Hello,

Any advice would be greatly appreciated please.

I had two items from brighthouse in October. One was a sofa which I returned due to the leather peeling off. I only had the sofa 8 months and was not willing to pay any more on a faulty item.

The second returned item was a buggy. It was just not suitable for bus use and I use buses every day.

At the moment I currently have a laptop and a mobile from them on HP. I called to make my weekly payment. My account is always up to date, and the store manager told me I had arrears from October for the sofa and pram.

The manager stated there had been a charge back on my account which is news to me as I have been paying my weekly payments every week with no one informing me of this until 2 days ago. I have never asked for a charge back from my bank. I did cancel easy pay when I had issues with my faulty sofa but I called to make weekly payments over the phone instead.

The problem is the manager would not accept my weekly payment for the items currently in my possession until I pay the 'arrears' from October on items I no longer even have.

She has forced my account into arrears. I want to pay for what I have. To be honest I feel like just giving they items back now.

Do I have to pay 'arrears' on items I gave back? And 'arrears' no one told me about as I have been making my weekly payment every week.

The manager was so patronising too. Stating I must pay arrears before she will accept my payment for the current items and then she will "help me manage the debt on my account" when as far as I knew I had no debt.

Thank you for your help.

simply handing items back does not necessarily cancel an HP agreement...

when did you take the items out?

when did you return them?

I took the sofa out February 2016, returned October 2016 due to item being faulty.

Buggy I only had a couple of months as the breaks kept un-clipping during bus journeys.

In brighthouse terms it states if items are returned all arrears will be removed.

So you have the section 90 cancellation letters from them?

I think you need to read a few threads here to understand how these companies work

You pay 3 times the market value and hidden insurances

On HP items that don't need insurance at all under the HP rules

Send them an sar and get all the statements

Hi,

No I didn't get a section 90 cancellation letter. I had to sign paperwork stating I surrendered the items.

No I'm not completely sure about their insurances? I have Osc and Dlc. Can I claim the Osc back even if I have given the items back?

Thanks for the advice about the Sar, I shall do that. However my question was about arrears I knew nothing about occurring almost 3 months ago and the manager demanding payment on items I no longer have, and not allowing me to pay for what I currently have until I pay 'arrears' from October.

Can you advise me on that at all? Thanks

Also on their website it states 'no quibble returns' when you can return an item at any point for any reason with nothing else to pay.

So why say I have arrears on items I no longer have and I have been paying my account weekly since with no one informing me I have arrears.

Brighthouse store staff are a nightmare to deal with and customer relations arent much better but fir now i would suggest calling customer relations and obtaining clarification as to why, if the items have been returned should you have any arrears, it would help if you quoted from the terms about arrears being removed.

Hi,

I called customer relations on Saturday. They were pretty useless and said they don't know why I have to pay arrears on items I no longer have. I did mention their terms and conditions and they told me they would need to investigate.

I just posted the question on here so that I am a bit more knowledgeable when they do get back to me.

The manager was really threatening too, constantly saying 'when will you pay these arrears. The system won't allow me to take your weekly payment until you pay them' she was very pushy and forceful. She has now forced me to become in arrears with my current items.

Hope that was not a voluntary surrender document

As if it was

You are still liable for the whole sum

No I was told I had nothing else to pay as per their terms and conditions. They have asked for no monies regarding the returned items.

This isn't really what I'm asking here.....

you are not liable for any penalty or arrears fees no.

but you have to understand how these companies work

which is why certain things have been asked.

dx

Thank you. Yes iv been silly and very naive. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I am going to give them back everything I have to be rid of them altogether.

Can I claim Osc back on terminated contracts?

Also my sofa was faulty and I paid 8 months towards it. Can I claim anything back regarding it not being of satisfactory quality?

X

Good Morning,

I would like the opportunity to look into this for you, can you please contact our customer relations team on 0800526069 or alternatively email us at [email protected].

I look forward to your response.

Kind Regards

Rahul

(BrightHouse Customer Relations Web Team)

She has already contacted customer diservice and got exactly nowhere Rahul.

Hi Rahul,

I contacted customer relations on the 31st. They were not much help.

I want to pay my account for the items I have but they won't allow me too.

Apparently I had a charge back (which I never requested with my bank. My bank automatically applied this when I cancelled easy pay without my knowledge)

I actually called the store one week in October to ask if my account was up to date as I had more money in my bank account than expected and brighthouse replied "yes all is up to date"

So regardless of how I came to have 'arrears' I no longer have these items so surely I am not required to pay the arrears, osc and dlc on items I returned!?

Thank you

You are correct that you can return items any time you like without penalty but the staff can and will tell you anything to get money from you.

If you can do without the goods you have then i strongly suggest you return everything and reclaim every penny of osc/dlc and 5* service cover plus interest.

I will happily help you put it together.

Worth sending a SAR to get all the statements if you wish to reclaim

Hello Martin2006.

Thank you that would be great if you could help me put together a letter and SAR. Very nice of you.

I have two items packaged and boxed to be collected today. I am keeping one laptop as I gave it to my daughter for college and all her important work is on it. I have paid just over one third on this laptop which was refurbished, not new.

I have told them I am not paying any arrears on items I do not have but I want to keep my account up to date for one item. They won't accept my payment so my account is falling into arrears.

x

Could you transfer all your daughters work onto an external hard drive or span it across several USB memory sticks? 32 Gigabyte sticks and larger are now relatively cheap as in around £8.50 on Amazon, 64 Gig £15? Then you could return the lappy, and replace it with something from the money Martin will help you recover. Just a thought, then you are completely free of these purveyors of overpriced goods.

Hello,

I wouldn't even know where to begin by transferring things from the laptop.

Also my daughter doesn't know it's from Brighthouse, and as she's 18 and not home much I would have a hard time getting it from her!

I wish I could send that back too trust me

x

There are template SAR letters in the library SJ, they just need a little adapting but i do have one i used for BH which i can redact and post up if you need me to.

Thank you.

Do I just edit the SAR and post to my local Brighthouse store?

And do I include a £10 postal order?

x

Yes, just edit to suit that you require all information they jold on you from all accounts and agreements held both as Brighthouse and also Crazy Georges (Dont include the crazy Georges but unless you had agreements frim back then.

The letter is to be addressed to Caversham Finance Ltd.

Ill just go find the address, 2 mins.

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?358123-Brighthouse-Contact-details-company-overview.&p=3910890#post3910890

Address in the above link SJ, dont forget the £10

Thank you maryin2006. Il do that tomorrow. Really helpful.

Thanks everyone for help and comments

x

Once you have all the info from the statements we can then work on producing some spreadsheets to get reclaiming all that useless insurance they force on you.