In May of this year, Hubby decided he would like a new Bathroom and Kitchen - He decided to take advantage of a 'No Interest deal" spread over 4 years being offered by Hitachi Finance via B&Q.

He toddled off to B&Q - designed his ideal kitchen and bathroom with a very nice team of designers. He passed all the credit checks and we had the Surveys done. The Surveys threw up some problems that hadn't been budgeted for and when we later looked into these, they didn't actually need doing anyway. However, because they involved electricity and plumbing he decided NOT to go ahead with the projects. That he would look further into having this work done, once he had made contact with the Electrician and Plumber that we have used for years, knew that we would get a good job done for a fair price.

He returned to B&Q and told them of his decision and they were supposed to have cancelled any further dealings with Hitachi Finance. He had not signed any final paper work with them, in effect no contract had ever been entered into.

In July, Hubby passed away and not long after, I started to receive emails from Hitachi Finance.. similar to the one attached.

On the 1st August, I sent an email to Hitachi Finance - 1: Hubby passed away. 2: There was no contract, it had never been finalised. Please update your records.

I received the following response on 3rd August

 

Thank you for your email, I am sorry for your recent bereavement, please accept our condolences.

 

I have passed the information on to the relevent department for you. As the contract has not been finalised please regard this as confirmation that we will not go ahead with the finance agreement.

 

Should you require any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact our Customer Service Team on 0344 375 5500 or via email [email protected].

 

Kind Regards,

Chris Mellor signature

Chris Mellor

Head of Customer Service

Hitachi Personal Finance

 

On the 8th August, I received another Email asking Hubby "How was it for him" ?

So, I sent the following....

Dear Mr Mellor,

You seem to have forgotten that we have already been through this question once before - on the 3rd of August, after I had made you aware that the Finance was applied for but never taken up as the order with B&Q was cancelled.

 

I also made you aware at that time that my Husband passed away on 11th July 2017. I find it quite astonishing that your response, which I have attached as a pdf, for your attention and to jog your memory, implied that you would pass the information on to the relevant department - there was never a contract between you and my husband, it was never finalised.

 

I would appreciate it if you would now ensure that the relevant department is made aware that to continue receiving these emails is distressing !

 

Yours sincerely,

 

On the 17th August, 9.10 am, I received an acknowledgement of my complaint and that someone would get back to me. Someone did, at 4.56 pm.

 

Application number: 1234567

 

 

 

Dear Mrs citizenB

 

Complaint about correspondence received from Hitachi Personal Finance

 

Thank you for your patience while I have investigated the concerns you raised on 8 August 2017. My investigation is now complete and I am writing to you with my response. Please accept my sincere apologies for any inconvenience this issue may have caused.

 

Your Complaint

 

You notified Hitachi Personal Finance that you were still receiving correspondence addressed to your late husband despite contacting us previously to advise of his passing.

 

My Investigation

 

Firstly I would like to offer my deepest condolences for your loss and would like to apologise for any further distress caused by the correspondence received.

 

I have contacted our marketing department to ensure that no further correspondence is sent to you addressed to Mr Citizenb. I have been advised that this process can take up to 6 weeks to complete therefore I would like to apologise in advance should you receive any further correspondence from us.

 

I have also contacted B&Q to request that the finance application be cancelled on the system as the agreement is not going ahead.

 

Outcome

 

I can confirm that the application has been cancelled by the retailer. I have also arranged for some flowers to be sent to you by way of apology which I hope reach you successfully.

 

Taking into consideration all of the above, I will now close your complaint. Once again I would like to extend my sincere apologies for the experience you have had, and offer my deepest condolences for your loss.

 

Thank you for taking the time to bring this matter to our attention. At Hitachi Personal Finance we strive to provide the best customer service possible, and rely on customer feedback to achieve this. I trust if you have any issues in the future you will not hesitate to contact the Complaints Team on 0113 380 1065 or by email, [email protected]

 

This is our final response in respect of your complaint. If you remain dissatisfied with the outcome in this matter, you have the right to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, free of charge – but you must do so within six months of the date of this letter.

 

If you do not refer your complaint in time, the Ombudsman will not have our permission to consider your complaint and so will only be able to do so in very limited circumstances. For example, if the Ombudsman believes that the delay was as a result of exceptional circumstances.

 

Please click on the link below to access The Financial Ombudsman Consumer Leaflet. Should you wish to have a paper copy, please contact us and we will arrange for this to be sent to you directly.

 

your complaint and the ombudsman - our consumer leaflet

 

The link below will provide you with information on how to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. Please copy and paste the link into your web browser.

 

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumer/complaints.htm

 

You can at any time refer your complaint to the FLA Conciliation and Arbitration Scheme by contacting them on 0207 836 6511 or by visiting their website at http://www.fla.org.uk/index.php/consumer-information/how-to-make-a-complaint2/

 

Kind regards,

 

 

I did indeed receive a stunning bouquet of flowers.

What I find unacceptable is that despite her warning that this might take up to 6 weeks, I kind of assumed that the emails would cease immediately. Surely they wouldn't continue to send emails ...? Oh yes they would !! It would appear they are sending them at the rate of 1 per week - presumably if someone were to respond they would cease.. or would they ?

Why does it take 6 weeks to remove someone from their system, when there was never any contract in the first place ?

Hitachi Finance.pdf

Dear CitB - Sorry to hear of your loss! Thats really sad!

Realistically it shouldn't take 6 weeks to remove them from a marketing list - But at most it should take a maximum of 2 weeks .

This is to allow the message to pass down to any 3rd parties that they are to be removed.

But unfortunately its one of those things in life.

OOI do the emails at the bottom of them have an unsubscribe link? - I see that it does - Have you clicked this?

 

OOI do the emails at the bottom of them have an unsubscribe link? - I see that it does - Have you clicked this?

They do indeed, I didn't notice that - I have clicked on the last email - lets see if that works

They do indeed, I didn't notice that - I have clicked on the last email - lets see if that works

It should remove you from their lists as it says you dont want to be subscribed