Brighthouse Contact details/company overview.

[MARTIN3030]

BrightHouse,

Registered Office

5 Hercules Way,

Leavesden Park,

Watford

WD25 7GS Registered in England 0785922.

 

Data Protection Manager

Caversham Finance Ltd trading as BrightHouse

5 Hercules Way

Leavesden Park

Watford

WD25 7GS

 

BrightHouse Customer Services

5 Hercules Way

Leavesden park

Watford

WD25 7GS

 

Customer care enquiries contact:

Tel: 0800 526 069

 

Email; customer.relations@brighthouse.co.uk

Customer Relations team open times: Monday - Friday 9 am - 5 pm

(Wednesday closed at 3 pm for staff training)

 

Consumer Credit licence No 0345103 licenced for ; Consumer credit,Consumer hire

 

Trading Names;

BrightHouse

Crazy George's

http://www.brighthouse.co.uk

http://www.brighthouseblog.co.uk

http://www.brighthousecareers.co.uk

http://www.brighthousegroup.co.uk

 

 

COMPANY OVERVIEW

Brighthouse is a trading name of Cavendish Finance Limited,which was a former subsidiary of the Thorn Group plc,and taken private in 2008 following a deal done by Nomura (now Terra Firma Capital Partners).

CFL was purchased by Vision Capital in July 2007.

BrightHouse is the largest rent to own company in the UK with over 200 retail stores employing more than 2300 people.

BrightHouse released its financial results in July 2009 showing a 16.9 per cent rise in annual sales to £170.6 million.In 2009 BrightHouse saw their sales increase 21 percent to 50.5 million pounds ($80.6 million) in the 13 weeks to 24 December.

 

PRODUCTS/SERVICES

 

Its product area is home furnishings,domestic appliances,Audio visual equipment and kitchen white goods.In June 2009 BrightHouse launched its online hiring site.

Brighthouse offers products from well known brand names including Sony Philips Samsung and Beko.

Furniture accounts for about 20 per cent of sales, audio and visual for 30 per cent, domestic appliances for 20 per cent and 30 per cent for technology.

Target Markets/ Selling policies

Customers pay cash upfront, weekly repayments or monthly direct debit with no deposit, with a charge of 29.9% APR interest on all products. Customers can take payment holidays and return goods without incurring penalties if required. The company’s Optional Service Cover provides customers with full protection against breakdown.The company's lending practices have been criticised for targeting the "poorest, most desperate families" and operating in the "most deprived areas" of the UK. Given BrightHouse's interest rates, a buyer may end up paying more than twice as much what they would have paid absent BrightHouse's finance charges. Their base prices have also been noticed to be higher than the prices charged by mainstream retailers such as Dixons.

Media Reports

In 2009 a BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat investigation found evidence of a the BrightHouse chain bullying and pressurising customers who were falling behind with their payments. Some customers of BrightHouse, told Newsbeat that staff were "bullying, threatening and rude" to them.A debt charity (Credit Action) warned of treatment of people in "an appalling way", and wanted the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to investigate.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2009/05_may/14/newsbeat.shtml

Brighthouse stories on CAG.

Such was the levels of complaints on the Consumer Action Group,from Brighthouse customers,that we introduced a stand alone forum for members much earlier than similar forums which were added for other retail store forums.

Complaints range from being supplied with b stock goods,failure to properly deal with complaints,adding unfair charges to agreements,insurance issues,heavy handed collection tactics,and more.

Here are some examples;

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?89225

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?136953-Help-with-Brighthouse-please

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?48343-Brighthouse-Problem-Again

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?281880-Bright-House-problems....

[dx100uk]

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?130871-CAG-BRIGHTHOUSE-Consumer-Fact-Sheet