Still waiting to hear from Barclays about this. Let's hope it works x

No problems, I called Barclays and asked where I stand and they said they can issue a chargeback for the amount paid. So we'll see where that goes. Apparently they're sending out a form for me to sign then if all's well I should recieve the refund in a few days. Thanks for your help AT! xx

Thanks AT for your advice. Any ideas on how to find out who the administrators are? I know it's not a lot of money, however the thing is I was a very loyal customer of theirs, despite them being expensive compared to other salons in the area. I would have felt a letter or something informing me about the decision to close would have been fair. Even a notice on the front door would have been helpful. The only way I found out was by calling another salon who told me that the woman who owns it has up and left, and there's no chance of getting any money back if it was in a pre-paid course. I also saw a for sale sign above the salon today, which is why I decided to find out for sure. Annoying really. You can really see how the credit crunch bites. x

I agree. Thanks so much for your help too Slick, I truly believe they wouldn't have done a thing if I hadn't contacted the ICO. xx

I'd think carefully about Sky. They're very good with getting you to sign up but their customer care is awful, and don't even get me started on cancellations. I'd personally call up Sky, get an accurate quote for everything you have with Virgin at the moment. Then call Virgin and say you're thinking of cancelling and going with Sky as your bills are too high, and ask if they can beat the quote Sky have given you. If they can, great. If not, then you can search around for better deals. x

I agree with Conniff and would write to them to get them to prove it. Also include in the letter a request to get all your details held on file so you can see what was requested cancelled and why they have charged you this amount. If they refuse, mention the data protection act, and they'll soon give you the address... I did have it somewhere, but I think it's been misplaced. I really feel for your though, it took three days to cancel Sky, and about 17 hours worth of phone bills too. x

I should really update this, considering it happened a year ago! I contacted the ICO who informed me they'd look into the matter. In the meantime, they asked me to contact Barclays and inform then the ICO are involved, and they themselves would follow up with this obvious lack of interest in the situation. I called Barclays and spoke to a manager, who again said sorry about it blah blah blah. I then mentioned the ICO and the tune changed. She was to personally see to it that all records were changed, and in return they would credit my account £100 and send some flowers for the inconvenience. I took her name and contacted the ICO with this information, and whadda know? An hour later we had the credited money, a day later we got the flowers, an apology letter and a card! Thanks so much for your advice on here, I really feel it helped me in getting compensation for the HOURS I spent talking to them, as well as avoiding a potential fraud minehole. xx

Hi there, Not sure if this is in the right place, but I'm wondering if you lovely people can give me some advice yet again. Eclipse Tanning in Brentwood I've just found out have gone bust. Shame, as there were a few awesome people that worked there, but I actually had a 100 minute course that I'd just bought for £70 with them. Is there any way of getting this back? I only went there 2 weeks ago and they'd just redecorated etc. Any ideas on what to do? Thanks so much

Hiya, jojonson, sorry to hear thats happened to you too. Well, further info. I recieved no phonecall at all from Barclays. Due to a busy week I didn't call, however the lady that my details were sent to called me again, saying another letter had come through for me... guess who from? Barclays. It basically is an apology for everything that's happened, and for the info being sent to the wrong address!!!! I called up again asking why the heck this happened, they fobbed me off with the fact the the address is stored on a number of different computers and the imbecile that tried to change the address before didn't change the complaints address. Sounds like they can't be bothered really. I explained that this is not on, and asked what they were going to do about it. She said there's nothing they can offer, just an apology. I asked them about providing Experian cover for me for a year, she said they could credit £30 to my account so I can use that to check up every month and ensure everything is in order. This is an insult. I left it to my husband to decide whether to accept this (it would have meant no further action couls be taken) he said to wait until the 8 weeks are up in which time they should come up with something better. Anyway, got another phonecall today. ANother letter has been sent to my old address. Guess who from? Barclays. Except, as jojonson has found, this wasn;t another apology, it was a list of all my accounts as well as sort codes and money in those accounts. How moronic can they be? My husband called up Barclays as I was fuming and they have offered another apology. He threatened reporting them to the ICO and the papers and they couldn't have cared less. I believe her words were 'Go to the papers then, and why not find another bank as well!' I have until the end of August to wait for them to offer suitable compensation, however I will be letting the papers know about their incompetence and reporting them straight away.

Thanks again lovely, I read through the ICO website and it advised to write to Barclays outlining again what has happened and what I expect from them in terms of compensation, as a goodwill gesture. I suggested a year subscription to Experian as that should help put my mind at ease. Will be changing acc details in the morning. Like you said, the possibility of fraud is still playing on my mind. It's just so much hassle really. Considering they are meant to be a national bank with such a good reputation it astonishes me how slack handed they have been. If I was to go into a bank to confirm my details I'm hardly going to need a print out, am I. Thanks again lovely

Many thanks for your help slick132. I will wait until Friday for a letter or phonecall. If nothing happens I'll call them and let them know I'm reporting them to the ICO and will be filing a claim for loss of interest and distress caused. So far bank accounts seem normal, however I'm still maintaining close scrutiny. If so much as a penny goes missing then I'll be right back onto them!!!

While I was browsing I thought i'd post on here. Over a year ago my husband bought two contracts with 3. He was advised to take out a business contract as he would get the best rates. He was told he would be charged £34 for line rental and the first handset and then a further £15 for each additional line (plus VAT). He would then be eligible for a 10% reduction of the total amount every month if we signed up to the contract for two years. This would mean a monthly total of £51.81 including VAT rather than £57.58. This was confirmed by the sales staff. The first bill came through and despite being told we would receive 10% off the total, we were actually charged £55.81. When the next bill came through he was shocked to see he was being charged line rental of £34; £15 for one phone line and an additional £15 for the second line, plus VAT. The 10% reduction had also only been applied to one lot of £15, not the total amount as we were told. The total we have been paying amounts to £73.44, £21.63 extra per month. Over a year this has been an overspend of £259. As we're tied in for two years it will cost us an extra £519.12 At the time we had the choice of £15 per month per phone including 500 free minutes but was recommended by the staff the business tariff as it apparently worked out a better deal. It has taken over 12 months of constant phone calls, in store visits and emails to just get the area managers number. The store manager refused to give the name of the area manager, the area manager never replied to the emails the store manager sent, then the store manager left last month, leaving us in the lurch. There has been a whole catalogue of errors from 3, from the overspend, to bank details actually being sent the wrong address. They shrugged this off as a genuine mistake. The staff have recognised it was missold. I have an email from the store manager stating this. They offered a pitiful £250 compensation. This wouldn't even cover the overspend, let alone the hours wasted waiting in store, and constant phone calls and distress it has caused us. We have received no communication from 3, and emails and a letter written 21st March 2008 have been ignored. We were called by a woman at head office who assured us it was the store that was at fault, and they need to rectify the problem. She gave my husband the area managers number, but despite leaving three messages, again, we have been ignored. I think it's now time to take this to small claims. A few questions: How would I go about doing this? How much can we reasonably claim for distress caused? Is it a strong case? Thanks!

Hi, This is my first post on the forum, if it's in the wrong place please feel free to move it! I'll start from the beginning. My husband and I are Barclays customers. We moved home April 2007. I have been trying to open a Tax Haven ISA with Barclays for the past month. For some reason, my address had not been updated, although everything in our joint names had. As a result, all our statements have been coming to our new address. As I have nothing solely in my name, nothing has been delivered to my old address. I hope that makes sense! Anyway, I called up about three to four times to try and set up the ISA, but as the address was wrong they couldn't set one up. I asked the online banking team to change the address, they confirmed they had done. I called up again to set up an ISA and again, the address was my old one, they couldn't set the ISA up. I gave it up as a lost cause. Last Friday, I had a call from the resident of our old address saying she had seen something she shouldn't have. When we met up, she handed me an opened letter from Barclays dated 29th May 2008. It was a letter addressed to me stating that my ISA application has been unsucessful. Now, every advisor I spoke to knew that the reason I couldn't proceed with the ISA: the address was incorrect. So why they sent me a letter detailing this I have no idea. They all knew we did not live there anymore. As I turned the page, I realised what the resident had seen. It was a blue sheet of paper with ALL my details on it. Barclays customer number Full Name Post code (which is incidentally the correct postcode) DOB Mothers Maiden Name NI number Sort Code and Account number They had sent this information, knowingly to the wrong address. I am fuming. This letter is dated the 29th May, so for the past 15 days it had been with the new resident of the address. I have no idea who has seen it, or who may have copied the information. The letter with the information stated this: As it was sent to the wrong address anyone could have gone to the bank, confirmed it was all fine, and transferred money from my account to theirs!! I called Barclays demanding an explanation. The woman I spoke to was very apologetic and filed the complaint with the relevant team. I demanded to know what they were going to offer in the way of compensation. She said she was not authorised to offer anything, however a letter will be sent detailing the complaint and any compensation they offer. I would love to know where I legally stand on this. I am, at the moment, currently checking my bank account online every hour or so to see if anything is askew. However anyone could use that information to forge credit in my name, a false passport... anything. Any help would be appreciated.