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Author Topic: Dyson ‘special offer’ telephone calls are a scam.  (Read 94076 times)

Offline DavidP

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Dyson ‘special offer’ telephone calls are a scam.
« on: December 13, 2010, 12:16:04 am »
A news item I just read:

Quote
Vacuum cleaner manufacturer Dyson is warning customers not to be sucked into a scam operating in the area.

The company has been contacted by 85 people around Reading complaining about bogus callers who claim to work for Dyson.

Owners who have been fooled by the tricksters have ended up paying more than they were quoted for shoddy workmanship, according to the company.

A Dyson spokeswoman said similar scams were operating around the country but Reading was one of the hotspots along with Leicester, Nottingham and Durham.

The company was so concerned about the extent of the scam that it took out advertisements in the Reading Post/getreading to warn customers.

James Petherbridge, head of customer service at Dyson, said: “We’re known for our strong customer care. Just as some competitors try and ape our machines, others attempt to copy our service. Regrettably, people are misled.

“We always look to take firm action against companies or individuals masquerading as Dyson representatives by working with trading standards.

“Rest assured, Dyson customer service never cold calls or passes information to third parties.”

Dyson owner Liz Grocott, who lives just outside Reading, received a call but was immediately suspicious.

She said: “This guy phoned up and said I understand you have a Dyson vacuum cleaner. He said, ‘We are doing a special offer in your area’.

“I thought, ‘Hold on a minute, this doesn’t sound like Dyson’, and asked him how he got my telephone number. He said it was from the Dyson database.

“I said this doesn’t sound very likely, this is just a sales call isn’t it?”

Ms Grocott said the caller became very rude so she hung up and called Dyson.

She said: “It’s a right racket because another friend of mine who lives in Twyford had the same thing and she just put the phone down.”

However, she added: “Elderly people or vulnerable people may well be taken in by it. It could look like a good deal but to me it seemed very implausible.”

Dyson’s spokewoman said the company will never cold call or turn up at people’s homes unless a customer has called it out.

She said the company has been made aware of 25 bogus companies and has been contacting customers personally to warn them of the scam.

She said: “If someone calls or turns up on the doorstep pretending to be from Dyson, they aren’t.

“It’s much better if customers report these calls to trading standards, but if they would rather contact us we are happy for them to call our customer service centre.”

Source


Offline MVacs

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Re: Dyson ‘special offer’ telephone calls are a scam.
« Reply #1 on: October 10, 2011, 07:09:07 pm »
This from the UK BBC Watchdog website:

Quote
This week Rogue Traders is talking vacuum cleaners - the Dyson vacuum cleaner to be exact (other brands are available). We've been looking into companies that have found a way to use your Dyson to suck money out of you, companies like ASG (Midlands) Ltd, based in Lincoln and Vac Care Ltd, based in Hampshire. Not to be confused with companies of a similar name.

These companies cold-call people and persuade them to have their Dyson serviced in their own home. But once their foot's in the door, they try to flog you parts - parts you may not need.

We've spoken to a number of disgruntled Dyson customers, including Yvonne Peacock who let ASG (Midlands) Ltd service her vacuum and replace the HEPA filter on her machine. Our Domestic Appliance expert, Graham Watkinson took a look at Yvonne's machine, and told us that ASG replaced her HEPA filter with a part that wouldn't collect the particles that can make a person cough or wheeze - particularly important for Yvonne as her son has asthma.

We also talked to Bill North who had his machine serviced by Vac Care Ltd. At the time it was covered by a warranty, but that was about to end when Vac Care put new filters into Bill's machine and told him it needed a new roller. Our expert Graham told us that not only had Vac Care fitted a copy brush to Bill's machine, but it was also designed for a different model.

That's not such great news for Bill, but we do have some better news which comes in the shape of Joyce Bissell from Surrey. A Vac Care Ltd engineer tried to sell her a new filter for £25, but quick-thinking Joyce checked Dyson's website, found a similar item available for less than £14 and sent him on his way.

So it would seem that all of this was the result of incompetent 'engineers', inferior parts and overcharging. We could go on, and so could our list of complainants. In fact, a constant stream of them have been calling Dyson themselves. And not just about the two companies we've mentioned. This cold-calling-and-servicing wheeze is happening all over the country. We needed someone to fill us in on this and who better than the man himself, Sir James Dyson. Sir James told us that they've heard from 2000 customers about cold calling companies.

So it was time to take action! We lined up a vacuum cleaner, an actress, and some hidden cameras and invited both companies to service a vacuum cleaner of our own. Our expert Graham had given both of our machines the all clear so we knew we didn't need any new parts on our vacuum cleaners. But would the reps agree?

First up, ASG Midlands Ltd of Lincoln. When we called for an appointment they told us their service costs just £15. But ASG's rep tells our homeowner that she has a clogged up filter and immediately recommends a new one. She also recommends a new motor filter telling us "that it gets so blocked that you can't, it can't get anymore, that's when it starts getting hot, and then overheating then eventually the motor blows up". She goes on to say "that is massively important because if this fails you're looking at a lot of money". She also goes on to say that our brush needs replacing, even though all it needs is a clean. This visit cost us £89.96. This includes £70 for parts that we didn't need, and that in fact cost us 40 % more than if we'd bought them from Dyson or an independent retailer. At least this company sold us genuine Dyson parts.

So the service turned out to be not much more than paying someone £15 to sit in our living room, polish our vacuum and look for blockages, and of course listen to them lie about why needed to spend more money.

Now for Hampshire based Vac Care Ltd. We spoke to a couple of their unhappy customers earlier but since then, boss Mark Henderson has shut up shop and is now running Vac Service UK Ltd from the same address. His business is not connected to Lincoln based ASG (Midlands) but their M.O. is very similar.

We've invited one of the Vac Service UK Ltd's reps to our wired-up house, and their approach seems to have a very similar ring to it. Although it starts off well with the rep mentioning that filters could be washed he then tells our homeowner that we need a new filter. Then they tell us that our roller needs replacing. The total cost is £70, including £50 for parts that, as before, we didn't need. And on this visit the rep promised to post our parts out to us, however five weeks later our brush and filter still hadn't arrived. Vac Service UK Ltd have now sent us a refund.

As we said before, Vac Service UK Ltd of Hampshire and ASG Midlands Ltd are not connected, but we do know of another company that there have been complaints about. They're called TSC Midlands Ltd and they share a website with ASG.

Before TSC (Midlands) Ltd can sell you parts, they have to get into your house, and to do that they cold-call. It's time to send someone in undercover and we have vacuum expert Graham and lawyer Andy Millmore on hand to give their expert opinions.

Our researcher Rebecca gets a job in TSC's telesales centre. Teaching her the ropes is call centre trainer Rob, who we secretly film cold-calling customers. First up - how do TSC get your number? It turns out it's from the phone book. Well if one in every three households has a Dyson, there's a fair chance whoever they call will be an owner. They don't tell them the number comes from the directory, though.

With the F section of the phone book in hand, Rob begins working through the names. He tells the customer he's calling from the "Independent Dyson Centre" and that "it's popped up on their system that you haven't had a service with us on your Dyson yet". But hang on, they don't even know she has a Dyson, let alone have a system for the customers name to pop up on.

Rob then advises the customer that Dysons should be serviced at least every 1 -2 years. However, our expert Graham says this is not what the manufacturer recommends.

And how much is this service going to cost us? Rob tells the customer that the service is on special promotion for £15. However, he tells our researcher that "it's just a sales pitch, it's never £40, it's £15. It's what you say to get them onside basically". According to our lawyer, Andy, this sales tactic is a classic breach of Consumer Regulations.

Rob goes on to tell the customer a "specialist engineer" will come to her house to carry out the service. But he reveals to Rebecca what the engineers actually have to do on a visit "don't tell the customers this but when the engineers go out they have to then do their own sales and sell them parts, so it could be £15 for a service but the customer could pay anything from £15 to maybe £70". He goes on to say this cross-selling and upselling happens every time.

Selling is what ALL TSC's so-called engineers have to do to make a living. Another of our moles discovered that they're only paid commission- the company even charges them for using its vans. After meeting Tom Scoffin - the Director of TSC, our second mole is out on the road with another TSC operative - Jeremy. He's trying to sell the part that makes a vacuum's roller brush spin; the clutch. His customer is an elderly lady whose machine is still under guarantee, not that Jeremy bothers to check. He tells her she needs to change her clutch every 3 - 4 years. But we know that this is not what Dyson recommend. In fact, if the elderly lady's clutch was on the blink she'd be eligible for a new one from Dyson, as her vacuum's still covered by their guarantee. But Jeremy flogs her a new one anyway, along with two filters and a roller brush for a total cost of £99.96.

So why do people get when they let TSC (Midlands) Ltd into their homes? We wanted expert Graham's opinion so we showed him the cold-call that Rob made and then showed him all our footage of the ten service appointments we filmed whilst undercover.

During the phone call, Rob says that the engineer will strip down the Dyson to the motor and carry out a complete safety electrical check. But Graham hasn't seen either of these claims put into practice on any of the appointments. In fact, Graham says they haven't done any safety electrical tests, which could be very dangerous.

We did see TSC carry follow through on some of their promises such as taking the hoses off, steam cleaning the machine and checking for blockages. However, they also promised to add sweet smelling pellets but we only saw that happen occasionally. The final promise was a written service report but this turned out to be just the invoice. So what else didn't they do?

Our expert Graham tells us that the reps didn't seem to test the parts before they recommended a replacement and said "I believe they just put parts in for the sake of it".

Since we contacted the company they say that they're grateful to us for pointing out room for improvement in certain aspects of their service. They also say they've amended the telephone script, restructured the telesales department and supervise staff more closely.

Which is all very well but we still don't know why they don't carry out a proper electrical safety checks and why they don't check properly before they sell you a new filter and new clutch or a new brush. So we head to TSC's HQ in the hope of meeting the Director Tom Scoffin. But when we get there he's nowhere to be seen so we speak to a senior manager Craig McAllister instead. Craig tells us that TSC now have Portable Appliance Testing kits before locking the door of the office.

So if you receive a call from someone out of the blue asking how your vacuum cleaner is think very carefully about it.

Source

Offline MVacs

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Re: Dyson ‘special offer’ telephone calls are a scam.
« Reply #2 on: January 12, 2012, 05:40:30 pm »
Quote from: BBC Watchdog
]
we do know of another company that there have been complaints about. They're called TSC Midlands Ltd and they share a website with ASG.

Before TSC (Midlands) Ltd can sell you parts, they have to get into your house, and to do that they cold-call. It's time to send someone in undercover and we have vacuum expert Graham and lawyer Andy Millmore on hand to give their expert opinions.

Our researcher Rebecca gets a job in TSC's telesales centre. Teaching her the ropes is call centre trainer Rob, who we secretly film cold-calling customers. First up - how do TSC get your number? It turns out it's from the phone book. Well if one in every three households has a Dyson, there's a fair chance whoever they call will be an owner. They don't tell them the number comes from the directory, though.

With the F section of the phone book in hand, Rob begins working through the names. He tells the customer he's calling from the "Independent Dyson Centre" and that "it's popped up on their system that you haven't had a service with us on your Dyson yet". But hang on, they don't even know she has a Dyson, let alone have a system for the customers name to pop up on.

Rob then advises the customer that Dysons should be serviced at least every 1 -2 years. However, our expert Graham says this is not what the manufacturer recommends.

And how much is this service going to cost us? Rob tells the customer that the service is on special promotion for £15. However, he tells our researcher that "it's just a sales pitch, it's never £40, it's £15. It's what you say to get them onside basically". According to our lawyer, Andy, this sales tactic is a classic breach of Consumer Regulations.

Rob goes on to tell the customer a "specialist engineer" will come to her house to carry out the service. But he reveals to Rebecca what the engineers actually have to do on a visit "don't tell the customers this but when the engineers go out they have to then do their own sales and sell them parts, so it could be £15 for a service but the customer could pay anything from £15 to maybe £70". He goes on to say this cross-selling and upselling happens every time.

Selling is what ALL TSC's so-called engineers have to do to make a living. Another of our moles discovered that they're only paid commission- the company even charges them for using its vans. After meeting Tom Scoffin - the Director of TSC, our second mole is out on the road with another TSC operative - Jeremy. He's trying to sell the part that makes a vacuum's roller brush spin; the clutch. His customer is an elderly lady whose machine is still under guarantee, not that Jeremy bothers to check. He tells her she needs to change her clutch every 3 - 4 years. But we know that this is not what Dyson recommend. In fact, if the elderly lady's clutch was on the blink she'd be eligible for a new one from Dyson, as her vacuum's still covered by their guarantee. But Jeremy flogs her a new one anyway, along with two filters and a roller brush for a total cost of £99.96.

So why do people get when they let TSC (Midlands) Ltd into their homes? We wanted expert Graham's opinion so we showed him the cold-call that Rob made and then showed him all our footage of the ten service appointments we filmed whilst undercover.

During the phone call, Rob says that the engineer will strip down the Dyson to the motor and carry out a complete safety electrical check. But Graham hasn't seen either of these claims put into practice on any of the appointments. In fact, Graham says they haven't done any safety electrical tests, which could be very dangerous.

We can report an interesting twist on this story today.

A few days ago, an elderly couple in their 80's/90's bought a reconditioned Dyson from us. The lady had a couple of questions and called our shop yesterday when we were closed, but left a message on our machine. We hadn't gotten around to calling her back yet today when she called the shop and asked for "Mandy" - well, we don't have a Mandy. She told our Claire that our guy was at her house asking to come in and she wanted to check he was really from us. Nobody from our shop was at her house so she ended up quickly on the phone to me having asked the guy to wait a few minutes.

While we were closed, she received a call from "Mandy" at the "Dyson Service Centre" asking about her Dyson. Thinking it was us returning her message, she responded in the positive. "Mandy" arranged for an engineer to come out today to look at her machine. The lady thought it odd because "Mandy" mentioned that she was calling from the Leeds office and our lady didn't really ask for a call out, she just had a few questions about emptying her new machine. She assumed we had a Leeds office too, and didn't think much about it.

Today the chap arrived, and only because he drove a plain small white van, and ours are large and sign-written, and as she hadn't seen him in our shop (all the family have bought from us over time) during her visits, she smelled a rat and called us before she let him in.

"He's waiting outside. What shall I tell him?" she asked. I said to leave him there and we would be there momentarily. As it happens, this lady lives a two minute drive from our shop, so I grabbed two available chaps and a camera from our shop, we dived in a van and sped round there as fast as we could. I was hoping to be able to publish some interesting photos.

The law of sod dictates that as we did a theatrical stop outside her house, the guy wasn't there! The lady came out and said he had just driven off, and pointed us in the direction. So, off we went to see if we could find the fellow. We did find a chap in a small white van as described, but it was the wrong man. We lost the would be scammer who imagined he would prey on a couple of pensioners.

Offline MVacs

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Re: Dyson ‘special offer’ telephone calls are a scam.
« Reply #3 on: January 12, 2012, 06:04:23 pm »
So, how many of these Dyson cold call companies can there be in Leeds? I did some Googling.

Vacservicing (Leeds) Ltd is the first one I found, operating from a website vacservicing.co.uk

Company Information

Registration Date: 26/08/2010
Registration Number: 07358071
2A GRANT AVENUE,
LEEDS
YORKS
LS7 1RQ
Tel: 0113 322 7721

This is a newish company only being little over a year old.

At the same address and/or seemingly connected is:

TSC (Midlands) Ltd
KB Midlands
ASG Midlands.
TSG Midlands.
KDA (UK) Ltd

So it would appear there is a little network of these places. However, to be sure that there is no mistaken identity here, we want to know if they have a Mandy don't we? We called them today and asked for "Mandy" - she wasn't working today. Busted.

I think its appalling that these people get away with fudging who they represent and bamboozling people like this elderly couple into arranging a "home visit" they didn't need or ask for. Thankfully, the lady they got today was sharper than many ladies in her 80's and didn't fall for the gag. However, what if she had been less than sharp? That could have been another victim handing over £100 for non-existent faults on a machine she had had only a few days.

I guess its unfortunate for these guys that they attempted to prey on one of our customers who spotted their gag before the guy got through the front door.

Beware people who cold call you offering Dyson servicing!


Offline bluebumble485

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Re: Dyson ‘special offer’ telephone calls are a scam.
« Reply #4 on: January 13, 2012, 07:52:01 pm »
its strange we have had 2 calls about the dyson service for £15
just thought it was a company desperate for work never thought it was a con
i did say to my wife what are they doing for the £15 the person on phone said a full service thanks for the post
i will pass it on about the con
steve

Offline MVacs

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Re: Dyson ‘special offer’ telephone calls are a scam.
« Reply #5 on: January 21, 2012, 02:51:46 pm »
Speaking of Dyson scammers, it came to our attention this week that one local chap has set up some websites that are plagiarised versions of our main site. Even going so far as to emulate the union jacks we use on our homepage and the blue/orange design and fonts we use.

He is one these "repair in your home" types who has no premises.  :coffee:

Clearly, he has never heard of the term "passing off" - well, he likely hadn't until we wrote to him outlining the content theft and demanding he remove the illegal content. He has a few days to comply or we start to point lawyers at him.

Unfortunately, people have stolen content from our sites before. He isn't the first, I doubt he will be the last.

Offline MVacs

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Re: Dyson ‘special offer’ telephone calls are a scam.
« Reply #6 on: March 06, 2012, 04:21:26 pm »
I was just looking for something on Dyson's website, and there is a warning on there about bogus cold call repair companies:

Quote from: Dyson
If someone calls you to talk about your Dyson vacuum, check that they're from Dyson. Unauthorised companies are cold-calling UK households - offering to carry out service or repair work. Because we are the UK's best-selling vacuum manufacturer, there's a one in three chance they will speak to a Dyson owner.

Unscrupulous sales tactics

Some unscrupulous businesses are making speculative calls offering cheap services. They offer to service Dyson vacuums for sums as little as £20. However, customers have told us that these visits actually end up costing them up to £150. Poor workmanship carried out by these engineers can also invalidate your guarantee. They regularly use fake parts that don't function properly and can cause damage that won't be covered by your guarantee. There are even examples where the visitor has sabotaged Dyson vacuums in order to sell new machines.

If you think you have been contacted by a bogus engineer, or would like some help or advice, please email askdyson@dyson.co.uk or call a Dyson expert free on 0800 298 0298 (7am - 10pm, 7 days a week). The information we gather helps us build legal cases against companies employing misleading or fraudulent business practices. We also work with Trading Standards to stop companies operating illegally.

Offline Mike Aberdeen

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Re: Dyson ‘special offer’ telephone calls are a scam.
« Reply #7 on: May 04, 2012, 08:31:09 pm »
Again in the news:

Dyson customers dish the dirt

Over 1,400 Dyson customers conned by bogus "official" repair firms into expensive vacuum services they do not need


Warwick Dixon was among Dyson customers contacted by unauthorised firms offering to service his vacuum cleaner.

Dyson has this week revealed that hundreds of its customers have recently been the victims of bogus "official" repair firms who are using high-pressure tactics to sell them replacement parts for their vacuum cleaners that they do not need, and overcharging for poor-quality work.

The company says it has so far identified 1,480 people who in the last 12 months have found themselves conned into using a repair service from companies masquerading as official Dyson engineers. There could well be many others who have not yet come forward.

An estimated 25 companies are cold-calling people and offering to service Dysons – and then often charging unsuspecting owners hidden additional costs. Many people, as they are at home to take the calls, are elderly, frail or housebound.

Just before Christmas, Warwick Dixon received a phone call out of the blue at home reminding him that his Dyson vacuum cleaner was due for a service, and offering it at a special half-price rate of £19.99. The DC07 upright-style cleaner was eight years old and, though no longer covered by the original guarantee, still working as well as when it was brand new.

The 75-year-old retired lecturer thought it odd as he had not requested a service but as he was planning to clean the existing foam filter anyway, he decided to take advantage of the offer. It was an attractive deal given that Dyson's standard repair service for machines beyond their guarantee is £69.

But when the engineer, "Chris", turned up at Dixon's home in Dartford, Kent, the following day, he insisted that the machine needed two new filters and a new brush – and charged him £89.96. Chris also tried to persuade him to take out an annual service contract.

"It was all very strange," recalls Dixon. "I had got the very strong impression from the original phone call that the company was connected with Dyson. He claimed the company he worked for shared a database of customers with Dyson."

When Chris left, Dixon phoned Dyson's customer services department, which later confirmed that Chris (and his firm) was not an engineer authorised by the company. In addition, the parts fitted were not genuine Dyson spare parts, and when Dixon retrieved his old filter from the dustbin, cleaned it and refitted it, he found the machine worked perfectly. Dixon was unsettled by the experience – and subsequently got his money back. He has since found out that he is far from alone.

Although Dyson owners across the UK have been targeted, the firm has identified a number of regional hotspots where large numbers have been affected, including Reading, Leicester, Nottingham, Durham and Belfast.

Dyson says that in many cases customers are being charged more than originally quoted for the service – up to £150 – which is often carried out to a poor standard or with non-genuine parts. Some are offered other products to buy which they do not need. Repair work of this kind involving non-approved Dyson parts can invalidate people's guarantees.

The company believes households are being contacted at random, in the hope they have a Dyson appliance, before being told their vacuum cleaner requires servicing. And it says if someone calls or turns up saying they are from Dyson, they are not. A spokeswoman says: "We don't authorise anyone who isn't a fully trained Dyson field service engineer to repair our machines. This includes independent repair companies such as the ones operating these scams."

It says its national network of 150 service engineers never cold-call and never visit homes unless the customer has contacted them. Only a Dyson engineer will have a van full of genuine Dyson parts and he or she will also wear an easily recognisable uniform.

Dixon later contacted the company that came to his house and managed to get his payment refunded after changing his mind within seven days. But he felt strongly that he wanted to publicise what had happened. "I was definitely misled about there being a connection with Dyson. I was sold parts that were clearly not needed, and in a 20-minute call-out I was nearly conned out of £135. I feel sorry for Sir James Dyson, that his name is being used for other people's gain. I stood my ground but I am worried there are many people not able to do that."

The Guardian tracked down the Sussex firm that serviced Dixon's appliance. It insisted it had done nothing wrong and had not broken the law. Its managing director told us he is in the process of seeking "authorisation" from Dyson, even though Dyson says only its team of field service engineers are fully trained and approved to carry out repairs.

Robert Bailey, of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, had a similar experience last summer. Bailey, 73, received a letter from a third-party company offering him a full service for his Dyson for £25. The machine was only two years old, but Bailey told Money: "I didn't think it was an unreasonable deal, so I rang them back and made an appointment."

The engineer visited to give him a service, and "by implication" he says he thought they represented Dyson. The engineer fitted what he claimed to be genuine Dyson parts – and charged him nearly £50 for them – but they turned out not to be. Bailey later threatened legal action against the company, at which point it provided him with a new Dyson machine.

Contacted by Money, the Yorkshire-based firm claimed it had "amended" its telephone script "to ensure customers are aware we are a totally independent company".

However, Dyson says: "We are not aware of any changes made to the script … and we have continued to see high volumes of calls into our call centre about this company."

The manufacturer says it is working with council trading standards officers to stop companies misleading customers. In a number of cases this has been successful, only for the firms to close and then reopen under different names. Dyson has been contacting all registered owners with advice to be vigilant, and taking out adverts in local newspapers.

The spokeswoman says: "We're approaching the third-party companies and working with trading standards to review their call scripts. We have contacted nine companies (the ones generating the most calls to our helpline) about copyright infringement, trademark infringement and passing off. The scripts need to mention at least twice that the company cold-calling is not related to Dyson. The difficulty is making sure the scripts are adhered to."

Source

Offline TDP

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Re: Dyson ‘special offer’ telephone calls are a scam.
« Reply #8 on: September 04, 2012, 11:22:54 pm »

Sorry to drag up such an old thread, I am a newbie to the forum and I have joined mainly because I was caught up in this scam a few years back and I would also like to express my concerns over the scammers fresh approach in the Manchester area. They are now advertising on yell.com and in the gumtree Manchester region, with the familiar £15 Promotional service offer dupe,  after some digging about in the company checks, it also operates under the names, Vacservicing Ltd,  Unitech Servicing Ltd and Excel Servicing Ltd, which is now registered from 20/06/12 to a fresh faced director (Reg Num:08009276), all the above companies are mentioned on their vacservicing.co.uk web site, under the service plan terms and conditions.

I am also able to confirm with out doubt and first hand, that this scam has direct links to another main brand vacuum cleaner, there was also a Stockport depot and there are others in the UK and Ireland, for the people in the know you might be able to figure.

What, if anything, can be done to stop this merry dance of the good old British law system...

Offline MVacs

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Re: Dyson ‘special offer’ telephone calls are a scam.
« Reply #9 on: September 05, 2012, 07:13:29 pm »
Strong info TDP. Thanks for that.  :tiphat:

What is the other brand they are targeting?

Offline TDP

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Re: Dyson ‘special offer’ telephone calls are a scam.
« Reply #10 on: September 05, 2012, 09:36:00 pm »
Just to make it clear they are not targeting another main brand, they are in fact an unofficial division of the Kirby brand, the idea was first pioneered at their Kirby depot in Ireland and then several Kirby counter parts in Britain have followed this business model since. I don't know if Watch dog was aware of this information during the making of their documentary or may be they were not at liberty to air it. I do however have all the evidence to support 100% of these facts and more. 

Offline bluebumble485

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Re: Dyson ‘special offer’ telephone calls are a scam.
« Reply #11 on: October 28, 2012, 08:46:02 pm »
dyson scam is still going my wife was phoned on friday to see if our dyson needed servicing
she said we had not got one they put phone down looked after withheld number
so its still going on beware

Offline MVOlga

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Re: Dyson ‘special offer’ telephone calls are a scam.
« Reply #12 on: October 29, 2012, 12:12:37 am »
dyson scam is still going my wife was phoned on friday to see if our dyson needed servicing
she said we had not got one they put phone down looked after withheld number
so its still going on beware

Did they say where they were from or which company?

Offline mansfieldvacuums

  • Member
  • Posts: 6
  • Country: gb
  • Gender: Male
Re: Dyson ‘special offer’ telephone calls are a scam.
« Reply #13 on: November 04, 2012, 05:01:58 pm »
There's a few rogues operating around here (Notts), they operate by advertising a "full serving in your own home for £15" and "no extra charge for any repair work found to be required", then of course overcharge on parts that don't need replacing at all  ::)
It's terrible for our business because it means customers are reluctant to trust independents and go direct to Dyson  :'(

Offline gillette

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  • Posts: 1
Re: Dyson ‘special offer’ telephone calls are a scam.
« Reply #14 on: June 17, 2013, 03:10:02 pm »
So, how many of these Dyson cold call companies can there be in Leeds? I did some Googling.

Vacservicing (Leeds) Ltd is the first one I found, operating from a website vacservicing.co.uk

Company Information

Registration Date: 26/08/2010
Registration Number: 07358071
2A GRANT AVENUE,
LEEDS
YORKS
LS7 1RQ
Tel: 0113 322 7721

This is a newish company only being little over a year old.

At the same address and/or seemingly connected is:

TSC (Midlands) Ltd
KB Midlands
ASG Midlands.
TSG Midlands.
KDA (UK) Ltd

So it would appear there is a little network of these places. However, to be sure that there is no mistaken identity here, we want to know if they have a Mandy don't we? We called them today and asked for "Mandy" - she wasn't working today. Busted. (Attachment Link)

I think its appalling that these people get away with fudging who they represent and bamboozling people like this elderly couple into arranging a "home visit" they didn't need or ask for. Thankfully, the lady they got today was sharper than many ladies in her 80's and didn't fall for the gag. However, what if she had been less than sharp? That could have been another victim handing over £100 for non-existent faults on a machine she had had only a few days.

I guess its unfortunate for these guys that they attempted to prey on one of our customers who spotted their gag before the guy got through the front door.

Beware people who cold call you offering Dyson servicing! They are Now Called Excel Servicing from Leeds and Still Conning The old Folk I Know I use to work For them thats why I left

 

 

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