Hello mums, lurker here, finally joing Mumsnet although for a reason I'm not thrilled by... Hopefully somebody can help me.
Today my deaf mum was locked out of her house so after googling Fast Locksmith London my mum clicked on this company that sent a man around to her address (her neighbour rang the number)... Turns out it's a scam.
After changing the lock the man told her hearing neighbour he would charge my mum £300, but ended up charging her £855.
The 'invoice' was a piece of paper with no VAT number (although VAT was charged) and a logo for a totally different company.
When I found out I called the guy who changed the lock (he left his number on the piece of paper) but but he said he didn't remember and to call the head office. I rang the 'office', a guy picked up saying this was a hotline not the head office, and that he couldn't give me the head office number and he couldn't help, and that I was inconveniencing him! I'll try calling them again tomorrow but something is very wrong here.
How these people can happily rip off a elderly deaf lady living alone is beyond me. It's so upsetting.
Does anyone have some advice for what my options are at this point?
She paid by debit so I don't think the bank can cancel the payment now.
What's more I was with her yesterday... If only this had happened when I was there... She's devastated but was afraid to not pay this man.