UK-passport.net

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goater78 wrote: »

7.09pm? The lads were still playing at that time! You should be ashamed to offer consumer advice while the match is still going on!

Haha, game was well and truly over by then. I have a silly ritual when City are playing and I'm at home, I always have MSE open as it seems to bring us luck.

Perrywright

Hello all, I usually only read forums when I am not sure about something, however on reading the posts above I felt obliged to join and leave a post. I agree the website title when choosing to enter the site is misleading, I only realised 5 mins after paying when I did not receive a confirmation email or reference number that it was not the official site. I contacted them immediately and did not receive a response , however tonight I contacted them again and I and my wife received confirmation that a our details have been removed, any money will be refunded. This is a lesson to read the small print !!

wantmemoney

Perrywright wrote:

This is a lesson to read the small print !!

yes but the problem is some of the 'small print' is hidden (below the CONTINUE button and below scroll line)
or
misleading and clearly designed to dupe the reader into believing uk-passport.net is somehow connected to the IPS. ('If you do not have these details, please contact our Passport Adviceline on 0300 222 0000 before you start.')

http://www.uk-passport.net/ is a rip-off and waste of money.

Pollycat

wantmemoney wrote: »

yes but the problem is some of the 'small print' is hidden (below the CONTINUE button and below scroll line)
or
misleading and clearly designed to dupe the reader into believing uk-passport.net is somehow connected to the IPS. ('If you do not have these details, please contact our Passport Adviceline on 0300 222 0000 before you start.')

http://www.uk-passport.net/ is a rip-off and waste of money.

wantmemoney
you misunderstand (I believe) what Perrywright is saying:

Perrywright wrote: »

Hello all, I usually only read forums when I am not sure about something, however on reading the posts above I felt obliged to join and leave a post. I agree the website title when choosing to enter the site is misleading, I only realised 5 mins after paying when I did not receive a confirmation email or reference number that it was not the official site. I contacted them immediately and did not receive a response , however tonight I contacted them again and I and my wife received confirmation that a our details have been removed, any money will be refunded. This is a lesson to read the small print !!

Perrywright paid then realised his error.

But, unlike some of the people posting on this thread, instead of contacting his bank, credit card company or Hi-pay (the company who process the payment) - and anyone else who they think will be interested - Perrywright followed the correct process and cancelled the transaction before it was too late and got his money back.

I'm not defending this company in what you call scamming (my opinion is it is sharp practice - which a different thing altogether), just pointing out that even if you do 'fall for it', there is still a way to get your mony back - if you bother to read the website.

Perrywright, well done on getting the refund.

wantmemoney

Pollycat wrote:

wantmemoney
you misunderstand (I believe) what Perrywright is saying:

why the hell would I misunderstand 'This is a lesson to read the small print !!'

The fact is if you read the 'small print' uk-passport.net appears to be passing itself off as connected to the IPS.

http://www.uk-passport.net/ is a rip-off, a waste of money and very misleading....and although it may be I have never described it as a scam (it really isn't that clever).

and why does Pollycat appear to have such a habitual desire of wanting 'forum posters' to accept the blame for when they believe they have been mislead.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/59915215#Comment_59915215

Pollycat

wantmemoney wrote: »

why the hell would I misunderstand 'This is a lesson to read the small print !!'

The fact is if you read the 'small print' uk-passport.net appears to be passing itself off as connected to the IPS.

http://www.uk-passport.net/ is a rip-off, a waste of money and very misleading....and although it may be I have never described it as a scam (it really isn't that clever).

OK, maybe I misread Perrywright's post - but the fact remains that however much a scam, con or rip-off you believe this to be, it is possible to get your money back if you follow the intructions on the website. But from some of the comments on this thread it's patently obvious that a lot of people don't do that - which is what got them into the mess in the first place.

wantmemoney wrote: »

and why does Pollycat appear to have such a habitual desire of wanting 'forum posters' to accept the blame for when they believe they have been mislead.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/59915215#Comment_59915215

Because Pollycat believes in personal accountability. If you make a mistake yourself, hold your hand up and admit it, don't bleat about it and blame all and sundry.
Or, in other words, accept the blame that you made a mistake as opposed to being mislead.

If you read the Amazon Prime thread, you will realise that (with the exception of a few people who bought kindles around Xmas who do seem to have been signed up to Prime without asking - imho that's shocking) most people have to physically tick to accept the Prime trial.
i know because I've trialed Prime then cancelled within the month.

Because Pollycat believes anyone who is sat in front of a PC with a credit card in their hand should be very, very careful about who they are giving their financial details to.

It's not just passports and Amazon Prime, I've commented on threads about the websites that charge for EHIC which are free and for booking driving tests.

Maybe I just don't suffer fools gladly (or at all).

If you're so upset about this particular website passing itself off as connected to IPS - have you reported them to Trading Standards?

Now that would probably be more effective than posting on here.

tottielimejuice

I too completed an online form with passport.net - It is cleverly set up to make you think you are doing the right thing. The printed out passport form comes with a covering letter that has the same logo (practically) as the real passport office - the letter also gives out the real passport offices website details in case you have any problems - - It is basically misleading - when you go into it via google it takes you straight to the application page where there is no warning or information that this is just a service you are paying for and not a passport. You can of course find that information out but only if you click on the other links - (and why would you want to do that?) - I only realised my mistake when I received a letter back from the passport office saying the passport couldn't be processed because I hadn't paid :eek:- I rang them up to see what was going on and immediately they told me what I must have done and also that it 'happens all the time' - I looked into the site in a lot more detail after that and then contacted the company and politely said that I had used their online form in good faith thinking I was actually buying a passport - I also queried the use of the official logo and said that I thought it was very misleading. It didn't take long for them to answer - they said they would cancel to order and give me a full refund - that was only yesterday but hopefully it will show up on my next statement. They're not doing anything illegal - but I feel it is definately set up via google in a way that is misleading. Just be careful! Lesson learned - can't believe I was so stupid.::(

Pollycat

tottielimejuice wrote: »

I only realised my mistake when I received a letter back from the passport office saying the passport couldn't be processed because I hadn't paid :eek:- I rang them up to see what was going on and immediately they told me what I must have done and also that it 'happens all the time'

So what did the Passport Office say they were doing to stop this?

Why aren't they lobbying to get this website blocked?

tottielimejuice wrote: »

I looked into the site in a lot more detail after that and then contacted the company and politely said that I had used their online form in good faith thinking I was actually buying a passport - I also queried the use of the official logo and said that I thought it was very misleading. It didn't take long for them to answer - they said they would cancel to order and give me a full refund - that was only yesterday but hopefully it will show up on my next statement.

It seems that they do refund money so you should be fine.

Why not contact Trading Standards about this company using the offical logo and the fact that they refer to 'our passport helpline' and give out the official passport office telephone number on their website?

Dr-Al

Thank goodness for this thread.

I was 'caught' out by this. I honestly thought that I was applying directly for the passport. I am also (normally) very careful about checking websites before I use them but it was not until after I had paid that I realised that this was just a checking service.

I followed the advice from one of the posters and contacted them immediately and I received the following message within minutes:

Dear Sir/Madam

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
From our database.

Thank you

Regards

uk-passport. net

So, lesson learned but I would like to point out that the company do seem to be legitimate in that they agrred to a refund with little effort having to be expended on my part. Having said that, watch out for another post correcting this if the said refund fails to materialise!

loudwaterboy

I wish I had read these posts before attempting to renew our passports online!

I cant believe I didn't read the site at all...just followed the links...filled in my details...paid the money...two payments of £32.50...(£65.00)
The penny didn't drop until I received a letter back from the Identity and passport service, requesting a further payment of £72.50 each!

Why is this site still operating? No one would intentionally pay £32.50 to have a form filled in! This is just a cleverly designed site to take money from the unsuspecting!

I will definitely read every detail the next time I attempt to visit an official website!