On the twelfth day of Christmas my conman sent to me….

• Twelve scammers scamming 
• Eleven spammers spamming 
• Ten cheques a bouncing 
• Nine sellers defaulting 
• Eight conmen conning 
• Seven fraudster’s frauding 
• Six cold callers calling 
• Five spoof websites 
• Four dodgy dealers
• Three rip off merchants
• Two thieves a thieving 
• And a virus and an unsecured money transfer

25 Shopping days to Christmas!

Next week sees the start of December, shops and stores are full of consumers out and about shopping for their nearest and dearest, keyboards and pc’s are red hot with online browsing and ordering, and Bing is limbering up to warble his way through White Christmas. I have started my countdown to the festive season with my own version of the Partridge and the Pear tree classic, as today saw London police begin their campaign to alert people to fraudulent online practices that can ruin anyone’s Christmas cheer.

They have come up with some sound hints and tips that anyone can follow and keep in mind, before pressing the button and sending personal payment details and bank account information off into the ether. I make no apology for revisiting this information and bringing it to the attention of those of us who do not live in the metropolis, as it is very sound advice.

Good advice for online consumers shopping for Christmas gifts

The boys in blue advise the following whether you are browsing on line or have been contacted by what purports to be a reputable vendor.

·         If it looks too good to be true it probably is –legitimate designer equipment and popular technology products are not often discounted

·         Look at the URL in the web browser (the address of the site) and if the address is changed slightly from the normal one, then it is probably a spoof website and not the legitimate vendor you think it is

·         When paying for goods on line take a look at the web address and make sure it begins “https” at the payment stage, this usually means, what is known as, a secure payment.

·         If you get unsolicited emails don’t access any links they have put in but use a search engine, such as Google to find a site, or type in the address if you know it.

·         If you get a pop up asking for your card details before you get to the payment stage then this should also flag up a warning, and never ever enter your PIN number on line.

·         If you have been bidding for a gift and you aren’t successful, just be wary if another seller approaches you with an item that is similar and wants you to trade “off-site”. More than likely it is going to be a scam, and you’re not going to have the same protection you would get from a legitimate on line trading site.

·         Hang onto your receipts, print off or save confirmation of orders and payments and check them against your banking transactions – if something out of the ordinary starts to appear, then get in touch with your bank or building society.

·         Finally make sure you keep your computer security and virus protection up to date and if something is amiss, then let us know at iRateiSlate – until then – happy shopping!

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More increases on energy bills underfoot, as carbon price floor costs are revealed

Consumers woke up to the news that yet another level of taxation has been placed on their energy bills to the tune of adding around £13 per household per year, so that 1% pay rise you might have managed to get this year, will soon find its way back to the Treasury due to the carbon price floor. No this isn’t a set of low energy carpets or environmentally friendly linoleum, but a levy on carbon permits for UK industries only.

It is a cost that the Department for Energy and Climate Change did not request, the businesses certainly don’t want it, consumer forums in the UK are against and even Greenpeace feel it is a waste of time because it discredit green taxes.

A billion or two reasons for the increased costs

So why has the Chancellor of the Exchequer imposed it? Well I could give you a few reasons, but as this levy will enable the raising of £1 billion in 2013, £1.5 billion next year and £2 billion in 2015 for the Treasury, then I think we can all work out why it has been created.

Many UK firms are taking their responsibility to cut down on carbon emissions seriously, and they have to buy a pollution permit for every ton of CO2 gas that they emit. This is understandable particularly in light of current and future climate change issues. However, this system of permits is not really working because the permits themselves are relatively inexpensive. So companies use a cheaper but dirtier form of fuel i.e. coal and just get additional permits to allow them to burn it.

The Chancellor wants to make sure they get the message loud and clear about using cleaner energy and so to encourage them to invest in more renewable forms of energy he has artificially inflated the price of the permit. So the companies find themselves having around a 20% increase in their bills and of course in time this is passed down to the consumer in the form of a 1% increase to our household bills.

Carbon price floor has not got a green underlay

Some experts are concerned that far from encouraging UK firms to develop a green form of energy, this carbon price floor will only serve to shift carbon emissions elsewhere in Europe. Even the green lobbyists admit that environmentally, this form of taxation has very little to recommend it. Consumer watchdogs are taking a keen interest because yet again this hits the UK resident with more costs on household energy bills at a time when 1.3 million families are living below the accepted standard of living in relative poverty.

Just how much of the £1-2 billion pounds will see its way back to them?

There has got to be a better way to channel UK heavy industry towards use of more renewable energy and discussions around long term contracts are being proposed. But until then, don’t force try to squeeze more out of household budgets as the well is not only dry but there is a hole in all of our buckets.

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Weeding out the Flowers as inquiry starts to dig deep at the Co-op

Why is it in this country that we are expected to keep up with our continual professional development at the workplace, have endless checks before we are allowed in to watch a school nativity, three month and six month trial work periods and appraisals, yet one of our leading banks manages to elect a chairman without, it seems, properly checking whether he was competent to undertake the role?In June this year Mr Flowers was forced out of the Co-Operative’s banking arm because doubts were raised about his competence but he had been in the role since March 2010.

Since the eighties when quality kite marks and QED (Quality Every Day) schemes were flown as the answer to quality assurance, allowing consumers and others to see who was a quality company, organisations have had quality assurance managers running around auditing, checking and preparing for external inspection visits. Box files of flow charts, individual qualifications and CV’s have been gathered over the years so that a business can retain the right to proudly display its sign or logo of quality assurance.

Setting the standards for consumer choice and confidence

I am all for consumer choice and believe that having a standard that everyone can aim for in terms of quality assurance is an excellent idea. It makes sense that in different industries and sectors there will be a set of slightly different criteria but in the end the core principle is this. In any transaction, whether it is banking, shopping, service delivery, medical treatment, educational activities and so on, as a consumer we all want to be treated fairly, we want to know that the service or goods provided will do what it says on the tin or if it goes wrong, then we can get a refund or exchange or the appropriate compensation if it has drastically impacted on the quality of our life. We expect the people who are delivering the goods or services to be qualified in what they are doing and those elected to oversee their work have achieved that position because of a reasonable and justified process. This can come in the form of experience, qualification and personal and social skills as long it is appropriate to the job in hand.

Thinning out those responsible for electing Chairman to post

The Co-operative Bank and their staff shouldn’t be tarnished with the same brush because of, allegedly, what their ex-Chairman got up to, and an inquiry will soon be underway. But someone, somewhere should have checked on what made Mr Flowers qualified for the post before he was offered it and it will be interesting to see what comes from this sorry state of affairs. Interestingly one of the trustees of an educational awarding body called Open Awards, responsible for ensuring the quality and rigour of these educational qualifications is a staff member of the Co-op bank –perhaps they have a check list he can borrow when electing the next Co-op chairman?

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Call us –it pays to hear your complaints!

We have been encouraged that as consumers we have a choice of where we spend our money, that competition is healthy as companies fight for the opportunity of our custom so quality will be driven up as a result. 

What happens in reality is that organisations, who strive to offer the best possible price for goods and services, in order to compete successfully in today’s market, have to try to recoup this money from somewhere else. So it came as no surprise to find that a lot of financial organisations are coining in the money through charging consumers a high rate when calling their complaints lines or customer service department. 

Consumer watchdog tracks down finance companies using premium rate lines

Consumer Which? has just released details of a study that found that around three quarters of customer service or complaints lines of financial firms are in fact, the expensive 087 or 084 numbers. Out of the 242 lines it surveyed, 177 were 087 or 084 numbers. No wonder many of them want us to call, it may be good to talk but whilst they’re listening, they are coining it in at the same time. When surveyed, many people prefer to speak to someone over the telephone, so Which? are now calling on the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to urge them to act now and stop the use of these high cost telephone complaints lines in the banking and finance industry.

Banks and finance firms set to ring the changes with cheaper telephone calls

So far, Barclays and Barclaycard have said they will change and offer a basic rate or a Freephone number, closely followed by the Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest who are going to ensure their customer inquiries call will be on the cheaper rate by the end of the month. It is not just the banking world that needs to make a change to their call rate system, there are many more organisations out there that charge a small fortune when you ring up with an enquiry. By the time they have explained their call charges, it seems as though you have racked up a telephone bill that could cover the cost of a meal for two and a night out in London’s West End.  The pauses and the music on hold does nothing to calm when all you can envisage is the ringing up of the cash register as you wait to be connected to the right department.

Whilst the FCA do have a certain amount of clout over the banking and financial world, they do not when it comes to the commercial companies who use premium rate telephone lines. However, this is where we at iRateiSlate can help out, as you can register your complaint about goods and services to us completely free of charge, and we can put your grievances to the company involved. So if you have a genuine criticism, grumble, moan, objection or complaint then get in touch, if you have been charged excessive amounts to register a complaint about a faulty product or service, email and let us know. We’re listening!

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The definitive Chill Pill -Two ice creams and a couple of aspirin

Tesco’s are recalling packages of its own chocolate and nut ice cream cones after pain relief tablets were found in two separate packs of Choc and Nut vanilla flavoured ice creams. Consumers have been asked to check their freezers and see if they have any of this home brand product with a best before date of up to and including July 2014. 

The supermarket chain are in discussion with its suppliers to  see if there has been any problems from the start of the production chain, and so far, they had not been told if the products had been tampered with, either at the suppliers or during delivery to retail stores.

Every little helps!

It does beg the question of why headache and pain relief tablets are being pushed into ice cream cones as they are certainly not illegal drugs, nor are you likely to have your handbag raided by the police for carrying a packet of aspirin. Were they concealed in the wafers during production because some kind soul thought about those of us with sensitive teeth, which are painful if you chew down onto frozen ice cream? Wouldn't it have made more sense to squeeze in some of that special toothpaste instead, or perhaps there wasn't any to hand and the best they came up with, was a painkiller?

Not that I am advocating the addition of any prescribe drug or medication into food or drink products, but it would have made more sense to sellotape a headache tablet to a bottle of wine for example or a couple of cans of lager. Or perhaps slip an unused Elastoplast into a pair of new shoes to help cope with the blisters if they are trying to be really helpful.

Consumer watchdog working with Tesco’s on recall of products

The Food Standards Agency are working with Tesco’s, who are doing everything they can to recall this product for further checking. Finding a painkiller in your ice cream is not so serious for adults, but for children this is another matter. Contaminants that have been placed deliberately, or accidentally, into food for public consumption is not new. Back in 1855 in Bradford, sweets were found to be poisoned with arsenic, in the 1950’s, mercury poisoning in fish in Japan was found to come from industrial contamination and arsenic was inadvertently found in milk powder in the same country.

More recently in January this year, horse meat contaminated burgers were on sale in the UK and Ireland, which again led to warnings for consumers and a great many complaints against the food companies involved.  Also in May, halal lamb burgers, containing samples of pork DNA, were found in school meals in 19 schools around the Leicester area.

If this latest food news is accidental or deliberate, those responsible will soon be found out, and if it was deliberate then I am not sure what people are hoping to gain by it. Tesco’s are offering full refunds for any stock returned, having the best before dates they have published, and anyone who is worried can call their 0800 Customer Service Help Line for further advice. If you have found any unusual hidden extras in your food or drink, then let us know along with what the purchaser or supplier did about it, looking forward to hearing from you!

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Gift card for Christmas? It could turn out to be a token gesture

There are only so many pairs of socks or handkerchiefs a man can receive at Christmas and so giving a voucher for a gift is a great idea. Book tokens, iTunes vouchers and gift cards galore are available these days and usually don’t have an expiry date on them which makes them doubly welcome as a present. However, consumers have been warned this year to take care when selecting a voucher for Father Christmas to deliver on the big day. Not because they are heavy in weight and could cause a tipping hazard for the old sleigh and reindeer, but due to some stores going into receivership and the voucher becoming obsolete.

Consumers lose out as retailers go bust

Last year many consumers were out of pocket when Blockbuster, HMV, Comet and Jessops all went into receivership after the Christmas period. It took quite a while but a majority were honoured although, if you buy a gift token, there is no guarantee that it will be the case if the shop goes out of business. It was estimated last year that for those with Jessops vouchers,  in total over half a million pounds worth of tokens were not refunded, or replacements offered.

Consumers who lodged a complaint were told that administrators who look into the books of any store in receivership, are obliged to pay the banks who have lent the business money, staff salaries and administration costs, before they start to look at gift voucher holders. The main protection at the moment seems to be if you pay for your gift token using a credit card and the amount is more than £100, in theory you will be protected by both the retailer and your credit card company.

Keep an eye on the High Street

However, many of us tend to spend smaller amounts in different stores depending on which member of the family or friend we are shopping for, so what else can we do? Keep an eye on what is happening in the High Street is the best advice given at present. Apparently Blockbuster Video are about to call in the administrators again so perhaps another outlet for your shopping should be considered.

Or you could consider your own do it yourself vouchers, such as a free babysitting service for one night, an offer to do the ironing or cook a meal, (you may have noted this was typed as the Significant Other was reading over my shoulder), wash and polish the car, cut the lawn, take the dog for a walk, (I leave the keyboard for a few minutes to put the kettle on and he gets his own back), and many other thoughtful gifts.

There may be some light on the horizon as a recent group of insolvency specialists have reviewed consumer legislation linked to gift cards such extending the Consumer Credit Act for example. Another suggestion could be to make retailers, who offer gift vouchers, take out a form of insurance that would protect the consumer if the firm went out of business. However, until then, just keep a weather eye on the High Street and if you have had a problem with a retailer refusing to honour a gift voucher or token, let us know!

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Internet Christmas shopping - don’t Yule Log into a Festive Fraud

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat, please to put a penny in the old scammers hat. No sooner have the fireworks have fizzled out and the last sparklers have been dropped in a bucket of water, than the Yuletide activities begin in earnest. Sadly this does not just mean struggling to get the tree and tinsel from the loft, start peeling and boiling the sprouts for the Big Day, and tossing a coin to see whose turn it is to have the in-laws this year, but the beginning of the Festive Frauds.

Happ-E Christmas Greetings that cost more than the price of a stamp

It is inevitable that several will involve internet scams with so many people logging on line and ordering their Christmas presents, in fact this December it has been estimated that UK consumers will spend over £10 billion on line in one month alone. This will be the first ever time the ten billion pound mark has been breached in a calendar month so the majority of Christmas money scams will be via the internet.

Several of the old chestnuts worth looking out for are the fake charity appeals via email, which then take you to a so called legitimate site where your personal details will be used to line the pockets of someone else, so more of a worthless than worthwhile cause.  E-Christmas cards which are a great way to send out a celebratory message, but the perky red breasted bird perched on top of the dancing snowman could be “robin” you in more ways than one. If you get an email purporting to be selling e-greetings, check before you click, as yet again the scammers direct you to a site where you input your personal details and you are in the red.

Ring any alarm bells?

Deliveries and parcels will be on their way and last week in one county in the East of England, Trading Standards were reporting a scam where mobile phones are ordered in someone else’s name, they get delivered to the individuals door and a little while later, a person arrives to claim the parcel has been misdelivered. You naturally hand it over as you hadn't ordered anything and guess what, the fraudsters have a high old time running up the costs all in your name.

If you do happen to be on the receiving end of any suspicious activity then please report it as the more people who raise awareness, the more likely it is the scam merchants can be stopped. Contact either your local County Council Trading Standards department, the police if you believe a crime has taken place or via Action Fraudif you have any concerns whatsoever.

Just off to top up the water up on the old sprouts, but if you have had any sort of problems with shopping on line then let us know at iRateiSlate so we can help shut down frauds and scams that blight the lives of so many consumers.

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Getting the right legal information? Don't Bank on it!

The consumer watchdog, the Office of Fair Trading have ordered British Banks to tell the truth about any past errors that they were responsible for involving loan agreements. This order came about on 4^th November this year as concerns starting to arise following a number of problems of a similar nature, coming out of the millions paid out in compensation by Barclays, Northern Rock and the Co-op.

Over 50 banks and building societies have now received a letter from the OFT because the three banks named above had admitted that some of the refunds they were having to make was because their documentation didn’t comply with the Consumer Credit Act. These refunds were linked to errors such as wrongly worded arrears notices, and borrowers in receipt of this are now entitled to refunds on interest paid over the period when the errors occurred. 

A rocky start to 2013

When murmurs about Northern Rock started again back in December last year with the Chancellor of the Exchequer speaking about a singular incident then warning bells started to ring. It was only a matter of time before other problems started to come out of the woodwork and now we may be set for another round of compensation and pay-outs. This is fine if you are on the receiving end of getting the money back, but the knock on effect to other consumers is that the banks and building societies will try to recoup their losses some other way.

I am perfectly happy to pay a charge to a bank or building society if I feel fully confident that they are doing the job they are being paid to do, and to be fair in the many years I have been banking my hard earned cash, I have not had a problem. I trusted as most of us do, that when we go ahead and take out a loan with a reputable financial organisation that we will be given the correct information under the relevant legislation.

Financial institutions need to regain consumer confidence

The last slip-up with Northern Rock was to do with mainly unsecured personal loans of just under £25k and the taxpayer had to foot the bill because it happened when the company was in public ownership. It will be interesting to monitor the response the consumer watchdog receives over the next few weeks to see if any other establishment has got a potential refund situation on its hands. Then, can I suggest they invest in better staff training and auditing facilities in the future if they want to regain consumer confidence in their abilities to carry out their jobs.

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UK Consumer law is not "fit for purpose" as new Consumer Rights Bill is proposed

Since the Sale of Goods Act came into force in 1979 consumer law has developed as part of a reactive rather than proactive approach to protecting consumer rights and businesses. It also has not managed to keep up with some of the technological developments which now influence the way we buy and sell in this digital age. 

Consumer legislation has become unwieldy, ambiguous in some areas and quite complex in others. 

There are also inconsistencies between EU laws and pre-existing UK legislation's and many consumers and business do find it difficult to navigate their way around their legal rights and their obligations.

Consumer law to incorporate technological developments

All this is set to change if the draft Consumer Rights Bill (CRB), which was published back in June this year, is implemented and on 14 October 2013 MP’s received a briefing note and copies of the draft CRB for them to start looking in detail at the proposed new framework. If it is implemented then it will be the biggest overhaul of consumer law for decades. 

In essence it sets out a framework that combines key consumer rights covering contracts for goods, services, digital content and the law relating to unfair terms in consumer contracts. Under digital content this will cover your rights if for example you have bought an e-book that doesn't work as you were told it should, your MP3 or Cloud based software doesn't work properly or your avatar is not responding and so on.

Trading Standard Officers enforcement powers become more flexible

It will also give enforcers of consumer law (such as Trading Standard Officers) greater flexibility in the action they can take when dealing with breaches of consumer law. There are also going to be easier routes for consumers and small to medium sized businesses to challenge anti-competitive behaviour.

Draft regulations to reform the law on misleading and aggressive practices by traders have also been published and there is a new EU consumer directive that has to be implemented by December 2013. So quite a lot of changes hopefully for the better with less confusion and iRateiSlate will keep you up to speed as and when these things happen, so keep in contact!

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Rocketing cost of fireworks for Bonfire Night Celebrations

“Remember, Remember the Fifth of November, Gunpowder Treason and Plot”,  along with a “Penny for the Guy” (or more like a fiver if you are anything like the pint sized entrepreneur’s that trundle their wares up and down our street), means we are fast approaching Bonfire Night quicker than an exploding rocket. It also highlights the one time of year that we do actually have money to burn, as the cost of even a small family sized box of Whizz Bang Specials reaches ever growing proportions.

So I was pleasantly surprised to pick up a goodly assortment of squibs, rockets, Catherine Wheels and firecrackers at around twelve pounds less than the Recommended Retail Price (RRP) This was from a very reputable store, one of the most well-known brands of fireworks and only sold to me after I had been given a safety leaflet and confirmed that I would be storing and using said pyrotechnics in a safe and responsible manner.

How can we confirm Recommended Retail Pricing is genuine?

On the way home after picking up the flame thrower and do it yourself incendiary kit, (not true but just checking you are still reading this all the way through) I pondered on the difference between RRP and the price sold. What guarantee do we have as consumers that the RRP is say £24.99 and yet we can purchase the goods at £13.99?

The legislation states that manufacturers can only suggest a RRP which is the price they think the retailer should sell at (there is an exception being the maximum retail price on some goods under strict limitation when the manufacturer puts them “on offer”). However the RRP could be inflated and set higher by the manufacturer because they want to lure the retailer in with the thought of making a big profit, or make the retailer and the consumer think they can sell it at a reduced price or as a bargain deal.

Draft Consumer Reform Bill sparks off debates around pricing legislation

We do have legislation in place to protect us as consumers but the more I delve into the pricing legislation the more convoluted it seems to be. Fortunately we are on the verge of a draft consumer reform bill that seeks to hopefully make a lot of this legislation a lot clearer. In the meantime I will take on trust that the manufacturer’s products I support and the retailers I choose to patronize do have a responsible attitude to RRP and costs along with having the interests of the loyal consumer at heart.

So as I light the blue touch paper of debate and retire to a safe distance before the barrage of comments explodes upon the iRateiSlate site may I take this opportunity to  wish you a safe and healthy and economical November 5^th.

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