Scarlet Services, SMS Legal, U Legal - cold call

[BankFodder]

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.

 

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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

[dx100uk]

They are the ones that use bogus numbers or even hide their number or with old it

 

They've been doing this press 5 thing for years

 

Been fined twice now I seem to remember

But simply change names

And start again

 

Clever you got their name

Been trying for years...

 

Dx

[BankFodder]

Very strange, because it had me thinking back to this thread http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?439619-Cold-PPI-reclaim-call-from-those-nice-people-at-Rock-Law&p=4676713#post4676713

 

And I notice that the telephone message is pretty well the same and ask you to press 5 if you want to talk to somebody. I wonder if there is some standard piece of software and always chooses that number – or whether these companies are somehow related. I think we should be told.

 

Also, I recognise rapid references to "legal team". Of course, this could mean anything – but on the other hand some people might easily believe that there is some heavyweight group of legal professionals – maybe even solicitors who are all set to take your case and to pounce upon the naughty PPI mis-sellers