Consumer Action GroupReviews 13

They helped me with a problemi had with P2g which I won and I paid/helped contribute to the site as I was very grateful but last night I was called Stupid on another situation I wrote in for and Dx just loved to take the high superiority ground and chose to ignore my question and thought fit to "wag their finger " at me. Like many of said its full of ego and they know they have the knowledge to help you and they Love to make you beg and grovel. There are other alternative sites out there which are nicer to you. The many posts regarding Consumer action groupd rudeness can't be All wrong.

As others have commented on here the idea of the CAG forum is a good one, but when you seek actual help beware of some of the site team who will belittle and mock you, initially for not putting enough spacing or punctuation into your post for example.
One of them will post how they had to correct your spelling and put additional gaps into your post like a teacher talking to a young child.
You are then reduced to feel like a fool who should have known better than getting yourself into the situation you are seeking advice about.
I think it was initially formed in response to the bank charges claims in the early 2000s but with this having been put to bed the forum itself maybe has lost a lot of appeal and attraction to people, so maybe there are a lot of less users, posts and the moderators are a bit bored, picking on the users who still find the forum.
Not sure, but it feels a bit like this.
Sarcastic and rude and little help on offer was my experience

There are a number of sub forums on this site, with different admins for each, so my experience relates to the forums for couriers and parking charges only as I had experience with both.

The admins here are the worst kind, they berate and belittle anyone that may infringe upon forum rules, not in attempt to help them understand but in the same way a bully might 'correct' you if you didn't give them your lunch money, they clearly forget that real people exist outside their forum bubble.

Two of the admins that were the worst BankFodder and Dx100uk, were clearly abused children, seeking to vent their anger on anyone stupid enough to dare to post in their forum. BankFodder will happily shame you for not using correct grammar or punctuation while the latter serves to offer no constructive input, he just hides in the background trolling posts and generally just putting people off using the forum.

If you post, they will belligerently request information, if you take minutes to reply or you don't have it, expect to be berated for 'wasting their time'. Time you did not force them to give.

This is a vanity ego project for two or more former bullied kids, who are waiting for you to dare to share your real problems with them, so they can berate you for fun, knowing you will take it because you are desperate.

You wont see any of this on the forum though, these two quickly delete any post criticising them, the forum is well 'sanitised' to prevent others knowing that the true purpose of the forum is to waste YOUR time and provide them with the fun of being keyboard warriors.

Avoid this forum like the plague

Advice is not as great as you would expect, ruud admins, think they know it all, very judgemental. Seems to be a bunch of big egos in charge. Should be shut down

I recently found this forum due to an online purchase of a used car from Gem Cars Ltd, Lincoln. The deciding factor for my purchased was a very well presented and detailed (I had thought) video walk round. When I received the car the condition of the bonnet was not as described! I had dealt with the complaint badly, and posted on the forum asking for further advice. Whilst I understand what a few of the reviewers here have said about the site team, they have so many queries to deal with that they have to be concise. This is a service they have offered for free since 2006. In my book that's amazing, as I don't expect they receive many donations to help pay their overheads. Although my issue wasn't resolved, this was due to the dealer and my decision that it was not worth the time and stress (over a relatively small amount of money and principle) of having to deal with the car dealer any longer by taking my complaint to Court. I wholeheartedly recommend this group, as the advice given by an expert on Consumer Rights was completely objective and invaluable.

https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/topic/*******-used-car-purchased-online-from-gem-cars-ltd-lincoln-not-in-condition-as-described-small-claims/#comments

I see lots of negative reviews here but I don't really know what the problem is. This website forum has been around for a long time and had a huge number of success stories and tens of thousands of people who have been helped out of great difficulties.

For my own case, I've had help with parking problems, I had bank charges back years ago. I've had great help with dealing with debt collectors and other riffraff.

The site is very businesslike. It's not a talking shop and you have to do things yourself but they help you with advice, drafting letters and helping with claims in court procedure.

They don't ask for any money that I've given them two or three donations and it was money well spent.

I googled CAG reviews to see if anyone else has had the same experience as me... and I wasn't surprised to find I'm not alone. Whilst most posters seem to have good intentions and there is a lot of helpful insights, the entire forum is ruined by the high-handed arrogance of two "site team" - "Bankfodder" and "dx100uk", the latter being the absolute worst.

I believe Bankfodder owns the site and acts like a Pound Shop-wannabe Martin Lewis, dx100uk is his little gimp - both of them seem to spend an incredible 24/7 on the site (when do they sleep?) but not to offer advice, rather to simply berate new posters for their grammar, spacing, or not answering quickly enough and other things they deem "infringements" - if you DARE answer back or offer an opinion which exposes their lack of knowledge or mistakes you will be blocked, deleted, or worse, the thread locked on their whim.

I've taken to looking at the site purely for entertainment purposes to see how many times Bankfodder can say "I'm afraid, I..." in a paragraph, or how belittling and passive-aggressive dx100uk can be without censure as they are both site-team. It's hilarious on occasions! Of course the rules they so stringently apply to everyone else don't apply to them! From the way they talk you'd think they were on the UN Security Council rather than some obscure social media bit of fluff.

On a serious note though, it's a real shame, because without these two muppets the site could actually do a lot of good, rather than the vanity project of two damaged egos trying to feel important from behind the keyboards in their respective ratty bedsits, I'd imagine! Ha!

I'd recommend sticking to MSE. Don't give them the satisfaction of clicks.

Some very helpful advice & many well-intentioned people, but also a fair few bullies & trolls - Including some of the "Site Team", who actively encourage & join in with bullying vulnerable people. Completely agree with above reviews - Many helpful & supportive members are blocked and their comments quickly deleted, I had posts locked and was attacked by others at an extremely vulnerable time, which the Site Team either ignored or at times praised and encouraged the abuse. Ignoring the trolls only made them worse and my posts were stalked, trolled and torn apart, leaving me extremely distressed. Any attempt to defend myself was blocked and I was promptly silenced and cut off from any much needed support. Disgusting!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/**************/

As stated by the other reviewer, the actual 'help' given is so erratic its like a microcosm of simply doing a general internet search on the subject with complete dross mixed in with accurate and useful information. Only problem is telling which is which.

There are very clear biases both shown and enforced by the site staff there which will result in quite reasonable posts and threads being closed if certain staff members don't like what you say, however valid a viewpoint that might be.

Worst of all there are staff members who blatantly troll threads where opinions are rised which they don't agree with.

Given that it does not effectively meet it main goal due to the complete mishmash of good, bad and completely incorrect information given, even ignoring the staff using it as their own private platforms, def one to give a miss.
One to pass by on.

The employment section of this forum is run mainly for the benefit of the regular contributors and not for the users, those people who are experiencing problems at work.
A high amount of contributors are frustrated HR bods, naysayers, and school of hard knockers, with a sizable amount of these taking pleasure in being deliberately over-negative to try and bring contributors down. A lot of the advice given is biased and in many cases simply wrong. If you don't believe me, look at some of the threads on the forum to see hoe users are treated and what type of advice is posted without being corrected.
Moderators are able to moderate threads which they contribute to themselves and moderate out advice to users if it contradicts the opinions of the mod/regular contributor/clique.
Would advise people with problems at work to think carefully before using this forum, which has become stale, and would advise the owners of the site to sort it out and find a way to reduce the influence of the contributors who have too much time on their hands and allow more balanced/accurate views to be expressed.