Rip off shops etc

[malumbu]

I worked in consumer protection in the early 00s for a few years. The organisation no longer exists and my work deleted from interweb so I feel I can now speak out. And have a good whinge.

I learned about competition law, markets, consumer protecton rights, shopping around, cheap vs value for money. I even did a bit of radio.

Two early lessons. Car dealers make so little money out of selling cars they have to make it on servicing and HP. Always look for a good independent. Don't believe the warranty bull, as long as work is done to the manufacture's instructions and equivalent parts are used, all's fine. Of course I understand that many feel more comfortable with dealers.

Second, a similar abuse of market power by some of the big chains eg pressure selling, and distress purchases. The first prime example is extended warranties. There is a good independent repair sector out there. And if you buy decent quality (difficult at times as many brands have long since been sold off and everything made in one big Chinese factory) if shouldn't go wrong. And distress purchases - the classic ones being funerals and dentistry. And of course back to cars. As regards to distress storeis I did get scammed by Britsh Gas in the mid 90s during a boiler break down under their home emergency call out - oh its not worth repairing and oh we have a special offer and can bit a new boiler now... The papers idenfied this pressure/distress selling a few years later.

So move on a number of years and wtf Mr confident consumer do I still come across pooh service too often? I am not a moaning minnie so I don't write to the papers or slag companies off on the social media. I take action against the retailer - asking nicely to start off with. But I have now met my ulitmate foe, Currys. I bought a calcualator off them in the 70s. It probably cost the equivalent of ?100 in new money. It went wrong early on, they replaced it and 38 years later it still works if a bit battered. Now there is quality (thank you Mr Casio) and decent service. But that was a generation ago and I wouldn't touch them now. Sadly a product did recently sneak into the house, and did go wrong.

Me. It has broken can you check it please

Them: Oh it is not covered under the warranty as it is software.

Me: I am not interested in your warranty, I am covered under the Sale of Goods Act, can you check it please

Them: Oh it is not covered under the warranty

Me: You will find that the warranty is irrelevant, that is a nice touch by the manufacturer. My contract is with you not the manufacturer. I am covered for defects etc for 6 years. Can you check it please

Them: Oh it will need to go back to the manufacturer, and you have to pay ?50

Me: can I speak to someone who understands my contract with you. Surely you have people in store who understand computors and can check it

Them: Oh you have obviously downloade a virus, it has to go back to the manufacturer.

Me: You can't tell what has happened without checking it. How very dare you acuse me of downloading a virus.

So the conversation continues, and eventually they assure me that I will have the ?50 refunded if I don't go for the repair. It duly gets written off by the manufacturer, but my money is not refunded.

?120 to get it repaired on the INDPENDENT computer shop on the New Kent Road, who incidentally built this PC that I am typing on.

One exchange of corespondence with 'Knowhow' (some captive Dixons company who do the maintenance where they managed to not answer any of my points) and two letters to Dixons legal department that have been ignored. County Court here I come.

The irony is that I don't want any of this nonsense.

Anyway dear reader, please do try to avoid the temptation to ridicule me, I am just giving you a warning from my personal experience. They are what they are and when all is well it is fine. But when it isn't it isn't.

Do you have any marathon experiences like this?

Customer service of the year has been (twice) Eurostar. And BA have also been brilliant a couple of times. I wont start on Apple.

[Gray]

Er, so what exactly went wrong?

[Loz]

Holiday Extras/Goldcar rentals - car hire. Hired a car in Italy with Holiday Extras - unfortunately you can't see who the final rental company is until you complete, but it turned out to be Goldcar - a company with an online reputation two notches below Adolf Hitler. Being the sort of person who doesn't like paying over the odds, I get a separate insurance agreement with another company (after first checking this was allowable on the contract - it was).

Get to Italy, get hire car. Woman on the desk puts full insurance on the contract. Gets me to sign for something else on a e-screen and then prints that signature on the insurance agreement as well!

Me: No, I only want the basic - I already have insurance.

Her: No, we don't allow that - you must buy the extra insurance.

Me: No, I only want the basic - I already have insurance.

Her: No, that does not protect us. You must take our insurance.

Me: It says on the contract I don't have to.

Her: Yes you do. No insurance, no car. Your decision.

So I ring Holiday Extras. They confirm I can use my policy. Hand phone to woman who has a huge argument with the Holiday Extras woman. While she is on the phone I notice that just about everyone at the desk is having the same argument. She hands phone back to me and the HE lady says either I can cancel the car (I have a wedding 200km away) or take the insurance and claim it back from HE. I ask her to record the issue on my computer record - she says all calls like this are noted. So I accept the car and the insurance and everything goes smoothly after that.

Until it came around to claiming the money back. I ring HE, explain the issue. Person on line records my complaint and my claim - incorrectly. Get email saying I can't cancel insurance after the car hire has been taken - case is closed. Ring HE, tell then to re-open case and explain again. Get email back telling me I signed to accept the insurance - case is closed. I ring them telling them to re-open the case and escalate it to a senior manager. Get email back telling me I signed to accept the insurance - case is closed. Notice that this email has a name - so ring HE and ask to speak to that person... and I get through. Explain everything. Get email back to say Goldcar have rejected my claim - case is closed. Ring same person at HE, tell then to re-open case and tell them I don't accept it, check the call file again. Get email back telling me case is closed. Ring same person at HE, tell then to re-open case and tell them I don't still accept it and want to keep my case open, escalating further if necessary. Get email from HE saying they have met with Goldcar and they will refund my insurance money. Oh, and the case is closed.

Sometimes, you just have to be perseverant...

[Sue]

OMG I'm glad I can't afford to go to Italy or hire a car :))

[Azalea]

Re Loz's car insurancw story, get yourself any kind of American Express affiliated credit card and pay for your car hire that way. You will automatically be insured for free and don't need to purchase any extra.

[steveo]

Interesting Loz, I've been scammed by the Italian (insurance) job. It's a very bad vibe on the first day of your holiday.

And thanks for the tip Azalea

[????]

Any 'up sell' is a rip off is my default, i'm always amazed at how gullible people are to be honest, which doesn't excuse the companies by the way. PFI for eg...did sensible people really buy these products??? Apparently by the ? Billions

[DaveR]

Re Loz's car rental trouble, many of the aggregator sites do let you see who the ultimate provider is, and some have ratings/reviews as well. This site is the best I have found:

http://www.carrentals.co.uk/

On the wider question of rip off shops etc., my general rule is to never buy anything complicated or expensive, or that you might need to return, from a high street chain store.

[Loz]

Azalea Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Re Loz's car insurancw story, get yourself any

> kind of American Express affiliated credit card

> and pay for your car hire that way. You will

> automatically be insured for free and don't need

> to purchase any extra.

I didn't need to purchase any either as I had a similar style policy from an insurance company. The point was, they wouldn't accept it.

(I see that I phrased it badly in the story - have fixed).

[malumbu]

Interesting post on car hire.

Again an issue where I thin that I am well informed, but have been caught out by hirers not accepting my card, and then bumping up the cost, and the 'comes with a tank of petrol' ruse in Spain, where you get refunded at a shite rate for the fuel that you don't use. Goldcar BTW

A cute one was where they actually took out the money for the deposit (rather than just held it) and on refuding it I got the double whammy of charges for Euros in to pound, and a slight worsening of exchage rates.