This seemed like a great way for David Baker to let local people know about his new dental business – advertising in the waiting room of his local hospital.
In December 2018 he paid Unique Advertising Limited £2,496 for a two-year contract to run adverts for his practice on a digital screen in the accident and emergency department at Whiston Hospital, Merseyside.
“We create video campaigns for local businesses that are played alongside health messages on digital screens within waiting areas with huge footfall and exposure,” the company boasts.
Mr Baker says he began to wonder if there was a problem when he realised that none of his patients ever mentioned seeing his advert, not even ones who worked in the hospital. So he paid it a visit and found that the screen was not working.
“The reception staff told me they had never seen it on,” he said.
Months of frustration followed, Mr Baker saying his calls and emails went unanswered. At one point he was asked to send proof that the screen was not working so he took a picture of it, only to be told by Unique Advertising that he should not have taken a photograph inside a hospital.
"I am not sure how else I would have proven it was not on," he said. "I have actually checked with the hospital and there was no policy at the time on taking a photograph of the screen and there were no patients in the photograph anyway."
The screen seemed to finally be fixed in February this year, only to go off again.
“I have been back in every week since then and it remains blank,” Mr Baker told me.
Unique Advertising trades as Patient Services, run by director 57-year-old Ray Ingleby of Blackpool.
He told me that they cannot monitor all their hospital screens remotely and have offered extended contracts and deferred payments to clients who have experienced problems.
“We have thousands of clients and take customer service very seriously, which I think is born out when you consider that we have maybe 10 ongoing client issues out of maybe 1,500 clients at any time, and that we work for 250 hospitals of medical facilities” he said.
Mr Baker has now been given a refund to cover the periods when the screen was not working.
“I am ever so grateful for your help,” he said.
"The saddest part is it took so long. It is a shame as the idea of having the adverts on the screens is actually a nice one, but it appears they can't monitor it."
I have also been contacted by new-born baby photographer Aimee-Jo Hummerstone of Hornchurch, Essex.
She signed a contract with Unique Advertising when visited by one of its reps for her business Dinky Days Photography to advertise on a screen at a local hospital.
But she says she tried to cancel within half an hour.
"I contacted a nurse friend of mine who works at one of the hospitals I was meant to be signing up to and she had no recollection of these screens they said my advertisement would be on," she said.
Unique Advertising none the less charged her £839. She recovered the money through her credit card provider but says that the company has repeatedly chased her since to repay it.
“I’ve had countless anxiety attacks with them calling me every day,” she told me.
Mr Ingleby told me that Aimee-Jo did not cancel until two days after signing the contract but, whatever the exact time, there’s no dispute that in this short period no adverts for
her business were screened at her local hospital.
He says the company will stop pursuing her for payment, “even though I believe that we have done nothing wrong”.
