TRADING standards at York said today they were dealing with hundreds of complaints against a Canadian company operating a till roll sales business.

As reported last month, a dozen complaints came from businesses in Greater York, but now the York trading standards office is collating hundreds of allegations against Merchant Retail Supplies (MRS) from all over Great Britain.

The York office has been charged with the responsibility because MRS communicates through a York mail forwarding company.

The Evening Press has received a recorded delivery letter from MRS formally refuting allegations about the way it conducts its sales.

Companies have complained that they have been phoned by MRS and asked if they had received a supply of rolls for their credit card machine.

It is alleged that the caller suggests that he is representing the organisation - typically a bank - which supplied the business with credit card terminals in the first place.

The business confirms the order and a few days later receives a box full of till rolls followed by an "exorbitant" invoice of £209.15.

In a letter to the Evening Press, Georges Haligua, on behalf of MRS, said that Trading Standards was more than welcome to contact his organisation over what he describes as "the alleged dozen complaints", and each would be addressed on their own merit.

He writes: "In so doing, we remain confident that the majority of complaints shall be without merit, and have arisen as a result of companies who are hiding behind excuses in order not to pay their invoice.

"We always act in good faith, and are certainly not 'scamming' anyone.

"To demonstrate this we would like to point out that we send all of our products out net 30 days.

"Every customer is sent a copy of our customer satisfaction guarantee with every order.

"It clearly states their right to return any unwanted merchandise, should they so choose, 'no questions asked.'"

In a phone call to the York Trading Standards office MRS has pledged to address complaints on a "case by case" basis.

Matt Boxall, principal trading standards officer for the City of York Council, said: "Mr Haligua phoned us to make his case by case offer.

"We accepted even though it is going to prove very difficult.

"Initially, we will put to the company the general nature of the complaints while we get the permission of each of the complaining companies to follow through in this way.

"But we are not dealing with just the dozen or so complaints from this area, but with hundreds of complaints about MRS from all over the country which we are now collating"

He said that this was the first contact he had had with MRS in spite of attempts to track it down.

He understood that MRS was based in Montreal and there was a company of that name registered in London, but not operational.

He said: "The Office of Fair Trading has contacted the Canadian authorities and is now collating evidence in the form of statements."

Merchant Retail Supplies has been using a mail forwarding franchise called Mail Boxes Etc in Clifford Street, York.

Its proprietor, Steve Cook, has co-operated fully with York Trading Standards.

Updated: 11:13 Wednesday, August 04, 2004