On 03/11/2020 09:06, michael adams wrote:
wrote in message
...
On Monday, 2 November 2020 19:41:30 UTC, Jeff Layman wrote:

It's very strange. The only way to contact the company seems to be
through their 0330 number or by *opening an account" (they have a

What's wrong with an 0330 number? Its just an ordinary standard rate
number like any other but not associated with a particular geographic
area.

But in the absence of any other information, it serves to further conceal
their location. While their "Registered Office" could be an accommodation
address intended solely for the receipt and forwarding of mail.
Which could be anywhere - should anyone be bothered to look.
An impressive office block in the centre of town, or above a
newsagents in a village.

Its most likely the address of their accountants. That way companies
house communications go directly to them.

Harry Bloomfield supplied the answer.

Formerly I suggested that they were working in a back bedroom and had
already compiled their list of engineers. But of course, as Harry pointed
out, there's no need for this at all. All they need do is feed the
addresses of potential customers into the Gas Safe Register and there
you go. Apparently I'm surrounded by them; as is anyone living in a town
most likely. And there are plenty of other sites for other trades
Mybuilder, Checkatrade etc. etc. All of whom already come highly
recommended. Naturally.

So seemingly all you need is a good website, merchant accreditation from CC
card providers and a fast broadband connection along with some fake reviews
maybe. And located almost anywhere - the UK is your oyster.

However the big problem with this as with almost all such surefire
get rich quick schemes is actually attracting customers.
Letting them know you exist. Previously you'd have had to
advertise which potentially could cost shedloads to be effective
now in additions/instead you need to achieve a high ranking on
Google and other search engines; while competing with maybe hundreds
of others trying to achieve exactly the same objective.

While uniformed conjecture can be fun, it does tend to draw one to less
than accurate conclusions.

Not wishing to spoil anyone's cynicism party, but it's worth noting its
not difficult to go look up the actual data instead.

A whois record check on the domain will find it was registered in 2013.

If you look at the bottom of their web page you will find the registered
company details, so can then go look them up on the companies house web
site. At which point you will find they have made up accounts and a 5
year trading history, with a move to profit in about 2017, and
consistent growth over the last couple of trading years. The average
number of employees for the 2017-18 year was 9, and last year that had
risen to 16. So it seems like its going to be getting rather cosy in
that back bedroom.


--
Cheers,

John.

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