Booked sons driving theory test with a booking agent cost me double

lesleykarron

Been caught out today, went to book my sons theory test using google and what I thought was the DVLA's site, wasn;t until I spoke to my son I found out the cost for the test is £31 booking direct charged me £62. Can't find a phone number to ring them and the receipt came through as paid via paypal when I clicked to pay by credit card so don't even think my bank will cover me . So cross with myself . Others be warned make sure you book via the DVLA's official site:mad:

securityguy

If you are googling for anything to do with the UK government, put "site:.gov.uk" on the end of the query. Then you only get results from gov.uk domains.

Antispam

There are plenty of these sites that prey on peoples mistakes unfortunately well worth checking out a site before you commit or as said above.

Kite2010

Make a cheeky claim via Paypal.

You never know you might get your money back

Pollycat

As Antispam says, there are lots of websites for all sorts of things (EHIC, passport renewal etc) that either charge a premium on top of the fee or charge a fee for a free service.

Some actually state quite clearly that you can get it cheaper from the official source.

You just have to be careful before you pay.

Not sure which site you used but a couple that I looked at offered free retests in the event of a fail so you might get your moneysworth in the end.

mattyprice4004

Put your glasses on next time - every site I can see offering this service make it clear they're nothing to do with the DVLA.

DCFC79

Why do people get caught out, how can you think a site "was the DVLA's site " if the site address doesn't contain dvla after the www.

rocklobster_2

DNS (website address) is registered to:

E-Marketing Services FZ LLE
Fujairah
PO 4422
United Arab Emirates

so I suspect you are out of luck. To be honest, it does seem to make it relatively clear it is not the official site.

If you fail (apart from hazard perception bit) then they will book you a "free" test (presumably costing them the other 31 quid of yours they now have).

In fact, once their paypal fees are taken a fail and rebook (assuming that's true and they honour that) would leave them with a small loss. Bet failing is pretty rare - I don't know anyone how has...

DCFC79

rocklobster

I dont think anyone especially the OP has mentioned a particular site.

fluffnutter

The real scandal is that Google continues to make money out of these barely legal sites knowing full well that they offer services that can often be found for free for grossly inflated prices.

And I thought its motto was 'Don't be evil'...

buglawton

Easy matter to make a reclaim from Paypal or the Card issuer. These payment providers ban such "sellers".