Thread: DD guarantee is worthless...

Or so it would seem, thought I'd have this resolved by now but haven't so I'm starting a thread. The story is fairly short, my phone bill was higher than usual so I paid in online via the free billing Virgin Media effectively forces me to have. The balance on the account says balance due for payment zero, to any normal person that means you've paid up, job done.

No, what it actually means is although you've paid the bill over two days before the due date we will still debit the full amount. I spoke to Virgin and they said yes this is the case and I should have spoken to them or cancelled the DD. If you cancel the DD they charge £5 per month, and I've found thier staff to be a nightmare in the past plus I REALLY did not invisage there being a problemt hence I never phoned them.

So despite the fact I notified Alliance & Leicester (whom I am utterly unable to get through to on the phone, but that's another story) online as soon as I was aware of it that I needed to do an indemnity claim, they have charge me thus far £60.

£25 for an unpaid item review fee (for an item which didn't need to be paid, gee thanks guys) and £5 per day whilst the account was over the limit. It was about a week before pay day (they're not daft you see).

In response to my online message they did an indemnity claim but refused to refund the charge, and I've written 2-3 times since then. The only response I've got was from thier Head of Complaints Operations saying they would contact me within four weeks.

I wrote again saying it was perfectly straight forward and went over the key points. Got exactly the same response. Just recieved a letter last week saying they need more time to 'make sure a full investiagtion is done'.

Christ man all the factual information was contained in the online message and the subsequent letters. I advised them at each stage I was going to the fos if it wasn't resolved by tomorrow.

So far I have the following issues:-

If the charges stand I want to know precisely what work is carried out as part of a paid item review. I think a computer has a quick look, realizes my wages go in the same time each month, and decides to shaft me.

Under the direct debit guarantee I am entitled to an immediate refund. Therefore the transaction which caused everything has been reverse, how therefore can the charges stand?

The payment was not actually due, so I have no benefitted in anyway from this.

Anything else I can put in? I've also notified them that I used to work in banking and that I know the processes are automated. Oh and I've pointed out that, though I believe the banks will lose the test case, this has no bearing on this matter. The issue is that thier position is absurd.

If you think about it logically if a hundred companies had request £1 that day I would've been buried by charges, so what exactly IS the point of the direct debit guarantee?

If I don't recieve the desired outcome I'd be happy to consider all options, how has this sort of thing not been in the paper? Its bugged me for sometime.

Not that anyone has noticed but just wanted to let you know got a letter today saying all charges will be refunded.

I had just referred the matter to the fos, no reply from them, but I was prepared to go all the way.

In truth I think it took eight weeks simply for someone to look at this which in itself is bad and tells me they have a lot of complaints!

A win is a win, just unhappy it took two months as all the relevent info was disclosed in the first message I sent online and the two subsequent letters.