Acknowledgement of Service...

[theSORROW]

Hey,

 

I sent the standard recommended letter to my local HSBC branch on 12/06/06, requesting the repayment of charges totalling £1251.06. After receiving no response, I hand delivered a second letter a fortnight later.

 

I received the following response from their Senior Service Quality Officer, Colin Langdale (the letter was not signed by Mr. Langdale however) last week:

 

Dear Mr Essex,

 

Thank you for your letter dated 27 June 2006 regarding your charges of £1251.06.

 

The bank does not agree with your contention that the charges that have been imposed constitute a penalty and are therefore unforceable. The contract between the bank and its customers is governed by our Personal Banking Terms and Conditions. In respect of overdrafts, I would refer you specifically to clause 7.11 in section 2. If you authorise a payment that would, if met by us, lead your account going overdrawn or over an agreed limit the bank consider whether or not to make this payment and a fee is payable for this service.

 

Our fees and charges are clearly stated in our published price list and the circumstances in which these charges will apply are clearly set out in our terms and conditions which you will have been provided with a copy when you opened your account.

 

Whilst I accept that this letter will not provide the response you hoped for, I trust I have been able to clarify the bank's position. If you are not satisfied with the bank's response you should now refer your complaint to the Financial mbudsman Service, as this represent our final response on this matter.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Colin Langdale

Senior Service Quality Officer

 

Obviously the first thing this chap needs is a lesson in grammar and punctuation, but aside from that where do I stand now?

 

Your help and advice is much appreciated.

 

T.

[Bookworm]

I'm sorry, were you actually expecting them to just pay up without an argument?

 

You have not failed at all. You have taken the 1st step in reclaiming your bank charges, now comes step 2.

 

Read the FAQs. Read the step-by-step. Read the relevant forum material. Then send the next letter. And buck up. ;-)

[jazzyb]

this is a standard letter they send out, don't worry, keep to your time table and file a claim with moneyclaim 14 days from the date you sent out the LBA letter. Looking at other threads they will pay you before the date of the hearing.

Again don't worry, this is normal procedure.

[theSORROW]

Bookworm and jazzyb,

 

Obviously I wasn't expecting them to roll over and start throwing money at me (would have been nice though ), but I was slightly perturbed by the wording of the letter and the fact that I hadn't read anything like that on the forum (although I can confess to not having searched it's entirety as yet).

 

I picked up a series of leaflets on how the Small Claims Court works from my local CAB office recently, and will now be following their advice on getting action under way.

 

Hopefully I will have a positive update in the near future.

 

Incidentally, is it worth pursuing conjunctive action on emotional grounds, or at least including this in my next letter to the bank?

 

I was a student when HSBC were placing these charges on my account and I have no qualm in stating that I was suffering from depression for much of the time. Whilst the condition wasn't caused by the problems I was having with HSBC, they certainly didn't help and the bank were made aware of this on numerous occasions. However, they still continued to act in a way too many people are familiar with.

 

Again, any advice will be very gratefully received.

 

T.

[Bookworm]

In order to claim emotional distress, you would have to be able to prove very substantially that your emotional distress or depression was caused by the bank's actions. IMO, a non-starter. They are more likely to fight you if you try this angle, as it's not as clear-cut as penalty charges, and the ramifications are enormous.

 

I have to disagree about the wording of the letter. It is pretty much standard for every bank, with the odd variation on words, sure, but it is what I have taken to calling the 1st sod-off letter, to be followed by a 2nd sod-off letter, which may be a) identical, b) ruder, c) even more technical and righteous, d)any or all of the above.

In fact, we've seen so many of them that I can pretty much guess which bank has sent the letter by the wording. Not much of a party trick, I grant you. ;-)

[magicmerlz]

Hi sorrow

 

I received exactly the same letter on Saturday morning and I too was a little concerned. However after posting my concerns on this site it has been confirmed that this is a standard response and should be ignored.

 

Move on to the next stage and good luck, my 2nd letter is off today.

 

Regards

 

Magic

[LittleMissFoolish]

Hi Sorrow and Magic,

 

Mr Langdale was a very busy man last week as I got exactly the same letter on Saturday morning too. I too was a bit put off by the 'finality' of the wording, but I will plough on regardless. Nothing to lose by trying!

 

Glad to know there are others on the same time scale as me though.

 

LMF

[Janet-M]

Nothing to lose by trying!

 

look around the forum not one person has lost , everyone has been paid if they are at that stage .

 

Keep positive and just keep reading around the forum and learning

[theSORROW]

My claim was issued at 10am on Monday, and HSBC have today filed an Ackowledgement of Service (or at least that's what I presume they have done, as the claim status now reads as Acknowledged).

 

Apparently, this gives them an extra 14 days to respond to the claim and usually signals that they intend to contest the court's jurisdiction. Is this normal for HSBC, or is it something I should be worrying about?

[Bookworm]

yes, it's normal, no, it's nothing to worry about.

 

Your question seems to indicate you haven't taken the time to read other people's threads or the step-by-step. Why don't you use the 14 days to do so and familiarise yourself with the way they do things?

 

Also, please don't start a new thread every time you have an update or query, it just makes things harder to follow.

[theSORROW]

Having issued my claim on Monday 17th July 2006, I received an offer of full repayment (to the tune of around £1500) on Saturday 22nd. I was, understandably, extremely pleased at this news not least because I have just finished university and the money is much needed.

 

I returned the required documents on the day the letter was received, and spoke to the solicitors being employed by HSBC this afternoon to confirm receipt. I chatted to the person handling my case, stating that I would need to be paid by cheque as my account with HSBC had been inactive for some time. She seemed to see no problem with this and assured me everything would be sorted within seven days.

 

Great.

 

I then received a telephone message half an hour later, stating that I would not be receiving a cheque due to money I owed to HSBC.

 

At the time of the charges being applied I was encouraged, by one of HSBCs account managers, to take out a managed loan (whilst still a student I might add) to cover the removal of my overdraft and credit card facilities. This came to just shy of £1600. When my account was closed, the debt was passed on to a company called Metropolitain Collection Services. A repayment plan was put in place with them, but the account was to be settled in full by my parents three months ago.

 

Whether or not that payment was made I don't know (I will be making enquiries with MCS tomorrow, although I have received no correspondence from them for three or four months) but I still think I should be entitled to receive a cheque and be allowed to redistribute the money as I see fit. Obviously money owed is money owed, but as a recent graduate I can't afford not to have a £1500 lump sum not paid back, especially (should the debt with MCS still stand) when there are repayment plans already in place. After all, the money is technically mine and not HSBCs to place where they want.

 

Do I have any right to request a cheque as I was expecting, or do I have to settle for having the (possible) outstanding balance of the managed loan almost cleared?

 

Many thanks for your advice.