Please help - list of common failures

[Annoying Twit]

Boring one from me. Buying a suit. There was an OK looking one for a cheap price in the window. Asked to try it on. Was shown essentially similar looking suits for a higher price. Asked for the one in the window, they say they don't have any. I say goodbye then. Shocked salesman voice "but this is a much better suit." I still leave, and he sells me the suit at the window price.

Oh, and I had dodgy energy company salespeople around several times. One came, asked us if we were a British Gas customer, and said that they "just want[ed] to make sure that we're signed up for our discounts." Got quite rude when I asked him to leave.

[Annoying Twit]

Oh, and some companies use "City Link" as a courier. I ordered something, and after ordering noticed that it was coming by a company called "City Link". Googled them. OH NO!!!!!! Seeing that they had a MO of saying you weren't at home when you were, I left a big sign for the courier on the front door and left it actually open, stayed in the front room and watched the door like a hawk. At 1pm, suddenly the status of my order changed to "delivery attempted (carded)". Phoned up to complain, and they tried the reputedly common trick of asking me what colour my front door was. They then say that's the colour the driver reported it as. (I wish now I had said it was bright pink). I contacted the original merchant, and cancelled the order. Then made another order with them based on an agreement that they would send the item out by Royal Mail.

Since then I won't order anything if it's coming to my home by citylink. They do seem to deliver to my (fairly large) workplace. But I won't waste my time ordering anything if City Link are going to be delivering it to my home.

[avinalaf]

I bought my daughter a coat from Dorothy Perkins. Buttons fell off, they said no refund as the buttons are not part of the coat. They're avin a laf

[louis wu]

Sky...where to start, the whole concept of customer service is missing.

Disconeected after being 1 week later then invoice date. Upon complaint, told no-one available to take call etc, and they can do whatever they want with their service (told them exactly what to do with their service).

Bill payment by internet. The system is always down or failed or some other excuse. The alternative offered, an 0870 National rate number.

£4.00 charge for non direct debot payment, already discussed at length here.

you get the idea.

louis

[avinalaf]

United utilities making me pay an estimated bill I disagree with. You can't speak to a person with any common sense or authority on the phone.

[loan_ranger]

Originally Posted by avinalaf

United utilities making me pay an estimated bill I disagree with. You can't speak to a person with any common sense or authority on the phone.

The Landlord of my digs has the same problem with Scottish Power but claims that (according to S.P. when he changed his supply to them) if we regularly email them the meter readings, then S.P. won't need to keep overcharging him. I replied that (IMHO) I think they're bull$###ting because they use the interest earned from the cash surplus as a source of profit, and, nothing short of taking legal action would have any effect.

	Are you letting your bank keep your money Are you giving away thousands of pounds?? Many people aren't claiming all of the money they are entitled to when they make their bank charges claims. You have been forced to pay unfair bank charges. Have you forgotten that your bank has charged you inteest on those charges? If you are overdrawn and the bank owes you charges - then your overdraft is made up of charges - money which you bank owes you. Yet you are paying interest to the bank - on your own money!!! Follow this link to see the discussions on this. You might even double th size of your claim.

[suzieblooz]

Re: earlier post BANK OF SCOTLAND - took 2 branch visits, 3 phonecalls, a letter of complaint and filling out closure form twice before they closed my 2nd account - this took 15 weeks in total instead of the 21 days it should.

[revolting peasant]

Bought new PC through the "IT through work" scheme.

After about 6 months it started overheating and shutting itself down so I rang the helpline. I was advised that this is an "environmental problem" and that I should open the casing and hoover out the fans.

I did this and everything was hunky dory for a few weeks until the graphics card failed. Engineer calls to replace it and tells me it isn't covered under the warranty and will cost me £160.

Why? Becase I had to remove the warranty seal to hoover the fans out, just like their advisor told me to

[Nabuko]

BT wireless package received and installed following instructions. Over two months later, something fails (we think following weather conditions) and therefore we are unable to get any signal for almost a week. Call to BT to find out...

Indian bloke says 'unable to help because there is no wireless signal', therefore not BT's fault (). Priceless

[Raspberry Beret]

Ordered a phone from 3. On using the phone for the first time I realised two of the buttons didn't work. I rang through to their call centre in Bombay to explain the fault. I was told in no uncertain terms that because I had used the phone it was not 3's policy to issue me with a refund/replacement for the phone - it had to be repaired. The fact that I could not possibly know the phone was faulty until I used it was of no consequence. It seems UK law was of no consequence either! Arrgggggh!

Had to waste my time writing to their head office in Glasgow to get the matter sorted. Got a refund but no apology. I was told that the call centre staff must have gotten confused.

[kennythecelt]

Legal and General continued continued to debit house insurance premiums for 15 months despite the policy being cancelled in writing when I sold my house.


OK I should have noticed sooner but we have life assurance policies with them. I assumed the debit was for one of the policies.

I had major difficulties getting the money back. I could have used Direct Debit Guarentee process which Halifax were quite happy with, but opted to use complaints process, in hope I can claim interest on each payment. There would have been 15 seperate reclaimed DDs but the bank would have done it- credit to them for that (hurts me to say it). There would then have followed an arbitration process if L&G had wanted to reclaim the money, meaning it would have been taken out of my account at any time. I did not want to do that as I would potentially have faced bank charges for going overdrawn had that happened.

Effectively L&G said they had no trace of the cancellation. They wanted proof of sale, proof of other insurance, efore they would consider repaying. They claimed that they would have entertained a claim from me despite me not owning any property and most of our property being in storeage. I have proof of the tenancy agreement, meaning landlord has responsibility for current property and proof of soreage insurance. There is fat chance they would ever have paid out if I had tried to make a claim as T&C make it clear they must have been notified of material changes to my circumstances.

They have now acknowledged their "mistake" and I now have a substantial cheque on the way- £1022. It has alerted me to the fact that I was paying far to much for the premium (arranged by GMAC) and that i should not accept policies sold as part of a mortgage deal. Others please note.

The cheque will pay for the next chapter in my route out of debt. I am wondering about interest etc.

	The Direct Debit Guarantee • The Guarantee is offered by all Banks and Building Societies that take part in the Direct Debit Scheme. The efficiency and security of the Scheme is monitored and protected by your own Bank or Building Society. • If the amounts to be paid or the payment dates change, we will notify you three working days in advance of your account being debited or as otherwise agreed. • If an error is made by us or by your Bank or Building Society, you are guaranteed a full and immediate refund from your branch of the amount paid. • You can cancel a Direct Debit at any time by writing your Bank or Building Society. Please also send a copy of your letter to us. This is a term of your banking contract and you can sue on it.

	Bank Charges You should have started your claim for your bank charges by now. Don't wait. You should send your bank a Subject Acess Request asking for all personal data they hold on you - not just statements. You should calculate all of your bank charges and related interest as far back as 1995. You should send your bank a demand for a refund giving them 7 days. You should commence your legal action adding 8% statutory interest. If you wait for the outcome of the test case, you may not be able to claim like this. you may not be able to claim interest. You may only be offered the difference between the charge and the OFT "fair charge". The repayment scheme will try to limit you to refinds from 2001 only. A repayment scheme will not deal with any bank charges related defaults on the credit register whereas in a court action you can ask for these to be removed and to be compensated for the damage caused to you and your family by them. You should also write to the bank and to the CRA and put all charges related credit entries in disupte and warn them that you will want them removed from the Register when the test case is over. Warn them also that you are likely to be seeking compensation for these wrongful data entries. Full and final settlement Have you previously accepted a partial repayment of your bank charges in full settlement? You will still be able to claim the rest of your money back after the Test case is decided. Get all your information back to 1995 and put in your claim now.

	Are you letting your bank keep your money Are you giving away thousands of pounds?? Many people aren't claiming all of the money they are entitled to when they make their bank charges claims. You have been forced to pay unfair bank charges. Have you forgotten that your bank has charged you inteest on those charges? If you are overdrawn and the bank owes you charges - then your overdraft is made up of charges - money which you bank owes you. Yet you are paying interest to the bank - on your own money!!! Follow this link to see the discussions on this. You might even double th size of your claim.

[JOSH_IOU]

I was given a £10,000 loan by Advantage Loans.

The company tried to enforce repayments by using a non signed aplication form.

Want a loan? Go to them lol.

[alanalana]

Hello Dave,

one from the PPI forum.

RBS response to my Subject Access Request which was sent 7 Jan 2008 (the important bit):

"Finally with regard to the Direct Line personal loans that you previously held please contact Direct Line directly to obtain the information that you require.

Then I find out from the Direct Line website the following:

Legal: Transfer of Business (Transfer took place on 1 March 2006)
TRANSFER OF THE BANKING BUSINESS OF DIRECT LINE FINANCIAL SERVICES LIMITED TO THE ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND PLC.
etc. etc.
Then from the Financial Services Authority Register

Basic details for:
204458 - Direct Line Financial Service Limited

Current status: No longer Authorised
Effective Date: 04/07/2006

hope you can use this.
regards
aa

	Subject Access Request A Subject Access Request is a demand which you can make to any organisation to disclose any personal information which they hold on you. The right to disclosure of data is provided by the Data Protection Act. There is no time limit. The organisation is obliged to reveal everything they have about you - which you ask for - as far back as you ask for. There are very few exceptions. It does not matter whether the data is held on microfiche, in an archive, on tape, in a cardex system, in sound recordings or in screen notes. Some companies are saying that they do not have to disclose where it would be difficult to do so - "disproportionate effort". This is untrue. Disproportionate effort refers to something else under the Act. If you are seeking bank charges information then you should ask for "all data held on you" and you should make it clear that you want everything as far back as it goes. Do not be put off by excuses. Do not accept being fobbed off. It is not in your bank's interest to make full disclosure to you. This means that it is in your interests to get it. If you have not started gathering your bank charges information yet, then you should start now. There will soon be a big rush once the OFT test case has been settled. Get all of your bank account informtion as far back as possible. At least as far back as 1995. If your bank says that they don't keep data as far back as this, don't accept it. Be persistent. They've got what you need in some form or other.

[bish]

Hi Dave Black Horse finance Ltd have tried to charge me £640.00 in late payment charges, September 2008, a full two and a half years after the OFT statement on unfair charges. 8 @ £30 and 16@ £25.

Regards bish.

	Bank Charges You should have started your claim for your bank charges by now. Don't wait. You should send your bank a Subject Acess Request asking for all personal data they hold on you - not just statements. You should calculate all of your bank charges and related interest as far back as 1995. You should send your bank a demand for a refund giving them 7 days. You should commence your legal action adding 8% statutory interest. If you wait for the outcome of the test case, you may not be able to claim like this. you may not be able to claim interest. You may only be offered the difference between the charge and the OFT "fair charge". The repayment scheme will try to limit you to refinds from 2001 only. A repayment scheme will not deal with any bank charges related defaults on the credit register whereas in a court action you can ask for these to be removed and to be compensated for the damage caused to you and your family by them. You should also write to the bank and to the CRA and put all charges related credit entries in disupte and warn them that you will want them removed from the Register when the test case is over. Warn them also that you are likely to be seeking compensation for these wrongful data entries. Full and final settlement Have you previously accepted a partial repayment of your bank charges in full settlement? You will still be able to claim the rest of your money back after the Test case is decided. Get all your information back to 1995 and put in your claim now.

[godpikachu]

heres an interesting one:-

Argos refusing to accept gift cards due to them being "out of date", despite there being no use by date written on the card or on any of the accompanying paperwork.

oh!, heres another one, dont know wether this counts..

The jobcentre has various signs up saying "ask about training course X" or "you could be entitled to this additional benefit, ask one of our advisors", you ask an advisor, and they dont know anything about it, so you ask to speak to someone who does, and they dont know who to speak to.

[Bincrunched]

I recently requested Subject Access Request from Crap One. They wrote back to me saying unfortunately they could not comply with my request as they did not have my address!!
Heard it all now!
Bincrunched

	Subject Access Request A Subject Access Request is a demand which you can make to any organisation to disclose any personal information which they hold on you. The right to disclosure of data is provided by the Data Protection Act. There is no time limit. The organisation is obliged to reveal everything they have about you - which you ask for - as far back as you ask for. There are very few exceptions. It does not matter whether the data is held on microfiche, in an archive, on tape, in a cardex system, in sound recordings or in screen notes. Some companies are saying that they do not have to disclose where it would be difficult to do so - "disproportionate effort". This is untrue. Disproportionate effort refers to something else under the Act. If you are seeking bank charges information then you should ask for "all data held on you" and you should make it clear that you want everything as far back as it goes. Do not be put off by excuses. Do not accept being fobbed off. It is not in your bank's interest to make full disclosure to you. This means that it is in your interests to get it. If you have not started gathering your bank charges information yet, then you should start now. There will soon be a big rush once the OFT test case has been settled. Get all of your bank account informtion as far back as possible. At least as far back as 1995. If your bank says that they don't keep data as far back as this, don't accept it. Be persistent. They've got what you need in some form or other.

[avinalaf]

BT kept me on the phone one occasion for 40 mins spoke to 10 different people who kept passing the buck. It has taken nearly 2 months, lots of time and calls to sort out the problem.
I have now had a refund but I Will be changing my supplier!

[skonk]

Sky Tv... Cancelled my entire service in March 2007. Got a letter demanding £36 or debt collection agency will be involved. Phoned up and asked why? I cancelled a year and a half ago, their answer? I was still receiving sky news. I told them the sky box was now only a freeview box, with sky news being picked up by freeview. their answer, it's still one of our services. refused to pay, they knocked a tenner off. Told them to send another bill. Got the bill...£46!! Another phone call to a bemused sky person. I shall amend your bill, sir. Final bill...£16. LAst call to them, told them I'm not paying for something I haven't used, and why are these amounts changing so much. Their answer? Not our problem, the debt collection people will deal with it. In the end payed it to the debt people to wash my hands of sky.

6 times sky have called me since, asking to return to them!! Each time, I ask them to bear with me as I just heard breaking glass from the back room!! Leave em for 5-10 mins, pick the phone up and say sorry, can't speak now, my dog has exploded and put the phone down!!

	Record your calls Follow this link to read the review of the Truecall telephone recorder and call manager. This is the Rolls Royce of call recorders. It's a bit pricey but if you buy it with our special offer you will get it at cost: about 20% discount. How much do we make on the deal? - Nothing at all. You can also buy cheaper devices from Maplins. Truecall is the best - but the important thing is to record your calls.

	Debt collection library Follow this link to our debt collection library. This library contains templates and advice for dealing with debt collectors who act oppressively or unfairly. This library is work in progress and will be built up over the next few weeks. 17.03.09

[godpikachu]

Originally Posted by skonk

Sky Tv... Cancelled my entire service in March 2007. Got a letter demanding £36 or debt collection agency will be involved. Phoned up and asked why? I cancelled a year and a half ago, their answer? I was still receiving sky news.

thats funny because im doing the same as you.
i cancelled my sky subsctiption nearly 3 years ago and i can still get sky 3,sky news and sky sports news on my digibox.....which i can also get on the non sky freeview box i have upstairs in my bedroom.

take a look HERE (freeview TV channel listings), and youll see that all 3 of these channels are supplied as freeview.

however, if you look at the FREESAT channel listings, they arent included on the list....

oh dear, once again sky hve messed up and are now expecting their customers to pay for it..whoops!

[xuntitledx]

T-Mobile keep changing me to online paper billing without permission. Each time I ring them and ask them to change it back to receiving paper bills as my internet connection at the moment is only through work. They change it back for a while and then when I don't receive a bill the next month - I know they've gone and switched me over to E-Billing...AGAIN!