Debenhams / HSBC Foul up - who tho?

[Rayne]

Afternoon all, have a small problem, somewhere between HSBC and Debenhams, not sure which, both refusing to take responsibility and getting royally ****ed off with both now!!

 

Back Story

 

Purchased a tumble dryer from Debenhams on 28th Dec. Lovely tumble dryer, nothing wrong with it, would happily buy it again. Used a £50 gift voucher as well. Total price normally was £269, price with gift voucher £219. No probs there, the maths is good. This, theoretically, leaves just shy of £300 available in the bank. Thats AVAILABLE, not balance. The balance was something like £350.

Go forward a day and suddenly rent has been returned, water has been returned and TV license has been returned, all by bank, all for insufficeint funds. We're very much "wtf?"

Scratch our heads for a futher day because there's not even anything on the pending list online other than incoming Carer's Allowance for the following day 30/12.

Get to 30th, Carer's Allowance is in (this is a Friday btw), showing up quite happily in the bank on the balance sheet. Available balance = NIL

NOW I'm getting very annoyed. New Year's Eve party to pay for etc, loads of friends coming round, totally unable to purchase anything for it, numerous items returned, even tho money is showing in the bank but nothing available and nothing pending.

Goes on like this until the 3RD JAN when suddnely Carer's Allowance is available. Bit late but hey thanks anyways.

Go into the bank to query why it took 5 days for it to become available. Obtained from the bank an "Internal Transaction List" which shows the following:-

 

28th Dec: £269 Authorised to Debenhams

28th Dec: End of day Balance £306.48

29th Dec: £219 VISA Payment to Debenhams

29th Dec: Various reversals of different outgoing payments

30th Dec: £220 Carer's Allowance paid in

30th Dec: End of day Balance: £269

3rd Jan: TV License returned

3rd Jan: Various Items authorised

3rd Jan: End of day Balance £269

 

4th Jan: Go into branch to query. They say that because the amount was authorised and then taken separately it created a TOTAL debit of £490, mkaing the funds not available, and that its teh fault of Debenhams.

 

5th Jan Letter receievd from HSBC stating several items returned, oh and we're charging you £35 for it.

 

6th Jan: Six trillion phone calls and speakign to everyone in Debenhams EXCEPT the CEO, and they're saying that its the banks fault and that their internal procedures are nothing to do with them.

 

Now my arguement is that we bought ONE tumble dryer for £219, PERIOD. The money was there, it was available and now we're being stiffed for £35 of charges, had to cancel a high profile New Years Eve party, which would have been our severely disabled daughter's first one, at massive personal embarressment to us. Debenhams are refusing to take responsibility for it, as are HSBC. SOMEBODY, not us for once, is responsible for this. Normally I don't bother about compensation as I'm of the opinion we're too much of a compensation nation thses days. In this case I'm making an exception.

 

Where do I start?

Edited January 6, 2012 by Rayne

[theghost]

I fear there is no clear answer and you will end up going around in circles - as you have found out, Debenhams will blame it on the bank and the Bnak will jsut say its not their fault.

 

I woudl be inclined to write a formal compalint letter to each. If you get no luck consider the financial ombudsman - but bear in mind it could take 6+ months to get an answer and even then they may not rule against the bank.

[Rayne]

So what you're in effect saying is that I should just say the hell with it and just accept what is now £45 of charges through no fault of my own??? Would you? Would anyone? They're both getting stiffly worded complaint letters threatening everything including hell and eternal damnation. No way am I prepared to just lie down and play ***ing dead for these cretins

[theghost]

No, what I am saying is that you PROBABLY have a long battle that goes nowhere unless the bank or debehams admit fault early on.

 

If HSBC are saying its a fualt in the system whetehr caused by them or debenhams I would have thought they would have cancelled the charges with osme persuasion.

[Rayne]

Ah my apologies, read your reply at completely the wrong time (being hassled by kids!) and mis interpreted it

Have asked that HSBC refund or cancel the charges, awaiting their reply, going by past dealings with them, not holding out much hope

[Rayne]

How's this look?

 

On 28th December 2011 I ordered a tumble dryer from your online store using a debit card and a £50 voucher that had been given as a gift for Xmas. Total cost without voucher £269, cost with voucher £219. Everything went through smoothly after phoning your 0871 number due to the use of the voucher. Or so I thought. And yes, the money was there and available before you think to query that.

 

The following day (29th), my bank account appeared to have no available balance, despite there being a substantial amount actually on balance, with more incoming the following day (30th). Assuming, incorrectly, that maybe it was just down to the fact that maybe a retailer had been a little slow submitting a payment over the Xmas period, I thought nothing more of it, other than some mild relief that I was again being paid the following day and so would be able to pay for the rest of the New Years Eve party on behalf of my disabled daughter, who is quite high profile locally (Google the name ****************)

 

The 30th arrived, the bank was checked, the balance showed the expected amount, however the available balance showed...zero, or as close to zero as makes no difference.

This carried on until I was able to get to my local HSBC branch (Gloucester) on 4th January and query matters. I managed to obtain from them a copy of what they call "Internal Transactions", which showed the following:

28th Dec £269 Auth Debenhams,

29th Dec £219 Visa Debit Debenhams

 

My first query is, why two separate transactions?

 

The result was that the two amounts were added together, thereby emptying the account and causing the items that were due out on 29th to be returned, incurring a nice total of £45 in returned item charges. I wouldn't mind too much if they were trivial things but each one was essential in its own right: rent, water authority and TV license.

 

This error, according to the bank, is down to Debenhams.

 

My second query is: what is going to be done to rectify this matter? At the end of the day, I purchased ONE tumble dryer, and for that have now been stuffed on charges through NOTHING that I have done other than to make a purchase from yourselves.

 

I have phoned Debenhams and this has resulted in being passed from one department to the next over the course of the majority of an afternoon, and aside from being met with more or less outright apathy ("not this department, dunno who deals with it") to complete pass the buck ("nothing to do with us"). As a result of this whole series of phone calls to Debenhams, I have been left with nothing but disgust for your company.

 

I expect both the charges to now be covered and, for the embaressment of having to explain to creditors why their items were returned, for the total humiliation of having to cancel a New Years Eve party for a locally high profile disabled child at the last moment, compensation in the region of a MINIMUM of 25% of the total retail value of the product in question at the time of purchase, and a written apology from no less that an area manager for the appalling way that this has to date been dealt with.

 

Failure to respond positively within 7 calendar days will see this complaint escalated to the office of the CEO, the Office of Fair Trading. BBC Watchdog, and any other media and / or regulatory body that I may see fit, including my Member of Parliament.

 

Yours, disgustingly annoyed