Just over two weeks ago, I wrote the article “The Dark Side of Price Comparision sites?” in which I wrote about my experience of using three of the most popular ones in the UK – Confused.com, Moneysupermarket.com and Comparethemarket.com. If you have not read it yet, I recommend you do before reading the rest of this article.
At the time of writing the article, it was just a personal airing of my views, but it has definately struck a chord with my readers with comments left about similar experiences of cold calling from a company called “The Claims Guys”.
This cold calling company is a trading name of a larger company based in Altrincham , Cheshire called LeadX Ltd. Leadx is a company that takes information about people then tries to sell financial products to them. They openly tout for client lists online such as here:
LeadX provides an open market where sales leads can be bought and sold in real time, while still “hot”. Transaction types include voice, data xml/rss, video/audio content, and click-throughs.
Or touting to sell your personal details to anyone on affiliate forums like this:
Having looked we’re cheaper than the posts on here!!!
We must be doing it right!!!
We are generating DM leads via websites and phone calls specifically engineered around debt management.
Unfiltered DM Calls £8
Unfiltered DM Web £8
Filtered DM Web £35
Filtered IVA Web £55
Debt Management
Minimum Disposable Income of £180 (IVA £250)
2 or more unsecured creditors (3 for IVA)
Minimum unsecured debt of £6K(IVA £15K)Refund: Dead No’s, Non UK, Fictious Characters (must be received back within 24 hrs)
This website is purely geared around debt management, not debt consolidation declines.
If interested please call me on xxxxxxxxxx
They have also skirted with the law in the past with wild claims that because they are Internet based, they should be VAT exempt
Since writing the first article, I contacted the big three and asked them each a simple question:
“Can you tell me if you supply visitor/client’s details to a company called LeadX or The Claims Guys”
I also gave them a link to the original article I posted.
Here are the responses I had back from each.
Confused.com really impressed me. I have used them for a few years now and not had any cold calls as a result. Within 48 hours which stated:
Good Morning,Thanks for taking the time to get in touch with us regarding your recent blog post. I’d like to confirm that we don’t sell leads to any third parties (as outlined in our Privacy Policy) and any cold calls you have received wouldn’t have come as a result of using Confused.com. The data that we pass to our partners is only done so under strict agreements that we have with them not to misuse this data, and we take this very seriously.
As you say in your post, The Claims Guys received your data from ‘a price comparison website’; if they do contact you again, try and find which site they allegedly received your details from. You’ll then know specifically who to speak to in order to rectify this.
I’m sorry that you’ve had this experience, and I hope it won’t deter you from using Confused.com again in the future. If you do have any further problems or questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us again.
Kind Regards,
name removed
Customer Support Team
Confused.com
An excellent and prompt reply.
Comparethemarket.com were a little more difficult to deal with. It took two days for them to reply with the following:
Dear Sir/Madam
Thank you for visiting comparethemarket.com, and for taking the time to give us your feedback on the insurance brands which provide quotes to us.
I can confirm that your feedback has been forwarded to the brand concerned who will reply to you shortly.
If you do not receive a response, or you need further help, then please do not hesitate to contact us.
Kind Regards
comparethemarket.com
Had they bothered to read my message? Were they potentially sending more information to Leadx about me? I replied to this with:
Hi
Please can i have your official reply, rather that a template reply? Do you pass users details to a company called LeadX?
Regards
Again, two days later, they replied once again with:
Dear Sir/Madam
Thank you for visiting comparethemarket.com, and for taking the time to give us your feedback on the insurance brands which provide quotes to us.
I can confirm that your feedback has been forwarded to the brand concerned who will reply to you shortly.
If you do not receive a response, or you need further help, then please do not hesitate to contact us.
Kind Regards
comparethemarket.com
This was starting to get frustrating. Then, a further email to their marketing department showing them by blog post, attracted their attention. I finally got a reply – 7 days after my initial email which read:
Dear Sir/Madam
Thank you for visiting comparethemarket.com, and for taking the time to give us your feedback on our service.
I am sorry that you have received unwanted contact following a visit to our site. So that I can investigate this matter fully, I would be grateful if you could provide me with the following information:
Your Details
Your first name:
Your surname:
Your date of birth:
Your email address:
Your postal address (including postcode):
Your quote reference number (if you have it):
Once I have received this information I will address your complaint personally, in the interim should you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to contact me via the contact details shown below.Kind Regards
I wasn’t sure I wanted to give them my information again, so I asked:
Thank you for your reply. None of this is relevant to me question. The question is “do or has comparethemarket.com ever supplied clients details to an company called LeadX.”
I’m fairly sure I don’t have to provide you with any further information in order to get an answer?
To which gave me the answer I wanted:
Dear Sir/Madam
Historically we have worked with LeadX but this relationship was terminated on the 1st of August last year, I am therefore very concerned that you have been contacted.
If you are able to provide me with these details, I can investigate the circumstances under which you have been contacted and provide you with a more comprehensive response.
I understand if you have concerns about releasing personal information, should prefer to discuss this first, please let me know
Kind regards
So there it was, in black and white – Comparethemarket.com used to sell our details to LeadX Ltd. I was intrigued, so taking a hit for you all, gave them my details to investigate further. That was 8 days ago, and despite a further 3 emails chasing them, still no reply.
Moneysupermarket.com sent no reply back to any of the four emails I sent to their customer service email address over a 2 week period. This in itself to me is worrying. Why would you not speak to your customers? Not happy with the lack of response, I then tried a different tactic. I emailed customer services yet again, only this time CCing in their Data Protection officer, their Director of Communications and the Company Secretary. This was on 27th April. This morning, 3rd May I finally had a reply. Result!
Thanks for your email. Apologies for the delay in replying I was on holiday last week. I can confirm that we don’t pass or sell data to 3rd parties. We certainly dont pass data to LeadX.
name removed
Director of Communications
moneysupermarket.com
Better late than never and a confirmation that they dont sell your details either.
Conclusion
Communications from Confused.com were by far the best. they answered within 48 hours which is acceptable. Moneysupermarket.com failed badly with replies. It wasn’t until I emailed a director I had a response. Indeed the one person who should have dealt with this, the Data Protection Officer still has not replied.
Comparethemarket.com state they have stopped using LeadX – but how many tens of thousands of peoples details have been sold unknowingly to LeadX – the company that cold calls you about irrelevant products? And it still seems to be happening. The telephone number LeadX are currently using (02079807360) is one of the highest ranking keywords for people finding this site. In short, it still seems to be a huge problem.
If I had to choose a Price Comparison site to recommend out of those three, it would be Confused.com and I would have no issues using them in the future.
Have you been affected? Tell me your story, please leave a comment below.
