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CB Automotive and Vehicles Motor Trades.co.uk Using this company and their services was the worst days work i have done and a complete waste of money
Motor Trades.co.uk

Motor Trades.co.uk review: Using this company and their services was the worst days work i have done and a complete waste of money 117

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Author of the review
6:00 pm EDT
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This review was chosen algorithmically as the most valued customer feedback.

I too signed up with this company after they gave me a phone call out of the blue. They eventually convinced to take out advertising with them claiming that they would boost my call volume and therefore my business, promised me thousands of extras calls a month etc. Different staff phoned within days changing the contract as I thought but then said I had agreed to three seperate contracts! I can count the number of extra phone calls i have recieved on one finger!

This aside the main problem i have had with them is there complete lack of customer service and attention to detail, I have had money taken from my credit card that was not authorised, endless phones call & emails etc. It took ages to rectify the problems. I agreed to one contract in the end.

What a complete and utter joke of a company. Using this company and their services was the worst days work i have done and a complete waste of money. Poor service and non existent customer services.

117 comments
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Customer Services1
Brentwood, GB
Aug 30, 2012 2:50 am EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Dear Mr Smith, (Huddersfield) DR KA

Regarding your posting of earlier today, 30 August, we take objection to the grave libel published in your statement.

We have asked our Solicitors, Sanders Witherspoon LLP to review your postings and where necessary take action.

The business was established in 2007, has around 380, 000 listings online. Our sales process is fully compliant with Business to Business legislation, our terms and conditions being approved by Trading Standards.

Our contracts are legally binding and are issued electronically. An e-signature is a legally binding instrument and is covered by the electronic communications act (2000);

We record all telephone calls of orders being confirmed and in order to be billed, you will be required to confirm the order by both a recorded call and a signed agreement.

With regards to your comments re our registered office.

This is the registered office of the business and is the office of our accountants.

Mr Smith, if you have a specific query that we can help with, please contact operations.manager@motortrades.co.uk quoting your agreement number and a member of the team will be happy to assist but we should put you on notice by way of this forum that we shall not hesitate to issue proceedings should further libellous statements be published by you.

Yours faithfully

Operations
[protected] extension 7803

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dAVE sMITH 1980
Huddersfield, GB
Aug 30, 2012 2:24 am EDT

Just some advice for scammed and fraud ed motortrades customers. I have found these people everyone who has been ripped off by motortrades.co.uk. should be in contact with them asap. They are aware of motortrades and there practice's.THEY ARE COMMITTING FRAUD NO MATTER WHAT THEY SAY!
www.actionfraud.police.uk The contact number for them is [protected]
You will be asked some basic info of the fraud committed and the information is passed direct to the Police force. The more People report them the more likely these con artists will be taken out of business.
Note to all people: Whatever contract that motortrades say you have with them, you it is null and void and not legally binding. The only thing they can do is put a ccj on you but I advise you have that ccj moved to your local court pay the fee £90-£100 to have the judgement set aside and your case will be heard. Motortrades will lose everytime hands down. All the stories you here of them about there legal team is a load of Tosh.

These guys are the directors of motortrades.co.uk.
Mr Roger Jakes
Mr Stephen Jakes
This is the so called address of the company. If you have a look on google street view you will notice it's just a rund down house in Essex where multiple scam businesses can run from. Very suspicious.
THE COACH HOUSE BADDOW PARK
WEST HANNINGFIELD ROAD GREAT BADDOW
CHELMSFORD
ESSEX
CM2 7SY
Here is a list of Roger's dodgy scam companies. Note a lot of these businesses have the same addres but with a play on the first name of the house.
UFINDALOCAL.COM LIMITED Active
MT INTERNET LIMITED Active
MOTORTRADES CENTRAL SERVICES LTD Active
DUDDENHILL LTD Active
MOTORTRADES LIMITED Active
MOTORTRADES LIMITED Active
INFO SEARCHER SERVICES LIMITED Dissolved
INFO SEARCHER PLC Dissolved
INFO SEARCHER GROUP LIMITED Dissolved

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Customer Services1
Brentwood, GB
Aug 10, 2012 9:49 am EDT
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Dear Andrius

Re your posting of earlier today and to make things absolutely clear. You made multiple orders with us; you confirmed each order by way of a recorded telephone call and then either accepted the order by email or signed an electronic agreement.

You have exchanged many emails with us today including making a promise to make a payment to us which has not materialised.

We are happy to upload your call recordings to this forum with your permission and also provide links to your signed agreements so that readers of this forum can see that you have entered into the contractual obligations with us and that we have raised your orders correctly.

If you wish to escalate this matter with our Operations Manager you are more than welcome to do so.

He can be reached at operations.manager@motortrades.co.uk

Thanks,

Motortrades

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andrius
dagenham, GB
Aug 10, 2012 9:39 am EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

be aware of this company (motortrades ltd) they were offering me advert on they web site, and was ringing me every day with a new agreement, I thought the previous agreements will be cancelled, but not. they never explain me how much i have to pay in total, every time it was new agreement... with the small amount .. On the final i have to pay them 11.000 over 15 months. be aware and never sign anything for them !

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Customer Services1
Brentwood, GB
Jun 13, 2012 10:06 am EDT
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Dear Mr Shah

Thanks for your posting, we’re pleased to hear that your campaign generated enquiries, and we’d like to see what we can do to help with a lower quote for your renewal.

If you email operations.manager@motortrades.co.uk quoting your agreement number, we’ll come back to you tomorrow with our best price for the next 12 months, however, in order to be billed you will need to sign our standard agreement, but we can opt your order out of automatic renewal for future years.

Thanks,

Customer Operations

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mr shah
Birmingham, GB
Jun 13, 2012 9:57 am EDT

As in all of the cases read, mine is the same. But i have found that motor trades did in fact bring me enquires to the services i purchased off them, whether they converted into sales is a different matter. They are very very aggressive BEWARE!. I previously have worked within the telemarketing industry and have a good understanding of how these sorts of companies operate. PLEASE DO NOT SIGN ANYTHING FROM THEM! as they will hold you to their terms and conditions. Thusly charge you an extortionate rate on the second year. I didn't digitally sign anything from them and will not in the future. However if they offer me the same rate for year 2 and provide me with a service like they have provided me with in year 1, i will continue to use them, or on the other-hand I could go one of their competitors. I URGE YOU TO NOT SIGN ANYTHING! IF MOTOR TRADES.CO.UK... BUT YOU WILL GET Enquiries.

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Customer Services1
Brentwood, GB
May 22, 2012 4:33 pm EDT
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Dear Katy Wills

You will be aware that Solicitors have been instructed by us on the matter of your various postings dated 13, 14 and 15 May 2012 which constitute a grave libel upon us.

You will have received a letter from Sanders Witherspoon LLP dated 18 May 2012 ref AFT.13770/16.

Further more they continue to monitor postings on this forum and further postings made by you.

Complaints Board is a great avenue for customers to detail their experiences with a business or a recent transaction but should not be used to publish matters which are untrue and without foundation.

If any Customers have any outstanding queries, please escalate the complaint or issue directly by email to operations.manager@motortrades.co.uk

Yours faithfully

Customer Operations

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katywills
Wrexham, GB
May 15, 2012 5:41 pm EDT

Banks are aware of this company due to them being on watchdog!

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katywills
Wrexham, GB
May 15, 2012 5:38 pm EDT

more bully tactics i see! get in contact so you can be intimidated further by the crooks absolutely not, love it! got to give it to them they are good at what they reply with, yet more scare tactics! see you in court, We look forward to it! Love to put a face to the vile customer service/Operations team.

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Customer Services1
Brentwood, GB
May 15, 2012 5:19 pm EDT
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Dear Sirs

The facts remain that an order was singed and the terms signed authorise us to charge the card that you paid with previously for the prior two orders. We have provided your bank with a copy of the signed agreement and the conversation we have had with your card issuer is very different from the report in your posting.

Despite us asking you to make direct contact you chose not to do so and on this basis we have spoken to your bank to demonstrate that the order was signed correctly.

Regards,

Operations Team

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katywills
Wrexham, GB
May 15, 2012 4:57 pm EDT

Also love the way such a professional multimillion ££££ company never give a name always customer services! Even BT (who are also a professional million£££ company, who we advertise with on a yearly basis, who we have never ever had any vile communication with and have always been reasonable) give a name of contact on their emails and letters. Probably because they are trust worthy. Lets get this campaign rolling

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katywills
Wrexham, GB
May 15, 2012 4:47 pm EDT

For others reading this, the above reply is absolutely not true, they have used a card without the consent of the person written on the card, thank the lord the bank have put the money back into our account and have contacted the police to investigate, they have also pointed out that they understand that i am not happy with their decision not to issue a full refund, hmmmm I think their recorded telephone conversations will show I did not ask for a refund! Why would I, when consent was never given from the person in the first place to take the money from the named card! We need to all pull together to stop this happening to other small business's, because I am very aware that others will not no what to do. I have many ideas and am willing to put the hard work in to stop this from happening again so please get in contact if you want to help. Lets put a stop to being ripped off.

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Customer Services1
Brentwood, GB
May 15, 2012 2:33 am EDT
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Dear Katy

Order [protected]

Further to your recent posting, the terms and conditions that Mr Wayne Williams signed authorised us to charge the same Corporate Debit Card that had previously been used to order and pay for orders [protected] and [protected] also in the name of your business.

Yours faithfully

Operations Team

Operations.manager@motortrades.co.uk

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katywills
Wrexham, GB
May 15, 2012 2:14 am EDT

This will definately be our last direct communication with you but we thought that you may need to be aware that the card that you took the payment from was a card belonging to someone else and not to Mr Wayne Williams, therefore he could not possibly have given any permission for this particular card to be used as he would not have had the authorisation to do so. What a pity the person who harrassed the life out of Mr Wayne Williams did not think to check that any details of a card you held from last year actually did belong to him.

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Customer Services1
Brentwood, GB
May 15, 2012 12:18 am EDT
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Dear Katy

Order [protected]

And to clarify your most recent posting, we do not have the ability to “hack into emails” – the information that we have reported on the agreement being reviewed in your email is summarised in your signed agreement.

Page 63 of the agreement contains your invoice and page 64 contains an audit trail which shows the dates and times that the agreement was issued, reviewed and signed.

We do not have the ability to and would not be interested in monitoring any of your emails.

Yours faithfully

Customer Operations
Operations.manager@motortrades.co.uk

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Customer Services1
Brentwood, GB
May 15, 2012 12:13 am EDT
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Dear Katy

Order [protected]

We appreciate that you remain unhappy with the decision not to issue a refund against your order, but the facts remain that your business confirmed an order by way of signing an electronic agreement, which is what lead to your business being billed.

When you open the electronic agreement, there is a facility to either “accept and sign” or to “refuse and cancel” and in your particular case the agreement was emailed out for consideration on 09 May timed 1032, it was downloaded and reviewed at 1206 and the decision was taken to accept and sign the agreement at 1208.

We then billed you at 1538.

Our sales process is fully compliant with the Business to Business legislation laid down by the Office of Fair Trading and BERR and we follow all advice laid down by Consumer Direct and Trading Standards with regards to Business to Business sales.

We will be more than happy to discuss your complaint with any third party should we be approached.

Yours faithfully

Customer Operations
Operations.manager@motortrades.co.uk

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katywills
Wrexham, GB
May 14, 2012 11:56 pm EDT

also to let others know they have the facility to hack into emails

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katywills
Wrexham, GB
May 14, 2012 11:54 pm EDT

no as i said before our solicitor will be in touch for all voice recordings, to stop further intimidation and bully boy sales tactics! police have also been notified by the fraud team at our bank so all being well you should get the communication that you are requesting via our solictor and the fraud investigation team. I have been researching you further and it really is a sham just glad we have read all the feedback on all the sites very interesting reading even the bank was shocked by the google searches. No need for a reply to this feedback steve/ Brad or whatever names you use as I said before we have the right people acting on our behalf. My feedback on here is simply to let others know what your upto, just hope the ferret, this morning, gmtv and watchdog reply as promptly as your company do.

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Customer Services1
Brentwood, GB
May 13, 2012 11:35 pm EDT
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Dear Katy Wills

Order [protected]

Thank-you for your recent posting regarding the order made and signed by your Business on 09 May 2012.

We have asked you to make direct contact with us to resolve your complaint and you have not done so.

Our calls to you on 11 May 2012 to discuss the matter were met with abuse and despite a civilised and sensible conversation with Sandy on 11 May, no further emails have been received from you, and on that basis we are not able to assist you directly.

When an order is confirmed by telephone, we issue our standard electronic agreement by email for your consideration. When you open the agreement on-line, it has two options, 1) Accept and Sign, or 2) Decline and Refuse to sign.

Your Business downloaded the agreement at 1206 on 09 May 2012, reviewed it, and signed it at 1208 on 09 May 2012.

This is why your business was later billed for the order.

Yours faithfully

Operations Team
Motor Trades

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katywills
Wrexham, GB
May 13, 2012 11:11 pm EDT

You will be hearing from our solicitor from now on so you can not intimidate us further,
as all other complaints prove that bully tactics are used by your so called professional operation. Small business's find it hard enough without this kind of underhand business going on.

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Customer Services1
Brentwood, GB
May 13, 2012 8:13 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Dear Sirs

Re your complaint posted above, this relates to an order made with us on 09 May 2012 under agreement number [protected].

The order was signed electronically at 1211 on 09 May 2012 hence you were billed. We spoke to Sandy on Friday, 11 May and asked that any complaint be emailed to us for a review. To date we have not received any such email.

We are a professional operation with around 360, 000 listings live across the internet, any business of this scale would inevitably have complaints from time to time, however, we need to stress that we only bill payments that are authorised and covered by a signed agreement.

If you wish to discuss any aspect of your complaint in further detail please email operations.manager@motortrades.co.uk quoting your agreement number which is [protected].

Yours faithfully

Customer Operations

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katywills
Wrexham, GB
May 13, 2012 7:52 pm EDT

Absolute sham of a company our business has been affected by their bully boy sales methods, when I called them to express my concerns and try to get our £1700 pound back that they took from our account without our permission, because as they state payments should be made by direct debit in small payments not in a lump sum! I was blessed with a vile character called Brad quote 'you do not need to know my surname and anyway we have already took full payment with your card details you gave us last year' oh and when I told him that he had bullied us he quickly replied 'come to my office an say that to my face' in a vile manner then quickly said 'listen we are a multi - million pound company your just a two man garage you cant do anything about it'. Well I am going to make it my life time mission to show this company for what it is, we may be a two man garage but we certainly are not going to let this happen to anymore two man garages, we are taking legal advice and i'm going to approach every television program that I can to cover this story, its wrong and it has to stop small business' s find it hard enough in this economic climate without companies like this taking them down!

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Customer Services1
Brentwood, GB
Mar 21, 2012 7:33 am EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Hello Skyline

We’re sorry to hear that you are unhappy regarding a recent call made with us – please can you contact us directly for assistance, we will do all that we can to resolve your customer service issue today.

You can reach us by telephone [protected] asking for Operations on extension 7803 or by email at operations.manager@motortrades.co.uk

If you contact us today before 1600 today, we will resolve your issue before the close of business today.

Yours faithfully

Motortrades

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SKYLINE 123
Leicester, GB
Mar 21, 2012 7:26 am EDT

LYING, THEIVING, IMMORLE GROUP OF CON MERCHENTS, MY BUSINESS HAS HAD NUMEROUS PHONE CONVERSATIONS WITH MOTOR TRADES.CO.UK. AFTER FIRST DEALING WITH THEM IN 2010, DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THESE PEOPLE, ANY BODY ALREADY DEALING WITH THEM IF YOU ARE WORRIDED ABOUT THERE SO CALLED COURT ACTION DONT, THERES SO MANY PEOPLE IN ARE SITUATION NO LAW FIRM IN THE COUNTRY WOULD TAKE IT ON, DONT PAY THEM CHANGE YOUR CARD DETAILS AND THERES NOTHING THEY CAN DO, SO WHEN THEY RING NEXT ASKING FOR A STUPIDLY LARGE AMOUNT OF MONEY (A FIGURE THEY THINK OF THE DOUBLE) U CAN TAKE GRATE PLEASE IN TELLING THEM TO STICK IT, IGNOR THE AGGRESSION!

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Customer Services1
Brentwood, GB
Mar 18, 2012 1:03 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Dear “Citroen 1998”

We’re sorry to learn that you’re unhappy and have made a posting regarding your order. Our standard agreement does contain an automatic renewal provision (just like Yell.com and BT Customer Street does), however, in order for us to renew your order you have to confirm that we can proceed by way of a recorded telephone call and also a signed agreement.

Our Automatic renewal clause is not “hidden” as you claimed, it is made clear and we do issue you reminders throughout your agreement.

We have an excellent relationship with Trading Standards and will be happy to discuss any complaint that you may have, either directly with you, or via Trading Standards, the best and most direct course is to make direct contact with us at operations.manager@motortrades.co.uk quoting your sales order number (check the subject line of the electronic agreement that we have sent you to locate this number) – we will then review the call recordings, the status of your electronic agreement and do our best to fully resolve your complaint for you.

Please contact us if you require assistance.

Yours faithfully

Motortrades
Customer Operations

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Citroen1998
, GB
Mar 16, 2012 1:15 pm EDT

What a total bunch of theives. This so called company are no more than telephone warriors that bully unsuspecting people ( like myself, stupidly) Into taking out a contract for 12 months that extends with no correspondence to confirm this other than a 'newsletter' with a sneakly hidden clause of contract. Now I will fight this to the bitter end. It's not so much the money which I can't really afford its the aggressive nature of the 'accounts team' that wouldn't give me 3 days to consult with trading standards or that would double the fee! DO NOT DEAL with this company in any way, shape or form. The replies from this company do now get close to the reality that is they are just glorified theives in it to line their own pockets!

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Customer Services1
Brentwood, GB
Mar 14, 2012 2:59 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Dear “Former Customer”

We’re sorry to hear of your complaint made earlier tonight. You’ve raised a few issues, which we’d like to clarify.

In terms of complaints, it’s important to bear in mind we do have around 350, 000 listings live, and we have around 30 complaints on-line. Now, whilst 30 complaints, is 30 too many, it represents around 1 complaint for every 12, 000 listings, which is a manageable number, and probably about right for a business of this scale and in-line with competitors, including Yell and BT Customer Street.

The prices you have quoted in your posting are not an accurate reflection of our rate card, our prices have not risen in 2012 and we have a price freeze until 2014 – the costs quoted to you for a campaign in 2012 would be for a different level of exposure, and we’d certainly not be seeking an increase of 1000% for a like for like order, as you have stated.

Regardless, for an order to proceed, you have to confirm the order by way of a recorded telephone call and then sign our standard agreement. If you do not wish to renew the current campaign or have a query on pricing, please do not place an order – and you will not be billed!

If you have a customer service issue, we’d love to speak to you to put it right, please feel free to call us on [protected] asking for Operations on extension 7803 or email directly to operations.manager@motortrades.co.uk and we will resolve your complaint immediately.

Thank-you.

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motortrades.co.uk former customer
SUSSEX, GB
Mar 14, 2012 1:16 pm EDT

This company has a total lack of moral and ethical consideration for any business other than their own.
They claim that "complaints are rare", just type their company name into google for an answer to that. In fact there are more google hits on complaints about they way this company operates and its aggressive staff, than there is actually promoting motortrades.co.uk
You only have to look at some of these complaints websites to see they obviously have a team of complaints staff who trawl the Internet in an attempt to dampen the rapidly growing bad feeling about their company.
Their so called "small print" is (and will be if you sign up) nothing more than a poisoned wand upon which they will wave in your direction after they have conned their way into your business and thoroughly raped you of THOUSANDS OF POUNDS.
They really are the ### of the earth with regards to business ethics and try to retain their customer base by way of THREATS.
DO NOT SIGN UP TO motortrades.co.uk motortrades limited or anything else - if you are considering it, just read their terms and conditions they refer to as " small print " on their website, the fact you have to enlarge it to 200% before its readable should say it all.
Of course they are pleasant when they first want your custom and to get you on board, the following year they will increase their fees (in my case) by over 1000% and then threaten you with legal action - but that is complete waffle and hot air, they have never pursued me for which they say I owe them £16000.00 for the second year of advertising. DO NOT USE, AGREE OR SIGN UP TO ANYTHING TO DO WITH motortrades or motortrades.co.uk

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Customer Services1
Brentwood, GB
Feb 08, 2012 8:31 am EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Dear Mr Alvers –

If anyone wishes to stop receiving emails from us – please click the unsubscribe link, this will automatically remove their email address from our mailing lists – and if they wish to stop future telephone calls please email optout@motortrades.co.uk with the landline or mobile that we’re calling and we’ll make sure we remove the number from our databases.

This is the most effective way to prevent further communication.

Thanks,

Motortrades Customer Services
[protected] extension 7803

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Steven Alvers
, GB
Feb 07, 2012 7:22 pm EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Put their phone number on your reject list, and if they have your email, change it, or spam their incoming mail, that way you get rid of them.

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Customer Services1
Brentwood, GB
Nov 02, 2011 9:46 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Hello

In our post of 01 November, we offered direct assistance to you, in order to help resolve your problem, but to our knowledge you have not made contact with our Operations Manager.

We’re keen to help you resolve any issue, and to discuss your complaint. If you’d like assistance please call [protected] between 0915 and 1715 or email optout@motortrades.co.uk quoting your agreement number, and a member of the Customer Services or Operations team will help you and will have the ability to resolve your complaint.

We can’t help you unless you contact us.

Motortrades

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Not intimidated
, GB
Nov 02, 2011 7:47 pm EDT

You will also find that on every forum where people are complaining they respond with polite and reasonable replies to make themselves look like saints. THEY ARE NOT. They are very experienced at what they do. They claim that automiatic renewals are similar to others like the car insurance trade but conveniently overlook that you can cancel automatic renewal insurance up to two weeks AFTER renewal. Motortrades demand 60 DAYS notice and then are unpleasant and aggressive when the victim realises they are being conned.

They emphasis their agreements are 'Business to Business' I wonder why. I'll tell you because if their agreements came under the Consumer protection legislation they would fail in almost every respect - unfair contract being they most obvious.

The way to fight them is with eveidence that they have achieved none of their ### claims of increasing your business.

Anyone in any doubt about the calibre of the operation just do a search on some of the names involved.v

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Customer Services1
Brentwood, GB
Nov 01, 2011 9:34 am EDT
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Hello

We’re sorry to hear that you have found cause to complain. The services that we offer are Business to Business agreements, and as such are not Business to Consumer agreements.

The terms and conditions of the contracts are drafted to protect both parties to the agreement, and are similar to those offered by the majority of directory providers, including BT, ufindus and Customer Street.

If you have a specific problem that you’d like us to look into for you, please email optout@motortrades.co.uk quoting your agreement number, (found in the subject line of the electronic agreement that we send to you) and we’ll do our best to resolve matters to your complete satisfaction.

Customer Service is a priority for us, and we look forward to helping you. You may prefer to call us, rather than email and a direct line for our Operations Team is [protected].

Please call asking for extension 7803.

Please note that for training and security purposes we do record and monitor selected telephone calls to and from the business and that all calls to the above number are recorded.

Yours faithfully

Customer Support

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Not intimidated
, GB
Nov 01, 2011 1:27 am EDT

The modus operandi of this company is a slick and persuasive intitial marketing call where the more gullible believe the tosh they talk and sign up for an often reasonable fee. Then a year later you find, as we did, that the original cost of a hundred pounds or two has increased to several thousand. They use every aggressive and underhand methods to persuade the call recipient to pay the refer you to the Ts & Cs which are heavily weighted in their favour e.g. they specifically emphasis that they claim the customer is agreeing it is a 'Business to Business' service and, therefore, outside the scope of the Consumer protection laws, funny old thing.

We are looking forward to seeing them in court if they do actually carry out their threats to take us to court.

You will notice they respond to all the complaints found by web search claiming to be oh so reasonable but believe me in one to one conversation they are aggressive and unpleasant to speak with.l They are sharks. The way they conduct their business may be technically legal but is definitely immoral and indefensible.

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Customer Services1
Brentwood, GB
Oct 29, 2011 8:21 am EDT
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Hello “Badger”

Further to your posting above that you made on 24 October 2011, we have attempted to make contact with you throughout 25 and 26 October 2011 without success.

We have therefore cancelled the orders, 64733, 64734, 64735 and 64736 which had not been billed and orders 57061 and 57091 have been opted out of the automatic renewal programme.

An email has been sent to you to confirm this course of action for your records.

We’re happy to have resolved your complaint.

Yours faithfully

Customer Services
[protected]
optout@motortrades.co.uk

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badger93uk
Southampton, GB
Oct 24, 2011 9:00 pm EDT

Our problem with this company started back in 2010 when we were agressively sold an advertaising package on Motortrades.co.uk for the sum total of 300.00 for a 12 month listing. It looked like quite a good deal at the time and after being told that we were going to get hundreds of calls.

The only call we ever received was the next day, from Motortrades.co.uk, telling us that we needed to buy an enhanced package. We were subsequently billed not once, but three times. This took over two months to sort out.

I received no electronic agreement, no login details to manage our stats or listing, and no enquiries. Basically, no real product whatsoever.

This is just a prelude to the real story.

Imagine my horror today when I received a call that stated, “You have an invoice outstanding with us and would you like to discuss a discount...”

I carried on the call and was told that as we had not cancelled the autorenew 60 days prior to the renew date, we were now doe to be invoiced for the full rate card value of nearly £7k for our advert, but they were willing to discount that for us to a little over £3k!

When I initially questioned this - the reason I was given was that we had in fact cost the company money over the last 12 months with our listing because of all the fees that they had to pay the search engines to get our listing top of the tree. This I doubted immediately and said that I would call them back. At Which point I was told I had ten minutes otherwise thy would bill the full rate card amount to the card that they hold on file, as they needed to do that to clear the screen and move onto the next customer.

On hastily reading the terms and conditions that I had contractually agreed to in 2010, I saw that, yes, I hadn’t cancelled 60 days before the due renewal date, and that as a result I would be charged what we had paid last year plus 10%

Oh no.

Following a pretty heated discussion with the “Customer Services” Team at motortrades.co.uk. I was told that I could either accept the discount that they were offering, or I could pay the full rate card, but either way I had to do one or the other there and then. When I queried the terms email, I was told that they had dealt with people like me before and all they had to prove was that they had sent an email changing the terms and conditions, and that I hadn’t replied to it! (Not that I had actually read it.)

So, following a heavily aggressive member of their “Customer Services” Team telling me it doesn’t matter, I had a greed to the terms and I was either liable to pay the discounted rate or the full rate, but I couldn’t cancel, rightly or wrongly, I went through their “Agreement” Script.

As it turns out, I was allegedly sent an email on 8 August 2011, which changed the terms and conditions to say that If you didn’t cancel then you were due the full rate card for the next 12 months. An email that I never saw. Now as I didn’t reply to the email I never saw within the 14 days it was deemed that I accepted the new terms (I was in fact away from the 6th August to the 21st August anyway).

Having been forwarded the alleged email that I apparently read, it looked like the following:

Dear Customer
 
Please find enclosed our latest Customer Newsletter, packed full of news and features!
 
If you have any queries regarding either the newsletter, or your account, please do not respond directly to this email – but contact the customer service team directly on either [protected] or [protected] (lines are open Monday to Friday, 0915 to 1715) or email customer.service@motortrades.co.uk and a member of the team will be back in touch, usually within 2 business days.
 
 
Yours faithfully

Motortrades

Nothing in there about terms and conditions, however, in the attached pdf newsletter, at the bottom of 4 pages of utter drivel that anyone in their right mind would not read, was a small note saying that their terms and conditions had changed. I would never have agreed to it if I had in fact read it, never.

To say I am fuming is an understatement. I think that this company’s practices are at best sneaky, and at worse, fraudulent. Aggressive miss selling, coupled with sneaky terms and conditions, terrible customer service and no product to back it up makes these guys the worst of the worst. Strange that when you google them, the complaints are more prevalent than the listings.

I have contacted their “Optout” and “Customer Service” team, and I expect little resolution. I only hope that no one else is as unfortunate as me in these matters.

C
C
Customer Services1
Brentwood, GB
May 11, 2011 8:27 am EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Hello Parimele

We're sorry to hear that you were not happy with your recent purchases and the Customer Service experience that you have received from us. We strive to provide an excellent service and Customer Service staff is incentivised to resolve problems quickly and with professionalism. We appreciate that we don't always get it right, but when we make a mistake we do our best to put things right very quickly. We'd like to give you an extra listing free of charge, please email optout@motortrades.co.uk quoting your order number (found in the subject line of the electronic agreement that we sent to you) and we'll be happy to help.

It sounds like your issue was resolved, but if anything remains outstanding please let us know.
We have thousands of Customers and complaints are rare. We record and monitor every telephone call that results in an order being placed and we can listen to these calls to resolve any outstanding problems that you may have. We only ever bill fees that are detailed within your agreement and in the rare of an error, we'll put it right straight away.
If you need to speak with one of the team a direct dial number is [protected].

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