Warning issued to motorists over copycat DVLA websites that charge a premium for services

MSE_Emily

Motorists have been warned by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) to avoid copycat websites that charge a premium for services you can get for free or at a much lower cost via official Government websites. Here's what to look out for and what to do if you've paid over the odds...
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'Warning issued to motorists over copycat DVLA websites that charge premium for services'
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TooManyPoints

There are cases of people being "scammed" in this way almost every day on here. In fact there is one on the go at the moment a few posts from yours, started by "skippy1995".

In almost every case the website is not "copycat" at all. It is totally different in appearance to the official DVLA site. Here's one:

Driving License Application (licenseassistance.uk)

It is nothing like the DVLA website (I've never known any ".GOV" site to show photographs on the opening page). As well as that their fees are shown in bold type and they also provide a link to the official DVLA site and make it quite clear they are an independent company.

[Deleted User]

Although there is a proliferation of companies offering the "service", most companies can be traced back to one address 20-22, Wenlock Road, London, England, N1 7GU. 

The impression is of a small team trying to fly under the radar for as long as possible to sustain a revenue stream that is probably richer than even they had dared hope for and, to this purpose, keeps changing its names and websites, and terms and conditions.

So, for example, in a previous guise, on 27th May, the licencesafe website stated You may terminate the Contract if you inform us in writing by sending us an email requesting termination to contact@licencesafe.co.uk (“Termination Email”) within 24 hours of the Commencement Date. Doing so will entitle you to a refund of the Quoted Price minus 10% of the Quoted Price (“RefundValue”), which we shall be entitled to keep to cover our administration costs in refunding you. We will attempt to transfer you the Refund Value to the same bank account from which you made Payment within 15 Business Days of the date of the Termination Email, however we reserve the right to take longer.

If your application is being processed by our services, we will therefore authorize a refund of 90% of the price

That whole website seems now to have been disabled and replaced with a hurried looking replacement.

But there should be a contact email sent by this company's customer services to each of its customers. The operation has had a policy of paying off those of its customers who complain. First offer is usually £20, then £30, then £40.

Top advice is obviously "look twice" before you commit to the service. A cursory glace at a review site shows how this operation's practices ride easy.

Pollycat

DVLA have taken their time.

There's a thread on Consumer Rights started in February - that runs to 16 pages.

And others.

Right at the beginning of that thread I posted:

Pollycat said:

I believe this was briefly mentioned by Martin Lewis in his programme last week.

IIRC, he said what these companies do isn't legally wrong but he felt it was morally wrong.

He mentioned all the other things that companies offer a 'value added' service for such as passports, EHIC etc.

The various websites mentioned all seem to be pretty clear and up-front about the fact they are not in any way affiliated to DVLA.

I'm really surprised so many people are being caught out.

It's not a new model either.

Many years ago, there were multiple threads about websites offering passport renewal.

These websites have Ad against them in a Google search.

Do people not understand what that means?

These companies pay Google to appear at the top of search results.

People should beware of any website that has Ad at the front of the search result.

Legitimate companies may also have Ad at the front of search results, obviously they have paid Google for the top spot.

In these cases, there is usually a link immediately below to the same website without Ad.

To be 100% sure, I always select the link without Ad. Even for companies like Tesco.

For anything remotely governmental - including stuff like licences, POA - I would always go to GOV.UK and use the search function on there rather than relying on Google, Bing etc.

Being caught out can be avoided.

zagfles

And report the ad, as advised in the article (there's a link).

They seem to be offering refunds, even if partial, so they're probably worried about going to court, not surprising really considering what happened to a similar passport site:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5185879/bbc-passport-website-sues-its-customers-richard-howard-britishpassportservices/p2

Pollycat

Although the author of the MSE article recommends reporting these ads, this article by the BBC shows Google doesn't always remove them even when they are reported.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-56886957

Some of the websites continued to appear in the adverts even after they were flagged to Google with its reporting tools.

I think people expect more of Google.

"Consumers trust Google. There is an expectation that what is happening on Google is legitimate," said Prof Wachter.

"If they know there are certain problems out there, they need to take more precautions."

[Deleted User]

Google are taking money from a "legitimate" firm who offer a paid for "service" which they freely declare and make people totally clear up front what they are paying for. If people are daft enough to ignore Ad or not use adblock software then they just need to learn what .gov.uk websites are

TooManyPoints

The problem is that people expect the government to protect them from everything - including their own lack of awareness or stupidity.

boobyd

DVLA have issued a warning, good, but why don't they go further?
Why not small redesign of there renewal paperwork,A "warning" at top of page.?to use gov.uk.( not sure if is on there or not) 
Anything,
But if people then can't be bothered to read a renewal form or a Web page, open a form and not read anything click OK to an amount 4x what is expected then what.
The companies at the moment are operating "within the law" 

Dbu

There are a lot of smug comments on here. The sites vary and there are many reasons why people fall for them. But the thing to do is to keep challenging them and to raise a complaint via your bank, normally after a week or so. They're sympathetic but you'll probably find that the shysters will have offered a full refund by then. They don't want their business model exposed. Don't be ashamed and don't give in.

Pollycat

Dbu said:

There are a lot of smug comments on here. The sites vary and there are many reasons why people fall for them. But the thing to do is to keep challenging them and to raise a complaint via your bank, normally after a week or so. They're sympathetic but you'll probably find that the shysters will have offered a full refund by then. They don't want their business model exposed. Don't be ashamed and don't give in.

Have you used one of these websites and been offered a full refund?

There are lots of threads on different boards (here, Praise, Vent and Warnings and Consumer Rights) about this DVLA thing and the highest refund I've read about is £40. That was increased to £40 from the initial offer of £20, then £30.

£40 was not a full refund of the amount paid.