Abbey must think I was born yesterday!

[mooboo]

mooboo vbmenu_register("postmenu _782495", true);
Basic Account Customer

Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: London
Posts: 6



Hi

So, following my previuos thread below whe I first received my 4 weeks fob off letter, I since sent in my LBA. At exactly 4 weeks after the initial fob off letter I receive another one that reads like this;

"As you know, we are currently invetsigatinbg your complaint that you raised with Abbey four weeks ago. I am sorry for the delay you are experiencing and I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continual patience.

Our research is taking longer than expected becuase we want to make sure a full investigation is done. If we are unable to complete our investigation beforehand, we will write to you again in four weeks time to let you know how we are getting on.

I am sorry that it is taking longer than originally thought and would like to reassure you that your complaint is important to us"

Signed Richard Harris Head of Complaints

Now - what Bull, I emailed this to him...

Dear Mr Harris,

I am writing in response to your letter dated 18th May 2007 explaining the delays to investigating my complaint. Firstly I wish to point out that my case is not a complaint and I am simply claiming back unfair penalty charges applied to my account.

With respect Sir, you must think that I was born yesterday. Your letter is nothing more than a delay tactic employed by the Abbey to retain the funds longer and discourage those who are not fully committed to seeing through process to the courts to quit.

I am very committed to this course of action and will indeed see this through. Your letter states that it is taking longer than expected to investigate, and could take up to another 4 weeks or longer. I find it difficult to believe that it takes this long to investigate the charges when it took me two hours to look through my statement, highlight the charges, enter them onto a spreadsheet and write my initial letter. It seems that your department’s excuses are as over inflated as your bank charges.

So far I have been very patient, I was indeed hopeful of resolving this with speed when my statements were sent to me quickly and without complaint, however my patience is running thin and I wish to have this matter resolved within the next 7 days. I require repayment in full of this money by cheque made payable to **************. If you do not comply fully by the 1st June 2007 then I shall begin a claim against you in the county court for the full amount plus interest (from the date filed in court, not from my initial claim to you) plus my costs (time for preparation of the court bundle, lost working hours) plus court fees. This of course will add more money to my claim and I will not accept anything other than a settlement in full once I begin the court process. I would be willing to come to a settlement agreement with you within the next 7 days.

I calculate that you have taken £3,290.50, plus £613.56 interest at the statutory rate under the s.69 County Courts Act, total £3,904.06. This amount is likely to escalate to over £4,200 once court costs are added as well as further interest.

I look forward to your response,

I was having a bit of a rant really as this last fob off letter really annoyed me.

I will file at court next week if I haven't heard anything further, which I fully expect not too. I sit worth me continually contacting them or should I just stop now and file?

Thanks in advance



4 weeks fob off letter thread:

I sent in my Prelim letter to the Abbey on Thurs 19th April and they replied pretty much immediatley stating that they are very sorry about my complaint and that they are making one member of the team responsible for investigating my claim and this could take 4 weeks. As i asked for a response to my letter within 14days can I do anything at the end of this week, or do I just need to wait for them to get their act together and send me the outcome of the investigation? I really want to get this moving. Also can I expect a go away letter in 4 weeks - has anybody else had this letter? I've being looking through other threads but cant find anything similar.

Thats a new one-making a member of staff responsible for your claim!!!

If every bank did this then they could solve the UK's unemplyment problem overnight.

You need to wait until your 14 days are up and then proceed to the next step-ignore rthe 4 weeks

Thanks PPMAN159

Should I acknowlege their first letter when I send the LBA or just ignore it?

Personally I would ignore it and carry on to the next stage in the process.

[standingupformyself]

carry on, stick to the timescales you stated. and good luck

[mooboo]

Ha!

I think my email rant could have had an impact. I received a letter as follows....

" Thank you for your letter dated 23rd February 2007 and subsequent correspondence about the charges to you bank account. I have now carried out a full investigagtion on your behalf.

I'm sorry you are unhappy with the charges and I understand you would like these refunded. Although the charges were correct, as a gesture of goodwill, I am happy to refund £348. You account will be updated within the next 10 working days.

I appreciate your feelings on this matter but we are satisfied that the charges do not contravene the unfair terms in consumer contracts regulations 1999. We also comply with the office of fair trading, in dealing fairly and openly with our customers.

When opening your account you were provided with information detailing the terms and conditions. We also sent you regular updates and tarriff of charges, which details the amounts of our charges. I have enclosed a further copy for you."

The rest is just blah.

It is remarkable that the amount they are paying into the account is the amount of the current outstanding overdraft. As soon as the moeny is in there I will close the account.

I have also drafted a letter of rejection to them thanking them for the offer and accepting it as a first installment and reminding them of the further costs to be incurred by themselves should I take them to court and win and giving them until 15th June to make a further offer.

lets see what happens, quite excited now as I am taking the "gesture of goodwill" as a sign of submission and the scabbgy shall be beaten!

[PPMAN159]

Just one point MooBoo-in your original post you have mentioned your own name.

Suggest you go back in and edit the post, just to be on the safe side.

[roverman]

I have recieved identical letters to ones above. Even the £348 figure is the same! I have thanked them for the first instalment. I have already initiated court proceedings which they were aware of when paying me this money.

[mooboo]

Originally Posted by PPMAN159

Just one point MooBoo-in your original post you have mentioned your own name.

Suggest you go back in and edit the post, just to be on the safe side.

Cant believe I did that! Thanks, had top read the whole post several times before I noticed it.

[mooboo]

Originally Posted by roverman

I have recieved identical letters to ones above. Even the £348 figure is the same! I have thanked them for the first instalment. I have already initiated court proceedings which they were aware of when paying me this money.

How odd that it is the same amount, I thought mine was that becuase of the overdraft amount but maybe it is just a coincidence. PLease let me know what their next offer is and we can work out their game plan!

[mooboo]

Hi

I am sending out my rejection letter of their offer and would like to send them a list of cases won against them in the county court, is there such a list available for download on the forum?

Thanks

[mooboo]

Originally Posted by roverman

I have recieved identical letters to ones above. Even the £348 figure is the same! I have thanked them for the first instalment. I have already initiated court proceedings which they were aware of when paying me this money.

I sent my letter refusing to accept the £348 and I get a letter back by return of post that says they are very sorry that I am still not happy and that they will investigate further and let me know within 4 WEEKS! Ridiculous, they're just stalling. I will send back another letter saying that's again ridiculous and then start court proceedings. I have warned them that it will cost them more in the long run, but they obviousley dont care!