Advice/Warning

Bakerboy1

My first post so hope it is in the right place:

Who can I register a complaint with regarding a Gold buying web based business?

I recently sent some gold, 49.4 Grams, to MYGoldSold, having researched various other sites,
Hatton Garden Metals and ScrapGoldUK to name a few. I decided to try MyGoldSold as their best price gaurrentee promised to match others:

Should you receive an itemised, written offer for your scrap Gold from a National Gold recycling firm, send us a copy and we GUARANTEE to match it and pay you £5 for your trouble.

What we are saying is, if you are not entirely happy contact us and you soon will be.
We will match our competitors best price + £5, that is our BEST PRICE GUARANTEE.

Scrap Gold Uk quoted £413.94
Hatton Garden Metals quoted £394.99

I elected for what they call fast cash, basically bank transfer rather than a cheque, as I dont always have time to get to the bank, so you can imagine when I checked my account and found they had only paid £170.00, some £220 - £240 difference from other companies.

I raised my concerns with them and got this response


Subject: RE: Contact Alert
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:16:41 +0000



We are sorry that you are unhappy with the valuation.

You opted for fast cash on your mandate but did not request a quote, as such we deposited money into you account.

We believe this to be a fair price considering we have overhead, assaying and advertising costs.

It states twice on our website that if you request fast cash you waive the seven day return.

Kind regards

Mgs


I have asked for my items to be returned and have offered to return the money to them and I have heard nothing from them since.

I wish to warn others from using this rip off site and I want my items returned or a fair price paid for them.

How do I achieve this?

NattyVee

Think you're banged to rights really, and should have read the small print.

Advice for the future, 'fast' things like loans, gold selling and quick cash for anything are ALWAYS at the loss of the punter, not the company. This is what you pay for getting things quickly.

No court, CAB or Trading Standards group would be able to help you here, I'm afraid.

geordie_joe

NattyVee wrote: »

Think you're banged to rights really, and should have read the small print.

Not all small print is legal, it often doesn't matter whether you read it or not. If it is not legal then it is not legal, whether you read it or not is of no concern.

NattyVee wrote: »

Advice for the future, 'fast' things like loans, gold selling and quick cash for anything are ALWAYS at the loss of the punter, not the company. This is what you pay for getting things quickly.

There's paying extra for fast, and there's being ripped off. Getting paid faster is not an excuse for ripping people off.

NattyVee wrote: »

No court, CAB or Trading Standards group would be able to help you here, I'm afraid.

Maybe not, but I would ask them anyway. The method you choose for payment should not affect your rights. Even if it comes to nothing, the complaint will be noted and if enough people complain something may be done.

dacouch

I agree with Geordie, they will be bound by the unfair contract terms the same as anyone.

I suggest the OP takes screen prints of all of the pages of the website as it does state if you take the fast cash you waive the right of the gold being returned to you. It does not state you waive the right of the best price guarantee.

The wording of their best price guarantee could be miss leading as it would appear they expect you to send the written proof of quotes from their competitors when you send the gold off. I would not be surprised if people do not understand this and send the gold off expecting to be able to show their alternative quotes when they get a quote from mygoldsold.

As geordie said get some advice.

Most of these gold buying sites make most of their money from paying well below the value