ITC Legal Services - Avoid Them

batman321

Can anyone tell me the freephone number for ITC?
Seen it on here once but can't seem to find it again.

portlandboy

itc_Legal_Services wrote: »

Hello. We just wanted to remind you that you can call 0800 082 1139 (9am-5pm Monday to Friday) to discuss your issues directly in person. We are ready and willing to help you. Thanks very much,
ITC Customer Relations Team

Don't know if this is it but it was apparently posted on here by ITC themselves.

However, this is the contact number from the ITC website. Just keep using this to call, even though they will ask (or tell) you to use the chargeable number: 0800 195 2924

ITC_hater

I have also had a total nightmare with ITC and they are total sharks. They messed up on so many levels when dealing with the simple probate of my fathers estate. For example they instructed their solicitors to put my fathers house into my mothers name. Fine you might think, except she had been DEAD FOR 25 YEARS and they'd had the death certificate and knew forwell that only my sister and I were the benficiaries of the estate. They work very slowly, people on the phone don't give you enough information nor seem to know what is happening to your specific case, staff turnover is so high that I had a different contact name every time there was a problem. I had to do so much chasing up between them and their solicitors it's unbelievable. They also received money from my fathers house insurance AFTER the estate had been administered and they FAILED to notify me. I have tried using the legal ombudsman as I was so dissatisfied with the service but because they are unregulated there is nothing they could do. So this is my only payback......to tell as many people as I can to never use them.

angrygirlie

Welcome ITC HATER, (wish I thought of giving myself a name similar!!!)

You have come to the right place to let as many people know about your experience. Time has not given ITC the opportunity to make improvements and as you have experienced their incompetence, the mistakes this company continue to make are absolutely unbelievable.

Time is closing in on this company and it saddens me to think that now The Halifax is involved with referring customers into ITC;s direction. I must sit down and write myself a letter!!!!!

angrygirlie

Cerredwen wrote: »

Hi Kiwimum, I'm experiencing similar problems with ITC, and a year down the line the end is still not in sight.

I'd just like to say thank you to Portland Boy and others on this forum who at times such as these, appear as a life-line to victims of this most unscrupulous bunch of scoundrels.

My experience of ITC thus far is that they do not act unless you stay on their case. It appears to me that they are fairly quick to retrieve all monies from the estate, but then employ delay tactics in order to hold the money in their trust funds for as long as possible, whilst simultaneously finding any excuse to crank up their less than transparent charges. Excuses such as letters not received; Probate period not ended; Geoffrey Parker Bourne holding up proceedings (when in fact, the solicitor hasn't even got you on file) are used extensively and interchangeably.

I have found the call centre operatives to be either a) Polite but unknowledgeable, or b) Rude or aggressive and unknowledgeable. My advice would be to phone them again, preparing beforehand a list of points you wish to complain about because they have a tendency to try and throw you off-track. Remain at all times polite but firm, and when you are fobbed off by the operative (which you will be) demand to speak to someone in authority, making sure that you tell them you wish to complain.

They will then pass you off to someone who claims to be your case manager, who knows nothing about your case but will promise to phone you back. You will get a call back, and some of the things you have asked to be dealt with will then proceed to be dealt with.

Feeling somewhat satisified that something is finally moving you can then sit back and relax for a few weeks. However rest assured that ITC will be also be sitting back and relaxing... ie nothing further will get done. You will become anxious and phone the call centre again only to be told 'things are happening in the back ground'. However they will not be able to tell you exactly what is happening in the background because nothing actually is: they're just sitting there holding tight to your money, or squandering it away.

You will then have to go through the whole firm-but-polite complaint process again with yet another assigned case manager, but at least it should move things forward just a teeny bit more. Oh yes, and don't phone more than once a week because they get very cross and tell you that they will refuse to speak to you if you do it again.

As for Martin Trees, he is a very difficult man to get hold of and any letter you send won't get to him. He's too busy with his friends, the other directors, holed away in the Directors' Board Room counting up his ill gotten gains and no doubt sniggering at the gullibility of you, I and countless other victims of this sinister company.

Oh, your post brings back the agony of the memories I had with this diabolical company. When I posted on this forum in November last year about my experience of their delay tactics to getting the money out to me and the other beneficiary (they told me it would be in my account by a certain date and it WAS'NT so chased up again and again after chasing everything else for the previous 18 months) And as I could only see the benefit of ITC delaying the distribution of the money was to them as they RETAINED THE INTEREST THEY ACCRUED ON MY MUM'S MONEY, my post was removed.
I was telling the truth about one of ITC's devious operations in making more money out of the bereaved. It appears, from many others posting on this forum that they too, have had this experience so it is an established operation within ITC to not deal 'swiftly' (has anyone else heard that word being used by ITC staff?) with a client's estate.

I have said it before on this forum and will say it again. Shame on you who operate ITC. After all this time, there are still people joining this forum with desperately sad consequences and unacceptable service from this company. May all of you at ITC who sit around the boardroom table discussing the tactics to operate so close to the legal edge, look back one day and experience the guilt by feeling personally responsible for the detrimental effect on your bereaved clients lives when life for us does not need such added pain and heartache.

May you hold your heads low

angrygirlie

Grant McKerron is the chairman and this is what the ITC website has to say about him.... I quote...

"Consumers want to have choice, and they want to have confidence in what they are purchasing. They also want a fair deal. Legal professionals in the UK are among the best in the world at delivering this."

Grant has pioneered the accessibility, packaging and delivery of legal services for over 20 years. He founded ITC in 1989 - originally through the Woolwich Building Society. The company has subsequently grown into the largest probate provider in the UK.

Grant believes that consumers deserve efficient, effective, and economic legal services and has driven ITC to provide packaged, transparent services of a consistently high standard. Today, these services are offered through banks, building societies, co-operatives, insurance companies, funeral directors and charities - and direct to individuals.

The bedrock of the business is a Workflow and Automated Documentation management system. This was commissioned in 2002, built by an in house software development team and has placed ITC at the forefront of the probate market."


Charles Urquhart is the Business Development (Partnerships)
So he should be made aware of how the business is developing with it's practices.


And just to add insult to injury, this is part of the Corporate Social Responsibility that ITC claim on their website


At ITC, we take a socially responsible approach to our people, our customers, our professional contacts and our suppliers. We also recognise and take responsibility for our influence on the environment and the communities in which we operate, both as a company and as individuals. Clear policies and plans exist to ensure that appropriate practical steps are taken; policies that often bring the additional benefit of greater efficiency, lower costs and an enhanced reputation as a service provider - and employer.


And......We manage the company in an ethical way, respecting traditional best practice in areas such as client confidentiality, risk management, conflict of interest and health and safety.



I'm sure Trading standards will see things quite differently. Can anyone out there tell me if they have actually experienced what ITC claim to deliver???? I unfortunately did not have any of these 'nice, flufffy, caring ' things happen to me .My experience was they helped me on my way to a serious nervous breakdown

John_Pierpoint

angrygirlie wrote: »

Oh, your post brings back the agony of the memories I had with this diabolical company. When I posted on this forum in November last year about my experience of their delay tactics to getting the money out to me and the other beneficiary (they told me it would be in my account by a certain date and it WAS'NT so chased up again and again after chasing everything else for the previous 18 months) And as I could only see the benefit of ITC delaying the distribution of the money was to them as they RETAINED THE INTEREST THEY ACCRUED ON MY MUM'S MONEY, my post was removed.
I was telling the truth about one of ITC's devious operations in making more money out of the bereaved. It appears, from many others posting on this forum that they too, have had this experience so it is an established operation within ITC to not deal 'swiftly' (has anyone else heard that word being used by ITC staff?) with a client's estate.

I have said it before on this forum and will say it again. Shame on you who operate ITC. After all this time, there are still people joining this forum with desperately sad consequences and unacceptable service from this company. May all of you at ITC who sit around the boardroom table discussing the tactics to operate so close to the legal edge, look back one day and experience the guilt by feeling personally responsible for the detrimental effect on your bereaved clients lives when life for us does not need such added pain and heartache.

May you hold your heads low

In fairness to any firm administering the estates of the dead - it can take a long time following up all the leads. I know from practical experience that some agencies of the state are not fit for purpose. (EG HMRC Income Tax section).

If the probate firm makes a mistake, they are legally left "holding the baby" and can be sued.

That said a well run operation should pay the beneficiaries interest on funds held and could make stage payments as the estate evolves.

Like the farming cycle expect an estate to take at least a year from death to final distribution - longer if there are complexities.
In theory it could be done in 4 months but it usually takes a year for the liabilities to unidentified claimants to become statute barred.

Perhaps some operations will tell the customers what they want to hear - it makes life easy in the short term.

kjduct

Well another month or so on from my last post and we are still in ITC limbo, I now have access to speak about to ITC about my brothers case, so 3 weeks ago I made contact with my case worker didnt pressurize her or moan just got the lay of the land and where things were...
At this time my parents had not spoken to her for 4 weeks and were told last time they spoke that the IHT400 form was being filled in and sent off to the HMRC, I was ringing at least 2 weeks after that so I asked if they had response from HMRC yet? I was told it still hadnt been sent off yet... I had a bit of a moan then and explained my parents were told weeks ago it had been sent, she said leave it with her and to give her a call in a couple of weeks.
I rang last Friday and she was out, I rang this Monday and got through and she had no idea who I was or why I would be calling I explained the case details again and that it had been at least 6 weeks since this IHT400 form was being filled in, and could she find out why it was taking so long, she said she will call me back Monday afternoon or Tuesday...
So after not getting a call back I called today I rang back and again she had no recollection of why I was calling...
I explained that I want to know why filling in a form is taking in excess of 6 weeks, I was told its a complicated form and they need to make sure nothing is missing, the same standard lines others have mentioned on this thread, I decided to let fly with exactly what I thought of there performance so far and the horror stories I have seen on this and plenty of other review sites, she "couldn't possibly comment" every time I mentioned any complaint I had and then explained she was leaving at the end of the week and gave me the next case workers details, (more delays...)
I have since downloaded the IHT400 form its 15 pages long and I could fill 70% of it in with the info we supplied them with, Im disgusted with their service, I seriously want to look into removing them from the case and going with this "probate broker" I have seen in the press as at the moment, the fees conjured up by ITC are £4700 for not very much at all to be honest.
I realise its probably not something we can do as others would have done this but how hard is it to remove them from our case??

angrygirlie

Congratulations to all of you good folk who have posted, viewed and been part of this thread.
It is good to know that with over 40,000 views to date, we are preventing many vulnerable people from being caught up in the itc net.

Here's to the 50,000 views.

As itc continue to practice unregulated, more and more posters join us to spread the word about how this company will not be putting your interests first. Itc cannot continue to hide behind trusted names like the halifax (can't say barclays is a trusted name any more!!)

Keep up the fight to stop this company from operating

Deep_Throat

There's a misconception here that needs to be addressed, but sadly may not prevent other people being persuaded to use the service as often it is too late by the time they read this type of forum.

ITC do not hide behind Halifax, Barclays, The Bereavement Advice Centre, The Bereavement Register et al, far worse THEY ARE one and the same in that the people who answer the calls to these numbers all have one thing in common, they are employed by and their salaries AND SALES RELATED COMMISSION are paid by ITC.A bizarre dark irony is that many of these same people often field calls for the company from disgruntled ITC Clients on occassions when call volume is high.

Barclays and Halifax and the others will have signed contracts with ITC for a service provision.If you have been contacted after a bereavement by somebody purporting to be Barclays or Halifax "bereavement advice service" or something similar,that person will almost certainly be an ITC employee whose sole task is to establish whether there is a need for Probate and if so to promote the services of ITC whose Probate Administrator(he or she is nothing of the sort and may be working on commission only which brings its own pressures)will be only too willing to call to see you to "explain the process" (they will not as it's not that complicated) in the hope that you will sign a CONTRACT authorising the company to act on behalf of the executor/administrator. If you sign there is a cooling off period which YOU SHOULD NOT WAIVE despite any subtle pressure or otherwise for you to do so.

Be strong, do it yourself it really isn't that difficult-particularly for estates where Inheritance Tax is not a concern- and the Probate court staff are very helpful even though they cannot fill the forms in for you.Most if not all of the required information is available almost immediately and many people will be more than capable of collecting what is necessary.