Hi all, This is quite an old issue, which I am able to address now. Approximately in 2002-2004 I opened a student account with Natwest Bank. Due to family issues and student debts, this account became essentially dormant not long after it was opened. This shouldn't necessarily be a problem, however there was an outstanding overdraft on the account. I have retained this overdraft following bouts of employment where i've been able to repay some of it, often setting up monthly direct debits of £40-50 - turning an overdraft of around £1600 to a now £800. Having examined some recent statements, I have realised that I have been charged numerous charges, often one justifying another. For example (fictitious figures at the moment, but close to originals from memory): £1500 overdraft receives £40 interest charges This pushes the account over the agreed overdraft for further charge of £15-25 Due to the account having activity (as if I were using it myself), it counts their own penalties as me using the account overdraft, for a fixed fee of £6. This downward spiral has been significantly muted now i've been able to pay off around 50% of the total cost, however I am curious as to if I will be able to reclaim the £6 account 'use' fee, despite me never actually drawing that money it - it was their own account interest that caused it to be 'active'. For information, I have informed their collection dept numerous times that I do not use this account so I should not be charged them, and once paid off in full, I wish the account closing. By my estimations, I believe (if the £6 is illegal/unfair) that the outstanding balance would be nearly paid off in full (approx. 10yrs of £6 per month, + interest). I feel that as a student I have been unfairly preyed upon, and even now, after nearly 7yrs after graduating, I am *still* trying to pay off this debt. Please could anyone advise as to anything I have mentioned, and if it is common/possible? Thanks for your assistance. (I understand that I will need an itemised statement dating back to account creation, which I will ask for if there is something to reclaim)

Hi all, quick question - a 4yr + balloon PCP contract was signed about 5 months ago on a new vehicle which has had numerous issues, and culminated in a long drawn out 'falling out' between myself, main BMW dealer and BMW UK. Vehicle total cost: £38k. I have requested a replacement vehicle, and they are dragging their heels wherever possible - this is not unrealistic of me as replacement vehicles have been issued to other people of lesser and greater cars than mine. I have also instructed the Finance company of these issues and they have attempted 'fighting my corner' (still waiting on their result, but not holding breath). What are my legal rights with cancelling the PCP and giving the car to the finance company based upon these defects? Am I due compensation/recompense? Do I owe them (as the PCP usually attracts a termination fee, but this is for a manufacturing issue)? Original Thread: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?338399-BMW-Paint-Issues...(1-Viewing)-nbsp

OK bit of an update - as expected, issues were attempted to be padded down by retailer and BMW UK ("this complies with our current standard" and "Black is worse than white for showing this, and you picked Black, so that's it"). As the car was taken over finance, PCP, where do I stand with cancelling my policy? FYI, the finance company are currently involved with BMW as I have now cancelled my direct debits based on this and informed them I was doing so. Following several meetings with Managers at my dealership, they offered me a discounted price of a £4-8k respray which will involve disassembling my car and rebuild it which I am to finance and they explicitly said that the paint issues affect Black cars the worst, and said White cars remain largely unaffected (not as obvious). As it is a new car (5months old) and I do not want the hassle with not having the vehicle for 1-2weeks (paying for a car I don't have) coupled with future issues of the knocks/rattles caused by the car being re-assembled, I have requested a replacement vehicle. Further evidence online indicates that replacement vehicles have been issued under similar circumstances too. On the chance that this is not successful, I am rejecting the car and the finance agreement, however where do I stand with this, as it is due to a manufacturing defect - do I owe them money? do they owe me money? etc Thanks in advance

Mobile Phones Direct caved in as the £61.89 they owed me was cheaper than a lawsuit for their legal team. They are a relatively small firm so cannot afford big things like that. Phones4U/DialAPhone are still ongoing with me...

Email reply from Dial-A-Phone (big sum - £240 combined):

Both letters dispatched to customer services departments (only addresses I could get) for DialAPhone and for Mobile Phones Direct. Now the waiting game..

I have involved the dealership now - 1. They have agreed to replace 2 alloys + exhaust (PENDING THEIR OWN INSPECTION - i.e. I leave it there for a few days). 2. They are not budging on the paint, so have called upon a heavy hitter Paint Manager from BMW UK to come to the dealership to 'take a look'. (i.e. tell me it is fine by his standards). My questions now are... 1. Can I reject the car as not fit for the price £37k? 2. Instead of #1, can I refuse to pay the monthly premium to BMW Finance, informing BMW Finance why? (do I leave the car @ BMW, or take it and then refuse to pay?) I don't care about my credit rating currently, so any threats to this do not change my viewpoint, but could #2 affect it out of interest? Thanks...

Roger that! With baited breath I will await their feedback - if they do actually choose to. One company was for £63 total (Mobile Phones Direct - inclusive of my personal £10 for time/expenses) and the other for £240 (was same company - dial-a-phone). Watch this space...

Thanks - have edited and will send tomorrow. Which out of Recorded or Special Delivery would you recommend?

Will this letter be OK - just knocked it up now...!

Hi, yes - those figures were generated by the Spreadsheet

Cumulative totals... £108.77 £26.86 £82.69 Total: £218.32 Now for the letter draft... !!!

I've got Barclays to send me out my full statements from 2008 to present so this will form the basis of the cost refunds... ... will keep this thread updated once I get access to this information and begin the talks

Thanks very much - i'll need to get a full account print out from Barclays with which to take photocopies as proof (keeps me organised too). Out of interest, they appeared to be sold as 'FREE INSURANCE' - checking out my invoices. But there was never any disclosure as to fees. Assumingly that the 'free' bit was a week/month.

Thanks for your fast response - when you said the 'third one' did you mean the 3rd Spreadsheet or only the third insurance charge above? If only the 3rd one, why do you think the 1st and 2nd aren't viable? (genuinely curious!). Thanks

I have been sifting through my bank statements from 2009 - date (painful process), and found several suspect payments. After a lot of digging, there are 3 payments which occur either monthly or 6-monthly over 12-18month periods. . £53.82 - total for £2.99 p/m (18 months) - Dial-a-Phone Gadget Helpline £83.88 - total for £6.99 p/m (12 months) - Dial-a-cover £107.82 - total for £5.99 p/m (18 months) - Mobile Phones Direct As I never signed up to these, - digging has revealed they were 'thrown in as a freebie' but I never received any official agreement or contract - what is the legal stance on these amounts? Can I reclaim these illegal charges, even if they were from upto 3 years ago? Thanks for any assistance

Thanks for the info - i'm financed via BMW Finance, so same group, different business.

Indeed - I was loaned a Z4 whilst my car was 5-week delayed. This had Xenons and I got used to the excellent light they provided. After taking receipt of my car, it was not a good few weeks before I had chance to use the headlights due to holiday (and not driving at night), so got a bit of shock - I nearly crashed in stunned amazement. I complained to BMW UK, who did the honorable 'no reply' thing. Hindsight and all that! I'm sure the threat of a terminated contract will get them to act, somehow in someway, especially if it is legitimately supported under law.

It is a 135 - entry level model, but not entry level engine/vehicle!

Hello, I purchased a brand-new BMW last August, and since then, i've been fraught with issues. - The vehicle was delayed by ~5 weeks. - The Salesman informed me that the vehicle automatically came with Xenon headlights (standard spec on that model). It didn't. - When came to seal the deal, so-to-speak, the agreement somehow changed to cost me an additional £1000 - which I had to trim down out of the specification. - The exhaust is black, as was from new, but the paint has started flaking off and looks very cheap/tacky with silver showing through. Now, the latest issue... I thought nothing much of it, and expected it to be a paint 'effect', or perhaps a representation of the vehicle being the entry-level 1-series, but the paint finish is very poor. Some BMWs are plagued by a poor paint finish known as 'Orange Peel' which involves applying the lacquer over uncured paint. The bonnet of my car is perfect - mirror finish. What you would expect for a £37k vehicle. However, the rest of the body work is very poor - the effect resembles beaten-brass/cooper. Instead of a mirror finish shine, the panels resemble an impressionist interpretation of the world around! I intend to present this to my local official BMW dealer whom I purchased the car from, however, a brief check online shows that BMW do not appreciate this. They say that it is normal and they will not act. My question is for a £37k vehicle, how can brand new £10k vehicles have perfect paint finish? A lot of owners simply go to a detailing place and pay £700-£2000 for the surface lacquer to be wet-sanded off, despite their cars being new. Legally, what stance do I have as a consumer in this situation - I pay for the vehicle monthly on hire (with balloon payment at end) and have made around 5-6 payments, and the initial £2k deposit trade-in value off my previous vehicle. Thanks in advance...

They have acknowledged receipt of the letter via phone, so will await their reply.

Sent this letter to Lloyds TSB today, seeking a full refund of a faulty PC... What are the chances of a hassle free refund? Are there any recommendations or tips - Alienware UK are actually based in southern Ireland for info.

Sainsbury's have now fantastically setup a robot to ring me every few hours to arrange a payment before the 'Debt Collectors' come around to claim the ever snowballing debt on the account that they created.

Hi folks, I am very unlucky to encounter all these issues or standards in this day in age really have dropped. 4 months ago I shelled out £2600 for a new Alienware system (UK) on my Lloyds TSB Credit Card. Several weeks into ownership a problem developed - whenever I opened the front door of the system, it would power off. This meant that I couldn't insert a DVD/CD/SD Card without the system powering off. As I use this for business, burning disks and obtaining information from disks becomes very problematic as you may be able to gather. I contacted Alienware who wanted the system returned back to their base, in mainland Ireland, with an expected turn around time of repair of 4 weeks. Instead of going through with this, which is absolutely insane for a system this expensive, I chose to investigate the problem myself (as an IT expert). I did a temporary fix of the crushed wire which was responsible for the system turning off which fixed that temporarily. Alienware seemed not to care when informed of what I had done. Now to present time, still reiterating that I have only had this system for 4 months now - I had a hard drive failure. Spent 2 hrs on their technical support line where I had to jump through their hoops to prove that the system drive was infact dead. 7 days for a replacement to arrive ONLY after I had sent the original defective drive back. The system is unusable - in replacing the new hard drive out I have found a dead SATA port on the Motherboard, and I have not been supplied with any disk to restore a computer to it's original base settings (I can do this myself, but I didn't pay £2600 to have to do this myself). I am pursuing a full refund, however is there any specific laws or consumer rights which I must bear in mind to go ahead with this ? I note that Alienware require the system to be returned to them where they will then refund the amount MINUS a 15% restocking fee. Lloyds TSB inform me that I must return the system to them and have written proof that they have received it before they will pursue a refund. What is the best way forward? I need advice please!

Hi folks, I had a Sainsbury's credit card which I fully paid off last year (October) and then instructed them to close the account fully. After some brief checks I confirmed it was closed and thought the end of it. It turned out however that 3 weeks ago a 'direct debit' was allowed to be passed on my non-existant account for £60 from a Web Hosting Provider. I contacted the Web Provider who said 'non-refundable, you have to cancel on the day that the site was due'. So naturally with credit cards acting as proverbial money-back claims as standard I contacted Sainsburys. At this point, I was also after re-opening my Sainsbury's Credit Card too [for note]. I was told that Sainsburys have to honour all direct debits on all accounts even ones that have been closed for over a year. They cannot refund the money. I was also told that even though they were very happy to charge me for an account that I don't have anymore, that I couldn't have a credit card with them on this account - I would infact need to re-apply (which I did and was rejected despite have a credit rating of 900/1000). I digress. So the situation stands. I owe £60 on my Sainsbury's card on a payment which I believed was a one off 2 years ago on my closed account for nearly 1 year which Sainsburys won't refund, but are happy to charge me their APR and let me begin to get missed payments for. How can I advance this situation? Thanks for any assistance!