alvinlwh -v- Argos Card

[alvinlwh]

Hi all,

Just sent in my claim today for £52.50 plus £3.57 interest. Not 100% sure of my chances of getting them all back because these charges are my fault (i think!). I got hit by these charges because when I moved house, I forgot to inform them, and therefore I did not recieve the bills. And at the same time, NatWest was hitting me with loads of charges, so the min amount is not taken via D/D automatically. Argos actually had tracked me down at my new address, and sent me the letter (costing £17.50), which together with the late payment charge of another £17.50, brought my account over the limit, resulting in (yeap, you are right) another £17.50! I am not sure if they can charge me (cost maybe?) for tracking me down at my new address, but then there is nothing in the charges that says that. They are "Letter charge", "Overlimit charge" and "Late payment charge". On the basis of that, do any experts here think I have a chance?

Thanks!

[alvinlwh]

Got my reply from Argos today, and guess what? I asked for £52.50, they told me they had in fact charged me a TOTAL of £87.50, WITHOUT the need for a Subject Access Request! They offered me the £45 as a refund with all the usual crap attached. I think for this case, I am prepared to take the offer because of 2 reasons:

a) It is pretty close to the original amount claimed by me
b) As stated in my first post, it is partly my fault not to inform them of my change of address
c) It DID cost them some money to track me down at my new address

Because of the above points, it may not look too good on me if it does goes to court.

What you think? I have the usual 14 days to respond.

[alvinlwh]

Here is my reply to their offer, any comments or suggestions before I send it out on Monday?

----------------------------------------
Dear Sir,

I refer to your offer of £45.00 as final settlement dated 26 September 2006 in response to my letter dated 25 September 2006.

I really did appreciate your honestly of informing me that a total of £87.50 had been charged towards my account not the £52.50 originally claimed by me. I also understand your explanation that there had been costs involved. Based on these two reasons, I had decided not to pursue a full refund of £87.50.

However I am unwilling to accept your offer of £45. I would be happy if you would agree to refund my original claim of £52.50, and will consider it the end of the matter. I feel that this is a fair offer as it is only £7.50 more than your original offer and £35.00 less than the actual amount. At this time, I am willing to also forgo the 8% interest charged to the amount as allowed by law if I have to apply to the small claims court.


I have to point out one fact is that in my original letter dated 25 September 2006, I did not refer to OFT at any point. What I did refer to is the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. Schedule 2 (e) which do apply to the contract I had with your company. I had enclosed a copy of my original letter for your reference.

I had always enjoyed my relationship with your company, and I am sure we will be able to work out an agreeable solution to this. However I must also point out that if a solution is not worked out and agree on in 14 days, I will have to pursue the full amount through the courts.

[alvinlwh]

Well anyone?

[alvinlwh]

Argos had gave in and agree to pay my original demand of £52.50. Case closed!

[alvinlwh]

UPDATE
It turns out that they had not kept to their promise and the issue is NOT SETTLED.

Got my Argos Card statement yesterday, turns out that their 'immedate credit' into my account had NOT been carried out! The fact had been verfied with the card call centre.

Really p**sed off with them now. Sent them a letter telling them that I better have cash, cheque or postal order in my mail box in SEVEN days time or court action will be filed. I also withdraw my offer of not claiming interest, at £0.01p/day!

Copy of the letter sent to them yesterday:

I refer to your letter of 18 October 2006 and my latest statement of 25 October 2006, of both which I had enclosed a copy.

I must inform you that I am really disappointed with your failure to keep to your promises made in your letter of 18 October 2006. As per the instructions in the letter, I had signed and accepted your offer of £52.50, and returned a copy to you. You had promised in that letter to credit my account immediately.

However in my latest statement received today, there is no such credit to my account. And I had confirmed that fact with a call to the card service centre.

Your failure to upkeep your promise had forced me to take the following action;
1) Demand the FULL REFUND of the original amount I had demanded, INCLUDING 8% interest as allowed by law. As of today, the amount is £52.50 plus £4.01 in interest, making a total of £56.51.
2) Require that payments are to be made in cash, cheque or postal orders, NOT into my Argos Card account. I have no way of verifying you had made payment into my account until my next statement and as you had proven not to upkeep your promise to do that, I can no longer trust you.
3) No further correspondences will be entered into with you; future correspondences will be from the courts. I will NOT sign or return anymore letters to you since you do not keep to your promise in them anyway.

Court action will be filed out in 7 days time on 9 November 2006 unless I received FULL AND COMPLETE payment BEFORE the above date.

If you decide to resolve this issue, I would advice payment to be sent out by First Class Recorded or Special Delivery to ensure it reaches me before the end of the dateline. If not you will be hearing from my local court soon.

[lucyec]

Feels like you're talking to yourself on this forum sometimes doesn't it!

Personally, I think you should go for the full £87.50, especially after they haven't kept their promise of crediting your account.

With regard to it costing them money to track you down - it doesn't. As a credit company they will have access to your credit files, so all they have to do to find out where you've gone is to look at those. When you move, your bank and any other financial institution you are linked with will register your new address details with the credit reference agencies. All Argos had to do was check the CRAs from time to time - easy! And it definitely doesn't cost them £17.50 to send an automated letter out.

[alvinlwh]

Finally a reply!!!
Yeap, tomorrow is the dateline, I will call the card centre again tomorrow to confirm that nothing is paid in to my account before filling for MCOL. However I do not have all the statements required, the figure of £87.50 is given to me in a letter from them. Think it will still work?

[lucyec]

Do you mean 'deadline'?!

Yes, definitely call to check first. Its not strictly necessary, but it may be wise to write and inform them of your intentions to claim and of the amount, just so you can be sure you've given them enough notice if it ever came to court. I think the letter from them stating the £87.50 is evidence enough to claim on.

Post back if you want help with your letter, I could see a few grammatical changes needed in the last one

Good luck

[alvinlwh]

I had already informed them of my intentions in my second letter, which resulted in the offer of £52.50. That is the offer that I had accepted but was not paid to me. So I don't think I should be giving them any more time as it is going way beyond the deadline set by me.

[alvinlwh]

Oh yes, about the grammatical errors, well that letter was written in a fit of anger, so I must have missed them.

[lucyec]

Sorry, I didn't mean to offend.

I didn't mean give them more time, I just meant keep them informed. For instance write to them to say you're dissappointed with their lack of co-operation and you've put in your court claim for the £80-odd.

[alvinlwh]

Originally Posted by lucyec

Sorry, I didn't mean to offend.

Don't worry, not offended.

As for keeping them informed, well I did tell them:

3) No further correspondences will be entered into with you; future correspondences will be from the courts. I will NOT sign or return anymore letters to you since you do not keep to your promise in them anyway.

They did not keep to their word (of crediting my account) does not mean I will not keep to my word of not entering into any more correspondences with them right?

[lucyec]

I guess not. Although its nice ot be able to say 'ner ner, told you I would!!' in a letter, hehe

[alvinlwh]

Just made a call to them (it will make me look stupid if I file a claim with MCOL only to find out that I had been refunded) and guess what, the money is in my account! Looks like with Argos, angry letters seem to work!

[lucyec]

Oh good, make sure you get a written statement of account just to make sure!

[alvinlwh]

Cheque should be with me in 14 days or so. Will keep you updated.

[lucyec]

14 days?!! How long does it flippin' take them to write a cheque out and stick it in the post for goodness' sake?!