Call prevention sale

KSL

I have just received a call from 'a call prevention service' claiming that I agreed a five year contract with them last year to stop calls and that as their service had not been successful they were sending me a box and stopping payments for the remaining four years. I had no recollection of taking out any contract but it is not impossible that I did as we were having a lot of problems with unwanted calls a year ago.
They had part of my debit card number and wanted me to confirm the rest in order to stop future payments. Stupidly I gave them the rest of the number.
I then received a call from the manager to confirm. I told him that I did not want a box (we have tried them unsuccessfully) and he referred me back to the salesman who then became rude telling me that if I did not have the box then he would charge me for the remainder of the contract (ie 4 more years) and that £89.99 would be taken out of my account each year. He said it was my fault for 'not listening' and that I 'obviously was unable to understand'. He refused to send me any paper work as 'I already had it' and said that he had the original conversation on tape which counted as confirmation of the contract, however he refused to send any copy of this.
I suppose that I should have just taken the box and thrown it out but I put the phone down. He then rang back to say that he had just taken the money from the account for the next years 'service', that as I had agreed a contract I could do nothing to stop it. I was shaken by this time and gain put the phone down.
I am stopping all payments to this company from my account from now on (StopCall Ltd) but would like to know if anyone has encountered this before and if I am in any way legally obliged to pay. Also if this money does go out of my account (nothing so far) is there any way of getting it back.
Hope this is clear, thanks.

wealdroam

KSL wrote: »

Also if this money does go out of my account (nothing so far) is there any way of getting it back.
Hope this is clear, thanks.

Speak to your bank... now, before any money goes out.

KSL

Thanks, I have spoken to the bank, stopped any payments and stopped the card. No payments had been taken. It is all very odd, they seem to have spent lot of time, effort and abuse(!) to get a card number and then not used it. Not that I am complaining about that.

DevCoder

Make sure with the bank that they haven't setup a Continuous Payment Authority instead, if so cancel this under section 55(3)(4).

Even if they haven't used it then the could still use your details (visa make payments after card changes possible as the "link" cards) and be devious in their use of their "evidence" of you agreeing. In which case any chargeback you might initiate might be refused by the bank, so Id just write down summary of the events and any proof you have of refusing this contract so you have something to hand to show the bank if this is indeed needed.

hollydays

It's incredibly common, lots of threads on it, see for example-

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4771947

brightonman123

there are genuine 'call blocker' boxes for sale (@ Robert dyas, £40 ish?), which only work if you have caller display on your phone line, and the caller's number is not being withheld.


contact your phone provider, they may be able to setup bar on calls from blocked numbers - monthly fee possible - though some modern phones have this feature built in!

hollydays

http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/news1.html

hollydays

For google searches

From tps website-

Bogus TPS Calls
Unregulated commercial suppression services, those making exaggerated claims and those operating fraudulently are not limited to the companies listed below.

It has come to our attention that some of these companies continually change their names.

The names of some of these organisations, given to us by consumers are:

Alien Touch
SAIS Corp Ltd
Icon Global Services
IG Services
ITC
Biztek (or Bisdek) Telecomms
Consumer Advice Bureau

- our advice is NOT to pay them.

Beware of Unregulated Companies Charging For Their Service!


There are other companies that are not necessarily scams but they are not TPS. They usually claim to offer a similar or even an enhanced service to TPS.

They make exaggerated claims about the effectiveness of their service and may even suggest that TPS does not work.

Some of these companies are listed below:

CPR Global (previously known as the Call Prevention Registry)
http://www.callpreventionregistry.co.uk

Opt Out UK
http://www.optoutuk.com/index.asp

Anti Marketing Group
http://www.nomoremarketing.co.uk

The Advertising Protection Agency (TAPA)
https://www.theadvertisingprotectionagency.co.uk

Stop Unwanted Calls
http://www.stopunwantedcalls.net

No More Marketing
http://www.nomoremarketing.co.uk

The Nuisance Call Registry
http://www.nuisancecallregistry.co.uk/

IPC Intelligent Protection For Consumers
http://www.davisonandson.co.uk/#

Call Prevention Service
http://www.callregister.co.uk/

TPS-Register.org.uk
http://tpsregister.org.uk/

Secure Telephone Service
http://securetelephoneservice.co.uk/

AKA Silver Linings
https://www.silverliningscps.co.uk/

Stop Comm
https://www.stopcomm.com

Stop Box
http://stop-box.co.uk/

Telephone Restriction Services
https://www.telephonerestriction.co.uk

Telephone Blocking Services
https://www.telephoneblockingservices.co.uk

Call Blocking Services (CBS)
http://www.callblockingservice.co.uk/terms.html

Cold Call Registry
https://www.coldcallregistry.co.uk

Telephone Preferencing Company (TPC)
https://www.thetelephonepreferencing.com

The Nuisance Prevention Service
AKA . Nuisance prevention Agency
AKA . Nuisance 2 Aware
http://www.nuisance-prevention.co.uk

Home Guard Direct Data Security
http://homeguarddirect.co.uk/

Cold Call Elimination Team
http://www.coldcallelimination.co.uk

Telecom Preference Service

Stop These Calls
http://stopthesecalls.co.uk/

Telephone Preference Blocking Service


Call Prevention Service ********(OP see this*********

Call Blocking Registry

Telecom Protection Service
All of the above are commercial organisations, all of which charge consumers for a service that is unregulated, some make it clear that they charge whilst others don't and
If you have any information on these types of companies (phone number, web address), please send details to tps@dma.org.uk