Next Directory - Duplicate Accounts

[IHB]

If anyone could offer any advice on what I should do next, I'd be really grateful. This is a long story, hopefully the letter below should explain everything..If not, let me know. I posted this by recorded delivery to

 

Next Directory

Customer Relations

P.O. Box 4000

Sheffield

S97 3ET

on 13th June.....

 

"13th June 2006

Re: Set-Up of Duplicate Account – Account Numbers DAxxxxxx & DA xxxxxx

Dear Sir / Madam,

It is with regret that I express my dissatisfaction at your service regarding an order made recently.

I ordered a suit (one jacket, and two pairs of trousers, for sizing) from your website, proceeded to the checkout page and discovered that you do not take Maestro. I then aborted this order.

My mother then offered to pay with her Visa Delta card. We logged into the site with her name and address (name xxxxx, address as above) and the system would not allow us to go any further than entering the name and address.

I presumed this was due to the fact that I had entered the same address 5 minutes earlier. Therefore, we aborted this order at the rejection page. The following morning, I logged onto the site again with my name and address, proceeded to checkout and entered my mother’s card details. I selected a delivery date, received confirmation of my order.

The order was delivered when requested and I packaged up one pair of trousers to return. Everything up to this point was as expected.

A few days later, a second set of packages arrived, in my mother’s name. A second account had been created, without ever getting to the checkout, order confirmation or delivery selection stage with these details.

We called Customer Services straight away to notify of this further delivery and they arranged a collection and advised they would close both accounts for us. The courier then failed to turn up three times for the parcels. On each occasion, we called the helpline and were advised someone would definitely be calling around. I took time off work, and my Mother also waited in.

The courier eventually arrived on 8th June and collected the unwanted item from my account (1 pair of trousers) and everything that was sent to us in my Mother’s name (one jacket and two pairs of trousers). At this stage, we both returned our copy of the Directory, as regrettably, we do not feel we will be using the service again.

Yesterday, we received a bill for the items delivered to my Mother, despite never setting up this account, never ordering them, reporting the error, and arranging collection straight away.

Your FAQs also state the following:

Q. Am I charged for the items as soon as I order them?

A. You have a 14-day approval period from the day the items are actually dispatched. If during the 14 days you return the items, there will be no charge to your account. So you can try before you buy.

Far less than 14 days elapsed since receiving the items and calling to report the error and arrange collection and yet we have been billed.

I called Customer Services yesterday and was told that it could take up to 28 days to credit the account. However, the bill stated that the minimum payment of ten pounds must be received by 1st July.

The whole service from start to finish has been completely despicable, no apologies have been made for the error, or the inconvenience of waiting in for three collections.

I only have one order confirmation email, arranged one delivery time, and proceeded to checkout once. I can not see where this error has occurred and yet was asked by your representative yesterday if I “knew how I had managed to cause this”.

I would appreciate if somebody could contact us regarding this as a matter of urgency, as myself and my Mother do not feel comfortable leaving the bill on the second account unpaid, yet do not feel it is justified that we pay a minimum payment on an account opened in error and then wait a further 28 days from 1st July to have this refunded.

If you require any information, please do not hesitate to contact me. My mobile number is above and both I and my mother can be contacted on the landline number.

I look forward to your reply.

Kind regards,

Miss X Xxxxxxx"

I have had no response to this yet, and am completely furious. I just do not know where to go from here.

Any ideas????

[pmhread]

Might as well bang your head against a brick wall. Next are completely useless. We ordered a new King size mattress from them. The day before delivery we disposed of the old one at the local tip and spent the night on our camping airbed. Waited in all day for delivery...not a thing. This king size mattress had been 'lost' in their warehouse and could not be found so me and my wife spent the christmas season sleeping on an air bed.

 

In the end, we did get £100 compensation from them but that was after many many emails and phone calls. Just refuse to speak to anyone who answers the phone and demand that they escalate it. They must have put the phone down on me 2 or 3 times (couldn't stop myself from calling them useless!!), but I eventually got through to someone who was able to make a decision.

[IHB]

We received a call from Customer relations on Friday. They called my Mother to ask her permission to discuss the account with me. I am expecting a call from them today. Here's hoping I get somebody who can help.......

[IHB]

A nice lady called Maureen called me today (as promised) and apologised for the whole mess. The balances are clear, both accounts are closed and the matter is being taken up with the Courier. She is also sending me some vouchers in the post. Nice outcome, very happy, apology sounded sincere too.