British Passport Services scam

beatt

Hi,


I was looking at getting my daughter a passport and noticed on the governments website you can do it with a fast track 1- week. I typed in fast track 1- week into Google and came across a site called 'ukpassportoffices.co.uk'- bare in mind I know very little about passport stuff, having only used mine once on 30 years. I filled in a form on the Sunday night at 9.00pm. I then received an email to say they would contact me for payment in the morning. I got a call at 9.00am and they said I need to pay £117, I did not realise it would cost that much, and said to the lady on the phone I would like to cancel straight away- I thought this would be ok because no work could have possibly been done through the night. The lady on the phone said 'ok I will send you a cancellation email'. I did not receive a cancellation email but an email 1hour 30mins later stating my appointment with the passport office had been booked. This company went ahead and booked my appointment hours after I said I would like it cancelled. On the email it stated I could cancel the appointment over phone and type in my order number. I then received an email stating all the work had been carried out and I owe then £117. They have also sent me a letter demanding the money or further action will be taken. There is basically no way of cancelling your order with these people even if it's impossible for them to have done any work
Thanks

glentoran99

https://www.gov.uk/get-a-passport-urgently

Just re-read the site you posted, I thought they were including the passport fee, they arent!!

definitely a scam site. but not sure what you can do as fees are mentioned on the site

beatt

Hi Glen.


The £117 is their fee for phoning the passport office up. The £89 for the passport is on top of that, which the government charge me. This why I cancelled straight away

glentoran99

We operate a 24hr operation and so the commencement of the Service is begun upon submission of the form therefore there is no option to cancel under the Distance Selling 2000 regulations thus no cooling off period. Passport fee’s range from £46 to £128 and are paid directly to the Passport Office not ourselves who are a third party.

not sure thats legal

beatt

The main problem I have is they started the work after I said I would not pay the fee

glentoran99

beatt wrote: »

The main problem I have is they started the work after I said I would not pay the fee

Problem you would have unfortunately is proving it though

beatt

glentoran99 wrote: »

not sure thats legal

I feel there is no way they could have done any work from when I filled in the form at 9.00pm and they phoned me at 9.00am for payment the next day. All they are really doing is phone the passport office up, again all these things I did not realise and I should have looked into more.

glentoran99

have they already charged your card or how does it work?

beatt

glentoran99 wrote: »

have they already charged your card or how does it work?

No they don't not have any payment details. You fill a form in then they ring your for payment, if you don't pay-they say they have started the work anyway- so there really is no way of cancelling - once you fill the form in your screwed basically.

glentoran99

beatt wrote: »

No they don't not have any payment details. You fill a form in then they ring your for payment, if you don't pay-they say they have started the work anyway- so there really is no way of cancelling - once you fill the form in your screwed basically.

Couple of approaches I would take,

Either tell them to run and jump you told them to cancel

Or deny all knowledge and completley ignore letters or phonecalls from them. "What internet form?" because quite simply whats to stop me filling in someone elses details and they will then 'start work'

thats just what i would do though.

You should however contact your local CAB, and they can advise properly, i certainly wouldnt be paying them any money

glentoran99

I just went through an application and at the end they ask for card details, so if they havent got yours then you havent fully completed an appplication and they can run and jump