Grandmother basically robbed by lying company

A question about : Grandmother basically robbed by lying company

Hi I was wondering if anyone could give some advice to me

The situation is, my elderly grandmother received a cold call from a company last week offering to save her money on her energy bills and to find ways of further saving money by sending someone out to do a home energy audit. They told her some lies which I couldn't believe, they said she was paying too much and would be owed a rebate from her water bills of Ј850 and she could be owed a further Ј350 from her gas and electricity. NOW the company calling has no information about her bills so how on earth would they know this. SO anyway, they told her they'd need her debit card details in order to put the money in to her account. My gran, for some reason not seeing the dodgy-ness in this call - gave all her card details to this company. They told her they'd send someone out the next day to do the home energy audit.

I was obviously concerned after she told me about this phone call so I checked the company and it is a real company (since sep 2014) however the services they offer are basically being the middle man for home energy supplier switching and providing home energy audits. I read some reviews and they basically said the company was aggressive and were trying to get people to hand over their card details. On one review it said they wanted Ј300 upfront for the Home Energy Audit I have previously mentioned. So I asked my grandmother if she knew they were charging for this home energy audit and she said she didn't know they would be charging. I told her to phone and cancel the next day (as it was night when she was telling me) in case they charge her because she handed over her card details. Before she had the chance to cancel, the home energy auditors turned up at 8am. She explained her concerns to them about the charge and they told her they do not to work for the company that phoned my gran but were hired by them and she will be charged for the audit by the company that phoned her.

She checked her bank and they had indeed taken Ј300 out and of course, as expected, didn't put any of that rebate money in.

My gran is elderly and I thought she had more sense not to hand over her card details to a stranger on the phone but she did, apparently the guy who phoned her was pushy and was like how would you feel if I told you that you had Ј850 owing to you etc.

Makes me sick.

I contacted citizens advice about it and they passed the details to the local trading standards, they also suggested we write to the company asking for a refund under the '14 day cooling-off period' quoting legislation from consumer contracts (information, cancellation and additional charges).

However ^ I'm no expert but I really don't think it applies to this situation, I mean we can try and send that letter but I don't think it's suitable to the situation???

I was wondering if anyone out there could advise us on anything else we can try to obtain this money back?

Best answers:

• Unfortunately if they claim to have started the service then the cancellation will not apply. What I would so is a chargeback through the bank. Take your gran to the local branch and sit down with some one to get this sorted, a sympathetic bank employee will listen and take action.
• Unless they made it very clear indeed they would be charging her card for Ј300 then it is an unauthorised transaction.
  She should report it as fraudulent to https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/report_fraud
  There is a urban myth here that goes around the forum that once someone has your bank card details they can help themselves.
  This is totally incorrect.
  They must make it clear how much you are going to be charged and when.
  Then seek authorisation.
  A crime number from action fraud will help swing the bank in to action.
  You do have to be aware banks fob phone callers off and a very firm shouty attitude is required to get off square 1.
• If they only called her last week and your grandmother never made an express request to have the work begin before the 14 days was up, then she can still cancel. If she didnt make an express request and they havent given her the necessary information about her right to cancel - they cannot charge her anything (and the burden of proof is on them to prove they have complied with giving that information).
  Quote:
• ActionFraud is the police
  Quote: