Privacy Guard - Another CRA?

Richard1234

Thinking further about it, I think I might have signed for some free offer at the till in Argos , (though not for a credit report, which I dont need) Could that be the case ? Are Argos in collusion with "Affinion Privacy Guard" getting their till staff to collect signatures, under the pressure of the queue?

mummy_bear_4

mummy_bear wrote: »

Here are some things that we should all do, inform police so its documented, then send letter to managing director stating problem & give them a set time limit to sort it out, also ring the Ombudsman finacial services, they were very nice & have written a letter to Argos credit card company stating problem & told them to reimburse within 8 weeks, fingers crossed im not giving up, please let me no if this helps anyone out there.

Had a letter back from privacyguard still wanting me to send copies of my signiture, which i wil not agree to do, espiecaaly after tading standards told me not to. Also had letter from Argos credit services, saying they have heard from financial ombudsman services, and apologising for all the trouble that has been caused, and tey have given me a full refund of £79.99, and also will be looking into this further, and they gave me a £10 Argos voucher. I will be councilling my Argos credit card asap after all this happened. So keep fighting for our rights it can work, good luck we need to stop this. :T

bairy

I got sold privacyguard after falling for the salespatter, after being done over by some gits using my card.

I recently figured it wasn't much use to me and rang up to cancel. She answered initially chirpy but as soon as I said "cancel" her tone went to part miserable, part smug.
I was basically spoken down to like I was a complete moron who didn't know anything and it was inferred how I must be clinically insane to even think about cancelling such a wonderful and brilliant scheme.

In amongst the "but I don't understand why you're leaving" pretence of dumbness, I got quoted that it can take upto 467 days to find out about id fraud and cost upto £12,000 to recover, and it will take months. I suspect I wasn't being told that as a deterrant but because the call was being recorded and they could use it against me in the future.

konnor83

Affinion handle all the different types of privacy guard, from Argos all the way to Lloyds TSB privacy guard. Argos just put their name on it but the handling is still done by Affinion, so when you think you have a Argos Privacy Guard policy, you actually dont.
If you do get hooked into one of these policies just kick up a major fuss, say you will go to the FSA, local MP etc.
When you call they will try to scare you into keeping it but ignor them, in my experiance the policies don't work anyway.
Keep up the fight!!

rasstellar

I did not recieve my membership pack, (the pack will include full terms and conditions and other important infomation for me to review, before my membership commences).
This is the way argos privacy guard cons people out of their money!
THEY DO NOT SEND THE PACK!!!
We forget all about it,then you recieve a statment from your card provider asking for £79.99.
I have had numerous phone contacts with both argos and P.G. ( seems like they were in the same building ) having to give my card number ,date of birth, and address for security reasons,(when all you need is to have is a signature on a piece of paper with no proper I.D to take money from someones account.
I DID NOT RECIEVE MY MEMBERSHIP PACK!! i asked P.G to send it by registered post, GUESS WOT??????
Eventualy argos customer care investigator have agreed to cancell the policy and give a full refund to my account with a £10 gift card, thats one xmas present sorted!
Good luck.

gemma1986

James wrote: »

Threre are two other means of protecting yourself from ID Theft for next to nothing.

The first is to put a total FREEZE on your credit files.

Already legally available in most US States. But you can do it in the UK without legislation FREE (apart from the cost of 3 stamps, envelopes and letters). You use the very same concept as those using. Write to the 3 Credit Reference Agencies, use the Notice of Correction Facility, and put a FREEZE on your File for Applications.

The only drawback with Freezing Your Files is trying to remove the Freeze.

The only drawback with is that as ALL applications in your name require manual processing, applications for credit cards, loans etc may take a little longer to process. A small price to pay for added security and something the Finance Industry could easily address.

The notice of correct facility does not 'freeze' your account. It simply allows you to add a password on your credit file. When a lender checks your credit file it will be taken out of the automated process and it will tell the lender to ask you for the password. Nothing can 'freeze' your credit file. So its simular to getting CIFAS registrtion.

franma

My partner (61 year old man) took up a TopShop account last December to get 10% off a present he was buying for his grand-daughter. Paid off the full amount on statement in January and has never heard from TopShop since. He did get a phone call a while back from PrivacyGuard and, to get rid of them, agreed to let them send him a pack for him to review. He never received the pack and of course forgot all about it. Then received statement for 79.99. We phoned PrivacyGuard and were told that as he hadn't cancelled within 30 days, he had to pay it. After a couple more calls they agreed to listen to the tape of the conversation and send out another pack. Pack now received, plus a separate letter advising that they have taken the 79.99 from his account, that he agreed to the service and that he will get another letter in November 2010 and if he doesn't cancel then, he will be charged another 12 month subscription! No wonder there's a debt problem in the UK when this company can just take 79.99 off people without their knowledge or consent! :mad::mad: We intend following this up but, having read this thread, are not too hopeful.

idiots10

all you idiots see free credit reports but not see the t&cs of the policy.how do you get on with life or even drive a car.if this is the great british public no wonder the country is in a mess:rotfl:

MrXXXX

All I've seen when reading these 3 pages is people moaning about being scammed and calling the company fraudsters, yet many of you state that you 'agreed' "just to get the salesperson off the phone". Now look at this from the companies point of view, YOU agree to this and then wonder why you have the service? It is because of your own idiocy that you have this, grow some balls and tell the sales person 'No', then you won't get in this situation will you. And as for the people that sign for this service, well thats just asking for trouble isn't it, READ WHAT YOU SIGN BEFORE YOU SIGN IT!!! You have not been scammed in any way shape or form, it is your doing that has left with this service, as an earlier poster said, if this is the state of the british public then we are in for a whole lot more crap going on. Finally, the person who says that the company does not send out the welcome packs, I hope you have some good evidence to support that because what you are accusing the company of there is fraud, and also if it is not true then that is liable as you have been thick enough to post in writing. What you people need to realise is that all these policies are set up at your request in some way, so stop agreeing to things if you do not want them you fools.

bairy

I suggest you re-read the thread. A number of people have said they did not consent to sign up, or did not recieve the welcome pack in time.

Now I'm willing to accept that you should always read stuff you're being charged for, and you should nag them for paperwork while you're still within the cooling off period, but that only works well when the company is willing to play ball. Given my experience and some of the replies here as well as on another forum (I can't link cos I'm a newbie, google for privacyguard, it's the consumeractiongroup.org.uk site) they should share some of the blame.