SCAM WARNING! - ExpressCarPrices.com / Express Car Prices

mineralblue

Also if you go on their home page now it puts up your I.P. address at the bottom of the page for "fraud prevention purposes" ?

bagofsnakes

mineralblue wrote: »

Further to my previous post,the home page has changed since I used it,the home page never had all the information on it that it has now.How can I prove this in a court of law?

I went to their site a few days after getting the 'valuation', I went back recently and it has changed a lot.

The funny thing is that when you put Expresscarprices into Google the first page that came up was this one! "possible scam? Express car prices" was the first thing you see.:rotfl:

sarahg1969

Is it possible they are paying £2.50 for the RK details from the DVLA, on cars they've seen advertised? Those of you who are certain you've never even used the site can ask the DVLA if they've provided your details to anyone.

yorksrabbit

Express Car Prices

Is a trading name of Express Payment Limited, a company set up on November 11th last year.

Express Car Prices charges VAT on all invoices (the £39 billing is the total inclusive of VAT, please see the 'Prices & Terms' section of the website.)

ECP's Terms & Conditions provide for cancellation of contract within 7 days of agreement of contract. Those T&Cs also stipulate that it can be up to two weeks before a valuation certificate is actually released.

If receipt of the valuation certificate is the first intimation the recipient has had of the existence of a contract with Express Car Prices, then the payment is unenforceable by virtue of the fact that it is implicit in the contract that the purchaser shall have sufficient knowledge of its existence to be able to cancel within seven days.

Express Payment Limited, trading here as Express Car Prices, does not appear to have a VAT registration number (see post #20, this thread.)

Misrepresentation by any UK supplier of goods or services or the levying of VAT for gain rather than on behalf of The Exchequer is a criminal offence.

Invoices received from Express Car Prices, whether expected or not, must by Law include its VAT Registration Number or that of Express Payment Limited.

IP address monitoring:

Anyone concerned that their privacy / identity may be being placed at unnecessary risk by any website should go here:

http://anonymouse.org/anonwww.html

This anonymises a user's browsing: simply enter the required URL into the Anonymouse connection field.

The service requires no software installation.

The service charges no fee, though membership payment can be made if the user wishes to remove the little adverts which appear in the browser window and which largely help to keep Anonymouse.org in existence.

bagofsnakes

It is an offence to demand payment for goods you know to be unsolicited.

When a transaction occurs they are required to detail the goods or services offered, delivery arrangements and payment, the suppliers details and the customer's cancellation rights before the transaction takes place and send you written confirmation of this information after the transaction.

Under the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations (2000) if they fail to provide you with this information in writing (e-mail is considered as 'in writing' in this case) then the cancellation period extends up to 3 months and 7 days.

Anyone going to be writing to Revenue and Customs about this companys VAT status?;)

mineralblue

interesting. My receipt has no VAT number on it either.
What do I do folks?
Ignore the bills as they are illegal, or pursue the matter?
I could do without the hassle,so do I place myself on dodgy ground by just not paying?

yorksrabbit

Charging VAT without a VAT registration number -- around £5 in every £39 in the case of Express Car Prices VAT-inclusive invoices -- looks like being yet another problem Express Car Prices has to contend with in addition to those listed in bagofsnakes' excellent post.

HM Revenue & Customs operates a "Customs Confidential" VAT-reporting hotline for use in cases where "you suspect that a firm is charging VAT when they are not VAT registered":

0800 595 000

Callers can withhold their identity if they wish. The link is here:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/Taxes/BeginnersGuideToTax/DG_4015895


Anyone who has been invoiced should keep a copy of the invoice, ignore any threats about fraud / legal action / legal departments etc and ring the Customs Confidential number.

Although this outfit seems to have been in business for a mere three months, how much longer its website stays up seems open to question so if you need documentary evidence then use Anonymouse (as per my earlier post) to browse the site and then print out the pages either as hard copy or in pdf format using freeware like PDF Creator.

mineralblue

Nice one for that,I will see where we go.First time I have used this site,definately no the last.

bootneck1

mineralblue wrote: »

Hello all,
I have also been charged for using this site. I did not see anywhere on it that I would be charged for using this service and was a bit perplexed to get a bill through the post. I would never pay for such a service and I was just "browsing" around comparing valuations when I went on this site.
I have had the reminder through this week but I will be following Bootneck's1 advice about this and will be contacting trading standards myself. Funnily enough I was about to pay the stupid thing,I put the name in google and saw this link come up.
Thank the lord for that.
I am now going to fight this.

Hi i would like to know how you found their site in the first place. By typing in any combination of titles, for example, car valuations, second hand car prices, used car prices etc, you just cant find Expresscarprices, unless you enter their web address, which you cant find until they send an invoice. How did you find it?. Bootneck1

mineralblue

Hello,
I can't remember how I came across it,It was back inlate December/early January.I certainly didn't enter the name in my browser as I had never heard of them.Maybe they just do very basic ads with google advertising in which case it will only flash up on very rare occasions.Google ads and searches kind of work on a pay as you go basis and if I was searching car valuations I may have been unlucky enough to have had it come up on page 1 or 2 when I did.
Anyone got any further with their stories with these people?I haven't had chance to chase mine up yet.And I have heard no more off them either?