Well.. just thought I'd update to say that since OUR Trading Standards came and talked to us, then they went away and spoke to Liverpool TS... after a couple of days we stopped getting calls... Not heard from them in a couple of weeks now...

just done google searches on csplusonline.co.uk and commercialcreditcolutions.co.uk and this thread comes 2nd top on both.... what does THAT say about either company?!!??!

We've got someone from OUR local trading standards coming round tomorrow to see if there is anything they can suggest... Thanks for all the suggestions... will try and update as we hear things...

sounds good to me.... the DCA has already been on the phone today apparently...

Just had it pointed out to me that it was actually my father-in-law who phoned them up about the invoice.. and the phrase they used to him was "I'll knock the cocky out of you"..! I'm guessing we'll never get an accurate copy/transcript of THAT conversation!

Should we send anything back to the DCA?

I forgot to say that when the invoice came through and after the "we'll get your money" phone call my father-in-law rang Trading Standards in Liverpool (which is where both companies are based) and they were basically totally uninterested... Said that she probably had entered into a contract with them and so we'd have to pay.. (I wonder if Liverpool Trading Standards are in the same building too..!)

Hi.. I'm posting on here on behalf of my wife and mother-in-law... Early December they set up and opened a new business. Just before Christmas my mother-in-law got cold called from a company who were offering an advert in a magazine (it was described as a community safety magazine and she was given the impression that this was handed out locally). She said that she might be interested but that they were quite busy so could they ring back after Christmas (she did give them some details like business address and email address) Heard nothing until after Christmas when an email came through asking her to "approve artwork".. the "artwork" was an empty web template with just the company name and address on it. The same day, they got an invoice in the post for £100 +VAT for the artwork and magazine insertion. I did a bit of investigation and found that what they were actually offering was a listing on their website csplusonline.co.uk. Obviously since she hadn't yet agreed to even take out an advert she wasn't going to pay but rather than just leave it, they phoned the company to find out what was going on. She was told that they had a tape recording from before Christmas where she agreed to take out an advert and as such that was a contract and the invoice was payable or else it would be passed to a debt collection agency. Again she said that she hadn't agreed to anything and asked for a copy of the phone call. She was told she couldn't have it and basically words to the effect that "we'll get the money one way or another" Now they have received a letter from a "debt collection agency" (I have no idea how genuince this DCA is, the paper is very poor quality and there are spelling mistakes on the letter!) called Commercial Credit Solutions Ltd (commercialcreditsolutions.co.uk). I've done a quick check and they are on yell.com and also they are registered at companies house. It was the usual "you must pay or else" except I noticed one odd thing when I checked the website... The address AND phone number are the same as CSPlusonline!!!! So it seems to me that either the debt collection agency has been created purely to follow up on people who refuse to pay for the advert they never agreed to (in the hope that a letter fro a DCA will make people pay up) or that CSPlusonline has been created to channel business to the DCA.. Has anyone heard of either of these companies and have any idea what the best way forward is? My initial thoughts are to 1) Ask the DCA for evidence of the debt and 2) to hit CSPlus with a Freedom of Information request requesting all letters, memos and phone recordings to the mother-in-law.. Does this sound reasonable? At least if we could get them to send us this phonecall "contract" we might see if she DID actually accidently agree to something! Thanks for reading and any advice would be most appreciated!

it gets better.... Told my mate and he phoned up and they were like "yes, it's available, just need to pay £150" until they realised who he was... then within 30 secsonds it was "well actually the property is no longer available" and hung up on him.... So I contacted them again and was told it was still available... £150 please... Half tempted to call the police! or trading standards... thing is they are actually a fairly respectable estate agents!

Does it seem reasonable for me to offer a year up front or is it not going to be that much of a problem? I was just thinking that loads of people must be doing something similar (hell, what to bankrupt people do?)

Hi My question is this... I have a fairly poor credit rating (defaulted on pretty much everything but am selling my house to pay everything off and so will be starting 100% debt-free).. I was anticipating having problems with the credit check (obviously!) and so had considered offering up to 1 year's rent in advance, then paying monthly after that... My worry is, from reading other posts, I might be commiting myself to a 1 year notice period? I'm happy to say I'll stay for 1 year but want to be back on a monthly notice period after that... Since I've never rented anything in my life bigger than a row boat, I'm a little confused as to what to do.... Any ideas/suggestions would be greatly appreciated...

Funnily enough, I've just checked their website and the property is still listed... So I contacted them and was told it is still available but I'll need to pay £150 fee to apply.... sounds familiar! I'm wondering if I'm not too cynical afterall! Co all it takes is for 50% of the people to accept that the money is non-returnable and they are on to a nice little earner!

He phoned up at 9am this morning and they agreed very quickly to refund him his money Cheers for the confirmation!

Hi I've had a quick search and can't find a situation like this one so..... Friend of mine just applied to rent a flat. Had to pay a £150 admin fee to the letting agent and was told that this was non-refundable in the event of being turned down for the rental... A week later, she rang them to find out what was happening and they told her that the flat was no longer available as the landlord had found their own tenant for the flat. They have also, naturally, said that the admin fee is non-returnable.. Now I'd have thought that, in this case, they've taken a fee for an application that could never have resulted in a successful application (regardless of whether or not they knew the landlord had found his own tenant - in fact I'm surprised cos I'd have thought that they would be kicking off about it) and as such have not provided the application service that was paid for... Am I right or am I just whistling in the wind? I'm a bit cynical about everything now from my own experiences of this and that and I half wonder if the flat is actually just sitting there attracting applications, all of which are told the same thing... cos an application a week would exceed the rent and there is no obvious proof they even did a credit check or anything that would actually have involved spending ANY of the application fee!