Rightly peeed off..

damorama

This is the story. I received a phone call last Friday from a guy with an Irish accent from a company called Motor Help. I was surprised to hear that he had all my personal details on file and knew I was trying to sell my car. The service sounded good to me i.e. "we guarantee to sell your car". He said that they already had prospective buyers interested and I would start receiving calls the next day. This service would cost €79 and they would refund me 70 of that back once the car sold. I gave my card details and that was that. A week passed and not one call. I received my statement to discover that €120 was charged to my card not €79. I discovered that the company was called Motor Help UK and they charged £79. The guy on the phone left out all of these very important points. I then heard today in work that this company was being slated on the radio a while back from angry consumers in the same boat as me and apparently it is a known scam. My bank can't do anything, Visa can't do anything nor can anyone else I called. Has anybody else come across this company and if so what can I do?

Khannie

Visa can do something. They can refund you your money and prevent the other crowd from getting it. Talk to a manager in your visa company.

damorama

The problem is I did ask them and they said that because I gave my card details I consented to the transaction and there is nothing they can do! I have been going around in circles all day.

hepcat

Damorama unless you signed an authorisation (or gave your new PIN, perhaps?? not sure on this) You can defintely reject this charge. I work in call cnetre and we get chargebacks regularly. Please ask to speak to a manager in visa - tell them you want to reject the charge as it is a scam and you did not get the service they suggested they woudl provide.

dudara

Not a PI, moved to Consumer Issues

dudara

Canis Lupus

All I wanna know is does the OP always give his/her credit card details out over the phone to random people? Sometimes people surprise me.....

Anyway agrees with hepcat, call Visa, be polite but insistant that you want a chargeback. It should work and if it does perhaps you should think twice next time after all £79 is a lot less than what could have happened.

damorama

well this will be my 3rd time calling Visa. I gave my card details as they sounded legit and I have purchased items over the phone before. I have learn't my lesson. If anyone else gets a call from this company don't give your card details. The real issue here is that I'm convinced that Car Buyers Guide.ie gave them my details as a month previous I had advertised with CBG. Ever since I have been getting lots of spam and then this call from Motor Help UK. As I said they had all my details, a lot more than was on display on my CBG ad.

biofreak

Their website looks professional enough http://www.motorhelpuk.co.uk/ but a quick browse through it reveals no business address and the search facility doesn't work. There must be some way you can get your money back off these bas*ards.

damorama

to tell you the truth I believe that their site is just to keep it looking resonably legit. I was told by Visa if they provide a service then they cannot be touched even if it's not the service they said they would provide. I mean who the hell is going to buy my car in the UK? not only that but they took my selling price of 6,500 euro and put a sterling symbol in front of it.

damorama

I forgot to mention that I rang their customer care line and got no answer. I also sent a couple of nasty emails with surprise surpise, no reply..

hepcat

Did you give your new PIN / send written auth? Otherwise you CAN reject this charge . Put that in writing to VISA - they have to send whats called a chargeback letter to the company concerned, who then have to prove that the charge is valid.

Oriel

Domain name:
motorhelpuk.co.uk

Registrant:
Tim Risbridger

Registrant type:
UK Individual

Registrant's address:
The registrant is a non-trading individual who has opted to have their
address omitted from the WHOIS service.

Registrant's agent:
Namesco Limited [Tag = NAMESCO]
URL: http://www.names.co.uk

Relevant dates:
Registered on: 17-Dec-2003
Renewal date: 17-Dec-2007
Last updated: 10-Feb-2006

Registration status:
Registered until renewal date.

Name servers:
ns0.phase8.net
ns1.phase8.net
ns2.phase8.net

WHOIS lookup made at 22:21:15 14-Mar-2006

Mr E

Did a google for motorhelpuk. Got these 2 links:

http://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?p=375490
http://www.reviewcentre.com/review_comments127250.html

Looks like a scam to me....

0utshined

damorama wrote:

I was told by Visa if they provide a service then they cannot be touched even if it's not the service they said they would provide.

Whoever you were speaking to was incorrect in saying that. You can initiate a chargeback as the goods or service was not as described.

damorama

Thanks for the info. I rang VISA and they had to cancel my card. They told me that the company will be investigated and I will receive my money back.:)

BrianD

I am surprised that you were willing to make a payment by CC to a company that called you out of the blue. You were extremely lucky to get your money back. Other posters might say that you can easily do a chargeback because there was no written consent or PIN. Wrong! It is not easily done. Furthermore, many of these companies now tape the verbal authorisation from you so you would be rightly scuppered. For a service like this it is very hard to prove that they did not deliver on their promises - they can just say that nobody was interested in your car. I am sure that it says somewhere in their T&C's that do not guarantee to sell the car.

Never buy anything off strangers over the 'phone!

0utshined

Unless things have changed in the past year or two then the onus is on the merchant to prove that the charge is valid. If they didn't do what they said they would then they can't prove that. They may have him recorded saying he wants to use a service but if they don't provide that service then it can be charged back.

But yeah, it's stupid giving your CC number to someone who calls you out of the blue on the phone.

holly_johnson

I'm pretty sure this crowd were investigated on Watchdog on the BBC a while back. If not them, then another company that does exactly the same thing......
They got slated, but I don't know if anything was done about it.

redmenace

Just got a phone call from a guy trying the same thing with me this evening and I told him to ring back on Tuesday while I checked out the company name. Thank god I saw this.

damorama wrote:

This is the story. I received a phone call last Friday from a guy with an Irish accent from a company called Motor Help. I was surprised to hear that he had all my personal details on file and knew I was trying to sell my car. The service sounded good to me i.e. "we guarantee to sell your car". He said that they already had prospective buyers interested and I would start receiving calls the next day. This service would cost €79 and they would refund me 70 of that back once the car sold. I gave my card details and that was that. A week passed and not one call. I received my statement to discover that €120 was charged to my card not €79. I discovered that the company was called Motor Help UK and they charged £79. The guy on the phone left out all of these very important points. I then heard today in work that this company was being slated on the radio a while back from angry consumers in the same boat as me and apparently it is a known scam. My bank can't do anything, Visa can't do anything nor can anyone else I called. Has anybody else come across this company and if so what can I do?

LundiMardi

the utter stupidity of some people amazes me!:rolleyes:

Mr. Presentable

People are innocent and trusting rather than stupid, usually. Perhaps there's a need for a scams headsup forum here. There's a lot of it about and some are quite plausible.

kc66

I got 2 calls from these guys a few months ago after putting my car in Buy and Sell. It sounded dodgy straight away. They did say it was 79 sterling.
They said they already have matched a buyer for the car and when I enquired she said the buyer is in England. I just hung up then.
My gf got a call from them as well when I put her car in B&S.

MorningStar

nipplenuts wrote:

People are innocent and trusting rather than stupid, usually. Perhaps there's a need for a scams headsup forum here. There's a lot of it about and some are quite plausible.

No people are stupid most scams work based on greed rather than trust. Most are not plausable such as this one.

Benedict XVI

Just got a call from these guys
Was told they had buyers lined up for my car (in my area) and they would contact me in 1 hour to arrange viewings etc. (Seemed fairly strange as my car has gone unsold for 2 months)
He went through all the details etc and then said that the only cost to me was a 49.50 (he did not mention currency so I asked him and he said Sterling) deposit for some warranty, that would be give back to me when it’s sold, it did not make sense anyway.
I got all the details about the company from him and when he started asking how I would like to pay the deposit I told him I’d call him back after I did some research about the company. His tone completely changed and said a very grudging ‘OK’ realizing that he had been found out. He said he’d call back, I don’t expect him to.
If my car was a hour on the market I might have gone for this but seeing as there has been little interest in 2 months and suddenly there are ‘buyers’ lined up to view it in an hour made me very suspect.
When I suggested to him that I thought the customer service number he gave me (0870 7588852) could only be reached from the UK he got fairly defensive also.
I had a look at Blagger.com and found this http://uk.blagger.com/db4/company_id/3599/companyname/Motorhelpuk.html

For the record the guys name was Tony Andrews, the company are Motor Help UK and there address is
Groupama Hse
17 Station Road,
New Barnet,
Herts.
EN5 1NW
He gave me his direct line number too
If anyone has been stung by this guy in particular I can PM it.

padi89

Yep these guys were on watchdog alright and i think rogue traders aswell.I remember watching it,it was a full undercover investigation and it showed the whole scam.If they call you tell them to "f*** right off"

Cabaal

Canis Lupus wrote:

All I wanna know is does the OP always give his/her credit card details out over the phone to random people? Sometimes people surprise me.....

I was thinking the same, def not a good idea to give out credit card details just because they sound legit over the phone....in fairness the company is calling you and any company that needs to call you for such a service is dodgy in my books...

Good luck getting some money back on this one,

Oryx

In the case of cold calling like this, I always, always, assume companies like this to be scammers, unless they can prove otherwise. The main thing with this one that sets alarm bells off is that they will refund you when the car sells So where is the incentive for them to sell the car? Theyre better off not trying!

giggsyny

I wouldn’t be so quick to judge.
I very nearly fell for it a little while ago.
Some girl called me with the exact same story as the one mention above, she was very convincing, had all the right answers and sounded very professional.
Couple that with the fact that I had been trying to sell my car for over a month and was getting quite desperate, it really did sound like a great offer.
Thankfully before I gave my details I asked if they could call me back in an hour or so, I immediately googled them and saw many forums like this one.
I then politely told them I wasn’t interested when they called back. I thought that was the end of it.
Today I got a call from them, I pretended I didn’t realise who they were and played along for a while to see if I could trip them up.
She started telling me that the money would be taken from my credit card immediately but that they would not be taking the money from the bank for 28 days and if I did not receive any calls within this time I could stop the transaction. What???????????? I have never heard of any one being able to cancel a credit card transaction up to 28 days later, that was a load of bull.
She then told me to look at their website for more details, I challenged her on the amateurness of the website and she had no reply,
When I eventually told her that I was aware of this company and was not interested she proceeded to Lambaste with insults.
She repeatedly used the "f" word she kept shouting at me telling me that I was stupid, and an idiot , and a f*cking b*stard.
She then said that she was going to put me details up for everyone to see so that I would get plagued with calls day and night.
When I asked for her name she replied with "do you think im as stupid as you? why would I give you my name"
I then questioned the legitimacy of any company that would allow their staff to insult customers or potential customers, again she replied with an incoherent torrent of rants and Insults.
Tiring of the conversation I hung up the phone, not 30 seconds had passed when she rang me back to deliver more Insults.
I later found out that her name was Tanya.

My advice to any one reading this would be: as soon as you hear the words MotorHelp UK hang up immediately. Oh.. and never give out your credit card details to over the phone especially to someone who calls you

Rgrds
Kevin

dahamsta

I put my car up for sale a month ago and so far I've had four enquiries, two trying this scam and two having a go at advance fee fraud. I told the brits to go f*ck themselves but I strung the nigerians out a bit, to cost them a few quid on the phone call. Scumbags the lot of them. Next one that calls gets my old reliable, my other number at the Fraud Squad.

adam

jhegarty

giggsyny wrote:

I wouldn’t be so quick to judge.

Well your not quick to judge... it took you well over a year to make your response.....

dahamsta

Sorry for replying, I saw a "Today" post by the muppet above me and assumed this was a new thread.