Music Magpie

Music Magpie (www.musicmagpie.co.uk) is for selling off old stuff – particularly CDs, DVDs, computer games, books and a growing range of other items.

Music Magpie say they are the quick and easy way to declutter and get cash for your stuff, which is why millions of people use them every year to sell their CDs, DVDs, Games, Books, Blu-Rays & Tech. They have paid over £350 million to more than 6 million customers.

It is quite simple to sell to Music Magpie – you select the item you want to sell from drop down lists and they give you an approximate valuation.

If you agree with that value, then you send them the item and get the money.

However, the problem in these types of transactions is that the offered price may turn into a much reduced price once they receive the item and revalue it and that will cause issues with the seller.

As long as the company offer fair prices then most sellers should be happy, but many people think Music Magpie been offering unreasonably high prices, knowing that almost all items that are sent in, are then down marked in price and it’s difficult for the sender to say no at that point.

There are numerous reviews of Music Magpie on Trustpilot and it seems there are more complaints than there should be.

e.g. 1  Got an email statement to say magpie was giving me £6.50. Right. No wrong. The original statement was £8.90. Another complaint. Sent email to magpie. Np response as yet. Absolutely terrible service.

  1. Terrible. Daughter’s iPod was valued at £40; when I send to Music Magpie I received a revised valuation of £4 as a “technician” had diagnosed a non-functioning lcd. I asked for it to be returned and sure enough everything functions perfectly fine.
  2. I purchased an iPhone from Music Magpie around 9-months ago. It then suddenly stopped working around 3-months ago. I sent it to be repaired immediately – hoping for a quick fix. 3-months later and many “standardised” emails probably sent via robots. I am still without a working phone. In fact they even suggested sending it back to me still broken as they were unable to fix it but didn’t want to replace or refund the phone. I’ve never received worse after-care from any retailer in my life. I will never use this company again because of their inability to honor their warranty. I suggest you do not get bought in because of the low prices, and shop with a legitimate retailer instead.

Be careful if you buy from or sell to Music Magpie.

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Stupidest Spam of the Week Garlic Ears

“Why you should put garlic in your ear before going to sleep” is a ridiculous headline heralding a ridiculous email message about lost health remedies.

There are probably thousands of books proclaiming long lost remedies and books of kitchen medicines, home-made potions to cure all ills, grand-mothers methods, ancient healing potions etc. and many will contain ideas that could work e.g. the age old remedy for indigestion is peppermint tea.

But, equally many of the old remedies are dangerous or just plain wrong. People have believed in the most ludicrous things in the past (and some still do).

This message claims:-

”the most powerful natural painkiller”

“the most powerful natural cures lost to mankind”

“when medicines vanish you’ll need this on your bookshelf”

“turn your backyard weeds into antibiotics”.

No. Better to stick with modern medicine for anything serious and be careful over which kitchen remedies you try.

The line about garlic in your ears isn’t explained in the message and I wont be buying any book just to find the no doubt strange reason behind such a practice.

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118 Directory Charges Capped

In the days when only BT ran a directory enquiry service i.e. to look up phone numbers for you, it was free for a long time then people complained when a modest charge was introduced by BT.

Then the government opened it up to anyone and instead of competition driving down the price – the price went up and the tricks played by the new 118 firms (i.e. directory lookup services) led almost everyone to distrust the various 118 services and the adverts on TV didn’t help as they were designed to be memorable i.e. very annoying.

The charges for the most popular 118 services for a 60 second lookup call reached ridiculous levels e.g.

  • 118 004 (Telecom2) £15.98
  • 118 118 (TNUK) £8.98
  • 118 212 (Maureen) £8.98

Whereas BT and the Post Office maintained more reasonable pricing

  • 118 500 (BT) £2.32
  • 118 555 (Post Office) £1.00

Some of the mobile phone providers offer free directory lookups for their customers.

BT also operates the free 195 directory enquiries number for people with disabilities. To sign up you call 0800 587 0195 to get the relevant form, that needs to be countersigned by a GP.

In 2018, the regulator got fed up with the rip-off prices and created a cap that took effect on 1st April 2019, bringing the charges back to 2012 levels. This meant a 90 second call would cost at most £3.65

Well done the regulator. Sometimes the free market fails to work properly and needs to be fixed.

Some of the services offer to connect you to the number you want, but beware – they make continue to charge you a premium rate per minute while you are connected to that number.

If possible, use Internet lookup to get phone numbers for free and always dial the number yourself to avoid additional charges.

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Lekoil Scammed

Lekoil is a  Nigerian oil company and their share price dropped 73% on the London Stock Exchange, on the announcement that it had been scammed to the tune of $184.

Lekoil needed a huge loan and was approached by Seawave Invest Limited acting on behalf of the Qatar Investment Authority.

Negotiations ensued and went on for months as executives sorted out the fine details of the loan, which was needed to pay for development of the Ogo field within Oil Prospecting Licence 310 in Nigeria.

Lekan Akinyanmi, the Lekoil chief executive led the negotiations for the company and in time a formal agreement was reached.

Control Risks, a consultancy headquartered in London, prepared a due diligence report that did not raise red flags. Analysts said the loan’s relatively low interest rate of 3.72 per cent should have raised suspicions.

Norton Rose Fulbright, an international law firm that has previously worked for Lekoil, provided legal advice on the deal.

Control Risks, a consultancy headquartered in London, prepared a due diligence report that did not raise red flags, the people said. Analysts said the loan’s relatively low interest rate of 3.72 per cent should have raised suspicions. Norton Rose and Control Risks declined to comment.

But it was all fake – the people claiming to be from the Qatar Investment Authority were criminals, who went to great lengths to appear genuine.

Lekoil was left desperately trying to find money or be forced to sell off assets.

OOPS. Better do better checks next time someone offers a huge loan.

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How to Reclaim Your Identity

There are criminals intent on stealing your identity so they can take-over your accounts, open new accounts in your name, take out loans etc. and everything in your name which means you can be prosecuted by any retailers or other organisations if you don’t pay the bills.

If you find your bank account has been emptied or you are locked out of your accounts or strange charges appear on your mobile phone or calls you get from debt collectors about loans you haven’t taken out,  then you may have had your identity stolen.

Recovering your identity after it’s been stolen can be difficult and stressful.  It is important that you take action immediately as that gives the best chance of stopping the criminal and recovering any money stolen.

  1. Contact the police to report the fraud and get a crime number which is needed for any insurance claims.

You can call Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or make a report on their web site at actionfraud.police.uk. which also offers advice for victims of identity theft.

  1. If you have reason to think that criminals have accessed your credit card account or bank account then contact your supplier immediate.
  2. If you receive a letter from a debt collector or bailiff, this could mean someone has already been borrowing money in your name. You should contact them to explain the situation and not simply ignore the letters or calls.
  3. If you receive a court summons for non-payment of a bill, then contact the company or court straight away to explain what you think has happened. If you don’t take action right away, it could become very difficult to resolve the issue.
  4. Check your credit report. If you have reason to think that criminals have stolen your personal information, you should check your credit report for signs of unusual activity. This will show if criminals have tried to apply for credit in your name. You can get your credit report from one of the ratings agencies e.g. Experian or Equifax for a couple of pounds.
  5. Consider registering on the Cifas Protective Register. This register tells finance providers to be very careful over any changes to your accounts. They will insist on extra security checks to protect you. This can be beneficial for peace of mind but also makes it difficult for you to make any changes.

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