Thanks very much folks ... will take a read at the guide and decide what to do from there

Hi all, Hopefully someone can advise as to how best to handle a situation I have currently with Hsamuel. For mothers day last year, I bought my wife a ring (from the kids) that she had been looking at for a while. It is a white gold/sapphire ring, with 10 very small diamonds either side of the sapphire in a wishbone type shape. The ring was £180 when I got it. I'll give you a quick run-down of the saga we've had in the last 12 months.. Within two weeks, one of the small diamonds had fallen out. No marks/damage to the ring. Hsamuel sent the ring off for analysis and repair and deemed it to be "accidental damage" and not a fault with the ring. I argues my case, but in the end it cost roughly £60 for the repair. Once we got the ring back repaired, within another month another diamond had fallen out. Again, they sent it off for repair and came back with an accidental damage diagnosis, and wanted £80 this time. Again, I had no choice but to pay the repair to get the ring back. This happened a third time, another 3/4 weeks later, and I got a different manager in store who agreed to change the ring for us (for free) if i took out a warranty on the ring for £25 to cover all eventualities free of charge (over and above the £25 initial cost) on the new ring. I thought I might as well because it was a certainty to break again. Anyway, the ring is now 12 months old and my wife has this second ring in for repair twice (done under the warranty). When she went to pick up the ring from its latest repair, they advised that it was going to cost too much to repair it this time so had replaced the ring with a new one and that the warranty was not longer valid as it was a new ring. She got talked into taking out a new warranty on this ring also - another £28. I am very angry with HSamuel about this, because the ring quite obviously has a flaw in the design and I don't believe for one minute my wife is the only one to have had this issue with this style of ring. She has other rings with stones in them and not had any problem with any of these. I have now splashed out almost £200 over and above the cost of the ring which is only 13 months old and I am exteremely un-impressed with HSamuel. Is there anything I can do to either re-claim some of these repair costs or at least protect myself going forward for any (inevitible) costs for repairing the ring? Thanks

Apologies, been my holidays, so here's a quick update. Sent off the stat barred letter and got one back a couple of weeks later saying that they would not be pursuing the issue any longer blah blah .. Then, two days later got a letter offering us a deal - we could pay them half of what they claimed was owed and they would write off any further (alledged) debts. I just ignored this letter, and didn't respond given we already had a letter from them saying they are no longer pursuing the case. Got the second letter on the 11th of may, and have not heard anything further from them. So, all in all a very simple resolution to what appeared to be a scary unexpected situation initially. Still don't know if the claim was legitimate or not, however it appears that it's all resolved now. Thanks very much to everyone for their input and advice.

Hello again everyone .. I'm back .. and so are MH Got a letter from MH this morning saying that the debt had defaulted in Feb 03, and I have seven days to pay in full, blah blah .. So, am I right in thinking that as they claim it defaulted in Feb 03, that under Scottish law I can claim it is Statute Barred now? Is there anything I should do before I send off that letter, or is now the time to send it? Anything else I should watch out for, that they are holding up their sleeve? Thanks again peeps for all the advice

You guys are the mutts nutts ... Sent off the prove it letter today - just to be on the safe side. Oh, and it will let me toy with them a bit longer, i'm actually looking forward to their reply now.. While the wife is insistant it was paid off at the time, I'm not so sure - however it was certainly no later than 2002 so would be statute barred anyhow so I can relax a little bit now. Thanks to everyone for their input so far, it's really appreciated.

Is this correct - in that case, should I not be sending the 'prove it' letter but instead the statue barred letter? So far: We've had a letter asking to call - the wife did and asked them to send out more info We've had a letter asking to call (4th april), which we didn't We've had a final notice letter (7th april), giving us until noon today to pay in full, which we haven't. I was planning on sending the prove it letter today, recorded delivery (unsigned) but should I be re-thinking this? Or should I still send the prove it, and if they send info through which shows it's from 2002 (as they advised my wife on the phone) then send the statute barred letter? Thanks again for all your input! JB

Sorry, one last question (for tonight anyway..) Should I use my wife's maiden name on the letters to Mac Hall - as it is on the letters from them - or should I just use her surname as it is now? Thanks again...!

I hope not with that username Should have named myself GreenBrydonJ .. lol !

Thats magic, thanks everyone for your advice so far. It really is appreciated. Will write back and let you all know how we get on. Cheers JB

Thanks to you both for your very quick replies!! I'll get the letter done tonight, and fire it off recorded delivery tomorrow and see what they come back with. What about sending people round to the house - are they able/likely to do this at this/any stage?

Hello there again folks, Following on from all the excellent advice I got on these forums when it came to re-claiming some bank charges a couple of years back, I'm hoping someone will be able to advise on a letter we have recieved from a company called MacKenzie Hall. First off..sorry, this might drag on a bit.. We got a letter on 26th Feb asking my wife (using her maiden name - been married for 7 years this year) to call them regarding a personal matter. Had a quick look on the internet and realised they are a debt collection agency, and not very friendly apparently, so advised her to ignore it as there was nothing for which we had any debt outstanding for. However she did phone as she was so worried about it, and asked them to send out more information. Had nothing from them until we got a final notice letter this morning, asking for £2300. When my wife called them a few weeks back, they advised her it was for a Providian Credit Card in 2002. She did have a card with this company, however the limit on it was approx £500 and is adamant that it was paid off at the time. However, in the final notice letter today, it states the debt is being pursued by Cabot Financial, and not Providian? It states in the letter that we have until noon on Friday to pay in full or call them to discuss. My wife has just got a copy of her credit report, and there is nothing on there showing as being overdue or adverse credit other than a couple of late (not missed) payments to her catalogue etc. My concerns are: Can they send round debt collectors for this? Have heard some horrible stories about this happening, and with young kids am slightly concerned about that. I don't want to pay a penny without knowing what I am paying it for - how do I get a copy of the documentation they have (or claim to have) so I can check to see if this is a bone-fide debt and not someone elses. I don't want my wife phoning them, so can I call on her behalf? So many questions .. but I think I've prattled on long enough Can anyone please offer advice on how to handle this, as I don't know where to start with these people - feeling a bit out of my depth here! Thanks for taking the time to read this, Regards JB p.s As we're in Scotland, does this affect the legal side of how I should handle this?

Just been to the bank, and they flat refused to refund any more charges, as I had already had a refund of previous charges. Said they couldn't honour the d/d's because they have done so previously and are no longer willing to do this ... hmmm, nothing to do with me re-claiming my charges then So, another claim it is then - here we go again! I take it's safe to assume that they are going to ask for the current overdraft paid back if I do this? Did I read somewhere that they cannot do this while you are in disute with them?

We already have an account with the Bank of Scotland which we're not currently using, so it won't be a problem to move there - just a bit of a pain the the backside. Am I still able to claim these back having already settled a claim with them?

A couple of weeks back I settled for £696 from a claim of £1100 or thereabouts. Now, my bank have started refusing to pay d/d's which go slightly over the overdraft limit. They are charging me £38 per item and for some reason each time I am getting a card misuse charge for something which I switched a couple of days before. But looking back at my account, it cleared no problem before the charges went on....and still shows as such on my statement. i.e balance is not over limit even after the transaction has cleared. I never had any problem with the bank paying these in the past, and this has only started since I settled with them for my bank charges claim. Are they allowed to do this as a result of a claim, or will they just say that its down to other reasons, therefore able to get away with this? I have a meeting at the bank today at 11, and plan to tell the guy exactly what I think!

After the response to my LBA saying the bank are not willing to pay up blah blah blah, I emailed a final offer to Tommy McLean. In return I was offered £695 as a goodwill payment. Cut a long story short, I have accepted this and signed and sent off the slip to acknowledge this. Regretting it now, wish I'd went for the remaining £400 .. but hey ho, it's £695 more to spend on the kids for chrimbo. Does anyone know if I can still claim back charges that I have accrued since I started this procedue and any which I may get in future?

Hmm .. I might come off worse though

I got a reply from Mr McLean (what a guy!) on Friday offering £695, from a claim of £1060. The wife was anxious about taking it further and got me to sign and send the acceptance sheet off and we are now waiting on the amount being paid into the account. Is it too late to still claim for the rest? I'm assuming yes as we've signed the acceptance but thought it worth asking. Should never have backed down to the missus on Friday, it's been bugging me ever since that they're going to keep the rest of my money! Also, what about charges that I have accrued since I began this process/in future - can I claim them back also, or is this part of their terms of settlement?

I got an out of office reply saying he was back in the office last Friday, so assumed this meant he was back? Might just copy the email to Ross also then, so they can't say they didn't receive it ... ... and as for the Avatar - mate, you need help

No, not yet Alison. I think you only add the overdraft interest if you lodge a court claim. Waiting to hear back from the legend that is Mr McLean, or else court will be the next step, and I will be adding the interest at that point. Good luck to you all who are also still waiting

Which email address did you use for sending this to Tommy McLean? According to the contacts post, his email address is no longer valid. Good luck to Alison and WeeJ too ... as long as I get mine first Edit - I tried the email addy in the contacts post, and it does still appear to be valid.

Ok, after sending off the LBA letter I got a response from Mr Tommy Mclean stating "We believe that our charges are fair ..... " "and will not be refunding any of the charges applied to your bank account" I've had a look through the step by step instructions, and think the next step is to issue a court claim now. Is this correct, or is there anything I should do in the meantime? Not really looking forward to going to court over this, but if thats what I need to do, then so be it! Edit - Just been reading some of the other threads about people getting paid out early after emailling Mr McLean. Should I be doing this before filing a court claim, or is it just going to be another mammoth case where its going to drag on?

Got my letter from them today saying 'sorry your not happy' ... blah blah blah ... Sending the LBA to them today, so hopefully hear back from them soon How many of these cases against RBS have actually gone to court? Not that I'm overly worried about doing this, I was just wondering what the likelyhood of this being settled before having to issue a small courts claim would be? They have 14 Days, and counting ....

Just sending off my preliminary letter to RBoS today requesting the re-payment of £1093 worth of charges over the past 6 years Couldn't believe it when I added it all up! Anyway, letter sent today, so we'll see how long it takes for the 'we're sorry ... go away' letter in return. Whats the chances, going by RBOS' previous cases, that this will go as far as having to file for court proceedings? Don't mind either way, as long as I get my money back