There is an expensive price hidden in the service that offers price estimates.
120 euros will be charged for using the service. Unsplash / Screenshot
Competition and Consumer Agency (KKV) report about a service offering car price estimates in Finnish, which operates at Autoarviointi.fi. The use of the service is not free, although it may seem so.
Using the service costs 120 euros, which is mentioned on the small website. If you visit the site on a phone, according to KKV, the price information may not be displayed at all.
The website is backed by Quotient INT LTD, which says it is located in Ireland. The billing contact information leads to Belgium. On the website, Pieni Roobertinkatu in Helsinki is mentioned under our contact person, as well as an e-mail address ending in fi.
KKV says that it has received dozens of contacts from the site, but the number of complaints is expected to rise. Some of the consumers say that they have received a contact via e-mail marketing the service in question. These advertising messages have come from different e-mail addresses.
KKV reminds that services that offer car price estimates found on the internet are generally always paid, so you should be careful with them.
The story continues after the picture.
In the terms of use, the price of the service is mentioned in small print as “120 eur”. Screenshot
Anyone can fill in the information
The website asks you to enter the car’s registration number, followed by the car’s mileage, name, phone number, email address and home address. The site allows data to be filled in and sent without further verification. In this way, there can’t even be any certainty about the person filling in the information.
If you have entered the information yourself or someone has entered it for you, KKV advises you to make a written complaint to the company. Contact can be made via the contact form on the website or by e-mail.
However, some of those who have contacted the company have said that the email address shown on the website is not working.
If the company does not react and gives the invoice to the collection agency for collection, the complaint must be addressed to the collection agency. However, according to KKV, it is not likely that the invoice will be transferred to collection in cases of car price estimates.
There have been similar cases in the past. KKV highlights the Latvian Nordweb SIA’s Carcheck.fi and Carspy.fi services, which have since been discontinued. Similar price estimation services have been warned in Denmark and Sweden.