hotlips

Hi

I wonder if anyone can give me some help or advice. I went to the Emmigrate show in York and met a lot of agents. I chose one and had a meeting with him last month. I thought the meeting was about the visa application but it turned out to be more financial advice. Anyways, the advice seemed good and I wrote out a cheque for this and one for the visa service.

I found out a couple of days later that a lot of people had problems with this particualr company so I stopped my cheques until I had found out a bit more.

I decided not to use them after all and cancelled everything.

Today I got an invoice for over £700 - for 4 hours work!

Help, what can I do? Will I have to pay?

Hotlips

HiddenPaw

did you sign any contracts with them? If not, they might find it hard to prove that you entered into a legally binding agreement. Did they tell you in advance of your meeting that the time for the initial consultation was chargeable?

good luck

anypan

I would have thought like anything there would be a cooling off period of at least 7 days.

I bet they were miffed because you found out more information about them and decided not to use them.

It's easy just tell them to take a jump. If they insist you pay ask for a complete breakdown of their fee and drag you feet well and truly.

They'll soon get fed up and give up.

Good Luck

malpjc

tell them bollocks,the thieving bastards.these are the sort of bullies that try and intimidate,don't have any of their crap.if you are worried go and see someone from citizens advice bureau

Siren & Brian

i know where i would be telling them to shove there 700.

Siren's b/h

walaj

Is this agent register with MARA, if so I am sure you will be interested in this form

Even if you do not use it, you can threaten to do so unless they send you a credit not cancelling it, as an agent is expected under the code to charge a reasonable fee for your case, which you appear to think is not the case.

The cheque you stopped I am guessing should have gone to a client account where it is your money but the person/company holds it on your behalf for furure fees/expenses. Look at anything you signed, and ask exactly the 'work' done for those 4 hrs. £175 ph is not that unreasonable charge for a senior qualified person giving advice, but have you actually received any (to be professional I would expect this to be in writing rather than totally verbal from the meeting)?

bondipom

Contact your local trading standards and your local CAB. Sounds like a scam to me as financial advisors normally rip you off through a percentage of the money you put through them.

hotlips

Hi Guys

Thanks for all your comments.

I rang the MD this morning and he says he will take another look at the invoice and see what he can do. I don't hold out much hope though.

I did sign paperwork but all I can remember it saying is that they would accept a verbal cancellation but it must be followed up with written confirmation. I rang up 6 days after the consultation and sent the letter off the same morning so at least I have done something right!

The charges were for time spent on the case since the initial consultation. Although they told us that work wouldn't start on our case until they got back to their offices 2 days after the consultation. The MD can't remember saying this though.

We have not received any advice in writing from them.

I will study the paperwork when I get home from work and look to see if there was a cooling off period. My friend says that most financial things have a cooling off period of 7 - 28 days so I might be lucky.

I don't mind paying a small fee for the time spent but £711 is absurd.

I think I will definately mention governing bodies to them and see what they say.

the invoice gives us 60 days to pay so I will just take things one step at a time.

If the outcome from the phone call tonight isn't reasonable then I will definately be contacting CAB and trading standards to see what they have to say.

hotlips