HomeGuard - Anthony Mann Ltd

MaxBrown_2

Hi All,
Has anyone had any dealings with a company called HomeGuard - a trading name of Anthony Mann Ltd?
We discovered a direct debit on my elderly grandmother's account which related to them - the bank shouldn't have authorised this without our consent but that's a different matter. My grandmother indicated that HomeGuard had phoned her offering their services and that she had agreed over the phone to an account with them. Their service was - for £10.20 a month - to provide on he phone support during a 4 hour per day window; should she have an issue with her washing machine breaking down, if they were unable to resolve the issue over the phone then they would put her in touch with a repair peson who would visit at a cost to be agreed with her; however, she had to pay for th 12 months first in order for the service to be valid. She thought that she had got insurance for the washing machine. We cancelled the DD and I tried to speak to HomeGuard to find out what was going on, but had no success. She then got a call from them threatening legal action for cancelling the DD.
I complained to them, and cc'd in some consumer rights groups; but this was ignored. I called and was given very short shrift from them saying that I had no right to challenge them, was clearly a malicious journalist (I'm not) and that they were not willing to engage in any discussion. I asked if my grandmother could make a subject access request to establish where they got her contact details from - they say they don't cold call - and was told that they would refuse a SAR on the basis that I was malicious.
My grandmother made a SAR and they ignored it. I raised concern that they had indicated they would ignore it in advance with ICO who issued them a letter advising to reconsider. Today they sent a rambling email accusing me of making unfounded and maliscious allegations against them, failing to address any of the points I had raised in my complaint and also failing to acknowledge that it was my grandmother not myself who submitted the SAR.
Just wondering if anyone else has experienced similar, or if I am unlucky.

ladams888

Hi Max, Did you ever resolve the problem with your Grandmother’s payments to Homeguard? I have a near identical issue with my elderly cousin’s Direct Debit payments to the same company. I’ve done a bit of research and am pretty sure they are not legit. 

born_again

Last active
Jan 13, 2023