Hotpoint / Indesit / Domestic & General Protection Plan

[lisajh29]

Ive had a hotpoint cooker for years and in Nov 12 it broke down. I couldnt afford a new cooker so close to Xmas so called Hotpoint to book an engineer to come and fix it. I was on the phone for ages, it appeared to be an offshore call centre, very noisy and the man I spoke to - his English wasn't great. He spent most of the call trying to sell me limescale preventer for my washing machine! He even put me on hold without any notice for over 2 mins and said he was speaking to his manager to give me a very special deal on it! At which point I got a bit short with him and told him that I just wanted my cooker to be fixed and nothing else. Anyway, he said it would be £135 and this would come out in 3 x dd payments starting Jan. Great I thought as I wouldnt be hit with a large bill just before Xmas. So I gave him my account number and sort code to set up the DD. Anyway the engineer came, it took a couple of visits to order parts and fix it but it got done and I had a working cooker in time for Xmas.

The Jan came and went. Start of Feb, I was checking through my online banking when I noticed they hadn't taken any payment yet. Literally the next day I get a letter from D&G about my warranty on my cooker being auto renewed in March. I was confused as I didnt realise I had taken out a warranty, thought I was paying for a repair. So I called D&G on the number given. I was waiting ages (over 16 mins) but was so relieved when the lady on the phone spoke English. However, she was really rude! i explained that I didnt understand the warranty as I didnt know I had one and she didnt explain it very well and got quite arsey with me. Then when I told her no payments had been taken she said that i had given them the wrong bank information (which I know I didnt) and very sarcastically " that worked out well for me for Xmas". She told me just to leave it if no letter had been sent to chase for payment. I told her I didnt want to do that and I would rather pay for it straight away. So she took my debit card details - strangely though this time she said the payment was £125.88. She confirmed at the end of the call that payment had been taken and my following years plan had been cancelled. Great, thats is what i wanted. That was on 12 Feb. Yesterday, I got a letter from Indesit saying I have not paid, it has been referred to their Admin company (ARC) and if I don't pay within 7 days, I will incur a £30 admin charge!! I checked my bank account and the money has not been taken! Im livid! I plan to call the admin company tomorrow to arrange payment (again!) but what can I do about Hotpoint letting it get to this? Not to mention my time and cost wasted on the premium rate lines.

 

Thanks

[i hate bailiffs]

Stop using the phone costs lots gets no where

 

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