Buyer Beware! (urgent warnings about products/services to avoid at all costs)

I don't like liars or people who set out to deliberately deceive. I am not a person who falls for scams or things that seem 'too good to be true' as there is always a catch but on this instance, everything the person said matched with the [Orange] website so I trusted him. What a fool I was. I have been a customer of Orange for around eight years and I last upgraded my handset in February 2005. Around mid-October I answered my mobile to a young ...
...surname but my full first, middle and last name. Admittedly he had trouble pronouncing part of it (that dratted J flummoxing people again!) but he knew who I was, he knew my address and my landline number - even I don't know my landline number as I never use the thing - and when he said he was calling from Orange with a promotional offer I believed him. The offer was a 10% loyalty discount on my line rental and this would kick-in when I was 10 months ...

Amazingwoo 23.11.2005 · Read full review
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Review of Buyer Beware! (urgent warnings about products/services to avoid at all costs)

This is a story how eBay can and is used for crime. It a cautionary tale so stay with me, it may help. *** A few things to look for when the scammers are about*** If it looks to good to be true - Stay away - If you know someone is selling something for £80 less than the shops there is a possiblity its a scam Look when they joined eBay - You should never trust a "newbie" with big cash amount Auctions. Check the feedback...have they been buying ...
...quick way to bump the feedback up. If you are going to buy something in bulk, buy using your credit card you maybe covered with your insurance (Read your small print). My personal favourite is to ask if you can come and pick the items up, when the lad was asked by one person this.... he told them he was wheelchair bound and needed help to even move around the house and his helper was on holiday for 2 weeks so it wasnt convienient to come around!! ...

the_enlightened_one 19.12.2006 (03.02.2007) · Read full review
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Review of Buyer Beware! (urgent warnings about products/services to avoid at all costs)

Quite a few years ago my husband and I were contacted by a former work colleague of mine, who asked if we were interested in a unique business opportunity. We were naturally curious and asked for more information, but were simply told that it was too complex to tell us at that moment "you can't give a haircut by telephone", but that he and his wife would be happy to visit us to explain everything. We were a little suspicious, but impressed that they ...
...evening to spend time with us. Two days later they turned up, smartly dressed in business attire, and showed us ... 1: THE PLAN. They began by contrasting conventional business opportunities with what they had to offer. Whereas to set up a conventional business venture you risked "losing your shirt", with theirs there was minimal investment and running costs, and you couldn't lose money! There would be no stock or premises costs, and the business ...

Reader1203 07.10.2004 · Read full review
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Review of Buyer Beware! (urgent warnings about products/services to avoid at all costs)

I don't want to alarm any Brides to Be, but just want to raise awareness, so that they are 'pre-warned' and so better able to take action if a similar situation arises. If you are a traditional young woman, your wedding day probably features high on your list of the best day of your life. My 27 year old daughter was over the moon when she got engaged and set the date for her wedding, 10th May 2008. In fact, I was also over the moon, as my daughter ...
...to actually set a date for marriage. I looked forward to being Mother of the Bride! In keeping with the way our family as a whole tend to view consumerism, most of the wedding preparations contained items and services from the local area in Kent: Small businesses that advertised through the various Wedding Fayres that are held; other businesses we had just heard of via word of mouth. The only thing that we were particularly keen to have with no ...

orlando 31.05.2008 (01.06.2008) · Read full review
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Review of Buyer Beware! (urgent warnings about products/services to avoid at all costs)

Ever since the gas and electricity companies were privatised, we, as consumers, are supposed to be feeling the "benefit" of choice, and being able to "shop around for the best deal". After a few years of being stopped on the street every five minutes by various company reps, and enduring the same salesmen hanging on the doorbell every other day, I personally long for the good old days of British Gas and Eastern Electricity, simplicity, peace and ...
...also British Gas, and is written from notes I have kept on all phone calls and letters, since the problem has not been resolved yet. I wanted to warn others about these two companies. I have not used real names though, just my own made-up ones. My problems with NPower started out in March 2001 (thats 3 years and 8 months ago). I'd just moved into a new (to me anyway!) council house with two extremely small children, no carpets, barely any furniture ...

MadCat 09.12.2003 (03.11.2004) · Read full review
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Review of Buyer Beware! (urgent warnings about products/services to avoid at all costs)

LOBOTOMY Let’s run the clock back to August last year. Our (small) company was moving office, and we needed to transfer our existing feature line system across to said new premises, which were shiny new, and without any existing phone points. For those who don’t know, a feature line system is essentially one main number, which then feeds an internal network of lines, all of which are connected to the exchange under their own individual numbers. ...
...the top of the main number and presto, your own phone network, which can be manipulated accordingly. BT had invoiced us for this on a quarterly basis, and their billing period overlapped our move. I wrote to them advising of the change, asking if they would mind part crediting the original invoice and re-issuing the rest of the period under the new number and address. Simple. Only, I hadn’t allowed for the BT lobotomy that obviously forms part of ...

Concrete_Donkey 20.05.2004 · Read full review
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Review of Buyer Beware! (urgent warnings about products/services to avoid at all costs)

I know this is short...but I am supposed to be working .....I don't even care if nobody rates...I just felt I had to warn people...... I will start at the beginning.....I went on my bank online yesterday to see if my December payment had come from the csa (oh dream on Jess) of course it hadn't…but whilst there I noticed that my balance was less than I thought it should be……I didn't really give it that much more thought…I just assumed that my wages ...
...of my direct debits had been brought forward. No figures were available to see…as the transactions had not been posted just allowed for on my balance. So knowing I had to go and buy a laptop for my daughter today and there wasnt enough funds to cover in my account I transferred some money from my savings. I have to admit I didn't sleep very well worrying about what on earth I had going out of my bank to make so much money have disappeared so I ...

Pink-Ice-Queen 19.12.2006 (04.01.2007) · Read full review
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Review of Buyer Beware! (urgent warnings about products/services to avoid at all costs)

08.09.2004 Hurrah!! After sending the op below to Orange and a month of stress and phone calls, they have backed down, apologising profusely and offered me a new phone/ free month's line rental and no charge for the new sim card. They also offered to cancel my contract and the pointless insurance (both due to run until next summer) immediately. I have taken them up on this option. All very well belately offering to honour my insurance, but I still ...
...them again. I think it makes a stronger point to leave, the Orange representative that contacted me has said that they will be using my case for an investigation into their standards of customer service. So, hurrah!!! I do wonder if a mere letter would have had such an effect as showing them this review on Ciao! Somehow, knowing their blatant complacency I doubt it. So if you have a consumer complaint, get writing on here! ****************************************************** ...

flickpugh 16.08.2004 (08.09.2004) · Read full review
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Review of Buyer Beware! (urgent warnings about products/services to avoid at all costs)

It looked so simple to change over from my normal pricing plan with AOL to the new super duper broadband package that AOL were offering customers. The best thing was I would only be paying an extra £2 per month to upgrade to broadband. Just click on the online form and hey presto a modem would be on its way. The order was confirmed immediately and I was informed via e-mail that the delivery of the modem to my home address takes up to four days to ...
...would be transferred onto the new broadband pricing plan. ♠Problem 1 Receive welcome letter 3 days via e-mail to inform me that my new broadband pricing plan was now effective and if I log online before the modem is installed I would have to pay a dial up charge to use the Internet. As my modem hadn't yet arrived but was due any day I would just stay offline for a few days until it arrives so wasn't too put out with that ♠Problem 2 ...

COOOEEE 14.03.2005 (30.03.2005) · Read full review
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Review of Buyer Beware! (urgent warnings about products/services to avoid at all costs)

On the 30th of March I went to the local post office to get a TV license. There, because I couldn’t find my renewal slip, I filled out a duplicate form (TVLAP1/01/03) obtained from the counter. I parted with £116 cash to get said form stamped, validated and one copy returned to me as my license for the year. There was no license number on the copy given back to me but presumed the one retained by the post office with some sort of serial number on ...
...after processing, generate/register my license number. Forward to the 8th April and there was a knock at the door. It was a TV licensing officer. She asked a) if I had a license, and b) if she could see it. I answered yes to both, went inside got the license (and cash receipt) and returned to the doorstep to produce. Said licensing officer then went on to fill out a licensing interview form, stating ‘no – see p/o counter’ in answer to if I had a ...

wiggglypufff 20.05.2004 (22.10.2004) · Read full review
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Review of Buyer Beware! (urgent warnings about products/services to avoid at all costs)

This is an account of 5 hours of my life spent dealing with HSS - the online and offline goods hire service people. It is up to you if you want to do business with them after reading this. Make your own mind up. It should become obvious to you what I think during the duration of this piece. **************************************************** Rupert and I are being married in Somerset, in his parents parents back garden on July 17th in fact, this ...
...to hire a few things to finish the marquee off properly – a bar unit, some bar serving utensils and the high chairs to put under the nappied bums of the eleven two year olds who will be in attendance. Here is the story of what happened to me whilst dealing with the 'Event Hire' division of HSS. ## Saturday 12/06/2004 - Made an order for the necessaries on http://www.hss.com. A few minutes later, there is an email in my in in-box called: “Summary ...

ElizaF 15.06.2004 · Read full review
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Review of Buyer Beware! (urgent warnings about products/services to avoid at all costs)

I thought I would kick-off my first, (believe it or not) 2006 opinion on TalkTalk who are a well known Internet Service Provider of the Carphone Warehouse Group plc offering seemingly attractive telecommunications and broadband services to UK consumers. First things first, I believe this should be in the buyers beware section of the site as I hope to convince as many of you as possible not to take up any services with TalkTalk as they are severely ...
...about getting their money and ignore your problems. Why I went with TalkTalk -------------------------------------- My main reasons for using TalkTalk were due to the combined telephone and broadband offer which included an unlimited number of evening and weekend calls to UK landlines, up to 8mb broadband and the fact that you can also gain 2 Nectar points for every £1 spent on your bill. One of my family members also had TalkTalk and recommended ...

mdstone 13.09.2006 (14.09.2006) · Read full review
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Review of Buyer Beware! (urgent warnings about products/services to avoid at all costs)

Right, this is very bad. First of all, let me give you JUST TWO, of the EMAILS I am referring to. This one: Dear valued PNC Bank® member: It has come to our attention that your PNC Bank® account information needs to be updated as part of our continuing commitment to protect your account and to reduce the instance of fraud on our website. If you could please take 5-10 minutes out of your online experience and update your personal records you will ...
...service. However, failure to update your records will result in account suspension. Please update your records on or before Tue, 21 Sep , 2004. Once you have updated your account records, your PNC Bank® session will not be interrupted and will continue as normal. To update your PNC Bank® records click on the following link: https://www.ibsnetaccess.com/NASApp/NetAccess/LoginDisplay Thank You. PNC Bank® UPDATE TEAM Accounts Management As outlined ...

mrsxopher 08.10.2004 · Read full review
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Review of Buyer Beware! (urgent warnings about products/services to avoid at all costs)

Well it’s a good thing they took the word ‘gullible’ out of the dictionary is all I can say. I’d hate to have to use such a word to insult my wee sister, but just look at the evidence…. Here in Edinburgh (as in many cities, I’m guessing) we have a plague currently inhabiting our main shopping thoroughfare – albeit a very attractive plague. The deal is this: A good looking, trendy young bloke (or occasionally, a girl) stops you and asks you where ...
...young mans attention, you are supposed to go all fawny and start getting into a conversation with him. Once he’s managed to make you feel all relaxed and lovely about yourself, he proceeds to bash you on the head with his sales pitch. His product is a hairdressing loyalty card, offering massive discounts at a city salon. Currently being flogged is a loyalty card for a place called ‘Keith Angus’, which I’d never heard of but which sounds damn good ...

ShoppingGirl 09.07.2003 · Read full review
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Review of Buyer Beware! (urgent warnings about products/services to avoid at all costs)

This article is about the risks of buying a newly-built house. Occasionally I may veer into rant mode, but please forgive me on this occasion, as this is a wide-ranging article which contains consumer advice and a cry for help to our politicians. After all, I felt so strongly about this issue that I wrote a website about it (but more of that later). In December 1998 I bought a newly-built three bedroomed house from Wilcon Homes on a new development ...
...and the obvious benefits of "chainbreaking" that come from buying a new house when you also have one to sell. Never did the quality of the house even enter my mind as a consideration. Naturally I assumed that Britain was a civilised and advanced country which only allowed buildings of the highest calibre to be erected. What a big mistake. I will now attempt to summarise the major problems with my Wilcon Home over the last three and a half years. ...

rdobbie 03.07.2002 · Read full review
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Review of Buyer Beware! (urgent warnings about products/services to avoid at all costs)