Acenden,Capstone,SPPL and the Financial Ombudsman who seems biased!!

[cher69cher69]

Hi everyone

I just had to start this thread to see if anyone has any similar responses to their complaint against SPPL Capstone acenden etc. My complaint has been ongoing now for over 2 years and is on its second adjudicator. But the latest letter from the fSO shocked me.

 

The Basic facts of my case are the arrears in 2006 were £800 after I became ill and had a nervous breakdown. The arrears now in 2011 are £4,890 In the past 5 years I have struggled, and yes, I have been late making some payments but always caught up within the following month. I have always informed them of the reasons why and I have always kept my word and paid when I said i would. I have also made overpayment's to try and clear the arrears. Sometimes I can not pay on the date they want, but I am up to date with my payments including the additional payment of £20 ordered by the court in 2007.

This was when capstone took me to court and lied through their teeth about me, saying I ignored them and would not agree a repayment plan, and i had not told them I was ill etc etc but the worst of it was that the judge believed them. He hadn't even read my defense which i had sent in to court well before the hearing date just to make sure he had time to read it, but he obviously didn't. It was disgusting so in the space of 10 minutes I now I had a suspended repossession order on my home.

 

I reported them to the FSO and at first they didn't want to know because they said they didn't deal with complaints that had already been to court and they couldn't overturn the court ruling. So I tried again and this time said that i didn't expect them to overturn a court ruling, I just wanted to complain about the excessive charges and unfair treatment this time they accepted my complaint which is still ongoing.

 

The first adjudicator wasn't too bad and agreed with me on most of the points I made like excessive charges and unfair treatment. But then he left and my new adjudicator seems very biased as if he is on the side of the lender.

 

I could not believe in the recent letter I received from him, when he stated that Acenden had not replied to his letters. But he had read their final letter to me. So now it was going to the Ombudsman. But then he went on to give his opinion on the matter and i was taken aback by what he had to say.

 

He stated that he felt that lenders reserved the right to alter their tariff at any time and that although I thought the charges were unreasonable he has to conclude that in his opinion when secured loans go into arrears, the lender is put to additional monitoring and collection work, and after all Acenden did offer me as a good will gesture a refund of 3 months litigation fees £375!!!

 

My reaction to this was I was just a tad angry! (Good will gesture my a-se Acenden wouldn't know goodwill if it jumped up and smacked them in the mouth!)This is 3 months litigation fees of £115.00 each we are talking about which they have slapped on every month whilst my account has been in arrears hence the increase in my arrears instead of them going down these charges should never have been applied in the first place. ( I have been paying every month).

 

The amount I have paid I should be in credit by now to the tune of around £400 but instead because of all the hard work that according to the adjudicator Acenden have had to do by monitoring my account, and buying doughnuts for the whole of High Wycombe:lol:, I have a whopping £4,900 arrears. All I can say is Mr Adjudicator where is your rational? where does your logic come from here?

 

He went on to say that I had stated that I should be able to change the date on which I pay and decide how I pay it either by direct debit or standing order. His response to this was ("In my view the payment date is part of the contract and Acenden could rely on that date if it chose to do so. I consider the charge for using alternative methods of payment is not unreasonable because i am satisfied that there will be additional costs involved")

 

My reaction to this bit was "Are you having a laugh?":heh:

 

He went on to say ("You have asked Acenden to remove all of the charges plus interest on those charges and I do not believe that we could reasonably expect Acenden to do that")Err Why Not???

 

My opinion on the last bit was just utter disgust to be honest. Why on earth should I not expect Acenden to remove the charges, when they are excessive to the point of daylight robbery. (How can they possibly justify £115.00 a month to cover admin costs on an account that is up to date, what do they have to do for the £115.00, have a little chap sat at the computer 24/7 monitoring my account to see if anything magical happens to it?

They do not in any way represent the true cost of admin on the account.

So therefore if this charge had not been applied in the first place why should i have to pay interest on it ?

 

These outrageous charges which should never have been applied in the first place!

 

Hence I should never have been taken to court, because after 2 years they had finally agreed a repayment plan which was in place, and I had been paying on time for 3 months, before the court hearing. They said they would cancel the hearing if I paid an extra £100, which I did, and they lied, they carried on taking me to court.

 

If they had shown forbearance and used court as a last resort instead of the only resort. :-(If they had not lied about the payment plan and everything else in court, like they did ,I would not be in this position now, and I would not be going to bed every night worrying if my home was going to be repossessed. Because if they have lied once, they can do it again.It is as if they are above the law! :???:and above all rules and regulations. But I am going to fight these swines to the death :mad2:if it is the last thing I do they are nothing but criminals, thieves, rogues and liars.

Sorry I get carried away with my rant:rant: but I have had enough now and the so called impartial and fair adjudicator at the FSO and the comments he made were really the last straw.But we will have to wait to see what the ombudsman has to say. Heres hoping!!!! I have got everything crossed!!!

Kind Regards to you all Cher 69. p.s Sorry about all the smilies but they make me laugh when in fact I actually feel like screaming !!

[Sappho54]

Cher69Cher69

Did you appeal to the FSO to change the ruling? Did you get anywhere with this? You are quite right to be annoyed as if it was any other company than Acenden you would have succeeded in claiming back unfair charges, even if it was sub-prime. Everyone I know who has been down this route was able to receive part or most of unfair charges/PPI etc.

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