You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
I work for screw fix .
Took a phone call from our contacts centre re a customer collection for very expensive power tools .
The collecting customer would not have the payment card used to verify id and pin number.
The reason for this is that the jobcentre had bought the tools so the job seeker could start a new construction job on Monday
Do the job centre really spend nearly a grand for and on behalf of unemployed people looking for work?
If it looks like a duck...
Yeah, that sounds fishy. I work with young care experienced people and we often buy them kit/ work clothes/ laptops etc. We always either order through a PO or if we need to use a card, we will be present.
Why speak to a cycling forum on not speak to your manager?
A few minutes later...
Google info tells me about the Flexible Support Fund.
A government backed scheme available through the job centre where grants of any amount can be gifted to job seekers for essentials to get them back to work.
This can be a suit, bus pass , train tickets , child care for initial stage of employment. Also essentials like tools for a chippy.
It's up to the person at the jobcentre how much is given.
I've done this at my company where my line manager is Sheffield and I'm Edinburgh. The screwfix store only let me away with it as they took copies of all my ID and I'm s semi regular customer.
So if I can convince the job centre I'm an out of work astronaut they might buy me a spaceship to help me back to gainful employment? Cool, might try that.
Branch manager is on holiday, and I think it's really bad form to interrupt someones week off with work related matters.
This website being the epicenter of all knowledge where everyone is an expert at everything seemed, at least to me , a good place to just ask the question.
There's every chance someone has come into contact with fsf in the past.
I had never heard of it before as I've never been unemployed.
Sounds like a good idea , but open to exploitation
The person collecting ought to have a letter detailing what the grant is, and what was ordered. It should have their name and address which should obviously match their ID. TBH your head office should have details of what you need to do as the Job Centre won’t have purchased with a credit card…
TBH your head office should have details of what you need to do as the Job Centre won’t have purchased with a credit card…
Which is exactly what they did.....
I'm an out of work billionaire playboy, can they give me £1bn and some coke and hookers?
100% the contact centre. Phone number on screen , competent person on other end of the phone . Used all the correct current terminology. They did our standard 3 pieces of info from the caller from the job centre to verify their i.d.
Area manager is next up the chain of command. Not really the type of issue he gets involved in tbh. Although he is a really good guy and would have been happy to help
They will still presumably be able to quote you the order number and detail exactly what's on the order. And provide you with ID as to who they are....
Screwfix's system does seem to be missing something on this kind of thing - there is no way when ordering online to detail who is doing the collecting if it's not the person ordering. I often pick up orders for work that my technician has put in for me. And my wife collects stuff I've ordered for home. In both cases we just forward the collection text to the person doing the collecting and no questions ever asked.
There is actually. You can add details to an online order with the name of the person collecting the item. As long as they bring photo id it's perfectly fine.
Power tools , boilers and CCTV cameras should be pin checked at handover by the person at the till.
A £6 tube of sealant , we just hand out.
PayPal payments should be printed , signed by the collection person then date and time notated by the server for CCTV reference
Your contact centre called you, told you exactly what was happening and that they’d verified it was the job centre that had purchased.
Be honest, it’s not whether you think it’s a scam, it’s your incredulity at this person being bought tools <smiling emoji>
It'll be funny if the purchase of the tools turns out to be legit but the beneficiary uses them to pull a Hatton Garden.
Well they are for doing a job.
There was an incident with a hammer and a mit police investigation
TBH your head office should have details of what you need to do as the Job Centre won’t have purchased with a credit card…
Which is exactly what they did…
Credit card or trade card? I'm amazed if the Job Centre staff have access to a credit card that can be used anywhere. Way too easy for the details to be compromised somewhere. Even a trade card is risky...
In other areas - Access to work grants for example the recipient has an official letter detailing what can be bought and a guide price. Surely the Job Centre staff don't just go around buying tools for people on a credit card...?
All I can see on my invoice system is the method of payment. Which happened to be MasterCard, and the last 4 digits of the card number.
There is an in depth system where you can access a little bit more information..
This is exactly the reason for the post. I took am amazed at both the levels of expenditure , I mean who wouldn't want a stack of new millwakee tools for free.
Plus the fact that it's not paid via a purchase order from a large organisation which would have Key accounts status triggering a different price structure
Yeah, seems like a very inefficient and poorly implemented process to me. I can’t say I’m surprised though unfortunately.
I'd be taking this higher within Screwfix. You're not going to get in trouble for asking for approval, but may if you let all that kit go to a scam.
It sounds like you've done your due diligence by confirming it was a genuine call from your firm and now you've still got concerns, this is what your bosses are for. I'm sure the branch manager wouldn't mind a call, (though I agree with the principal of not bothering people who are on holiday) or the regional manager if he is an amenable bloke.
I'm sure either will be pleased that you're not just going to lob hundreds, (low thousands?) of stock over the counter outside the normal process.
seems like a very inefficient and poorly implemented process to me
Jobcentre? Definitely legit then. 😉
Seriously though, I'd want more verification. +1 for ask the manager or wait until tomorrow and phone the Jobcentre yourself.
Collector is legit and has complaints? Well they should've organised this for a little earlier than a Sunday the day before they start work. If it's Jobcentre's fault then he can blame it on them when he's an hour or so late on his first day. I'm sure he doesn't need the entire stack of tools first thing. Perhaps he can show you enough proof (communication with JC on his phone?) to make you satisfied if you believe him enough to want to take a risk.
At our end I told our Contact Center , who had the JC on hold , that the person collecting the order must bring current photo id , ie Passport or Driving Licence , plus a current household bill with their name and address on it. Plus be willing to have their photo taken with the order. Otherwise the order would not be released.
Problem I had at the time was I was making a decision for other staff members who were on shift , whilst I was not rota'd to be in work when the customer expected to collect the order ( sat pm )
So I posted this on Sat am , giving me enough time to put a stop on the order . Then Googled the Financial Support thingy which is massively over generous imo, so the JC purchace appears to be genuine. The JC phoned the CC as other stores have refused to release high value orders to JC customers in the past, so this isnt a one off thing.
If its a con, and its been given out, I fully expect a written warning due to the sum involved and agreeing to waive a company collection policy
I would definitely not be giving it out if it was me unless I had written guidance about a procedure to follow for random JC credit card purchases where the cardholder is not able to collect. The fact that you are querying it is enough to withhold the release. I would challenge any written warning in the absence of any written procedure/guidance anyway. If you do have any guidance for credit card purchases when the cardholder is not able to collect then I would follow that to the letter - no exceptions.
agreeing to waive a company collection policy
I was going to say, surely you have policies for large purchases? It has the hallmarks of a scam (appeal to the heart, appeal to urgency) but if you follow policy then you've done no wrong even if it is a scam; if policy dictates that you don't hand over the goods without whatever checks and balances are required then "computer says no," they'll have to start on Tuesday.
Who offers a job to someone with no tools, but has collection of a grand's worth on Saturday for a job on Monday? As an employer I'd want to be confident that a new starter knew which end of a drill was the pointy one and that they're not going to jigsaw their fingers off.
From everything you've posted it could well be legit but it's utterly insane if it is.
The more I think about this the more alarm bells ring…
it’s possibly neither legit or a scam but somewhere in between. It’s definitely wrong.
5 mins Googling reveals that in order to be a supplier of “stuff” procured under the Flexible Support Fund an organisation needs to register to be included on the list of approved suppliers via the Dynamic Purchasing System. This would make sense in that a JC advisor can award a payment and then make a purchase via the system. My guess is that a well meaning (or otherwise) person in the JC has decided to help X by awarding money for tools but either a) Screwfix aren’t on the list b) tools are needed for Monday and the process takes longer or c) both. JC person then decides to circumvent the system by using their own credit card and will get the money back somehow - having the payment diverted to their own account for example or the JS advisor has “loaned” the money to the claimant under the pretence of awarding a FSF payment and the claimant is now indebted to the JC advisor. None of the above is appropriate or allowed and waves so many red flags.
I cannot believe for one minute that the approved process for awarding/spending a FSF payment involves a credit card unless the payment has gone directly into the recipient’s bank account in which case Screwfix would be none the wiser and would process as a standard customer.
Its not really Screwfix’s responsibility to police this obviously but I would be very much inclined to query this with DWP/Screwfix senior management.
Who offers a job to someone with no tools, but has collection of a grand’s worth on Saturday for a job on Monday? As an employer I’d want to be confident that a new starter knew which end of a drill was the pointy one and that they’re not going to jigsaw their fingers off.
Not sure on the scam or not bit, but on the above, you don't need a lot of imagination.....this is the Jobcentre after all;
someone who's so hard up they had to sell tools to feed kids
someone who was on the tools, gave up to try another job, didn't work out and now could go back on tools
etc.
We have the money though
So the SF account would have to be cloned , as well as the credit card.
So the scammer would need details from the person at the JC which would be considered personal info. Mobile number , email address, Post Code , order history etc .
They would then need a clean credit card thats got a decent amount of credit on it and they have the 3 fig CCA number on the back.
The scammer places the order , uses the cloned card online , rings our contact center pretending to be from the JC . Our CC then verify the person is who they say they are by asking for specific data from their profile which is securely held .
The CC then ring the branch concerned (me) and say a 3rd party is collecting the item , without the card or ID of the account holder , will this be ok ? The CC confirm that the person at the JC is who they say they are via the recomended methods .
Cant see how a scammer would be privvy to enough info to pass the above. Credit card details , yep buy them on the dark web , lifted from a grabber at a petrol station in Hounslow . But someones SF profile , unless the person at the JC uses their email to contact the jobseekers personally , ditto their mobile phone , and has their work place listed as their address that you could get from Google , aaaand all the details match the SF profile , and the specific questions the CC asked , from a choice included all the aforementioned , which they knew the answers to verbatum . Its possible I'll grant you that .
I don’t think it’s a scam. I think it’s someone at the JC trying to be helpful or, less likely but still possible, using the system for fraud. Either way though they should not be using the system in the way that they are.