Am I covered under the right to cancel for this purchase?

hearts

I was having to renew my Passport and was told to do it on the Internet. I didn''t realise there were scam sites doing this. I tyepd it into Google and thought I had reached the official Government site.
I filled in the form and paid £69 at the end. I was later informed by my partner that this wasn't the official site and I had been scammed. This was the next day. I immediately went back onto the site and emailed them to cancel, I also phoned them and left a message.

This is the site. It does explain it's not the Governments site but I didn't notice this when purchasing. This site can only exist to catch the unwary as it does nothing that you cant do yourself easily.

https://www.passport-uk.co.uk/Default.aspx?gclid=CO7Ay76V2bsCFWTlwgoduSkAQw

Anyway I don't want these people to get away with stealing my money. Is there anything I can do?
I will quite happily take them to Small Claims if it comes to it. I just need to know if by cancelling within a reasonable time I am covered by law.

bladerunner73

Hi Hearts, unfortunately I don't know where you stand on this one - was going to suggest you might find some knowledgable folk in the consumer rights forum though.

ktk

Not sure why you have posted this on Grabbit. If you have paid via your bank, cancel the transaction straight away.

rellarips

(This needs moving off Grabbit).

I don't think they're a 'scam' site. They complete the application on your behalf, but that £69 has paid them and not the passport office which will then be a further £72.50. It's made clear on the front page that they apply for the passport for you, but I personally think that at first read it is a little misleading; it isn't made totally transparent on the front page that you are paying them a fee and then another fee to the HM Passport Office. They haven't clearly stated their own fee is a separate fee to those you will later pay when you look at that first page, and this is how they possibly misled you. It's been very cleverly written, that main page. Also, the fees are so similar that you could be misled into thinking that you are actually paying for your actual passport application, and not an independent application service, at the time. It takes a little clicking and reading around to get the full picture, and not everyone does that. Of course, they have supplied all the information on the website and that would be their counterargument.

You perhaps know that now, so that doesn't help you much, and someone is bound to come along and criticise you for not looking more closely. As if you won't be beating yourself up about it anyway, so such comments aren't too kind or helpful. Just remember, we all do something daft sometime, and at least you're brave enough to own up and ask for advice, something those ready to criticise you often aren't so willing to do

If you feel deceived in anyway (which it seems you have been being since you thought this was an actual application for a passport), then they have been very clever in exercising their own rights:

https://www.passport-uk.co.uk/TermsOfService.aspx

10
d. You have the right to cancel your order for services within a statutory 7 working day cooling-off period except where the provision of such services commences within the cooling-off period. In these circumstances your right to cancel under this provision shall end as the said service will have deemed to have been provided.
e. If you are contracting as a consumer, you may have a statutory right to cancel a Contract at any time within seven working days of making your order under the Distance Selling Regulations. However, due to the nature of the Service which we provide, we will begin to provide the Service to you much before the end of this seven working day period.
f. By making your order with us and completing the Application form you are therefore providing your authority to us to begin providing our service straight away which means that you will not have the right to cancel your contract with us once you have made your order.
g. You will not be entitled to any refund of the money you have paid to us in accordance with condition ‘f’ unless we have been unable to deliver the Service to you, in which case we may refund all or part of the money paid at our absolute discretion.

I would think that they have made their service pretty watertight against people cancelling. All I can suggest is that you contact what was Consumer Direct, now run by Citizens Advice -

consumer helpline on 08454 04 05 06.

They will advise you best on whether there is anything at all you can do, or they can do on your behalf. I wouldn't hold out too much hope but you never know, this company may have a stack of complaints against them already. There are a lot of vulnerable people out there who fall for these types of sites all the time. People do need protecting, and websites like this need to be totally transparent from the opening page.

If there are enough complaints, they may be able to force the company to make their service and fees more transparent on that all-important front page in the future, and prevent other people making the same mistake. I know that doesn't help you much, but it's only when people speak out that action can be taken to ensure that others aren't duped. As I said, remember what other people may offer up as advice, telling you that you should have looked more clearly and saying it's your own fault blah blah blah, making you feel a real dope... I know people who would have done exactly what you did - it's too easily done! Don't let their comments bother you.

Good luck, hope you get some sort of result or at least clarity on your rights with Citz. Adv. x

sayahu

These sites where mentioned on bbc's watchdog maybe they have info. on trying to get your money back also?

redfox

moved to the right board now.

Tealblue

Bit harsh to call this a scam site and say it has stolen your money. The following paragraph appears not once but TWICE on the home page:

Our services are not in any way affiliated with any UK Government body including HM Passport Office. We provide a reviewing and submitting service for all UK passport applications charging a service processing fee. You can apply autonomously to HM Passport Office , avoiding costs for checking and processing, by logging on to their authorised website. Please read our Terms and Conditions before using our website and services.

Money-Saving-King

hearts wrote: »

I will quite happily take them to Small Claims if it comes to it.

Well what have they done wrong by the law? If it's nothing you won't win.

Doc_N

Better write it off to experience. They've provided a service, and the fact that nobody actually needs that service is unfortunately irrelevant.

Sites like this are common (there's another one that looks like a HMRC website but charges you to submit an online self assessment) and they almost always appear at the top of the search page in the lightly shaded part - greedy, grasping tax avoiders Google are to blame for allowing them to be in such a prominent position so that they catch people.

Middlestitch

hearts wrote: »

I was having to renew my Passport and was told to do it on the Internet. I didn''t realise there were scam sites doing this. I tyepd it into Google and thought I had reached the official Government site.
I filled in the form and paid £69 at the end. I was later informed by my partner that this wasn't the official site and I had been scammed. This was the next day. I immediately went back onto the site and emailed them to cancel, I also phoned them and left a message.

This is the site. It does explain it's not the Governments site but I didn't notice this when purchasing. This site can only exist to catch the unwary as it does nothing that you cant do yourself easily.

https://www.passport-uk.co.uk/Default.aspx?gclid=CO7Ay76V2bsCFWTlwgoduSkAQw

Anyway I don't want these people to get away with stealing my money. Is there anything I can do?
I will quite happily take them to Small Claims if it comes to it. I just need to know if by cancelling within a reasonable time I am covered by law.

You would have had to start the process on the home page. There is a very clear tabulated summary of what this site provides ("our service")/the cost of £69 set out alongside a comparison of what HMPO does, which has the word 'free' shown clearly i.e. not just in tiny type!

It's hard to see how much clearer the site could have made it - and as for going the Small Claims route...on what possible grounds?

whitegoods_engineer

Another scamming website I'm afraid. They employ the same tactics that the other similar sites do for health cards, driving licences etc.

Notice how the first thing you see is "Apply Now". The idea is that you land on this homepage from Google, then click on the Apply button.

Most people simply won't scroll down to find that these are bogus, and simply attempting to deceive the visitor into believing they are on an official website.

They hide behind the fact that they stay within the law, but everybody can see what their intention is.

I have an idea for legislation to be brought in to deal with these cowboys.

They should be required to present a page linking them to the official free Government website, and a large-print notice, before entering their site saying that they are basically asking for money to 'check' your application. The page should make it absolutely clear that this 'service' is unneccessary in the majority of cases, and that the Post office can provide application checking for a fraction of the cost.

This is a scam, a sign of Rip-off Britain.

Make sure you tell as many people as possible and these firms can be driven out of 'business'