Wanted to share this just in case there's anyone out there in the same boat as us. My husband had an account with Hitachi Capital for our sofas which were purchased from a well known furniture store. The agreement ended in September but over the term of the agreement we incurred £347 in "admin charges". We followed the usual process 1st letter and LBA but no response at all. Because of the postal strikes, we decided to make a last ditch attempt so on Friday(16/11), we sent a fax with copies of all the letters plus a "draft" copy of the court forms (we're in Scotland so not using MCOL) basically saying that if we didn't get a reponse before cob we would submit the court papers first thing Monday. Funny enough, within 2hrs we got an e-mail saying that they were "investigating our case". It was a bit vague so we e-mailed back and said we wanted to know how long the "investigation" would take or we were still proceeding with the court action. By 13.30 on Monday, we got a call to say they would refund the entire amount and the cheque would be posted out on Tuesday. Now obviously we have to wait and see if the cheque shows up. From the other few Hitachi posts on here it looks like they aren't great at following through on the promise but we e-mailed today just asking for confirmation it had been sent so hopefully they'll take the hint otherwise we'll be heading off to Dunfermline Sheriff Court and we'll be getting costs and interest too. Taking no prisoners now Will update when there is any news. Mrs B

I wasn't being defensive. I was trying to clarify the circumstances surrounding why we had moved away from tried and tested. I appreciate we are all in the same boat and their is a process (which we have used when dealing with IF) but the main reason we modified in this case was because of the experiences others have had (and shared) on this site when dealing specifically with Clydesdale. Sorry you disagree with how we handled things but what's done is done if this was wrong then we'll live with the consequences. As I said, we did what we thought was best and we are by no means experts. Maybe you're right, maybe we should have stuck with tried and tested. Anyway, no hard feelings and may all your claims be successful ones Does anyone have any advise on completing FOS forms? I've done a search but can't seem to find anything.

I think we have stuck to the step by step instructions as best we can in the circumstances. We are looking for >£3k back therefore "tried and tested" ain't going to cut it with this crew as they'll defend against split claims so we deviated very slightly and timescales slipped as we waited the outcome of some of the bod's cases on here. We have followed the step by step instructions to the letter on our IF claim and it worked but Clydesdale are a different kettle of fish and we did what we thought was best so that we can get all our money back. We're finalising our FOS complaint and will get it sent off in line with our timescales ie. 21/05 and see what happens. I'm not expecting we will get any personal or preferential attention just so long as we get our money back that's the main objective.

This is good news for us. We are looking to proceed with a second action against IF. Our first case was settled before being heard and was subsequently dismissed. We intended to go ahead but we were pretty worried about it. Because HBOS are struggling to keep up with the complaints at the moment we were going to chance our arm a bit but were aware it was risky. This fills me with a little bit of hope. Thanks for this and good luck with your claim. We're also chasing the Clydesdale so hope it all goes well for you too.

Just to bring you up to speed this is where we're up to: 08/01/07 – S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) sent 19/02/07 – Having received statements, sent off 1st letter. At this stage the whole issue of using more than one small claim hadn’t really become a problem so, we intended to claim using several small claims. In the letter we did only specifically refer to the charges in our first small claim (incurred in 2002) not the total amount we would be pursuing. 21/02/07 – Received the usual fob-off from our branch manager. T’s & C’s blah blah in fact anyone who’s written to the Clydesdale re. charges will no exactly the letter we mean but obviously just in an attempt to prove just how incompetent they are, the opening paragraph said “…..I note from your letter that you feel excessive charges were applied to your bank account during the last 15 months”!?!? 26/03/07 – Sent LBA to Customer Relations however, having taken account of the advise on the Forum, we revised the basis of our complaint in that we were looking for the total amount of the charges applied to our account since Feb 2002 and that if we didn’t receive a response within 8 weeks (by 21st May - we were trying to cover our backs basically, thought that because we were revising the complaint that it might not count as a continuation of the existing complaint) we would refer our complaint to the FOS. 11/04/07 – Hadn’t heard a dicky bird so thought we better get in touch just to be sure they’d received our letter. Phoned Customer Relations - they had and it had been forwarded to the Advice Quality Unit – Charges Section in Leeds. The very helpful bloke said that we should get a letter confirming everything but they were unfortunately very busy. Wonder why?!?!?! 16/04/07 – Sure enough letter received from Charges Section in Leeds confirming re-opening of complaint. 09/05/07 – Received a letter saying that our 8 weeks had now lapsed and the investigation is still ongoing, hope to be able to issue a final response within the next 4 weeks. If you’re not happy with the progress to date you can refer the matter to the FOS. So, how to proceed? Do you think we should give them until the 21st May before sending the forms etc. to the FOS, as that’s what we said we’d do in our letter. Not because we want to give them more time just because it might not look good for us. Secondly, what do we include in the FOS complaint form and as supporting documentation. Do we describe the complaint as we do in the letters e.g. referring to common law and UTCCR or more generally. Do we send copy statements etc. etc. There's loads of info on here about the court process but not so much about undertaking the FOS route. Thanks look forward to your thoughts.

Not yet taken any further action, has anyone got any pearls of wisdom?

This happened to my husband & I in our first small claim against IF (HBOS). I think they are just swamped with complaints/ claims at the moment and can't always respond in time. We had to submit a Form 11 minute which asks for decree + interest + expenses to be granted and you don't then have to appear in person at the hearing (don't know if you are pursuing a small claim or summary cause - may be different form/ rules for summary cause). The court has to receive this 2 working days before the case is due to be heard. We did this but then received a letter and the money was credited to our account a few days later, in which case you have to submit another minute saying that the matter has been resolved to your satisfaction (if it is to your satisfaction of course). Fingers crossed you'll get your settlement soon.

The story so far......... My hubby and I started our claim for £2346 against IF back in early Feb. We got the usual fob off letter - as per T's & C's etc. so we sent our LBA on 12th Feb recorded delivery. The post office tracking kept coming back saying it had never been signed for so we re-sent it 1st class on the 19th Feb giving them a further 7 days to respond. I phoned to check they had received and the very helpful lady in Customer Services informed me that they had actually received both letters and they were with Customer Relations. When we didn't receive a response by CoB on 26th Feb we submitted our first (of many as it should have been) small claims at Dunfermline Sheriff Court the following day. When we got home, in the post was an offer for 50% of what they said our claim value was (which we couldn't reconcile to) and which we weren't willing to accept anyway. We declined the offer as we'd already started proceedings but offered to withdraw our claim if they settled in full and paid the court fee of £39, effectively we were waiving the right to judicial interest. In addition, we still have an overdraft on our account and there was a possibility they would withdraw it and the offer wouldn't have covered it in full (just short). On 6th Mar we got a letter back saying they noted our intentions but were not willing to refund the full amount and gave us the contact details for the FOS. Obviously another standard letter as it didn't really make a lot of sense in the context of what had gone before. Meanwhile, back at the court, return date was set for 10th April and hearing for 17th. 10th April - surprise surprise no response from the defender. We entered our minute the following day for issue of decree. Not so big surprise that on the 12th Apr we received a letter from HBOS. The letter itself was contradictory in a lot of ways - "I have returned the acknowledgement of service to Dunf. Sheriff Court indicating that Halifax Plc intends to defend your claim. However, on a purely commercial basis, it will cost the Bank money to defend your claim in terms of the legal costs that will be incurred. It is unlikely that the Halifax will be able to recover these costs (even if the bank wins)..........For this reason, but without admission of liability..." Basically telling us that they were settling our claim + interest & fees. The funds would be refunded to our account. Now the sting in the tail - they also reduced our overdraft (to the nearest hundred) of the value of the claim. Being totally honest, not a great surprise and we're not overly fussed. I did phone customer services and act daft (something I am surprisingly good at ). Said I had been online and noticed that our o/draft limit had been reduced, was there a problem. The poor girl really gave the game away without any prompting - she said, "there's a note on here from collections that the account isn't being funded sufficiently to justify that level of facility and there has been a refund of charges". Funding part's true - we have moved most things out the account and are only paying in enough to cover what's left going out. It wasn't her fault so I just said it would have been nice to have been informed before hand and left it at that. About a week later we got 2 letters starting "we are pleased to inform you that further to your request your o/draft limit is now..." both with different amounts. You gotta laugh!!! Anyway, now you're up to speed - how to progress? The first complaint was well in train by the time the whole issue over making subsequent claims blew up. We're looking for thoughts on how we take this forward and get the remainder of our claim back. Go through the courts - we could probably get most of the remainder back in 1 summary cause with a little bit left over for a small claim (which wouldn't be for a lot and we could probably leave for a little while). HBOS don't seem to be as ready to go to court as some of the others (Clydesdale, Lloyds etc.), is it worth the risk? Phone Customer Relations and say we are ready to proceed with second court claim and see if they will settle "for commercial reasons" of course. Unlikely to work but worth a shot? FOS and go for the whole lot in one go, but would they review it because of first small claim. Appreciate you can only give your opinion and that’s all we want just an idea of what the consensus is for those that have been there and done it or are doing it now. 2nd opinion doesn't do any harm and will help us make up our mind. Look forward to your response(s).