Business Deceit

How many companies do you know who operate dodgy practices to trick you into entering a contract with them, without your knowledge and certainly without your consent, please feel free to list those you know of, and I will begin.

Purple Bricks are a house selling company who operate solely online and they are the fastest growing estate agent currently, and according to them they are going to be the largest estate agent within a few years, so what is their agenda? quite simply they have been hit over their advertising claims over the last couple of years and have had to remove several of these claims they have made from their advertising.

They begin by telling you that you pay with a fixed fee and that fee is dependent upon your area and property value, and thet you can pay that fixed fee up front, or you can opt for the deferred payment which means you pay once your property is sold, so why is this a scam?

In a large number of cases they send an "alleged expert" to value your property and this alleged expert is often not from your area and is certainly not an expert in property prices in your area, so why is this a scam? this one is obvious.

They offer a basic service which involves putting your property onto several house sales websites which is something you can do for yourself, so you are only paying them for advertising and valuing your property which most local estate agents do for free anyway to attract your business, so get a couple of estate agents round for free to value your property and advertise it yourself is a much cheaper option as companies such as Purple Bricks charge extra for everything such as showing your property to potential buyers.

So where is the main scam? its in the deferred option, think about it for a little while, if you pay them their fee up front what incentive have they got to sell your property if they have been paid, and many people would sooner defer their fee until the property is sold and their money is in the bank, and here is their scam; in many cases sellers ARE NOT TOLD that by deferring the fee they enter into a credit agreement with a third party company and in many cases their agents are not telling people this and they enter a credit agreement against their will and without their knowledge and only find out this has happened after they get their written confirmation. This is illegal and if you find yourself in this situation you have to complain immediately in writing.

One other little scam coming over from other mainland European countries is the classification scam and this is a simple scam which catches many people out, and is rising in numbers in the UK among consumer goods and works very simply on the fact that people don't read their receipts and documentation when they buy general everyday consumer goods and works very simply by classifying your sale as a corporate or business sale when you are a domestic customer. In some cases it may be a simple mistake but in others it is a deliberate policy and in some companies we are finding a lot of "mistakes" being made.
Why is the first question? if you are a domestic customer you have considerable protective legislation the company are bound by to protect your rights as a domestic consumer, if you are a corporate customer these rights DO NOT APPLY and its a nice way for some companies to sell you a product and get out of the warranty and the warranty period, and any other protective legislation which should apply to you, and your only recourse is to buy the same item again from another retailer or bring a much more expensive court action, and they merely wave a piece of paper at you with your signature on and say buyer beware.
As this an emerging scam I have only found a few cases to date and if anyone wants to investigate this scam further then feel free to do so and post your findings.

" In many cases sellers ARE NOT TOLD that by deferring the fee they enter into a credit agreement with a third party company and in many cases their agents are not telling people this and they enter a credit agreement against their will and without their knowledge and only find out this has happened after they get their written confirmation. This is illegal and if you find yourself in this situation you have to complain immediately in writing."

All contract require full disclosure, failure to give full disclosure is fraud. Fraud vitiates all contracts and their is no statute of limitations on fraud.

Problem is, why should anyone have to find themselves in this lose, lose situation anyway. Is this not the corporate regulators job to seek out and stamp out scams?

In theory this is fine, and yes unless full disclosure is given any UK contract is void under English Contract Law and also European Contract Protocols, but how many people actually know this? and how many people simply cannot be bothered with all the issues which come from launching a UK based court action costing potentially many £££thousands and risk losing over a £300 item.

Here are the real problems.

Hi assassin
interesting topic as this potentially affects everyone.
As to receipts, would there be something on one that would differentiate between corporate and domestic?

BBC Watchdog did a piece about Curry's/PC World which was broadcast last night regarding some consumers being singed up as businesses when purchasing TV's. Curry's/PC World gave the usual response that we have all come to expect from crooks by blaming it on their store employees. It should be on the BBC IPlayer by now.

Midnight, I dont watch much TV and certainly not the Beeb blurb, maybe posting a link would be beneficial, and it isn't just Currys/PC World at it as many other large retailers are doing the same.

Jas, yes it should show up on any receipt as commercial customers pay much less than domestic customers and this will certainly show up on the receipt, it should also state whether you are a domestic or business customer, one certain way is to look at the shelf price as these are retail prices. If you have the same shelf price on your receipt as the display price and have been listed or signed up as a business customer you have them straight away as the price you pay as a business customer should be much less than the shelf price.

Hi assassin, here we go:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09070t1/watchdog-series-38-episode-6

PS: Available for 28 day's, after that who knows.

Many thanks I am sure most will appreciate it and read it before then.