UK-passport.net

DCFC79

crhbl12 wrote: »

Further to the above. I was also caught out by the direction to the form..no warning !!!This is simply and clearly a fraud. It is designed to induce you to part with your money for a service you think you are getting when in fact you are not. Sure we should all be careful online but this goes too far. The company clearly agree as many days after they had sent my forms back and the passport agency told me it was a scam they at once refunded all money when I forwarded their emails to the police. The speed with which this happened...less than 2 minutes....demonstrates that this company knows precisely what it's doing and has no desire to justify themselves in court.

So report them !!!

Report them for what

Did you use the uk passport.net site ?

If you did it says on the main page " Our service is not connected to or affiliated with the Passport Office or any UK Government department "

if that doesn't tell you its not the correct site then im not sure what would.

Pollycat

DCFC79 wrote: »

Report them for what

Did you use the uk passport.net site ?

If you did it says on the main page " Our service is not connected to or affiliated with the Passport Office or any UK Government department "

if that doesn't tell you its not the correct site then im not sure what would.

I think the main complaint seems to be that if you follow the link from Google it doesn't take you to the home page but instead to the beginning of the application process where it doesn't actually say they are not affiliated with the Passport Office or any UK Government department.

JuJuMonkey wrote: »

I'm really mad, I've just fell for this too. I've not heard anything from them. They've not replied to any of my emails, so I've asked my bank to help me get a refund, which they say they can. I refuse to ring the £1.53 number and give them more money. I'm far more concerned about identity theft though. Who do I complain to about this? How do I know my details are secure?

From other recent posts on here it seems that they do give refunds so I wonder why you haven't had a reply to your emails.
Are you sure you emailed the right place?

I'm surprised that your bank say they can get a refund for you as you accepted their T&Cs which, as DCFC79 points out, does say they are not affiliated with the Passport Office or any UK Government department.
For what reason does your bank say they can get you a refund?

Re complaining - have you tried Trading Standards?

I think that this company may not be doing anything illegal (unless you call Passport.net quoting the IPS Helpline phone number on their website and referring to it as 'ours' i.e. belonging to UK-Passport.net illegal and I'm not sufficiently up in legal stuff to say yea or nay to that) so I doubt you'll get very far.

Re security of your personal details, this post may reassure you:

h20er wrote: »

I too did this ! and am so annoyed with myself and also am usually super careful but ........ anyway its all been said before on here. In a funny sort of way it was "comforting" to know I'm not the only one who did this!
As soon as I realised I sent them an email to cancel and got a reply the next day "
[FONT=&quot]Thank you for your email of which your comments have been noted , we have cancelled your application , refunded / Voided your payment and all your personal details have been removed f[/FONT][FONT=&quot]rom our database."[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]However, payment WAS taken from my account the following day - just want to know if all those who were told they were getting a refund actually had refund paid into account? Just wondering (hoping) if they had to take the payment first to then issue a refund ?[/FONT]

If you'd read a few more of the posts on this thread, you'd have seen this anyway, so maybe a mental note to you to pay a little more attention to what you are doing when using the internet.....:)

gb12345

Pollycat wrote: »

I think the main complaint seems to be that if you follow the link from Google it doesn't take you to the home page but instead to the beginning of the application process where it doesn't actually say they are not affiliated with the Passport Office or any UK Government department.

That seems to have changed now. I've just googled "UK Passport Renewal" and clicked on their link and the page it takes you to clearly says

What you get from our services that the IPS do not offer:

• Application Checked for errors & omissions
• Instant Email Confirmation
• 24/7 Online Support & Telephone support
• Web Site available 24/7
• Telephone Application Service

Our service is not connected to or affiliated with the Passport Office or any UK Government department. Our service fee (Standard £40.00 / Express £45.00) is payable on completion of the form on this website, but you will not be required to pay the passport application fee until you receive and return the printed copy of your application from IPS. The services on this website may also be available without charge from other sources.

The highlighting is mine, but even without it, the content should be a good indication to anyone that bothers to read it that they are not on the official IPS website and that they are paying for something that they might not need to.

Pollycat wrote: »

I think that this company may not be doing anything illegal (unless you call Passport.net quoting the IPS Helpline phone number on their website and referring to it as 'ours' i.e. belonging to UK-Passport.net illegal and I'm not sufficiently up in legal stuff to say yea or nay to that) so I doubt you'll get very far.

They are still doing this and I'm surprised that the IPS haven't pulled them up over it.

JuJuMonkey

Thanks for the replies. I emailed them again threatening to go to the police about it and they replied with a curt "refund has been issued". Still no word about my data. My bank says they will get a refund under "goods not received" as I've not received what I have paid for, and there has been no contact either. I think it's because I paid with Visa and my purchase is covered by that.

System

JuJuMonkey wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. I emailed them again threatening to go to the police about it and they replied with a curt "refund has been issued". Still no word about my data. My bank says they will get a refund under "goods not received" as I've not received what I have paid for, and there has been no contact either. I think it's because I paid with Visa and my purchase is covered by that.

I don't know what you expect them to say about your data. They can't prove that they've deleted it.

You'll just have to keep an eye out and hope nothing bad happens to it!

Pollycat

gb12345 wrote: »

That seems to have changed now. I've just googled "UK Passport Renewal" and clicked on their link and the page it takes you to clearly says
Quote:



What you get from our services that the IPS do not offer:

• Application Checked for errors & omissions
• Instant Email Confirmation
• 24/7 Online Support & Telephone support
• Web Site available 24/7
• Telephone Application Service

Our service is not connected to or affiliated with the Passport Office or any UK Government department. Our service fee (Standard £40.00 / Express £45.00) is payable on completion of the form on this website, but you will not be required to pay the passport application fee until you receive and return the printed copy of your application from IPS. The services on this website may also be available without charge from other sources.
The highlighting is mine, but even without it, the content should be a good indication to anyone that bothers to read it that they are not on the official IPS website and that they are paying for something that they might not need to.

That's interesting.
I'd bet that they have changed their website to make it clear that they are offering a 'value-add' service for which they are charging - exactly like the EHIC websites - and that is maybe why they are possibly not illegal, unlike the EHIC websites that Trading Standards were closing down several years ago.

gb12345 wrote: »

The highlighting is mine, but even without it, the content should be a good indication to anyone that bothers to read it that they are not on the official IPS website and that they are paying for something that they might not need to.

I agree 100%.

It's very clear that you are not paying IPS for renewal of your passport and anyone who falls for this 'scam' really has only one person to blame, imho.

gb12345 wrote: »

They are still doing this and I'm surprised that the IPS haven't pulled them up over it.

Me too.

gb12345

JuJuMonkey wrote: »

My bank says they will get a refund under "goods not received" as I've not received what I have paid for, and there has been no contact either.

How long ago did you pay for the service?

Pollycat

JuJuMonkey wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. I emailed them again threatening to go to the police about it and they replied with a curt "refund has been issued". Still no word about my data. My bank says they will get a refund under "goods not received" as I've not received what I have paid for, and there has been no contact either. I think it's because I paid with Visa and my purchase is covered by that.

The service (not goods) you paid for was for them to do the following:

• Application Checked for errors & omissions
• Instant Email Confirmation
• 24/7 Online Support & Telephone support
• Web Site available 24/7
• Telephone Application Service

How do you know they haven't checked your application and sent it on to IPS?

Did you get an instant email confirmation?

I think your bank may have been on tricky ground getting a refund based on 'goods not received'.

And I doubt the police would have been interested.
After all, if you've read gb12345's post, you will have seen that they made it clear before you started the application that that they are offering a 'value-add' service for which they are charging.

gb12345

Pollycat wrote: »

How do you know they haven't checked your application and sent it on to IPS?


Did you get an instant email confirmation?

Assuming they completed the form correctly, the first they would have likely heard (apart from a possible email confirmation) would have been when a completed application form arrived from the IPS for signature and return (along with IPS's application fee).

Even then (assuming I haven't misread their T&Cs) it looks like you can get a refund less £8.

They are being very careful to make sure that they are legal and anyone that uses their service only has themselves to blame for spending money that they didn't need to.

Pollycat

gb12345 wrote: »

Assuming they completed the form correctly, the first they would have likely heard (apart from a possible email confirmation) would have been when a completed application form arrived from the IPS for signature and return (along with IPS's application fee).

And that's why I can't see how JuJuMonkey's bank could get her a refund based on 'goods not received' as UK-Passport.net would have completed their side of the transaction.

gb12345 wrote: »

Even then (assuming I haven't misread their T&Cs) it looks like you can get a refund less £8.

I don't think you have misread the T&Cs, it sounds pretty clear to me:

Cancellation/Refund Policy
You may cancel your application for our service at any time up until we have processed your application and completed our service.
If you cancel before we have processed your application, we will issue a full refund. If the application has been processed we will refund the full payment less a £8.00 administration fee
If you wish to exercise your right to cancel, please contact us in writing (email is best), supplying your name, address and the Order ID number that was emailed to you immediately after payment. Our contact details can be found HERE.

I think a lot of people who discover that they haven't actually paid IPS for a new passport (and feel they've been scammed or conned) just don't read the T&Cs. Instead they contact their bank, cancel their cards, threaten to contact the police :cool: or try all sorts of other methods to stop payment or get a refund.

If JuJuMonkey (and a lot of other posters on this thread) had bothered to read the T&Cs, it would all have been clear and very easily sorted out.

I can't see why people are complaining about the call costs either, the email adress is clearly shown - AND it says "In the first instance, please send us an email to: [EMAIL="sales@uk-passport.net"]sales@uk-passport.net[/EMAIL] "

Jeez, how much easier could it be?

gb12345 wrote: »

They are being very careful to make sure that they are legal and anyone that uses their service only has themselves to blame for spending money that they didn't need to.

Yes, they've even included a link direct to IPS headed "IPS website - no service fee" which should be more than enough to tell anyone that what they are paying to this company is a service fee.