name, due to the hate mail/emails/etc. As his name implies, I guess we were the ones that got played.
if you purchased with an AMEX - contact AMEX and they will refund your money and take on fighting the bastards for you.
I had received this as a gift for my birthday from my best friend who is a single mom who doesn’t have money to just throw away. It cost her a lot for me to get a thrill in a Nascar and now it’s out the window. This jerk is worth less and will get his.
I got screwed and feel really bad for my parents. I got them a lunch cruise on the Spirit of Philadelphia for a Christmas gift. Since they are retired I thought they would enjoy it. We also do not have much money but wanted to do something different. I never got a letter and I would thing he took our $ we should get it back or however we paid should be refunding us. We are not a creditor are we? Well here is the jerks myspace. He was last logged on 6/23/08 so maybe everyone should start sending him messages in everyway possible. Email- regualr mail - myspace, facebook etc. What a freakin jerk. He has the nerve to act like nothing went wrong read this bio from myspace:
I was most recently the founder and CEO of Signature Days. I studied Finance and Economics at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. When it first began, Signature Days was a very unique type of ecommerce company. Its gift cards were redeemable for a wide variety of unique and memorable experiences from wine tasting to balloon rides. In additional to seling through its website the company also sold its cards in stores like Walmart and Costco and had distribution partners like United Airlines and Hilton Honors. Unfortunately this high end services business could not sustain 2008 economic downturn and closed its doors in March of 2008. Prior to founding Signature Days, I helped co found SmartRay Networks with David Kidder and Troy Tyler. Smartray provided wireless alerts to subscribers of real time information feeds. E.g. stock quotes, weather reports etc. I started my career at Price Waterhouse in London with stints in both the audit and the management consultancy sides. I am an avid South African rugby supporter and my favorite celebrity is Nelson Mandela. I profile some of his art at href=”http://www.nelsonmandelaart.com”
http://www.myspace.com/andyplayford
Count me as another victim of the SignatureDays demise.
Looking around for info about Mr. Playford I found another one of his bios at Hi5.com:
http://andrewplayford.hi5.com/
At the bottom of this site it has his favorite quote:
“Just do it! We are judged not by what we begin but by what we complete.”
Kind of ironic, don’t you think?
I, too, am left holding a useless gift card for a Helicopter Tour of Boston. Smells like an unconscionable scam…
Wanted to use gift certifcates for our anniversary for a ” champagne brunch cruise”- first found out the “customer service” number is disconnected.. now I find out the real deal bankruptcy! Thaat’s the way of this world- take all you can and run.
Cheryl Los Angeles
Yeah, something is a bit off on this whole thing. I’ve had the unfortunate luck to have been a creditor for some enterprises that went into bankruptcy. While in the end I’ve never got anything back (not even pennies on the dollar), I’ve always at least had some kind of letter and also a form to complete to at least be recognized as a creditor. The trustee in this case is doing a very poor job of finding the creditors and even hearing them out. *sigh* …
I just thought of a nice gesture. I’m sending my SignatureDays gift certificate as a donation to Andrew’s mentor - Nelson Mandela. Of course I’ll donate the gift in the name of Andrew Playford - I’m not looking for any recognition for my charitable work.
Send your card in Andrew’s name to:
Attention: The Chief Executive
Nelson Mandela Foundation
Private Bag X10 000
Houghton 2041
South Africa
Figured I’d post this link as well, as I guess the dude is trying to make it look like he’s at least trying….
http://www.thesignaturedaystory.blogspot.com
Thanks for posting that Nicole.
If this was written by Andrew Playford. Then it proves even more what a complete pile of shit this guy is.
He does not even have the balls to be a man about the situation and take some fucking real responsibility.
Karma’s got a BIG ASS list. And he is on it.
This company and its owners blow big time! I bought my best man and his bride a package for their wedding gift. I am not a rich dude. It took all I could to scrape together the money for what I thought would be a nice gift. NOW, I am out the money and still owe my dear friends a wedding present which will take a while to save for again. PLUS, what REALLY PISSES ME OFF is that the boatlines and cruise ships that operate in Philadelphia that the company booked the trips on IS STILL IN BUSINESS. Meaning only the assholes at this company lose OUR MONEY OR STOLE IT! Hope they rot in hell for refusing to refund or transfer our gifts so they could still be used. ASSHOLES!
My best friend gave me a $100 gift card for my 30th birthday in January. At the time I looked at the website and I found a few things on there to be interesting but I wanted to wait until warmer weather. Now it’s warm out and I have time off from work and I go back to the website and find my expectations shattered. Not only did my best friend waste her money on her generous gift but I was cheated out of my well-deserved birthday present.
This Andrew Playford guy is a piece of shit. He steals from people and has no remorse.
It looks like the site Nicole posted above is from the guy who took our money.
He talks about how he is all sorry and stuff for us. What a lie. He is just like a scam artist.Prey on average people and then cry. Screw him. He has no remorse.
Now my sister and her kids dont get to enjoy the gift i got them. Hope this arse likes seeing kids cry. I dont. He is a bad person.
DOES ANYONE KNOW IF WE CAN GET OUR MONEY BACK SOMEHOW? THIS ANDREW GUY IS A MAJOR JERK OFF.
I read the blog posted by Andrew regarding his being so sorry about his business going bankrupt and all the money people have lost. BULLSHIT! That fucking con-artist took people’s money, spent it on his lavish lifestyle and then hid behind the legal system to keep from having to reimburse anyone. He knew what he was doing from the outset. He’s no different than the fat cats on wall street that have run their investment firms into the ground and now want all of us to bail them out…. fuck you Andrew… i’ll tell you this, you’ll get what’s coming to you one day…and all the people you’ve stole from will enjoy hearing how it happened.
Hi, My son purchased a gift for me for Christmas. It really makes me mad that they knew they were in financial trouble and still sold gift cards at christmas 07. How unethical is this! I hope to get some money back, but I doubt it. I called the Spirit of Philadelphia to see if they would honor some of the gift card, but they would not. I hope they get what they deserve!