I am vey sorry to hear your story. I had a similar experience and by being VERY aggressive got hold of their finance director. He really didn't like being exposed to the consequences of their games and just wanted to get rid of me asap. In his shoes I would have felt the same. I can be quite 'persuasive' sometimes! The only way that was going to happen was by paying me out. In the end I did not have to resort to a F2F confrontation,,,but I would have.
I cannot remember his name but am sure if you are wily you will be able to find his name and co-ordinates.
In my days of relative innocence,,,look at me now and imagine how wet behind the ears I must have been,,,,,I made an absentee bid for a GP Three Bridges with them. Oddly enough the 'under bidder' bid me up to my generous maximum. Talk about naive!!!
I took delivery and decided that it wasn't for me (again, again, and AGAIN I have made the same mistake) so I put it back with them to sell. Considering that they had recently sold it their estimate was surprisingly low. I went ahead.
In the auction it didn't even make their low estimate,,,including commission we're now talking about a 45% loss,,,,but they would do me a favour and sell it to the highest bidder.
Before you could say..."f**cking s**theads"...I received a letter from a Swiss lawyer accusing ME of theft and major legal consequences. It was a stolen watch. Perfect!!
It took several weeks and numerous letters from my expensive lawyers to sort the mess out. In the end, under extreme threats from my lawyers, they gracelessly refunded my original payment.
I was very, very lucky. I expect many aren't.
Another one to avoid