Rock Law / ARB - Too late to get money back?

SimonG_UK

Hi all

I feel a bit foolish about this as we are normally so careful not to get caught out by scams, but a few weeks back after receiving a constant bombardment of voice mails from Rock Law saying we were due a PPI refund my wife eventually spoke with them - if anything to get them to stop calling us.

Unfortunately the person she spoke with did a very good job of convincing her that we were due back around £5k and she ended up paying them £495 in advance on a credit card and signed numerous online forms via the RightSignature.com service - this was on the 4th of June and it's now the 24th of June so we are outside of the cooling off period.

I've been distracted with work over the past few weeks so didn't look in to this as much as I should have and it was only last night I looked as the details and realised that a) they will also charge 36% of any refund on top of the £495 already paid which is a very high fee. On checking Rock Law out they do not appear to be a reputable company and I feel that we've been scammed, although probably not in a legal way due to my wife signing the online contracts.

Bearing in mind the fact that the 14 day cooling off period has passed do we stand any chance of cancelling their service and recovering the £495 that my wife paid as we really need this money at the moment?

I read an earlier post by someone saying that if we haven't actually signed something then nothing is binding, but I suspect the fact my wife signed numerous (4-5 I think) agreements using the RightSignature.com service I have a horrible feeling that this is binding.

Any advice would really be appreciated.
Many thanks

SG

SimonG_UK

If we're not able to get our £500 back would you suggest letting things run their course or cutting our losses?

Alpine_Star

Rock Law are under investigation by the Claims Management Regulator.


See here https://www.claimsregulation.gov.uk/details.aspx/30794


Did she pay the fee prior to signing a contract with them?

SimonG_UK

Thanks for the reply.

I assume that being investigated doesn't mean they can't continue to do business and won't give us justification for claiming the upfront fee back?

I'm not entirely sure but I think she may have made the payment prior to electronically signing the contracts but I'll check with her later.

I know it all happened very quickly and Rock Law were very keen to get it all done on the same day.

SimonG_UK

I've checked with my wife on this .....

She believes she gave Rock Law the credit card details prior to signing the forms, however, it sounds like Rock pressured her in to reading and signing the forms when still on the phone to them so I suspect they actually processed the payment after they saw the forms had been signed.

Any recommendations on how to proceed with this one?

-taff

See if these help

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5240215

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5074783

Alpine_Star

SimonG_UK wrote: »

I've checked with my wife on this .....

She believes she gave Rock Law the credit card details prior to signing the forms, however, it sounds like Rock pressured her in to reading and signing the forms when still on the phone to them so I suspect they actually processed the payment after they saw the forms had been signed.

Any recommendations on how to proceed with this one?

You should make a section 75 claim on the credit card for a refund of the fee based on breeches of contract. They broke several regulations which will be implied terms in any CMC contract, specifically:

Paragraph 2.3 (page 5) ''A business must not engage in high pressure selling''.

Paragraph 11 (page 6) ''A contract between a business and a client must be signed by the client and the business may not take any payment from the client until the contract is signed. The standard terms and conditions of any contract must be clear and also published prominently on the business’s website (where a business operates a website). The business must provide the client with the following information in writing or electronically before a contract is agreed.....''


See here
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/claims-management-regulation-conduct-of-authorised-person-rules-2014

SimonG_UK

Thanks Guys

I guess the issue here will be that they will argue that they did provide all information and get the agreement electronically signed before actually taking the money from the credit card - Admittedly, within just a few minutes.

Other than sending us the forms to sign which go the the various lenders I do not believe they have actually performed any work so I will drop them an email today asking them to cancel the services and refund the £500 and cite the various reasons mentioned here.

Wish me luck and thanks for your help and advice