national utility solutions - anyone used them?

[plumber31]

I have been contacted by this company NUS Limited and i am in the north London area. They offered us a contract of 400 jobs a year, we would have to pay them £1800 + VAT, the guy was very pushy, i have had several phone calls from them and i have been transferred to the "contract manager"!! The guys were both Scottish that i spoke to and called off an 01503 number so BEWARE they are using different numbers. They seem very legit when speaking to them they ask you about your qualifications, public liability and they went on to say they had bathroom installations, voids, gas certs and they dealt with Lanes estate agents which have hundreds of properties. Luckily we looked this up before parting with any money.

 

[croydoncorgi]

How is this sort of thing even legal?!

A different question might be: 'What are they doing that could possibly be illegal?'

Sorry to say, the answer is Nothing! These guys are taking a leaf from a book written by the Labour government encouraged by a bunch of well-meaning do-gooders who thought that 'certification' of service providers would be good for preventing rubbish work and a cheap alternative to proper trade training. The initial result was schemes such as TrustMark (see Website of the UK government : Directgov). The fatal flaw is that they had to be cheap (or entirely without any contribution from public funds - ie. taxes). So most/all of these schemes are either VERY expensive to join and/or operated by some 'interest group' on behalf of members (so you can guess whose interests are being looked after first!).

And, of course, once these 'official' schemes got started, scammers and others saw an opportunity and they all joined in!

I bet that they're all quite careful to stay legal and they probably can produce at least some 'satisfied customers' from both sides of the contracts they set up. However, they will always be an unnecessary overhead and I doubt very much if there's any way, legal or otherwise, to create 'good' schemes and keeping out the scammers.

So avoid ALL of these schemes, treat them like unpleasant STIs, and take every opportunity to persuade others to do likewise.

Another problem is that there are certain large 'service providers' who try to mop up the whole domestic market by offering consumers everything (plumbing, gas-fitting, electrical, drain work, ...) and then using cheap, under-trained staff and/or subbies to do the actual work. In terms of quality and impact on 'traditional' tradespeople, they're much the same as the aforementioned scammers!

 

[srgs]

Hi lady apprentice I to fell for there scam back in 2011 .neverhad one job total scammers i have since reported them to trading standards and are waiting to hear back. I would be interested to know if you have reported them or if you have managed to get your money back ? And what channels you have gone through to get. Your money back. As hopefully if the people who have been scammed all go through the same avenues of reporting them we may stand better chance of recovering our money or at least putting these scumbags out of business for good

 

[doggydoo]

I have contacted them regarding their contracts - They offer a min of 400 jobs per year and want £2000 up front that covers you for 2 years

Anyone worked for them or know anyone who has ? Cheers

SEE THIS -

Further to our telephone conversation, I can confirm that the domain name nationalutilitysolutions.com and echosign.com were bought from a company call Namecheap.com. Namecheap.com's registered address is:
Administrative Contact: NameCheap, Inc NameCheap.com NameCheap.com ([email protected]) +1.6613102107 Fax: +1.6613102107 11400 W. Olympic Blvd. Suite 200 Los Angeles, CA 90064 US
This company will purchase domain names on companies behalf and hide their details, all emails are then sent to namecheap.com who pass them onto the company in the UK.
You can check who owns any domain name by using the following website Whois Lookup & IP | Whois.net, unfortunately nationalutilitysolutions have chosen to use a .com address and purchased their domain name from a foreign company to hide their company details (this is illegal in the UK and if using a .co.uk address)

 

[doggydoo]

put a 'case' together and ask your credit card company (if you paid that way) to 'reverse transaction' ..... it's taken me 18 months but I've just got my £2k back !!! GOOD LUCK

 

[srgs]

Had an email today from trading standards saying these scammers have voluntarily wound the company up. Probably owing money to loads of ppl . What bets on they start up under another company. One word SCUM

 

[roguetrader]

your not alone mate ive been trying to get my 2k back ive had 3 jobs , there address is unit 4,crookedholm commercial center 81 main st kilmarnock scotland KA3 6JU TEL . 01563 533238 If i dont get my money back soon i think i will be paying a visit

 

[srgs]

Hi rogue trader contact mlm insolvency on 0141 2281327 as they are putting together a list of creditors to take action against this company .personally don't think we will get money back but at least it worth at try also contact joe burns on 01563 554384 he works for trading standards in Scotland and is also putting a case together regarding nat utility solutions and needs as many people as possibly who have been ripped off by this company to contact him to help with the case

 

[roguetrader]

hi
thanks for the info will ring them tomoz, i spoke to domonic watson today hes suppose to be the uk contract manager said he would look into things for me but wont hold my breath, im surpised nobody has been to sort them out before now were 3 hours away but if dont get our money back we'll be taking a drive down, let me know how you get on or you think of anything else i'll do the same mate cheers for the reply srgs

 

[Ivor Bates]

hi
thanks for the info will ring them tomoz, i spoke to domonic watson today hes suppose to be the uk contract manager said he would look into things for me but wont hold my breath, im surpised nobody has been to sort them out before now were 3 hours away but if dont get our money back we'll be taking a drive down, let me know how you get on or you think of anything else i'll do the same mate cheers for the reply srgs

What do you intend on doing when you get there? You can't do him/them in, you can't take anything from the property as that will be theft, once the company goes into liquidation whether voluntary or not everything belonging to the company including cash and property is in the hands of the official receiver. Only once he/she has gone through the company's trading activities and accounts will you likely to get anything back. If either the receiver, trading standards or come to that HMRC think illegal practices / trading have taken place then the company directors are personally liable and will be prosecuted they can also be forced to sell their homes to settle with the creditors. Obviously other people other than UK plumbing forum members will have been targeted. So to go up there and pay a visit all heavy handed isn't going to do you or anyone else any favours whatsoever. Besides once it all becomes official all assets and bank accounts become suspended, so even if they wanted to pay you back, they wouldn't be allowed to. Just let the law do its job...
For those of you who have been stung I would get a copy of all the directors both past and present including the company secretarys names and addresses as they will all have been part of this scam. By the way their website now seems to have a virus...

 

[Dan]

National Utility Solutions are in the process of Liquidation.


If you are owed money, get yourself on the creditors list by contacting their Liquidators.

Dear Sir/Madam,I note from your forum that some of your members have had dealings with the above company for access to work that did not materialise. Can I ask you to approach the following members to ask if they would contact me asap to provide details of their dealings with NUS. I have to stress that I cannot give guarantees that their assistance will result in successful action against the people behind NUS but their help would assist ouir investigations.
Could you also advise them that NUS is in the process of liquidation. The liquidators are MLM Solutions, 23 Nelson Mandela Place, Glasgow G2 1QY. If they contact themyour members can at least lodge a claim as creditors and may, just may, receive some of the money they paid back. Their telephone number is 0141 228 1327.
Theforum members are:
Lady Apprentice.
Ricky 300
Andy Atkins 2477
Rogue Trader
Mario 27 and,
Doggy Doo
If you or they know of any others affected please get them to contact me.
As I will be away from my desk for the next week, it would be best if they e-mailed me at [email protected].


Thanks for your help.


Joe Burns.

 

[roguetrader]

alright srgs i took your advice and rung those numbers and found out nus have gone into liquidation on monday, i gave my details to Insolvency and joe burns at trading standards i will just see what happens thanks again

 

[markfxy]

If all of us on the forum club together maybe we'll get a discount we could cover the whole country and make a fortune:smilewinkgrin:

 

[stevetheplumber]

putting your name on the creditors list is a pointless exercise these people know how to extrct the money out of the company

 

[PlumbBobBob]

putting your name on the creditors list is a pointless exercise these people know how to extrct the money out of the company

the money probably never saw the company in the first place!