BCA / Book Club Associates Ltd / Books for children

[Systemerror]

Hi folks and thanks for taking the time to read this thread. Although a new member I have been a passive CAGger for a while now (Living with a die hard) and hope get some good advice.

The above company,

 

 

Have been no end of trouble to us.

 

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

 

The idea with them is you agree to buy so many books from them each year and they will in return give you a good price. If you don't order they will send you an "Editor's Choice" which is usually rubbish.

We have opted out of the editor's choice a long time ago and they have acknowledged this and told us that we will not be recieving the editor's choice.They keep sending it to us and we keep ringing them up to remind them not to send it and to arrange collection of their books. It all seems very wasteful indeed but they usually pick up the books quite quickly and we end buying more books for our young kids.

When we were away on holiday this year, suprise suprise the editor's choice was delivered. On return we rang them up to remind them they shouldn't have sent it and for them to collect it. They said it would cost us £3.00 for the collection. We told them "No" and the obvious reasons why not and they agreed to send a delivery label instead. We have been ringing them on and off since the end of August for this delivery label.

Yesterday a letter came through the post saying we had an oustanding bill with them, that a charge had been applied, that they were going to apply a further charge and the account was going to be handed over to a debt collector with a further £15 charge.

Now I am mad because I only spoke to them on December 4th about this delivery label. So I have been looking into this company and here is some stuff I found:

Hounded by book club associates - Investigations

Money surgery: Book Club Associates? Now I've got their number - Telegraph

The Office of Fair Trading : OFT accepts undertakings from Book Club Associates

I am of course speaking to Trading Standards and the OFT. I have instructed the book company to collect the books, to get lost and zero out the account. They also face a forfeit of £75.00 per day for storage, care and insurance of their unwanted books. I am also going to do a Subject access request which no doubt they will have problems complying with. I also will not buy any more books from them - ever.

Of course all other ideas about and experiences of this company and how to deal with them would be most welcome and I really look forward to hearing what people have to say.

Edited December 15, 2009 by Systemerror

[kurvaface]

Check this out...same company, different name;

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-consumer-issues/38870-mango-book-club-can-2.html

[Guest wino]

If you have opted out of the editors choice and they continue to send books to you then consider them as a gift.

[MARTIN3030]

The newspaper links are from stories over 3 years ago.

The OFT warning concerning advertising was 2007.

[Guest wino]

Did you cancel editors choice in writing or by phone?

[Systemerror]

From the telegraph article:

 

At the beginning of September, I wrote about the difficulties encountered by one unfortunate customer when trying to get BCA to release him from the unmerited attentions of a debt collector - and was promptly inundated by letters from other victims of this quite astonishingly incompetent company. All related remarkably similar tales of unwanted, or duplicated, deliveries, failed attempts to have unordered books collected and increasingly aggressive demands for money they did not owe.

 

So it seems nothing has changed.

 

I have some more numbers for those of you having difficulty complaining to Books Direct:

 

Finanace department : 01793 747187

 

To send them an invoice you can fax on 01793 747195 or you can email Carol Woodcock [email protected]

[MARTIN3030]

Since the book club association was aquired by new owners in 2008,then its unfair to associate present owners with things that they were reprimanded for in 2006 / 2007

[Systemerror]

It was cancelled in writing and + each time we speak to them they confirm we had opted out.

 

The business model they use, not the ownership is the problem and I believe the directors are responsible for that model. Threatening inncocent parents with debt collectors for accounts that they make up is unnacceptable!

Edited December 15, 2009 by Systemerror

[Systemerror]

I have sent them an invoice for storage...will see what happens. Someone who barely speaks english has just rung back to try and fob me off and said they will clear the account and send "More Labels". I'll believe it when I see it.

 

The lady on the phone says they are registered with the Direct Marketing Commission:

 

DMC About Us

 

as a data controller.

 

I thought you registered with the ICO if anyone.

 

The DMC seems to be remarkably similar to the CSA in that it consists of cronies watching over cronies.

[kurvaface]

Data Protection Register - Entry Details

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Registration Number: Z1442495

Date Registered: 21 August 2008 Registration Expires: 20 August 2010

 

Data Controller: DIRECT MARKETING COMMISSION LIMITED

 

Address:

70 MARGARET STREET

LONDON

W1W 8SS

This register entry describes, in very general terms, the personal data being processed by:

DIRECT MARKETING COMMISSION LIMITED

 

This register entry contains personal data held for 3 purpose(s)

Purpose 1

Staff Administration

Purpose Description:

Appointments or removals, pay, discipline, superannuation, work management or other personnel matters in relation to the staff of the data controller.

Data subjects are:

Staff including volunteers, agents, temporary and casual workers

Relatives, guardians and associates of the data subject

Data classes are:

Personal Details

Family, Lifestyle and Social Circumstances

Education and Training Details

Employment Details

Financial Details

Racial or Ethnic Origin

Religious or Other Beliefs Of A Similar Nature

Trade Union Membership

Physical or Mental Health or Condition

Sources (S) and Disclosures (D)(1984 Act). Recipients (1998 Act):

Data subjects themselves

Relatives, guardians or other persons associated with the data subject

Current, past or prospective employers of the data subject

Education, training establishments and examining bodies

Suppliers, providers of goods or services

Financial organisations and advisers

Central Government

Employment and recruitment agencies

Transfers:

None outside the European Economic Area

Purpose 2

Advertising, Marketing & Public Relations

Purpose Description:

Advertising or marketing the business of the data controller, activity, goods or services and promoting public relations in connection with that business or activity, or those goods or services.

Data subjects are:

Customers and clients

Complainants, correspondents and enquirers

Advisers, consultants and other professional experts

Data classes are:

Personal Details

Family, Lifestyle and Social Circumstances

Goods or Services Provided

Sources (S) and Disclosures (D)(1984 Act). Recipients (1998 Act):

Data subjects themselves

Business associates and other professional advisers

Suppliers, providers of goods or services

Transfers:

None outside the European Economic Area

Purpose 3

Accounts & Records

Purpose Description:

Keeping accounts related to any business or other activity carried on by the data controller, or deciding whether to accept any person as a customer or supplier, or keeping records of purchases, sales or other transactions for the purpose of ensuring that the requisite payments and deliveries are made or services provided by him or to him in respect of those transactions, or for the purpose of making financial or management forecasts to assist him in the conduct of any such business or activity

Data subjects are:

Customers and clients

Suppliers

Complainants, correspondents and enquirers

Data classes are:

Personal Details

Financial Details

Goods or Services Provided

Sources (S) and Disclosures (D)(1984 Act). Recipients (1998 Act):

Business associates and other professional advisers

Employees and agents of the data controller

Other companies in the same group as the data controller

Suppliers, providers of goods or services

Financial organisations and advisers

Credit reference agencies

Debt collection and tracing agencies

Central Government

Transfers:

None outside the European Economic Area

Copyright in this copy is owned by the Information Commissioner. Data Controllers may take copies of their own register entries. Apart from that no part of it may be copied unless allowed under the Copyright Designs and Patent Act 1988.

 

 

 

 

© Copyright

 

I don't know if this is any use :DMC is registered as a Data Controller but not BCA

[natalie]

I worked for these about 7 or 8 years ago in the call centre.

 

We were told there were problems, and when customers rang in to complain about the editors choice to offer to allow them to keep it as a good will gesture.

 

Back then they seemed to waste loads of money on "good will" gestures rather than actually sorting the problem.

 

I guess the actual cost of the books was so low it didnt really matter, but my job was purely to placate the customer to prevent them leaving. Regardless of the complaint, whether we believed them or not, we would give vouchers or free gifts etc.

[Systemerror]

It's funny you say that because so far one of their responses to this complaint is to send a "5 for 3" Voucher as if I ever want to deal with them again.

 

To threaten debt collectors is just a smack in the face "Thankyou" for my business.

[kurvaface]

Which debt collectors do they use?

[natalie]

I never worked in accounts so have no idea how that side worked, but in customer services, it was to placate the customer regardless of the cost. So if someone rang in and was fuming because they had been sitting on the phone for 1/2 an hour, and had an editors choice they had cancelled, and didnt have their order, we would keep throwing free books and vouchers at them until they were satisifed and werent angry anymore.

[Systemerror]

I have recieved an email from the company's director acknowledging the complaint and asking for some time to investigate which of course I will give him. Unfortunately I will not be affording him any grace when it comes to storage fees for his books - God forbid anything should happen to them as they are obviously so valuable that they had to threaten debt collectors for them.

 

 

 

In the interest of fairness I have posted this information about his response.

 

Mr Day, if you are reading this thread, perhaps you could join the discussion and explain to all of us why you intimidate people in this way.

 

I am going to send a link of this thread to various newspapers today.

 

I will of course update you with any responses from this company.

[Jan4a]

Anyone know if these are the same people who go round offices selling books? They drop off books and leave them for a few days and then go back and see if any are sold. Looks like some sort of franchise operation.

 

Jan

[Systemerror]

same old same old:

Brought to book - Telegraph

[Systemerror]

From the Guardian:

 

 

Once you join BCA, you'll never leave!

 

Is there anything more annoying than being caught up in a consumer misunderstanding and being totally unable to speak to anyone at the company about it? That was the problem for two readers who are unhappy with their treatment at the hands of book clubs QPD (Quality Paperbacks Direct) and TSP (The Softback Preview), which are among around 20 such outlets operated by BCA (Book Club Associates).

Their stories were remarkably similar. Ruth Hogarth joined QPD nearly two years ago and bought more than the required number of books during her first year. Then she tried to cancel her subscription, and the problems started: there was, she says, "no way of talking to a human being on the phone numbers advertised", so she wrote a letter ending her membership. But unwanted books continued to arrive. Hogarth was forced to write another four letters explaining that she had cancelled her membership - and although the books were eventually collected, she was told she would be sued for £39.49 for the non-payment of bills for books she had returned. Eventually she received a letter "forwarded from my old address and therefore out of date, which told me my credit rating would be destroyed by the court action they were about to take out against me if I did not pay by a date already passed".

Margaret Harrison's problems with TSP happened after she took advantage of an introductory offer but later decided to cancel her membership. Two months later, the Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature appeared on her doorstep and, despite several letters pointing out that she had opted out of TSP, so did a bill for £19.28. Several attempts by Harrison to set TSP straight fell on deaf ears, and by July the book club was writing to threaten her with referral to a debt collection agency.

After an investigation prompted by the Guardian, BCA has admitted it failed both Hogarth and Harrison and has assured both readers they will not be pursued for debts they have not incurred and that their credit rating will be unaffected. Surely, though, the sensible thing BCA should do is provide members of all its clubs with a telephone number so that cases like these could be solved long before debt collection agencies are called in? Lil Jones of BCA says she can't comment on that suggestion, but promises she will forward it up the chain. In the meantime, if you're joining a book club it might be worth making sure that there is, as Ruth Hogarth puts it, a "real human being" on the end of a telephone line somewhere.

[Jan4a]

If we didn't buy them from the office though then the franchisees would suffer (if they are franchises) and I know they probably don't earn much anyway.

 

Postal book clubs just don't seem to work - I remember having nightmares with World Books many years ago. Put me off for life!

 

Good luck.

Jan

[Systemerror]

Collections and Recovery - Fraudscreen - Recoveries and collection

 

“BCA have enjoyed a working relationship with Fraudscreen for several years now. We have integrated Fraudscreen into our total screening strategy and it continues to have a positive impact across all of our marketing activity. Given this success, the quick turnaround times, high levels of automation and their business understanding, I would certainly recommend Fraudscreen to any organisation looking to support their financial risk management.” Nick Rice, Marketing Director, Book Club Associates

Edited December 16, 2009 by MARTIN3030
removed libellous comments

[Systemerror]

BCA Privacy Statement

 

The registration number mentioned here is not on the ICO register

[Systemerror]

Hello guests...That would be you John would it?

 

 

 

Waves:D

[MARTIN3030]

Systemerror

 

Please observe site rules and refrain from posting or associating libel comments.In doing so,you not only put this site at risk,but also create unecessarry work for the site team.

[Systemerror]

Sorry...will do

[Systemerror]

BCA provides credit to it's customers. Does it need a credit license?