 Next Directory - Duplicate Accounts
If anyone could offer any advice on what I should do next, I'd be really grateful. This is a long story, hopefully the letter below should explain everything..If not, let me know. I posted this by recorded delivery to
Next Directory
Customer Relations
P.O. Box 4000
Sheffield
S97 3ET
on 13th June.....
"13th June 2006
Re: Set-Up of Duplicate Account – Account Numbers DAxxxxxx & DA xxxxxx
Dear Sir / Madam,
It is with regret that I express my dissatisfaction at your service regarding an order made recently.
I ordered a suit (one jacket, and two pairs of trousers, for sizing) from your website, proceeded to the checkout page and discovered that you do not take Maestro. I then aborted this order.
My mother then offered to pay with her Visa Delta card. We logged into the site with her name and address (name xxxxx, address as above) and the system would not allow us to go any further than entering the name and address.
I presumed this was due to the fact that I had entered the same address 5 minutes earlier. Therefore, we aborted this order at the rejection page. The following morning, I logged onto the site again with my name and address, proceeded to checkout and entered my mother’s card details. I selected a delivery date, received confirmation of my order.
The order was delivered when requested and I packaged up one pair of trousers to return. Everything up to this point was as expected.
A few days later, a second set of packages arrived, in my mother’s name. A second account had been created, without ever getting to the checkout, order confirmation or delivery selection stage with these details.
We called Customer Services straight away to notify of this further delivery and they arranged a collection and advised they would close both accounts for us. The courier then failed to turn up three times for the parcels. On each occasion, we called the helpline and were advised someone would definitely be calling around. I took time off work, and my Mother also waited in.
The courier eventually arrived on 8th June and collected the unwanted item from my account (1 pair of trousers) and everything that was sent to us in my Mother’s name (one jacket and two pairs of trousers). At this stage, we both returned our copy of the Directory, as regrettably, we do not feel we will be using the service again.
Yesterday, we received a bill for the items delivered to my Mother, despite never setting up this account, never ordering them, reporting the error, and arranging collection straight away.
Your FAQs also state the following:
Q. Am I charged for the items as soon as I order them?
A. You have a 14-day approval period from the day the items are actually dispatched. If during the 14 days you return the items, there will be no charge to your account. So you can try before you buy.
Far less than 14 days elapsed since receiving the items and calling to report the error and arrange collection and yet we have been billed.
I called Customer Services yesterday and was told that it could take up to 28 days to credit the account. However, the bill stated that the minimum payment of ten pounds must be received by 1st July.
The whole service from start to finish has been completely despicable, no apologies have been made for the error, or the inconvenience of waiting in for three collections.
I only have one order confirmation email, arranged one delivery time, and proceeded to checkout once. I can not see where this error has occurred and yet was asked by your representative yesterday if I “knew how I had managed to cause this”.
I would appreciate if somebody could contact us regarding this as a matter of urgency, as myself and my Mother do not feel comfortable leaving the bill on the second account unpaid, yet do not feel it is justified that we pay a minimum payment on an account opened in error and then wait a further 28 days from 1st July to have this refunded.
If you require any information, please do not hesitate to contact me. My mobile number is above and both I and my mother can be contacted on the landline number.
I look forward to your reply.
Kind regards,
Miss X Xxxxxxx"
I have had no response to this yet, and am completely furious. I just do not know where to go from here.
Any ideas????
__________________
Barclays Bank: £880 owed.
Letter Before Action sent 06/06/06 (!)
Awaiting Response......
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