Well I had a very thoughtful call today from a nice man called Geraint - and he was a junior adviser for a company called U Legal which I had never heard of before but he directed me to the Ministry of Justice website and I found their entry there - https://www.claimsregulation.gov.uk/details.aspx/30643/Scarlet_Marketing_Services_Ltd/?search=simple&business=&authID=crm30643&sector=-1&county=-1&status=-1 … although he didn't mention anything about them being investigated by the MOJ – even though it was written at the bottom of their entry "Scarlet Marketing Services Ltd is being investigated by the Claims Management Regulator under Regulation 35 of the Compensation (Claims Management Services) Regulations 2006" , but I decided not to refer to it because I didn't want to embarrass him – he seemed like such a nice man. But of course he was only a junior adviser and he kept on talking about the senior claims adviser and so eventually I was put through to her and her name was Carly but in fact she told me there was an E in the name and in fact it was Carley. It's always embarrassing when you spell somebody's name isn't it? Anyway, the call started with simply an automated announcement telling me about some PPI money that might be due and telling me to press number five if I was interested. I have a feeling that this is called a "broadcast" telephone message. It's funny really because I thought that I noticed on the claims management regulator website that that broadcast telephone calls were not allowed – but maybe I got it wrong. Also, through the call they kept referring to the fact that I was on an "opt in" list. I kept on saying that I didn't think I was and I could never remember opting into anything but they said that I was on the list and that's why they phone me. They kept on repeating this a lot – opt in – opt in – opt in. They also told me that Lloyds bank was the worst offender of all the PPI mis-selling companies. I have to say that this gave me some confidence because I'm sure that it is probably true and it made me want to trust them – but not quite. They told me that Lloyds had been fined £33 billion for PPI mis-selling - but when I queried this, he said that in fact they had set aside £33 billion to repay PPI mis-selling claims. I was astonished. That is a huge amount of money. They also said that they got much better results in much quicker than the ombudsman. That amazed me as well because I thought that somewhere in the claims regulator guidelines, that they were not allowed to say this. Maybe I got that wrong too. Also, they said something about my claim going to their legal team. One thing that puzzled me though was that I kept on asking them how much it would all cost and they seem very reluctant to give any answers on that until I asked so many times that Geraint put me through to Carley, the senior claims adviser and she gradually gave me the information – but after a lot of questions. They really didn't seem to be very clear either about what would happen if eventually it got so long that I wanted to part company with them. She seemed to be saying that that wasn't possible. Luckily, I recorded the whole thing. U_Legal PPI_Cold_call.mp3 If you feel that you can listen to 34 minutes of the conversation, then maybe you might be able to tell me if you think they broke any of the rules which are displayed on the claim regulator's website - https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claims-management-company-regulations-guidance-and-legislation A copy of this recording is being sent to the Ministry of Justice so that they can take it into account during their investigation – and hopefully exonerate U Legal and those nice people Gerald and Carly whoops Carley sorry. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By the way, this call was recorded on a Samsung mobile telephone using the Automatic Call Recorder app from the Google play store which is available for free. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appstar.callrecorderpro&hl=en the sound quality was excellent although there was a slight imbalance on the two sides of the conversation. It was processed slightly using Adobe Audition to normalise both sides and also to reduce the volume slightly. However, the recording was perfectly good as it was without any processing and you could hear both sides perfectly. We give lots of advice on this forum about recording your calls. You should always record your calls. If you receive calls on your android mobile phone then you should install an automatic call recorder so that you never have to think about it. You should always record your calls. You will never regret it if you do. If you don't record your calls, then you will regret it. Sooner or later you will regret it. Whoops

Mystery missed call on your mobile? It could mean a bill for hundreds of pounds as new phone [problem] hits Mobile phone regulators and operators have warned that customers are being be left with bills running to hundreds of pounds after receiving mysterious missed calls that then trigger outgoing calls to premium rate numbers lasting several hours. The communications watchdog Ofcom said it was looking into cases where huge bills had been generated from calls to 0845 and 0843 numbers following missed calls to the victims that were not answered. Several instances reported by the Daily Mail involved calls to claims management firms that pursue flight delay compensation. In the cases detailed by the newspaper, the premium rate calls lasted up to 12 hours and generated bills of up to £300. The report said all cases seen by the newspaper involved Vodafone. https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/mystery-missed-call-mobile-could-145434862.html?cache=clear

Hello, I had an ESA medical assessment on 31st March 2016. I am recovering from mouth cancer which was diagnosed in 2014, I had radical neck dissection, floor of mouth replaced and 3/4 of my tongue removed. I will put off eating as I struggle to move food around and swallowing is very hard, and communicating is almost impossible as my speech has been severely affected. My husband received a call from a Decision Maker today (I am unable to talk or be understood), he was asked if I had deteriorated since assessment which he answered no. He was then informed I scored 0 points and was not eligible for ESA and I could ask for a reconsideration but wouldn't receive any money and I would have to claim JSA. My husband said he did not agree with the desicion and I couldn't claim JSA as I am not fit for work, he said most of the from didn't apply to me I am only affected by eating, swallowing and communication, he gave some examples, then they completed changed their mind and said I am to stay in the support group with a review in 24 months. Is this unusual? I cannot believe in a 10 minute phone call I can go from 0 points to being in the support group. I'm worried my payments will stop.

There is a pop-up which appears when the text "telephone call" is rolled-over, regarding recording calls. It states that Android 'phones can record calls, but iPhones can't, and that people "must" make use of additional hardware (an Olympus TP8 and a digital recorder). This is incorrect. High quality recordings can be made by use of apps without additional hardware : the iPhone can't record the call directly onto the 'phone, but do so by creating a conference call, where the recording is made at the "third party" to the call. Can the incorrect advice be amended to reflect the true position?

Hi Guys, I am slightly confused as to what to do. I will explain the situation below and then explain the confusion. Any help/advice would be more than appreciated. I received a phone call yesterday on my mobile phone from a lady called AMY from the "PRA Group". She claims that I have a "G.E.Capital bank store credit card" debt of £310.91. I am not aware of this debt and told her as such. She told me that I apparently took this agreement out in 2002 and that they had owned the debt (as mckenzie hall) since 2007. She told me that after the name change/merge all files were being revisited. I advised this was the first I had heard about it and took the relevant details and told her I would be writing/emailing them shortly. I have looked through my records and I definitely have no records relating to this. I have even gone onto my credit report and nothing there shows any reference to a g.e.capital account, mckenzie hall account or a PRA Group account. As far as I am aware I have never had such a debt nor never even been contacted about such a debt. I was going to send them a prove it letter, however, this is where the confusion lies, after reading some posts on here it seems to suggest it is also statute barred (if it exists at all). What is the best way to proceed? Should I send a prove it letter? A Statute barred letter? or a combination of both? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Kind Regards

I have been bullied at work by a colleague and raised a grievance. The meeting is next week which is making me very anxious and panicky. I signed off for anxiety and stress at work, informing my line manager that I will stay out of work until the meeting, because the stress is affecting my mental health. The absence will be less than five days. My manager's manager insists that I have to call in every day. I checked the Sick Leave Policy and there is only mention of keeping in touch, nothing about a sick employee calling the office every day. Is this allowed?

We received an email yesterday in respect of this company. The person provided his name, but no return email address in order for us to respond. If you see this message, please do register on CAG - it is Free and update this thread.

The ICO is taking action against two more cold call blocking companies, continuing the crackdown on nuisance calls. Poole-based Nuisance Call Blocker Ltd has been fined £90,000 and Telecom Protection Service Ltd, based in Bournemouth, has received an £80,000 fine. Both companies were found to be making unsolicited marketing calls to people registered on the official Telephone Preference Service while trying to sell products and services to block the type of cold calls they were making. https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/news-and-events/news-and-blogs/2015/11/ico-issues-fines-totalling-170-000-to-cold-call-blocking-companies/ Company fined £850,000 for millions of nuisance calls The National Advice Clinic, based in Lancashire, which also trades as the Industrial Hearing Clinic or the Central Compensation Office, made nearly 6 million calls between October 2014 and April 2015 about noise induced hearing loss claims has been fined £850,000 by the Claims Management Regulator https://www.gov.uk/government/news/company-fined-850000-for-millions-of-nuisance-calls ICO fines PPI claims firm £80,000 over 1.3m spam SMS deluge The Information Commissioner's Office has served up penalty of £80,000 to a PPI claims company that sent more than 1.3 million spam texts. Brum-based UKMS Money Solutions Limited (UKMS) had bought numbers in bulk from list brokers which it subsequently spammed to encourage people to make compensation claims for mis-sold payment protection insurance. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/23/ico_fines_ppi_claims_firm/

At 11am this morning I had a phone call from someone saying they were calling from Employement and Support Allowance and that it was nothing to worry about but that they are trialling phone benefit reviews rather than sending out forms. She then proceded to ask me questions about others living in the home, if anyone new had move in, if I had savings of more than £5000 , if I had done any paid work or undertaken any course of study, I said no to all which is true. I have had no change in circumstance that I would need to tell them about. They didn't ask any questions at all about my health which is also unchanged. After I had answered all those questions they told me that all was fine that I wouldn't get a change of circumstance form but that any other letters or forms I got from them I should do what they say and that was that. I don't know what to think, I had my last ESA review in March 2013 and then seemed to be one of the lucky ones who had reassessment deferred for two years from January 2014 so I was expecting reassessment early next year. Anyone know about this new trial of phone reviews? Does this mean that I will get a new ESA50 now or was it just them checking that my circmstances were all as they had on file?

Does anyone know how to find call centre work that you can do from home? or any other genuine work from home employment??? In North west region... Just can't find any genuine work from home things. Thanks

"They sparked uproar among newspapers and on social media, but on Friday the former Sunday Times political editor back-peddled significantly, saying the MP who tipped her off about the incident "could have been slightly deranged"." "David Cameron has pointed to the potential political motivations of Lord Ashcroft, who some say was frustrated for not being offered a Cabinet post in exchange for millions of pounds in party donation funds. " Article

I really need some help. My partner is in trouble with the DWP and has been called in for an interview under caution. There was a dodgy message left on his phone regarding work, on the same week he received a letter stating that he was being investigated. My partner is self-employed, but has previously been on benefits for a lengthy period. Does anyone know if the DWP have a history of phoning people using a box phone number to dupe people (i.e. it gives out calls but can't receive outside office hours so therefore can't take messages)? I'd really appreciate some help with this Thanks

Hi all I`ve looked at my EE phone bill and have seen a cost-every month- of around £5+VAT going back several months- this is for something I`m told by EE "I must have subscribed to"- a quick google search on the company tells a tale of non existent customer service/premium line charges to call them in the first place. I have emailed the customer support address to ask calls/whatever? to immediately cease- my question is whether anyone has managed to reclaim any charges either from EE or direct from Oxygen8? Any help would be appreciated- not a huge amount of money but feel as if someone is taking my pants down!

A firm selling call blocking devices has itself been fined for making unsolicited calls to those who have opted out of receiving them. Cold Call Eliminations, based in Chichester, made calls to the elderly, including cancer sufferers. One was said to have been left "badly shaken". They were registered on the Telephone Preference Service (TPS), so should have been exempt from such calls. The company, which has been fined £75,000, refused to comment. BBC Oops

A claims company has become the first to be fined under new powers after making millions of "nuisance calls", the government has announced. The Hearing Clinic, based in Derby, has been fined £220,000 following hundreds of complaints about speculative calls regarding hearing loss claims. It was the first fine issued by the Claims Management Regulator. Many of those called by the business had subscribed to the Telephone Preference Service (TPS), indicating that they did not want to receive unsolicited calls. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-33788527

For several years I have claimed a small daily "on call" allowance in addition to my salary, reflecting the contracts I cover for my employer and that I am their only employee for about 150 miles. Effectively I am on call 24/7, and while this is generally not onerous and doesn't prevent me doing things like going to the pub (enquiries can on the whole be dealt with over the phone or next day), the fact remains that I am "expected" to be available by both the company and their clients. To date, when I have gone on holiday I have not claimed this allowance for those days - I am clearly not available for work so logically can't be on call - and the company have never said a word about this. Reading around recently though, it seems like my holiday pay should reflect my normal pay. The on call payment is marked as such on my payslip, it isn't part of my salary, but I do rely on it - especially as I haven't had a pay rise in 6 years! I read on this page: http://www.sherbornesllp.co.uk/2011_06_20.html Is this correct? Should I be writing to Payroll with a breakdown of this missing pay? Thanks as ever for your help, Loz

Looking for some advice about where to start with my claim I have been through the forum looking for a definitive answer about which way to proceed. Basically I am on a dmp and have been for just over a year my estimated debit free date is june 2025 so as you can guess i owe a fair bit across 8 accounts ;- 3 with lloyds , 1 halifax, 1 egg,1 tesco and 2 with mbna. I know I should be able to reclaim on at least 2 of the above if not more , i also know any money will go off my overall debit which again I am fine with . What i would like help with is the following Most of the accounts for the above have been closed by the lenders so should i just go for a SAR for each of them ?? On my CCS statement it states the two MBNA debits are being paid to moorgate loan servicing and the egg on to barclay card so who should i write to. In the case of the halifax one would a SAR to lloyds given me the halifax info. I also had a egg loan a couple of years ago and I am sure i paid ppi during the loan period (think this might be longer than five years ago though) Also because I have the dmp and these organisations are still getting money off me will it make it easier. Also my mortage is with cheltenham and Gloucester so would the sar to Lloyds give me my mortage info as well as i think I may be paying ppi on that as well. Finally am i best sending a sor request straight from the begining As you can tell things are a bit of a mess and i woulld like to take some positive steps to sort them out Any advice will be most welcome and i will keep you informed of progress once i get started Thanks Mark:???:

I have an issue with a company called Tracegreen Finance in Liverpool regarding a Hackney I bought from them on HP way back in 2009. Long and the short of it is I defaulted on my payments after I had paid 2/3's of the agreed amount which was initially £25,000. I contacted Tracegreen to request my outstanding balance but they never got back to me and to be honest I was unable to keep up with my repayments. I fully expected them to start with repossession proceedings but this never happened! Some two years or so after my final contact I was involved in a crash and the vehicle was written off. I received a payment from my insurance company for the write off and subsequently left the cab trade for a "proper job". That was 18 months ago now and still I had received no correspondence from Tracegreen. Three weeks ago I had a knock on my door and it was some big burly bloke asking for the cab, saying he was here to repo it as I had defaulted on my agreement. After explaining it had been written off etc and explaining I had received a pittance for it he informed me I owed over £4000 on the agreement and said a court order has been sent a few months previous but was returned as addressee "gone away". I assured him I had received nothing, which I had not, and asked him to send it to me again with a run down of all my payments etc. I received this today but in the letter they are claiming they will involve the Police if I do not stick to my original payments. I explained when he was at my house I would not be able to do this as I was only earning just above national minimum wage. My main question is can they involve the Police in this matter? I appreciate the vehicle was not legally mine when I was written off but surely this is a civil matter for the courts? I am also very dubious the letter is even legal. It refers to the court order and their solicitors but they have not attached these letters nor enclosed any official documentation regarding my agreement. I have heard rumours Tracegreen went bankrupt a few years ago and feel this is just a ploy to get money from outstanding debts and they know they have no legal recourse in this matter. Any advice is gratefully received Thank you

hello guys I have recently had a very bad experience whilst trying to sell a car I would be grateful for some advice a few months ago an immediate family member wanted to sell her vehicle. vehicle was advertised on autotrader. To cut a long story short, the potential buyer, pushed me, grabbed the keys, and drove off in my vehicle. and the person who dropped him off drove off behind him. as usual, 3 months later, insurance company have come back stating the claim has been rejected on 2 grounds 1. I am not a named driver 2. theft by deception so now my family member, is 18k worse off, with a substantial amount of finance owing. So the main problem here is I was the one who was showing the car to the buyer, on instruction of my family member (the car owner) but I am not a named driver on the policy I moved the car from my front drive about 100metres away, so they could look at the car with no obstructions. However I was not driving the car at the time of theft. It was parked and locked. The thief then looks around the car, grabs the key, pushes me, and gets in the car and drives off. closely followed by his accomplice. the second problem is theft by deception. In my opinion this was a physical grab and drive off, rather than deception. The claim has been rejected. I have had several sleepless nights over this. The process has been ongoing, the story stated above was known from day one, yet it took 3 months for the insurance company to reject the claim. there departments are clueless as to what is going on, they asked for all the total loss documents, we sent them in, recorded delivery, it was signed for, yet they have lost it, including the spare key. We never got any official correspondence, regarding the claim rejection, we had to phone them up for them to tell us. we made a complaint through there complaints department to which they said there decision was final. I am unsure of where to go to next. I am totally confused and stressed, and some advice will be appreciated. They have pointed me the direction of the financial ombudsman, but is there any point if theres so many things stacked against me?

Luckily enough I never answer a call to my mobile especially if I dont recognise the number and if I'm in work so let it ring off, then came the notification to tell me I have a Voice message from Control Account regarding parking and to call them....they got no chance!! or Should I call back to talk things through. I have looked through the thread and mainly it helps with dealing with letters and yet to find one concerning phone calls.

Just had a call from Wonga - trying to trace me to discuss compensation - well they had an old address from about 7 years ago so are sending me the 'pack' which I have to complete and return... Funny thing is today I was going through old paperwork and starting to chase on pension plans - so this ties in nicely! Hopefully it will be a reasonable offer - it should be as I was one of the ones they sent to their bogus solicitors AND it was them who attempted to empty my bank account AND also ignored the DMP people I was briefly with. Hope to make a small donation when their funds clear.

Hi All, I had was involved in a RTA back in January; happy to say not serious and not my fault. Third Party admitted liability, so I made a direct claim to their insurers, who promptly arranged for repairs to my car, arranged a hire car, and paid out a sum to my passenger in injury compensation. I didn’t make a personal injury claim at the time as I didn’t experience any effects that I could attribute to the accident. However just about a week later I did experience a stiff neck and shoulder pain, also pain down my arm, I knew that it must’ve been as a direct result of the accident, but I was under the impression that I would be out of time to make a claim, so I put it down to experience and forgot all about it. I had a call recently from an accident claims specialist who said that the insurers put aside an amount for injury compensation, I did explain that I thought it would be too late, however the guy was very persistent, so I agreed to make a claim through them. I was passed on to their legal team who took details. I then got this letter from them via email, however something appears to be “Not Quite Right” :- “Dear Mr Murphy Re Your Accident on 29th January 2015 Please note as requested, we have arranged After the Event legal expenses insurance to cover you throughout this case. On the information currently available to us, we believe, that a contract of insurance with AmTrust Europe Legal is appropriate to cover your opponent’s charges and your own disbursements in case you lose. What this means is that if your claim is unsuccessful, the insurance then takes effect to protect you, as previously discussed the premium amount is deferred and costs £350.00 which is payable by you upon conclusion of your claim as it is no longer recoverable from your opponent since the government changed the rules with effect from 1st April 2013. If you lose the premium is still not payable. Full details are contained in the insurance policy documents. It is generally this type of cover which we recommend; we do not have any financial interest in recommending to you AmTrust Europe Legal. We only select from a limited number of insurers for After the Event legal expense insurance contracts but we are not contractually obliged to conduct our business in this way. You can ask us for a list of the insurers that we use. Yours Faithfully” Shall I tell them to go do one, or do think it’s OK Thank for your help Ken

Hello I'm trying to used the scottishpower book a call back, and i keep getting "Sorry, the timeslot you have requested is unavailable, please select another time" I have been trying for the last few weeks to organise a call back, using the online message system also and still no call back from scottishpower. What can i do? Thanks Dan

In simple I set up an ad hoc business collection with RM, they failed to collect when promised, failed to collect the next day and again on the third day. At which point I asked for a refund. 14 days later and no refund has been received, no contact of any type either regarding the refund or to apologise for the lack of collection or an explanation from them and to rub salt in the wound £20 of call charges to a premium number. Had they come and collected I would of accepted these and learnt from the mistake but as we stand I am the best part of £40 out of pocket and pretty annoyed. I have slowly moved to couriers for all but international shipping over the last year with a pretty good success rate but there was about 100 orders and my car was in for repair so I figured this a good option. I guess what I'm asking is do I have any grounds for reclaiming those call costs?, Im going to email them about the non refund for non collection but won't be ringing them again.

Maybe some more will get raided. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2992446/Six-million-cold-calls-day-just-ONE-firm-Company-held-90million-numbers-raided-watchdog-using-sophisticated-technology-leave-messages.html Regards,John.