Atruchecks testing scam?

Pollycat

goingpostal said:

Yes, it has been approved. Also written about in the Parliamentary review.
Worth noting that the other company called Atrumed owned by the the same person has been issued with a Compulsory strike off in the last 24 hours.

Appearing on a list of companies on GOV.UK does not make it approved.

Especially when GOV.UK says:

The government does not endorse or recommend any specific test provider - you should do your own research about them and their terms and conditions.

Where does it say that the government approves Atruchecks?

CKhalvashi

goingpostal said:

If the Government has decided to approve a company and lists them on their site then they hold responsibility. End of. There are hundreds and hundreds of people frantically trying to get their results of refunds STILL as of today. And the company still has not been taken off the site. The scam goes on and is being completely ignored. Most of us are reporting them to ActionFraud. I think we really need a high profile media source to shout about this.

How should they?

The government explicitly states they don't endorse any company listed so is technically doing nothing more than acting as a marketing agent for companies that meet their basic requirements. 

JanetHazel

CKhalvashi said:

goingpostal said:

If the Government has decided to approve a company and lists them on their site then they hold responsibility. End of. There are hundreds and hundreds of people frantically trying to get their results of refunds STILL as of today. And the company still has not been taken off the site. The scam goes on and is being completely ignored. Most of us are reporting them to ActionFraud. I think we really need a high profile media source to shout about this.

How should they?

The government explicitly states they don't endorse any company listed so is technically doing nothing more than acting as a marketing agent for companies that meet their basic requirements. 

And therein you have it. It is quite clear that the company don't meet the basic requirements. Pollycat can keep repeating the same post over and over again but, anyone who has any knowledge of the law will argue that there is an implied pointer to this company on the gov website and they should be removed from it forthwith.
As for their threats to take legal action against anyone calling it a scam, given the amount of people who have (at present) lost money, the High Court would immediately deem it a fair comment. 
Their assertion that they do respond to emails is a lie, I have sent them 4 emails now with no response. My credit card company  already have numerous disputes. 

Pollycat

JanetHazel said:

CKhalvashi said:

goingpostal said:

If the Government has decided to approve a company and lists them on their site then they hold responsibility. End of. There are hundreds and hundreds of people frantically trying to get their results of refunds STILL as of today. And the company still has not been taken off the site. The scam goes on and is being completely ignored. Most of us are reporting them to ActionFraud. I think we really need a high profile media source to shout about this.

How should they?

The government explicitly states they don't endorse any company listed so is technically doing nothing more than acting as a marketing agent for companies that meet their basic requirements. 

And therein you have it. It is quite clear that the company don't meet the basic requirements. Pollycat can keep repeating the same post over and over again but, anyone who has any knowledge of the law will argue that there is an implied pointer to this company on the gov website and they should be removed from it forthwith.
As for their threats to take legal action against anyone calling it a scam, given the amount of people who have (at present) lost money, the High Court would immediately deem it a fair comment. 
Their assertion that they do respond to emails is a lie, I have sent them 4 emails now with no response. My credit card company  already have numerous disputes. 

Why aren't GOV.UK listening to you (and all the other people who have been let down by this company) about this 'implied pointer to this company' and why aren't they removing the company from the list on the website? Especially as ActionFraud are involved.

Have you considered bringing this to the attention of your MP?

That applies to langmad, goingpostal and CephalopodBC too.

I think that is what I would do.

It would be great if all the posters having issues with this company (and any others offering similar services) would come back to the thread and update how their own situation has been resolved.

That would be very helpful for anyone needing to book a test.

CKhalvashi

JanetHazel said:

CKhalvashi said:

goingpostal said:

If the Government has decided to approve a company and lists them on their site then they hold responsibility. End of. There are hundreds and hundreds of people frantically trying to get their results of refunds STILL as of today. And the company still has not been taken off the site. The scam goes on and is being completely ignored. Most of us are reporting them to ActionFraud. I think we really need a high profile media source to shout about this.

How should they?

The government explicitly states they don't endorse any company listed so is technically doing nothing more than acting as a marketing agent for companies that meet their basic requirements. 

And therein you have it. It is quite clear that the company don't meet the basic requirements. Pollycat can keep repeating the same post over and over again but, anyone who has any knowledge of the law will argue that there is an implied pointer to this company on the gov website and they should be removed from it forthwith.
As for their threats to take legal action against anyone calling it a scam, given the amount of people who have (at present) lost money, the High Court would immediately deem it a fair comment. 
Their assertion that they do respond to emails is a lie, I have sent them 4 emails now with no response. My credit card company  already have numerous disputes. 

As someone who has a variety of business interests, I would cease (and have ceased in the past) any business relationship with any company that has either moved to mislead or is consistently not meeting targets, despite there being no legal obligation to do so.

In this case, you will need to ask the government why they are still acting as a marketing partner for this company and haven't revoked their license in this case. I do not speak for the government, I cannot answer this.

As for calling it a scam, if they provide (albeit late) what the are claiming to provide, this is a licensing issue and I can see quite clearly why they are threatening legal action. I'm betting this issue is caused by a lack of forward planning rather than any intention to deny consumers the products and services they have paid for.

Also bear in mind that many consumers are more willing to complain than leave positive feedback, so this will need to be taken into account in the overall situation.

eskbanker

Perhaps worth noting that it rarely ends well when posters on this forum repeatedly assert that a company is operating a scam (as opposed to factual or fair comment about poor service, etc), in that the hint of legal action (or just correspondence) from such companies will often result in MSE choosing to delete posts or even entire threads, so enjoy this while you can....

CKhalvashi

eskbanker said:

Perhaps worth noting that it rarely ends well when posters on this forum repeatedly assert that a company is operating a scam (as opposed to factual or fair comment about poor service, etc), in that the hint of legal action (or just correspondence) from such companies will often result in MSE choosing to delete posts or even entire threads, so enjoy this while you can....

Agree, I suspect this will be heavily re-worded or taken down very soon.

goingpostal

I can tell you how my Partner's experience has been resolved.
One week after he should have received her 5-day early test result, she has received no result.
He had to wait out the 10 days and lost the earnings from work.
It was not even a holiday but the death of a family member that caused the travel (before the certain set of righteous people pass judgement)
And all he has received is a threatening email from them despite the fact she has not written the word "scam" on Trustpilot.
Now they ignore all emails requesting a refund.
Disgusting behaviour displaying all the habits of a scam company so not really caring about their or your excuses for them.

CephalopodBC

My issue with them was resolved by informing NHS Track and Trace who sent replacement tests as Atruchecks were completely unresponsive. My credit card company also issued me with a refund on the grounds of customer fraud given that that Day 2 came and went and they did not provide the tests nor respond to calls and emails. 
We can quibble over technicalities of “government approved” but implicitly the government has endorsed Atruchecks: the gov.uk website is non-exhaustive. There are test providers not on it (including those close to where I live but as they are not listed on gov.uk, I decided to use one that was, unfortunately). Listing some firms on the site and others not is de facto endorsement.
As for the government’s little warning that everyone is responsible for their own due diligence, there are 120+ providers listed on gov.uk. It is unreasonable to expect people to look into that many providers - particularly those who might be older and lack the technology or language skills to do so. So fine, HMG can cover their backside against legal challenges with a bit of wording, but in practice most will assume, as I did, that listing on gov.uk means there is a reasonable minimum standard of delivery.
Lastly, if you look at Atrucheck’s Trustpilot page, the 1 star reviews keep rolling in - there are circa 500 in the past week with the same story. Therefore, Atruchecks continues to take customers’ money knowing full well they cannot deliver and they refuse to provide refunds - actually they don’t even respond to customers at all. How is that not fraud? Why would we not at least consider the possibility of fraud or a scam here? 

CephalopodBC

And yes, I have brought this to my MP’s attention.