Scamwatch has been made aware of the following reports about Philip Gordon and MDG Paris. Beware!
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Mar 15, 2009 5:04 PM
Warning: Don’t rent from a Philip Gordon of MDG Paris or MDG Consulting, even though he has websites that suggest he’s legitimate. I rented from him in the summer of 2008 and paid the full rent well in advance to reserve the apartment. Shortly before I arrived he indicated that he also required a second payment, equal to the full rent, as a security deposit during my stay. It was too late for me to make other arrangements so I had to pay him. He then weaseled out of returning my deposit. He made a series of excuses for not being able to meet me before my departure from Paris and for several further delays in issuing my refund via PayPal, which he kept reassuring me he would do “within a few days” since I was an ideal tenant. Eventually, he simply ceased all communication. I mistakenly thought that using PayPal would offer me some protection, but in the end I was out of pocket.
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Jul 21, 2009 5:17 PMM
We also had a regrettable experience with Philip Gordon, (aka Philip Wire) with listing under mdgparis, mdg-france, mdg-consultants, bluematrix, Anne-Lyse. We rented his apartment at 54 rue de Seine for 5 weeks last fall. We paid a full month deposit in advance, then our 5 weeks rental fee just before arriving. All went well until our departure. Philip was too busy to meet and check us out – but “no worries” he would forward the deposit via PayPal. Our emails after arriving home went unanswered. He answered his phone once – assured us all was well – yup, you guessed it – further calls went directly to voice mail. We fortunately had paid PayPal using our credit card – so we were able to file a dispute through our credit card company. Ah, then we heard from Philip. After 30+ days of no response from Philip, he emailed and made some absurd accusations about “things” gone missing – the cost of which was yet to be determined and of course deducted from our deposit. However, a charge back for the full deposit was credited to our credit card account immediately when we initiated the dispute (obviously that got Philip’s attention), pending an investigation – which went on for several month. We had a very clear trail of documentation which we were asked to submit – and it was eventually officially resolved in our favor.
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Aug 11, 2009 9:01 AM
We have similarly had an incident with Philip Gordon, by renting through www.vrbo.com He demanded both the rent and the damage deposit months in advance and requested the money be wired to him. The house we rented was his country home and it was very nice but he has failed to return our 500 Euro damage deposit to us. He repeatedly told us that he would return it on different dates, and then made up excuses about why he couldn’t. He alleged, finally, the he wired the money back to us, and claimed to have a copy of the recipt, but several weeks later we are yet to see the funds in our bank account. VRBO, while I would assume a trustworthy site, can not protect against these types of unscrupulous types.
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Comments
Mr Gordon has a business that will find properties, seek out mortgages and a whole lot of other things that deal with buying/selling property in Paris. I too thought he was legit, and sought help from him to purchase property.
PLEASE – anyone thinking about buying property from MDG France, Philip Gordon – DON’T!!
http://www. mdg-france.com/services.php
He has his “contracts” set up so that foreign buyers MUST get TWO contracts (solution #1 and the after sale contract), which he won’t explain until AFTER you have signed the first contract. If you are a foreign buyer you will need a French bank account, which is conveniently NOT part of “solution #1″ and is REQUIRED in order to FINISH buying property in Paris. He told us that he would get us a bank account AFTER the property was ours… which is impossible.
And he will claim that his services from “solution #1″ do not cover getting a mortgage once you have gone through the process with him. HE IS JUST AFTER YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY. I have lost over a year’s pay because of him. (ie my life’s savings)
DO NOT TRUST PHILIP GORDON for anything.
DO NOT SIGN ANY CONTRACTS WITH HIM – HE WILL INVOICE YOU TWICE FOR “SERVICES” HE CONDUCTED.
He is also trying to develop “spiritual” books/seminars/ a place of worship. http:// www. bluematrix.org/?embed=internal&direction=zodiac
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
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I am glad finally people write about this cheater. I got in the same trap at studio apartment 54 Rue du Seine. I made reservation i 2008 through VRBO and he asked to pay security deposit EUR 1500 and to pay rent cash on arrival. Wrote on his business card that received the payment made some pictures and video of apartment. But before leaving he said he will refund deposit after my departure with Paypal because need to check it if it is all in order. Of course it was. When I returned he didn’t return any deposit, made excuses that he was busy and later forgot it. I think he should be brought to court for scamming so many people, France is not Africa it is European country with laws to protect people.
Moderator’s note: Rita, your comment is being moved to the other, active, thread on this topic, found here:
http://parishousingscamwatch.wordpress.com/2009/08/01/warning-about-philip-gordon-and-mdg-paris/