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Buyer Protect enables the consumer to become their very own watchdog

Earlier in 2012 BBC Watchdog aired an investigation into Five Star Cars  – after receiving numerous complaints from disgruntled consumers. The programme shone light on this car company which was fast becoming well known for all the wrong reasons; cars purportedly having passed MOT’s were found to be incredibly unsafe. The list of additional issues is too long to reproduce here (!), but the key point that grabbed my attention came a little later in the piece.

Namely, that Five Star Cars had been issued with County Court Judgments totaling more than £15,000:

Five Star Cars have racked up over £15,000 in unpaid County Court Judgments; £3000 of it is Ben’s money. But when a bailiff visited the Brentford site, Five Star said it didn’t have enough assets to pay Ben back. Ben was forced to sell the vehicle for scrap, losing him £2200.

This is precisely the type of company behaviour that BuyerProtect was formed to counter. Like a caped crusader emerging in the consumer landscape, BuyerProtect grew as an idea during the unfolding debacle that was Farepak.

How could Farepak continue to bank savers’ hard earned money knowing their full predicament? I can’t be the only person wondering at the time why no one was trying to protect the vulnerable savers who after the collapse of Farepak were left genuine victims of Christmas?

BuyerProtect has been created to empower the consumer and give you the right tools to make informed decisions about the companies you buy from.

We don’t simply report on whether a business is liked, cheap or recommended – we report on the ACTUAL business itself – it’s cashflow, financial activity and history, enabling you to see patterns which confirm or deny their stability.
BuyerProtect provides you with a Plain English report summarising the trading history, director reports, adverse information (if any) and any other valid points of note on the company activity and history.   If a company has recently been issued with a CCJ and this is lodged with Companies House we will let you know; if a company hasn’t filed accounts for some time we will let you know; if the company shows heavy losses, insolvent shareholders’ funds or any other serious stress, we will let you know.

It’s not all doom and gloom,  if we find evidence containing positive information (such as accounts filed on time, profitable turnover, and other key factors of sound creditworthiness ) we will also report this to you and as consumers like you make enquiries about companies you’ll also be able to access a list of companies on which BuyerProtect has already run an annual check.

In the business world, this type of “risk assessment” is carried out every day. Companies are always checking recent financial information on the organisations they do business with. It is a part of the rational process of credit management – the protection of many companies main asset; cash.

A BuyerProtect report will be sent to you within 3-5 working days of your query, giving you the information you need to make an informed choice about the businesses you deal with, support and most importantly, trust.

To find out more about BuyerProtect please email us now at buyerprotect@clearlymoney.co.uk

 

 

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