<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?>   
		                 			<rss version="2.0">   	
						            <channel><title>Moneymagpie &gt; Blogs &gt; Rip-Off Britain </title>
									 <link>http://old.moneymagpie.com/blogs/rip-off-britain</link>
									 <description><![CDATA[ Have you been ripped off? Had a bad consumer experience that you want to get off your chest? You've come to the right blog.This is the place to let off steam about scams, swizzes and rip-offs that you've come across.  And it doesn't have to be illegal to make you angry. If you've been treated badly by your bank, had a shopping trip from hell or suffered at the hands of an airline, we want to hear from you.  If it's happened to one of us, the chances are it's happened to some of you too. If you want to tell us about your experiences, just add your comments at the bottom of this blog. ]]></description>		<language>en-uk</language>
										<pubDate>Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:26:47 CST</pubDate>
										<generator>Moneymagpie RSS Creator</generator>
										<webMaster>admin@moneymagpie.com</webMaster>
										<copyright>Copyright 2007 Moneymagpie Ltd</copyright>
										<image>
												<title>Moneymagpie</title>
												<url>http://www.moneymagpie.com/images/mmp_rss_logo.gif</url>
												<link>http://www.moneymagpie.com</link>
										</image><item><title>Complain and Gain</title><description><![CDATA[ Last year (yes, way back in November) I applied for a new fixed-rate account with Abbey National, and at the time the rate offered was 7.25%.  Obviously I wanted to snap up this deal before it was too late, so I made my application and received an initial letter asking for my ID and a cheque which I dutifully sent back immediately.  And then I waited. And waited.  After hearing nothing for ages I gave them a call. I was told there were a high volume of applications and that my information had been received and would be processed and a letter sent to me within the next three working days.  Of course, the letter never materialised. By this time it was Christmas, so I had to wait until the New Year to ring again. When I called, I was told that there was a problem with my application and that I would have to reapply for the account with the new rate of 5%.  This was amazing I thought. There&#8217;s a problem with my application, but the bank haven&#8217;t thought to tell me &#8211; they&#8217;ve]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 09 Feb 2009 12:51:44 CST</pubDate><guid>http://old.moneymagpie.com/blogpost/rip-off-britain/complain-and-gain</guid></item><item><title>Only Until Stocks Last</title><description><![CDATA[ I am cross.  I made a lunch time dash to Boots for some retail therapy -  BIG mistake  - I ended up returning to work a very, very grumpy Magpie.  I went to an Oxford Street store with the intention of using up my Advantage Card vouchers and went around filling up my basket with toiletries I neither need nor want (I had a double points thingy). As I was wondering aimlessly around I noticed a special offer on the Soap &amp; Glory range - if you spent more than £12 you got a free gift full of mini S&amp;G smellies - sounds good right?  Now Soap &amp; Glory products may be a ridiculously overpriced but they do smell gorgeous and they are pink with amusing names like the Clean on Me shower gel and the One Night Tanned spray - that's more than enough to convince me.  I happily plonked two items into my basket and looked around for the free gift. I couldn't see it so I presumed the gift would be given at the till. Then because I am a plonker I paid for my things, racked up some points (woo hoo) and]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 27 Jan 2009 10:43:34 CST</pubDate><guid>http://old.moneymagpie.com/blogpost/rip-off-britain/only-until-stocks-last</guid></item><item><title>Council Tax Rip-Off</title><description><![CDATA[ I rent out a flat in London and in February last year it was let out for three months on a short let where I charged a flat fee and covered the bills.&#160; I contacted Lewisham Council by phone, giving them my address and asking them to send me the bill for that time and I would pay it.&#160; The bill never materialised.  Life got busy, I forgot to call again and a couple of months later wrote them a letter (with my address at the top just like my mum showed me) asking them for the bill.&#160; Still nothing.&#160; And life got busier.  My service charge bills arrived at the correct address from the same council, so no problem there.&#160; I thought.&#160; November 13 th  arrived along with the council tax bill only ten months late.&#160; I read it only to see a £125 charge for court costs.&#160; So I rang the council.  It turns out they had been sending the bills to an address I lived at three years ago when I first moved out.&#160; In Devon!&#160; According to &#8211; and I mean this most]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 20 Jan 2009 9:46:52 CST</pubDate><guid>http://old.moneymagpie.com/blogpost/rip-off-britain/council-tax-rip-off</guid></item><item><title>Tax email scam</title><description><![CDATA[ ...and another scam to watch out for. Apparently small business owners and the self-employed are being sent fake &quot;phishing&quot; emails to try to trick them into handing over their bank or credit card details.   The way they hook you in is to pretend that you're owed a tax rebate. The Revenue say it's &quot;the most sophisticated and prolific scam&quot; it has dealt with. Beware!  The reason these are going out now is because we're getting close to the January 31st deadline for self-assessment forms to be sent in. This is a time when many taxpayers will be due for a rebate so a lot of people could be taken in by these nasty emails.   Apparently HMRC are being forwarded around 500 of these emails a day by concerned taxpayers. Goodness knows how many are being sent out altogether.  People are also being asked to call a phone line to leave their details. If you do that you'll hear a ringing tone, but you will be charged up to £6 a minute while you hold for a reply!   HMRC has so far had fake]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 08 Jan 2009 4:11:05 CST</pubDate><guid>http://old.moneymagpie.com/blogpost/rip-off-britain/tax-email-scam</guid></item><item><title>Watch Out - New Internet Scams</title><description><![CDATA[ The internet scammers have come up with a new money-making scheme using your email inbox &#8211; so watch out!  Matthew Wright, from Channel 5&#8217;s &#8216;The Wright Stuff&#8217; has alerted me to a new email scam that I thought I&#8217;d better tell you about.  He received an email, apparently from one of his friends, with a message along the lines of; &#8216;I&#8217;m in a Kenyan jail, please send me some money as soon as you can!&#8217;   In this case, as this friend happened to be a journalist, it wasn&#8217;t a completely unbelievable situation, and Matthew was concerned. However, as he was busy at the time he didn&#8217;t deal with it immediately.   Then, the next day he received a very similar message from another of his contacts. It turns out they were in an African jail too and also needed money wired to them urgently! This time, it was a very unlikely scenario for this particular person to be in and it became clear that it was a scam.   It&#8217;s a variation on the Nigerian scam. The]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 05 Jan 2009 2:50:29 CST</pubDate><guid>http://old.moneymagpie.com/blogpost/rip-off-britain/watch-out-new-internet-scams</guid></item><item><title>Pizza Express Christmas Menu Scandal</title><description><![CDATA[ Out at Pizza Express on Saturday night, we were offered a Christmas set menu with and amuse bouche and then three courses for £17.95.  It seemed like quite a good idea and so we were going to go for it. But I wasn't too impressed with the puddings so I decided to work out the price of everything I wanted to get to see if it was worth substituting a different dessert at the end.  To my annoyance, once I added it up I realised that if your choices fall on the cheapest options on the menu, you actually end up paying £17.95 for food that's only worth £14.95, giving Pizza Express a tasty £3 excess and that's not including the tip.  If you go for the most expensive options on the menu, you save yourself a meagre £1.75.  So, rather than perhaps opt for dishes you like less just to get this set menu, I think ditching the amuse bouche course (which is pretty small and not really worth the £2 they charge), go straight to the starters and mains and have whatever you like. The puddings are rich and big]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 16 Dec 2008 3:13:15 CST</pubDate><guid>http://old.moneymagpie.com/blogpost/rip-off-britain/pizza-express-christmas-menu-scandal</guid></item><item><title>30p makes me so mad!</title><description><![CDATA[ I can't believe I've got so worked up over 30p but it's the principle of the thing!!  I had to go to Cardiff on Sunday night (lovely place by the way - great for a weekend away). I got a cab at the station to take me to my hotel. Getting the cab was an experience - they're all in a jumble at the station and I couldn't work out why the driver who told me to pile in was the next one - he didn't seem to be next.  When we got to the hotel and he stopped the charge screen said £4.40. I had a £20 note in my purse but I knew I had a £5 note in my pocket so I searched around for it so that he wouldn't have to use up his change.  When I found it, blow me if the charge wasn't £4.70! I said 'how come?' and he said it was 'waiting time'. Waiting time!! I said how was this? I was just looking for a £5 note - that's not waiting time! I said it was not legal and how dare he. He said it was legal and I had to pay it.  I then insisted on taking his licence number and registration number which he let me do. The]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 24 Nov 2008 14:30:38 CST</pubDate><guid>http://old.moneymagpie.com/blogpost/rip-off-britain/30p-makes-me-so-mad</guid></item><item><title>Fight against consumer quality!</title><description><![CDATA[ Adding to Serena's blog about bank fees is the continuing fight against the quality of the items you buy. So many people just buy clothes, shoes, stationary, and other bits and bobs which after a week, a month, or a bit longer, just don't live up to the standards that you required when purchasing the product.  The great thing is that we do have law to cover us from being ripped-off as a consumer - check out the  Scamwatch  article for more - and I took that on with great power last week.  I'm free to admit I don't have a lot of money these days, and when I do it goes on the important things. So when four of my five pairs of new tights from Marks &amp; Spencer ripped each day I wore a pair I was not happy.  They were supposedly ladder-free, and neither pair tore in the same area, which just tells me they were flimsy all over. Granted they were the £3.50 box of cheap M&amp;S brand 15 denier tights, but they still don't say &quot;single use only&quot; or &quot;just because you buy these cheapies]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 20 Oct 2008 8:34:22 CDT</pubDate><guid>http://old.moneymagpie.com/blogpost/rip-off-britain/fight-against-consumer-quality</guid></item><item><title>Moving mayhem and madness</title><description><![CDATA[ I&#8217;ve just moved into a new flat and frankly I&#8217;ve found the whole process comparable to climbing Everest.  Everyone knows that moving is a stressful business, but my situation was certainly not helped by having the additional problem of, as my landlord put it, &#8216;the most incompetent estate agents known to man&#8217;.  They were incredibly polite and obliging right up until my flatmates and I gave them our initial deposit. As soon as they were assured of our business however, things rapidly began to go downhill.  It still pains me to go into all the infuriating details, but needless to say no-one in their office ever knew what was going on with our property. Everyone who worked there was seemingly incapable of passing on messages to their colleagues, and a lot of the time, no-one bothered to answer the phone at all.  After having crucial details (including our moving dates) frequently changed at the last minute, and then finding out from our landlord afterwards that they had]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 24 Sep 2008 8:51:50 CDT</pubDate><guid>http://old.moneymagpie.com/blogpost/rip-off-britain/moving-mayhem-and-madness</guid></item><item><title>Fight back against fees!</title><description><![CDATA[ Last week, I received a bank letter that made me angry. In fact, for a good few minutes I was huffing and puffing around my flat doing a passable impression of Victor Meldrew.  This letter informed me that my annual overdraft review had just taken place. This was a surprise in itself, as - after banking with these chaps for ten years - this was the first I'd heard of any such review.  Anyway, in a nutshell, it had been decided that my overdraft would stay the same for the next 12 months. The same amount interest-free, and the same overall limit. So no changes, no alterations.  As my overdraft suits my needs fairly well, everything in the garden seemed to be rosy. Until, that is, I got to the last sentence of the letter. A tiny phrase - nestling coyly at the bottom on the final page - told me that a £25 'arrangement fee' would be deducted from my account.  HUH? I'm being charged that for WHAT? A letter?  I spent a fruitless ten minutes on the phone to my bank's call centre, trying to pin down]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 15 Sep 2008 6:20:21 CDT</pubDate><guid>http://old.moneymagpie.com/blogpost/rip-off-britain/fight-back-against-fees</guid></item></channel></rss>
