Consumer Action Group

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 of the admin are rude and it is not always a friendly place as claimed. The quality of advice sometimes bad and inconsitent. Their website has flaws. You cannot delete threads or posts after a set time and you cannot delete your account. There are much better advice website like MSE or specific forums on social media (e.g. Facebook). Avoid this one.

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

The site, whilst originally well meaning has become nothing more than a left wing echo chamber. If you dare to disagree with any member of the site team your post will be Immediately deleted, never to be seen or heard of again.

Ive been a member for eleven years and am saddened to see it go this way.

There are much better, non biased sites out there.

Go find them, but stay away from cag.

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/**************/

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

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.

I joined the site years ago but had little activity on it because of not being comfortable with some actions apparently by site 'staff'

Over the last few months I became more active for a couple of reasons, and found my concerns to be all true.

Dont get me wrong, there are some good people on CAG, and some help given, but those that abuse the site as a simple platform for their own personal interests, and do it hidden by the sites anonymity for staff interventions, mean that ALL site staff are implicated.
As stated by the other reviewer, the quality of the help and advice is very very mixed.

I have seen what appeared to be completely reasonable posts simply deleted without warning, yet clearly biased, wrong or blatantly lying posts left untouched, seemingly just because some site team member does or doesn't like it or agree with its point of view,

Threads trolled into meaninglessness by one particular site team member to suite his own political stance (probably not even that and just because he can)

Thread titles changed to demean the thread (although undone at complaint) when a site team member held an apposing political viewpoint

Posts you make can be deleted or worse still amended after you have written them, with no notification and *nothing indicating a site member has modified your post.
When noticed and challenged, the 'site team' just refer you to their rules which say they can.
So You simply CANNOT be sure if what is in a post was what was written by the poster.

And worst of all a bailiff advice section that seems clearly run by some bailiff company promotion team, where very reasonable and valid questions are simply deleted and blatant warnings from a site team member that look like threats at the postings.

Darned ridiculous and a disgrace to consumer bloggs.

Slight update.
I have looked into the bailiff side of CAG a little more as what had been stated to me there by those apparently supported by the CAG site and staff simply didn't make sense,
And have very quickly found areas of immense concern.

I would strongly suggest that anyone with issues with bailiffs or Enforcement Agents should NOT trust any help offered on CAG, and MOST CERTAINLY SHOULD NOT GIVE ANY CONTACT INFORMATION to anyone there. Look elsewhere.