UK Services & Support Ltd BRITISHPassportServices Copycat Website issues DISCUSSION

[Amethyst]

Re: UK Services & Support Ltd Passport Copycat Website issues

Thanks Did, it will be interesting to see their response to your letter. There are some very good points in there.

On the telephone appointment - is that all it is - they tell you a time they will be available ? at what point of the process do you do that ? and can you say you don't want an appointment for telephone ''advice'' ?

Your wife will have needed to give some personal details to book an appointment. Actually I might try booking an urgent appt at the ACTUAL Passport Office and see what info they need, if someone can book on another's behalf, and just how difficult is is to get an appointment.

Trading Standards are looking into it ( its just a slowww system and they can't talk about what they are doing until they've done it )


breakdown of their 'fees' from their terms
(Kati sussed this out)

• We do not charge for the appointment the fee that you pay British Passport Services is for the
• use of our online booking form (£10),
• checking online application for errors and omissions (£8.75), the
• time and work involved in securing the appointment at the office required (£10),
• sms, letter and email confirmation (£10), arranging for a blank application form to be posted to you (£5),
• one telephone consultation with a senior passport adviser (up to 30 minutes, £14.25), Emergency Travel Document Card (£10),
• directions to the Passport Office (£10) and
• membership to our queue jumping website (£20).

These prices exclude VAT at twenty percent and are charged for each applicants package.

[Campana14]

Re: UK Services & Support Ltd Passport Copycat Website issues

another information about this director:
http://www.get2press.com/default.asp...owpm&pmid=4809

[dann]

Re: UK Services & Support Ltd Passport Copycat Website issues

Hi
I am one of the latest to have been scammed by this company.
It appears they are covered, but i have yet to hear if anyone has actually gone to court with them?
Ive had the identical experience as the others, the scam, then the fake phone call (due to not getting the date you want) the emails, The threats, the wild goosw chase email that goes back to an unmanned desk, the texts and now letters

Number one i have blocked all email addresses and as soon as they send me another email ill block it, The texts i have blocked in my i Phone. yet too see if they try another number,

I havent paid so they are harrasing me now.

What worries me more than court.. is the fact they have ; 1 ; Our ADDRESSES, PHONE EMAIL, DOB, PLACE OF BIRTH, SIGNATURE ,this is enough to use to open up fraudulent accounts.

The fact the call centre you eventually get through to ( not the premium rate £1,53 number they try get you to call for 30 mins. Why would you need a 30 min phone call just to change a booking) is always answered from somewhere in India with a terrible line you cant hear. is also worrying.

I send "Sam Harris" a message saying do you realise that your efforts to say you arent affiliated with the Govt, the constant reminders, have faltered as you sent me a message saying " Please contact GOVERNMENT PASSPORT" on their 0905 number.. and he abrubtly replied. " This number isnt routed to us".
Yet i hadnt booked or spoken to the original passport office at this point.

There MUST be a flaw in their watertight little ship we can find!!

I have proposed on other sites, we get together as a group and go to Watchdog, and lobby our MPs and raise awareness to this scam

Whats most upsetting is that people who have saved up all year to go on hol and simply want a renewal or first time passport, have to worry and stress that they have to find £150 on top of that.
Old people and single parents or just people like you and me who work damned hard and save up pay my taxes and then get redirected to a company you think are govt yet are not. Its not like they are messing about with Sainsburys, its the Govt!
And if they are so open about their services, then why if they have this problem ,with EVERY customer, why dont thet put it in LARGE LETTERS for all the people who arent seeinf it, which is just about everyone.
The concept of this is ridiculous anyway.
Why would you pay someone 150 to make a phone call and book you something that you can do in 5 minutes yourself.

They are getting away with this because the Real Passport office dont have an online service.

The Govt have a responibility to shut this down as this company ARE sending messages pretending to be them...they just lie about it.

If anyone can help me with what to expect as i have yet to speak to CAB and a solicitor. Even if it doesnt go to court, they have ALL our info and very personal details its the signature that im worried about,

Where do we stand and what is the next step.. Do the CAB do anything>

BPS has said to me that ASA and TS have looked in to it and said they are free to carry on.

So then what do we do??

Any advice would be greatly appreciated,

[dann]

Re: UK Services & Support Ltd Passport Copycat Website issues

Is this the main guy for BPS?

[dann]

Re: UK Services & Support Ltd Passport Copycat Website issues

Hi Amethyst.

The telephone consultation is set up when you ask to change your appoinment as all the numbers they give you to call, are either not answered and held, or when someone answers , you start to talk then they press a button either to cut you off, or you hear the "we are not afilliated with the Govt" message.

I have looked at the other forums and reports and i cant find anyone who has actually completed this service i.e gone down to the passport office and kept their appointment. Im sure it has happened.

All the posts appear to be in the last year so am not sure if they are a new site or have been operating under another name.

The online form you fill in leads up to you finally signing something with all your info and security details there.

I dont think one person has completed a satisfactory service as why would anyone pay someone to make a phone call (£100plus)

Its like paying someone to call you a taxi or a pizza, there isnt a market for that unless you have huge communication problems in which case youve done well to complete an online form on a computer!

Ive submitted a complaint to watchdog and hope to get a group of us to share our experiences and get further advice. Power in numbers id say.

[Amethyst]

Re: UK Services & Support Ltd Passport Copycat Website issues

What threats have you had ?

POLICE - no - civil matter

BANKRUPTCY - its under £750 anyway so NO

BAILIFFS - they can't use bailiffs until they have got a CCJ against you.

CREDIT FILE - they have no right to do anything to your credit file at all - if they got a CCJ then you'd have a CCJ on your file.

HOME VISITS - they threaten this - you can tell them you remove any implied permission for visiting your property, and what they actually do is offer (for a £10 fee naturally ) to send someone round to collect the money save you sending it. I haven't heard of anyone having had a home visit.

COURT CLAIM - they can issue a county court claim - but you can defend it - we are working on a defence now to help people who do receive a court claim. If you did receive a court claim don't panic and don't pay up - it has been entered online, and a £25 fee paid, and been sent out by the bulk processng centre, no Judge has seen it and okayed it at that stage - so if you DO get a formal court claim then POST ON HERE and we'll help you with it.

[dann]

Re: UK Services & Support Ltd Passport Copycat Website issues

Thank you.

I have just reported them to Watchdog, If enough of us do this maybe they will do a story and hopefully raise awareness of this. They need to be stopped.

[dann]

Re: UK Services & Support Ltd Passport Copycat Website issues

Thanks for the above post that was reassuring as these letters scare you .And I havent even had the bailiffs and CCJ threats yet, it seems many others have,
The HMC 8% - Is that vaild? How have they managed that? thats pretty scary if they can do that,
Id like to hear if they have taken anyone to court yet.
It seems every single person who has gone to this site has had the same experience..surely the Courts would think that the influx of all these customers from BPS is a little unusual.

Like i said, i dont see how anyone can be ok with paying a fee for a phone call so literally every site visitor must have had this same exp.

[Amethyst]

Re: UK Services & Support Ltd Passport Copycat Website issues

Can you report it to the Citizens Advice Consumer Helpline too please dann, so it gets passed to Trading Standards. (you can't complain direct to TS anymore) 03454 040506

Some useful stuff in the The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 as well as the Consumer Protection (Amendment) Regulations 2014

[Amethyst]

Re: UK Services & Support Ltd Passport Copycat Website issues

Hi, The HMC 8% - Is that vaild? How have they managed that? thats pretty scary if they can do that,

Most county court claims have 8% PA - its statutory interest under s.69 County Courts Act.

[dann]

Re: UK Services & Support Ltd Passport Scam

What everyone also needs to remember is they say they provide passport advice, but they dont as you cant ever get through and when you do they cut you off repeatedly and play an automated message!

I told them i had records of calls i made where i was cut off and placed on hold over 15 times.
Same response.. you feel like they are on drugs when you do call them as thet clearly WANT you to not pay and go to court!! I dont get it.

[Amethyst]

Re: UK Services & Support Ltd Passport Copycat Website issues

If you look at http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/...468#post512468 you will see they have form for fake debt collection.

This time they claim their numbers are freephone - are they ?????

[EXC]

Re: UK Services & Support Ltd BRITSH UK Passport Services Copycat Website issues

A big shout of thanks to the individual who obtained this correspondence between lawyers acting for UK Services & Support Ltd and the Advertising Standards Authority's Independent Reviewer in connection with the ASA adjudication against UK Services & Support Ltd http://asa.org.uk/Rulings/Adjudicati...x#.VMzAG2ByZnw


This appears to confirm that the information in the statement (below) which appears on the British Passport Services website (http://www.britishpassportservices.c...udgements.html ) is demonstrably untrue but nonetheless was provided by UK Services & Support Ltd in evidence to a court.

In regards to the claim that our website was found to have misleading advertising we provided evidence to the court that the adjudication the Defendant was referring to was entered in error by the government agency (which the agency has publicly admitted) and that our website was and still is advertised in line with all advertising codes and in line with the CAP code therefore not in breach of any advertising Code of Conduct and so could not be considered misleading.

[Nibbler]

Re: UK Services & Support Ltd BRITISH UK Passport Services Copycat Website issues

So an attempt to knowingly or recklessly mislead the court?

[dann]

Re: UK Services & Support Ltd Passport Scam

Hi sorry, just to add to this if this helps. The day after i had filled in this form , i got the confirmation email which gave me my 2nd choice date and time of which i couldnt do...So i called 15 times that day and got put on hold and then cut off 3 times , then heard an automated message twice.
Have screenshot all the calls.

As i was getting more and more frustrated i went on the direct gov site and got the actual passport number as i didnt want that booking yet no one would answer my calls. The only correspondance i had was an email saying book a telephone consultation. Yet i had no call. ( they want you to call the prem rate number for 30 mins) I never made the call once i realised how much.( £1.53 pm)

When i spoke to the passport office the advisor was clearly shocked when i told him id booked online. He said "Miss, We dont offer an online service"
It took us 10 minutes to figure out what had happened.

At that point, i emailed the BPS and they said instantly (no first date or anything) the police cant touch us, and were imediatley on the defence with all the legal jargon and previous ASA case, police cases, all nicely copied and pasted.

I Knew then i had been scammed so in 48 hours from booking the appointment to realising what went down, i requested they cancel it and i then cancelled the original booking with the Actual passport people and made a new one, It was all cancelled officially, very quickly.

I dont know if that means anything in terms of charges, but the kept sending me emails with directions of how to cancel, yet when i emailed i got a "THIS EMAIL ISNT MANNED NO ONE HAS SEEN THIS OR WILL " kind of message and the phone call was the same. 3 different number and only one conversation with an indian sounding guy, who went mad at me saying what kind of person was i to not pay a contract.

It became very apparant, that they was no such thing as a cancellation of service and they would be harder to break up with than a bad case of coldsores.

I have no blocked all email adresses i have had contact with , kept copies of all emails and messages and blocked their text contacts, Im waiting for more addresses to pop up but will just keep blocking till they run out of adresses.

I suggest others do the same , it might be futile but they cant say they are sending messages when they arent,

In court they will have to prove what messages were sent to warrant all charges.

I strongly feel we should form a group either on facebook or here where we can start a petition, im happy to write it but if anyone with legal minds can help that would be great. A petition and a letter to relevant people., MPs, media, watchdog. asa, Ts.


I am more than ready to take this as far as we can go so dont hestitate to call on my support.

this needs stopping or at least being made super aware so noone else falls for this,




I