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La Redoute/Redcats - Suddenly I've got a "credit" I never applied for, and am told to pay arrears...


Kyosanto
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Hello, and pleased to have found this forum (via google)

 

I have very occasionally purchased items from La Redoute, and always paid by credit/debit card. Recently I have received a letter from "redcats" telling my my credit account was in arrears and I had to pay 12£. I first thought this was a kind of mistake, but when I logged in to my e-mail I found this old, never opened e-mail, dating one month back:

> From: (Redcats Dot CO Dot UK)

> To: (My Adress)

> Subject: Your Credit Agreement reminder MR XXXXXXXXX

> Date: Sat, 13 Nov 2010

>

> Please read the disclaimer at the bottom of this e-mail

>

> Please do not reply to this message, as it was sent from an unattended

> mailbox. If you have any queries, please contact us at

> mailto:[email protected]

>

> Dear Mr XXXXXX

>

> We recently sent you a credit agreement which we require you to complete and

> return to us as soon as possible in accordance with the terms and conditions

> of your credit account.

>

> If you need a further copy please contact us on 0844 842 2222 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 0844 842 2222 end_of_the_skype_highlighting

>

> La Redoute Customer Care Team

>

>

> Visit MY ACCOUNT today @ (la redoute website linked here) you will be able to track

> orders, view your statements, check your balance, make payments to your

> account and much more......

>

>

>

> *****************************************************

>

> Confidentiality: -

>

> This message and any attachments are strictly confidential. The contents of the transmission are intended for the named addressee(s) only. If you are not the addressee please do not read, print, store or re-transmit it or any attachments to it. Instead, please email it back to the sender and then immediately permanently delete it from your system

>

> Proprietor: Redcats (Brands) Limited trading as La Redoute. Registered Office: 2 Holdsworth Street, Bradford, West Yorkshire, BD1 4AH. Registered in England No. 110433

Needless to say I was quite shocked as I have never ever asked for a credit to be opened. Surely that is an attempt to [problem] me into getting a credit I never asked for? Is it even legal?

I've sent them the following reply, in anger: (that was before I found your website)

 

 

Hello,

 

I have NEVER asked for a credit with la Redoute and have always paid my orders in due time; therefore I find the letter I recently received asking me to pay 12 pounds of "arrears", as well as this old e-mail which I have just opened, to be a joke of the most distasteful kind.

 

I hereby demand that you immediately acknowledge the fact I have never contracted a credit with you and cease demanding payment, and provide some explanation.

 

Failure to acknowledge this in writing within a reasonable delay, or further attempts to obtain payment for any service I have never asked for will result in me seeking legal advice with the consumer protection and markets authority.

Please also take note that I refuse to call your surtaxed number and therefore will not respond to demands to call you, and that i am extremely irate at La Redoute regarding this.

 

Thank you,

 

XXXXX

I am still angry as I'm typing this, and would greatly appreciate if anyone on this board could bring some light to these doubts I have:

 

-Could I have possibly agreed to getting a credit, by ordering a cheap item on the internet?

-Is this a blatant attempt to extort money out of unsuspecting or naive customers?

-Is it even legal?

-Was the way I replied sensible? Or should I have done otherwise, or even ignored this (don't want to ignore it though!)

-Should I do anything else with this? Report this to the consumer authorities, ask for compensation, seek legal counsel, or just... pay up..?

 

Thank you very much for any advise :)

 

Yours kindly,

Kyosanto

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've also had perhaps a similar problem with Redcats/La Redoute. Redcats contacted me recently to inform me I had a debt they were collecting from La Redoute. Looking back on my details I last purchased something from La Redoute to the amount of £25.85 in December 2006. I also always pay by credit/debit card so I'm stunned to find that apparently I wasn't charged for this amount - news it me. My failure was to not check my statements to see that this amount was debited. Unfortunantely I also moved house soon after this transaction - moving outside of the country and not thinking for a second I had any debts, I didn't update my address details with La Redoute. So I missed all the post 'reminding' me to pay. This is a debt from four years ago and in all this time I have received La Redoute's regular promotional emails - couldn't they have contacted me with this debt via email? My issue is that I didn't ever sign up to have credit with them. Never would, not my style. And that they could have contacted me at a drop of a hat via email.

Any thoughts on this would be welcome. I'll pay them for what I owe but it seems so very wrong on principle to pay the excess of a further £111.44 covering a 'County Court Judgement' and selling the debt to Redcats, considering I never signed up for credit and they could have contacted me by email at any time. Not to mention the amount of people this may have happened to who may not be in a position to pay.

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Having delved more into these threads, the thread entitled 'La Redoute and Lowell Portfoliothis' seems to apply to both our situations Kyosanto.

 

As per the wonderful help and advice there I am going down the route of posting a CCA request with the required £1 postal order by recorded delivery to Lowell (as they're the ones chasing me having bought the debt from Redcats). A CCA they they'll be unable to find as I never signed up for or agreed to Credit with La Redoute.

 

To anyone out there who may be able to advise I have two further concerns I'm wondering if I should raise in the same CCA request letter? One is whether I should request details of the County Court Judgement they're saying has been brought against me because of this debt and which has also increased my debt four fold. And secondly whether I should enquire if I've had a default placed on my credit rating file as a result of this 'debt' - something that has not been mentioned in any of the letters I've received so far.

 

Any advice anyone may have would be gratefully appreciated.

 

Thanks very much. And have a lovely evening all.

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  • 1 month later...

Thanks Florian for your replies I will look into those threads.

 

News from the front: I got a letter from Redcats apologizing for a computer mistake which would have caused a credit account to be created "one step too soon" as they simply put it. According to them I have made a purchase for 129 pounds in August, which was instead of being charged on my credit card put down on this dubious "credit account" (which I deny ever having created). They've cancelled the interest and fees between august and november. However, despite my demand to call them back and give me details and proof of what I had ordered (there was no record on my e-mail account of an order for 129 pounds, only one for 64 pounds the same month, which was duly paid), they did not call me back.

 

And now I'm receiving letters again and request for late payment fees... which of course I'm going to refuse to pay.

 

Will keep this updated. Thanks!

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  • 7 months later...

Hello, in January I got an apology from la Redoute as well as a 15£ voucher and they dropped their silly harrasment. Just a word to resume everything that happened.

 

-I bought various items for about a 100£ on La Redoute in July, which were received correctly.

-Although during payment I did opt to have the money directly debited from my debit card, because of a computer mistake (as La Redoute subsequently admitted in writing) a credit account was created without my knowledge or approval, and the money was not withdrawn from my bank account, but instead charged to my unwanted Redoute account.

-Between August and November I did not receive any statements or requests to pay in writing, only obscure e-mails asking me to sign the contract for the credit agreement and return it (I never received or signed a contract). I only paid attention to these e-mails after November, as any promotional La Redoute mail usually goes straight to my bin.

-In november I began receiving threats from Redcats, and request to pay arrears, which triggered the initial post above.

-After several long and painful phone calls, La Redoute admitted a computer mistake resulting in accidentally creating a credit account, and apologized, dropping all arrears charges.

-However they didn't respond to my request to call back/write back precising what the money was used for, and if I owed them any money. Therefore I did not pay them anything

-In December and January I begun receiving legal threats again for not paying the July item order, and asked to pay for arrears again.

-After several more phone calls with senior custumer support personel. They were finally able to indicate me where the invoices for the July order were (they were only accessible online with a user name and password, and there was no trace via e-mail). Recognizing that I had indeed received those items, i checked my bank account and confirmed that the items weren't paid for. Therefore I accepted to pay for the order in full.

-The customer support person wanted me to pay the arrears in full even after the explanation. I said that I refused to pay any arrears but would pay the order in full. I also demanded that my "credit account" was immediately cancelled after the payment. The manager eventually approved and I paid for my order.

-After that I received another apology in writing along with a 15£ voucher, which I am thankful for, although to be honest it is peanuts given the amount of annoying phone calls I made and harassment letters I have received.

-My account was never cancelled and still exists apparently. However I cannot be bothered to have anything to do with La Redoute and I know well enough not to ever use this parody of an account.

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  • 4 months later...

I too am having problems with La Redoute. I've made severla payments on line and am taken to a screen that tells me my payment has been processed and the transaction generates a payment reference number, however when I receive my statements it says no payment has been received. I took a print screen of my last payment so I have evidence this time but they don't seem keen to respond! Has anyone else had this problem?

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it would be better to start your own thread

this one is two years old

 

see my sig below

 

dx

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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