Abbey's lack of reply

[nino]

Hello fellow Abbey's extortion victims !
I sent Abbey the "Letter before Action" on 22nd March by recorded delivery - sent it to Prescott St in London - but have not had a reply yet and it is only a couples of day away from the deadline, now.
Has anybody else experiended this silence from them ?
Should I try and get this Mr Turbitt involved by sending that letter to his attention in Bradford or just steam ahead with the court action ?

I have also just today recived the end of March statement where they have raised another £ 145 on top of the £551 they had collected till now. They are just raising charges and pushing acounts further in the red so they can keep on topping up their pockets with the charges. It is so unfair !
When is the OFT going to stop them ?

regards

[heppy23]

If you can prove it was delivered then it is down to them what they do.
If you give them a deadline and they chose to ignore it/shred the letter/send it on to the wrong department that is their problem.

[Bookworm]

Originally Posted by heppy23

If you can prove it was delivered then it is down to them what they do.

Not true. If you can show that you wrote the letter, complete with address, it will be pretty much assumed that you posted it, and therefore that it was sent, and received within 2 days.
In other words, as long as you have a copy of the letter you wrote, you're covered.

[susanm]

I sent my first letter on the 19/2/06 and havn't received a repl from the ignorant bankers.

[dave]

Bookworm. Quite right.

In the Civil Procedures handbook 2005 - it clearly states that if you sent it in a letter with a stamp on it (or faxed or emailed) then this is seem in the civil courts as 'delivered'.

Why should the individual be 'penalised' for the inefficiencies of the PO or the bank - although, it seems that the post office has a serious dislike of delivering letters to banks lately.

...or something like that anyway.

(bear in mind, I have had one thing go missing in about 5 years of selling on ebay (given that up, but that's a different story) and sending letters to my friends in Oz and official bodies in France. Yet, I have sent 3 letters to 3 banks, and oddly all three went missing. Coincidence? Ha. Pathetic really, yet these people actually probably do sleep at night).

So, in essence - stick to YOUR guidlines and timescales. Do the banks send threatening letters by recorded delivery - not in my experience. Are THEY scared of the court not beliving them? No.

When the 14 days are up - you know what to do.

Don't be scared. The courts were set up to protect US from this type of behavior, just because it's been abused by the banks doesn't mean it's not true.

(and fogrive me if that sounds patronising, it is not meant to be)

Abbey WILL give in - if they don't then they face more of the same publicity that started this whole thing in the first place!

Remember - YOU are right, YOU have acted within the law. Have they?

[heppy23]

Fair enough but why then recommend recorded delivery?

I work in the mail order field and we send 99% of our stuff by recorded delivery/special delivery. If you don't and they deny getting it what can you do?

[alanfromderby]

I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that Abbey are in a mess. They are getting slower and slower at dealing with Data Protection Act requests, and they seem to be responding to letters well after the deadlines.

Whilst legally it does not appear to be necessary, I am sending out all letters by recorded delivery - simply for my own peace of mine. By doing this, I know they have got the letter...even if it may be under a large pile of others!!

[dave]

Sending recorded delivery is a much better idea.

Whilst not a legal requirement, it shows the banks that you don't trust them and you can prove beyond any doubt that you sent the letter.

I haven't sent any of my letters recorded, however, I will be doing so in future (pretty much to any business).

Banks are 'losing' these letters at a rate far, far above the national average for lost post and the rate that they are being 'lost' has been steadily increasing over the past few months.

Sending recorded is the best bet.

[stoneybabe]

Sending letters via the post office and asking them for a "Proof of posting" would probably be sufficient since the banks reckon they loose stuff anyway. As long as you have proof of posting each and every letter then this would seem to fit with what others here are saying? The service of "Proof of posting" is free, unlike the recorded delivery.

BTW - has anyone seen the poll on NTL homepage?

Have your say
Would you try and claim back unfair bank and credit card fees if it was possible?Yes No

[Spiceskull]

If you send recorded delivery, you get a barcode reference (or something like that) The letter is deemed delivered the next day (if you post before 15:30)

You then log on to the post office site the next morning (give the postman time to actually deliver the thing...) and by 12:00 you can use 'track and trace' to get confirmation that it was delivered, and which office delivered it.

My letters to the bank have gone via this method, first class, and I think it costs 92 pence, a cost I hope to get back if it goes to court...

[towiedyer]

Originally Posted by alanfromderby

I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that Abbey are in a mess. They are getting slower and slower at dealing with Data Protection Act requests, and they seem to be responding to letters well after the deadlines.

I spoke to someone in the call centre on the phone last night about why my statements had not yet been sent.

He said that as it was the end of the financial year they were getting a lot of requests for statements. Ha! End of financial year? More like all their customers are realising the ride Abbey have been taking them for and are fighting back.

[nino]

I have not had a reply yet to my letter requesting that Abbey refund me their charges (didn' t send a Data Protection Act because I have all the Abeys statements).
Am I doing something wrong ?
I wrote to their dept. C, PO Box 382 , Precot Street, London E1 8RP by recorded delivery, attn MS C. Robertson.
With so many offices thy have I would like to be sure I am sending the correspondence to the right office .... particularly if I then proceed with taking court action. SHould I write again ?

In case I decide to proceed legally then which court do I select ? The one nearest to Abbey's or nearest to me ? Suppose I get it wrong I'd be wasting £ 80.00 I can hardly afford to waste.

regards and happy Easter festivities...

Nino

[alanfromderby]

Keep to your timetable - Letter before Action next. If they fail to reply to that then you can either go to your local County Court, or file online. It's all in the FAQ's.

[nino]

The Preliminary approach letter for refund (which is what I sent Abbey recorded delivery on 22nd March) and the Letter Before Ation to which almost everyone refers to as the second step to take by the claimant, look very much similar to me !

Both letter give a threat of legal action if they not comply within 14 days.

Am I overlooking something here ?....

NINO

[Spiceskull]

You're not missing anything at all. The first letter is simply a polite request for a refund, and putting the bank on notice that you are setting a timetable for action. The second letter is a more forceful demand, effectively telling the bank that they owe you money, and that they have (7)(14) days to comply before you raise the claim in court...

When their time runs out then you tell them the good news...good luck.

[nino]

This is in essence what they have stated in their letter (incidentally I had sent them a final notice letter by recorded delivery today unaware that their reply had been delivered by the wonderful Royal Mail while I was at work today. Wonderful wonderful service that of the Royal Mail don't you think so?) .
Here it is:

"We don't accept that Abbey's charges are unfair."
They then go on to say they apply charges in line with other banks and that they made them known to me and I accepted them when I opened the account.

"In any event we do not agree that the charges are disproportionate. THey are reasonable...." (sic!)

"Like most banks we operate an "AUTOMATED" system." (This seems in contraddiction with what another member reported in the forum that Abbey had declared.)

THey then admit mistakes can happen and they are happy to review accounts when asked to and that they will reverse - as a good will gesture but not as a recognition of an eror from their part - £ 90 out of the nearly £600 they have charged me for what I know, so far.

But right in the middle of their letter, there was this paragraph:

"If the complaint escalates into a claim in the County Court. we will review each case individually and if we feel that our relationship with our customer has broken down completely, we may decide to give notice to close the account under the terms and conditions".
There!

I have an account with 1st Direct and could switch almost immediately but it doesn t give me the same size of overdraft nor I see from this Forum that they behave any better than Abbey.
What hurts is that I have funds invested with 3 of their savings accounts although the cheque book a/c is admittedly the only one that is always in red .
They get rid of me they get rid of a net worth customer but I doubt if they d even care looking at my full financial status.

So , I think County Court it will have to be!

But why do they seem to ignore the OFT decision of a couple of weeks ago ?
Is it because they know the OFT can bark but not bite ?

Nino