Claiming refund from DVLA impersonator

TTM

You are correct.  However to a 16 year old who’s never visited the official DVLA site, I can understand how this can happen.  It obviously catches out many more experienced people too, by design. 

Pollycat

TELLIT01 said:

As long as their site doesn't seek to impersonate an 'official' site e.g. gov.uk or HMRC, I don't think they are actually acting illegally.  I have found this site https://licenseassistance.uk/ which I suspect is similar to the one your daughter used.

TTM said:

There are lots of these sites.  Everything I’ve read so far says they are not illegal, but operate on the edge.
I’m hoping there’s something in consumer law that might help - for example isn’t there supposed to be a 14 day cooling off period for online transactions?

Even Martin Lewis says they are not illegal:

"They are not scams, they're shysters," said Martin Lewis, founder of the website Money Saving Expert.

"They're not stealing your money, they're charging you a fee for something that is completely pointless."

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

mr_stripey

TTM said:

You are correct.  However to a 16 year old who’s never visited the official DVLA site, I can understand how this can happen.  It obviously catches out many more experienced people too, by design. 

It does. It "nearly" caught me out when I renewed my license but I did smell a rat just in time. 

I suspect, as frustrating at it is, that you will just have to chalk this down to experience.

user1977

I know we've had threads about similar sites and people have managed to get at least partial refunds (not necessarily proving they're entitled to them, but presumably the operators think it ought to be enough to make the complaints go away).

At least ensure you haven't signed up to a continuing authority for some sort of annual subscription to their "service".

Pollycat

user1977 said:

I know we've had threads about similar sites and people have managed to get at least partial refunds (not necessarily proving they're entitled to them, but presumably the operators think it ought to be enough to make the complaints go away).

At least ensure you haven't signed up to a continuing authority for some sort of annual subscription to their "service".

Very good advice.

From what the OP says in the first post:

Note that, under no circumstances, our company is affiliated with the government or working on its behalf. Therefore, we charge a service fee of £81 for one full year.”