dickboy1 vs Cahoot (hoping for a result... and a new surfboard!)

[dickboy1]

Preliminary approach for repayment of charges sent to Cahoot today. Only been charged £30, but I want it back! Haven't asked for a Data Protection Act. Do I need this? I know exactly how much I have been charged i.e. £30.

[dickboy1]

Received the usual bla bla email from cahoot yesterday:

Dear dickboy1,

Thank you for contacting cahoot.

I am sorry that you felt you had to contact us concerning the level of service
that you have received from cahoot. Please accept this e-mail as acknowledgement
that your issues have now been brought to the attention of cahoot's Service
Relationship Managers.

At cahoot, we aim to satisfy our customers at all times. We have a complaints
handling procedure in place to ensure that you receive a quick and fair response
to any complaints you may have about our service. At each stage of the
complaints procedure, the details of your case will be reviewed and fully
investigated. You will be kept informed of what is happening and we will do
everything we can to help you. For a full description of our complaints
procedure, please log into your personal homepage on the cahoot website via
www.cahoot.com. Please scroll down to the bottom of the home page and click
into our 'Important Information' section. Details of our complaints procedure
can be found under the heading "Complaints Policy". This is the seventh legal
notice and can be found immediately after the section which relates to "Third
party websites and products".

It is our policy to acknowledge all complaints within 24 hours (or the next
available working day) and wherever possible to resolve. In the event that
detailed investigation is necessary, we will endeavour to give you a full reply
within 5 working days. In the circumstances where this is not possible, we will
keep you informed of progress regularly.

Yours sincerely,

Service Relationship Team

Woop de doo.

Bring it on.

[dickboy1]

Result. £30 refunded. But admission of guilt? No way!! Pains taken to re-iterate, and explanation that this is a 'good-will gesture.' Yeah yeah yeah. Anyway, victory for the dick man. Very pleased. Email follows:

Dear dickboy1,

I am writing to you in reply to your letter dated 13th June 2006. I have taken
ownership of your case in order to provide a response to the issues raised in
your letter.

We do not accept that cahoot's charges are unfair under the Unfair Terms in
Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. The object of these Regulations was not
price control nor were they intended to interfere with people's freedom to agree
the terms of their contracts.

It is well known that banks make charges and cahoot's charges are in line with
those of other banks. The terms and conditions of the account and the charges
that apply are clear and fair and were provided to you at the time you opened
it. You freely agreed to the terms and conditions and the charges when you
opened the account. You were not under any obligation to do so and could have gone to another bank if you did not agree to the charges. Equally, you are free to move your account to another bank at any time if you do not agree with the charges.

In any event, we do not agree that the charges are disproportionate. The
charges are reasonable and proportionate to the administrative costs incurred by cahoot.

Having reviewed the history of your accounts I can see that in general your
accounts have been well managed and the charges detailed in your letter
represent uncharacteristic breaches of our terms and conditions. Given this and
the fact I've refunded the charges in question. This is made as a gesture of
goodwill and I'd again like to re-iterate that we don't accept our charges are
disproportionate.

I hope that this resolution is to your satisfaction, should you require any
further assistance please don't hesitate to contact me again.

Kind regards

Service Relationship Manager, cahoot

Love the bit about telling me that no one forced me to join cahoot, and i am welcome to go elsewhere! ha ha.

Victory, nonetheless. Still battling NatWest tho!

[Bookworm]

In other words, bugger off if you don't like it! Well, they ARE charmers, aren't they? And such gracious losers!

Nice one anyway. Don't forget to fill the survey! we're getting close to the million £ in refunded bank charges, so every penny counts!!!! lol