Getting a deposit made as part of an unsuccessful credit application refunded

[PaulS43]

Hello everyone,

 

If I've put this in the wrong place, please can one of the mods move it to the right place and accept my apologies....

 

Back in July, Mrs S43 invited a double glazing rep around to the house in order to have the remaining few windows we still have single glazed replaced with double glazing - we had used the same company twice before, first for the upstairs, then the patio door and rear lower windows and this time we wanted a couple of lower fronts and the 2 external doors (front & side).

 

At points in the past, she had been offered and used a Barclays 'home improvements' loan to finance the windows. Mrs S43 has had the agreements singularly as I have a less than perfect credit score (though I have matched her Direct Debit payments with Standing Order ones of my own to bring the balance down quickly and save on interest costs).

 

So this time, the rep turns up, measures up, gives Mrs S43 a price - she and I confer & agree - then she signs up.... As before, with Barclays filling in the paperwork for a home improvement loan. They wanted £60 as a deposit with the balance (around £2 grand) to be financed on Barclays. These figures were written in to the "consumer credit agreement" she signed. I paid the £60 with a credit card on the phone to the window company's offices - and everything seemed just like before.

 

We were told by the rep that if *WE* were to cancel after the surveyor come out, we would lose our deposit - we were happy with this because we wanted (and still actually want) the windows....

 

About a week later, sure enough, the surveyor came out to accurately measure the windows and confirm the deal - he gave us an installation date of 10 August so that was that - or so we thought.

 

3 days after the surveyor had been here, Mrs S43 got a letter from the window company to say that she had failed Barclays credit scoring and did we have any other way of paying? To the point, we don't have £2 grand stuffed down the back of the sofa - because @ 29.9% APR, if we'd had the money in the first place, we'd have not put in for a loan !!!!!!! But that's neither here nor there - without finance from somewhere, we do not have the means to proceed.

 

Clearly - if we'd known before the surveyor came that we couldn't proceed (ie if they'd told us we'd "failed finance"), we would not have had the surveyor come out in the first place !!!!

 

On discussion with me (Mrs S43 being at work), the window company were all lovey-dovey asking "Do I have alternate ways of paying?" But on my explanation that we don't so can't proceed (ie to have to cancel because of lack of funding), I got the "data protection" crap about can't talk to me without the customer present (strange how they could when they didn't know that I may or may not have been able to pay alternatively!!).

 

But on Mrs S43 being here, we've been told that we can't have our money (MY money) back because we cancelled after the surveyor had come out!!!

 

Clearly not having recently escaped from the asylum, had we known that Mrs S43 would not get credit for the windows, we would not have ordered them / solicited credit to acquire them / had a surveyor come to see us !!!!!

 

It is my view that the window company should have waited to see whether Barclays would advance the money before sending the surveyor anyway but in any case, I paid then £60 as part of a credit agreement for said windows - as I understand it, the law says somewhere that we must be given our money back if we don't get the credit but can someone tell me what part of the law to quote and to whom we should complain in writing? The window company, Barclays and if we can not get the deposit paid back from either of these entities to whom do we escalate matters, the OFT, Trading Standards or even the courts through trying to get a CCJ and if so against which organisation (Barclays or the window company)?

 

I will state that having been fobbed off with crap from the window company, I wrote to my credit card company (Captial One) to explain what happened (with supporting documentation) and they have written back to say that they won't give me the £60 back as the credit agreement isn't their responsibility but that of Barclays / the window company.

 

Any tips, pointers and suggestions would be helpful.

 

I repeat - ideally we'd like the windows but we can't get the finance to pay for them. Had we known that we would fail finance, we would not have allowed the surveyor to attend (and I entirely accept that had it been that he'd been and Barclays were happy to extend the money to do the job then we ought to forfeit the deposit - but this was not the case).

Edited September 27, 2012 by PaulS43
Change a mis-spely "if" (I'd written "of" - the i is now in blue)