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On the 19th of August we had our van broken down on the motorway M20, 51 miles from Dover, direction to Dover side of the road.
I called the company found on internet Kent Recovery Company http://www.kentrecoverycompany.co.uk/ to the phone number provided in the website 01322250753 on 17:00 asking for recovery.
During the phone conversation we agreed with the operator (or who else was taking the call) for price, location the car should be taken from, place the car should be delivered to and the payment method which was agreed as the card payment. I passed my full debit card details to the operator by his request.
I also offered to send my exact GPS location. The operator replied that the company driver will call later and ask for the location.
On the 19:48 I have received call from the number 07877 505258. The man introduced himself as a recovery company driver. I asked him whether I should send him my GPS location by WhatsApp. He said “Yes” and so I did.
The driver arrived in about 40 minutes later and loaded our car to the recovery vehicle.
Me and my wife sat in the cabin of the same track.
On the 22:20 we arrived to destination where the car should be uploaded to as per our agreement.
The driver then asked for the payment before car can be uploaded but the price was changed from 300 to 394 pounds and method of payment by the bank transfer only requested.
He refused to take payment by card saying that he has no card reader in his possession.
On my question for wat reason the price and the payment method were changed the driver replied that he had received his boss order.
I called the company again and the operator said that VAT was added and because the driver had done additional miles as a result of me provided wrong car collection location.
I’ve challenged his statement firstly – that would have been wired for me to provide different than showing by GPS location, secondly, he didn’t mention VAT during the conversation and even if I must pay VAT, the valid VAT receipt has to be provided.
I asked driver to provide VAT invoice, but the driver refused.
Due to the simple fact that I didn’t agree with the price and could not send bank transfer just because haven’t been prepared to pay that way, the driver refused to upload the car and left out to unknown location with our car on the track.
The next day I started receiving black mailing messages from the number 07506687334 with a thread to sell and then to scrap the car in case I will not pay in 15 minutes.
The same day we turned to the police to report incident but police officer in charge refused to take any action motivating it as a civil matter.
This people taking advantages of the vulnerability. The trick is very simple.
Firstly - they don’t take exact location of the car because obviously the GPS coordinates can not be shared over landline phone and then when driver appears he say he had to do “additional miles” because customer indicated wrong car location. So, the price could jump to any.
Secondly, as it areared, they don’t provide any invoice but asking to pay VAT on the top of the price agreed and as such they don’t take any other than bank transfer payment. In our case they even refused to take cash.
And thirdly – if you don’t pay, they starting blackmailing you by SMS that your car will be send to scrapyard or sold in case you don’t pay within 20 minutes.
Is this not scam and blackmailing?
This “company” has 6 google reviews, all of them negative. People complaining for the same issues.
We came to the UK from the battle zone in Ukraine.
This car and belongings in it are the only stuff we were able to collect in order to escape russian aggression and occupation.
We didn’t anything wrong except asking people to help and pay for it.
So now we cannot move neither work anywhere because we had our tools and stuff in the van, we have no access to. We also have two dogs and the cat so the van was bought mainly for pet’s transportation.
My wife has PTSD since and because of russian aggression and now her mental condition is completely down as a result of this incident which could be compared to russian mafia action from the 1990th.
So, for now I don’t have the car, I don’t know the car location, I don’t even know whom I suppose to pay to. The car is still opened loaded with our valuable staff and in unknown possession.
That’s the case for now.
I called the company found on internet Kent Recovery Company http://www.kentrecoverycompany.co.uk/ to the phone number provided in the website 01322250753 on 17:00 asking for recovery.
During the phone conversation we agreed with the operator (or who else was taking the call) for price, location the car should be taken from, place the car should be delivered to and the payment method which was agreed as the card payment. I passed my full debit card details to the operator by his request.
I also offered to send my exact GPS location. The operator replied that the company driver will call later and ask for the location.
On the 19:48 I have received call from the number 07877 505258. The man introduced himself as a recovery company driver. I asked him whether I should send him my GPS location by WhatsApp. He said “Yes” and so I did.
The driver arrived in about 40 minutes later and loaded our car to the recovery vehicle.
Me and my wife sat in the cabin of the same track.
On the 22:20 we arrived to destination where the car should be uploaded to as per our agreement.
The driver then asked for the payment before car can be uploaded but the price was changed from 300 to 394 pounds and method of payment by the bank transfer only requested.
He refused to take payment by card saying that he has no card reader in his possession.
On my question for wat reason the price and the payment method were changed the driver replied that he had received his boss order.
I called the company again and the operator said that VAT was added and because the driver had done additional miles as a result of me provided wrong car collection location.
I’ve challenged his statement firstly – that would have been wired for me to provide different than showing by GPS location, secondly, he didn’t mention VAT during the conversation and even if I must pay VAT, the valid VAT receipt has to be provided.
I asked driver to provide VAT invoice, but the driver refused.
Due to the simple fact that I didn’t agree with the price and could not send bank transfer just because haven’t been prepared to pay that way, the driver refused to upload the car and left out to unknown location with our car on the track.
The next day I started receiving black mailing messages from the number 07506687334 with a thread to sell and then to scrap the car in case I will not pay in 15 minutes.
The same day we turned to the police to report incident but police officer in charge refused to take any action motivating it as a civil matter.
This people taking advantages of the vulnerability. The trick is very simple.
Firstly - they don’t take exact location of the car because obviously the GPS coordinates can not be shared over landline phone and then when driver appears he say he had to do “additional miles” because customer indicated wrong car location. So, the price could jump to any.
Secondly, as it areared, they don’t provide any invoice but asking to pay VAT on the top of the price agreed and as such they don’t take any other than bank transfer payment. In our case they even refused to take cash.
And thirdly – if you don’t pay, they starting blackmailing you by SMS that your car will be send to scrapyard or sold in case you don’t pay within 20 minutes.
Is this not scam and blackmailing?
This “company” has 6 google reviews, all of them negative. People complaining for the same issues.
We came to the UK from the battle zone in Ukraine.
This car and belongings in it are the only stuff we were able to collect in order to escape russian aggression and occupation.
We didn’t anything wrong except asking people to help and pay for it.
So now we cannot move neither work anywhere because we had our tools and stuff in the van, we have no access to. We also have two dogs and the cat so the van was bought mainly for pet’s transportation.
My wife has PTSD since and because of russian aggression and now her mental condition is completely down as a result of this incident which could be compared to russian mafia action from the 1990th.
So, for now I don’t have the car, I don’t know the car location, I don’t even know whom I suppose to pay to. The car is still opened loaded with our valuable staff and in unknown possession.
That’s the case for now.
