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    • I forgot to say, there is one last possibility and that is that they will receive your letter of rejection and simply fold, accept the rejection and refund you. Don't wait too long for this. Seven days maximum – but in that seven days you could send your letter of claim anyway and when that you don't hear from them or when they start mucking around at least you are seven days closer to beginning the legal action – and they will know it (which is the important thing).
    • Okay that is excellent that you have an email between the garage and the warranty company confirming that there is a serious problem with the gearbox. That is very powerful evidence. I think the situation is this: you have sent them a letter of rejection but the reputation of big motoring world is that they won't take a lot of notice and they will try to prevaricate and maybe even blame you. Clearly you don't want the car any more and anyway it sounds as if the cost of repairs is going to be enormous. You don't know if the warranty company is going to step up to the mark but the whole thing is going to take a long time and I understand that you have lost confidence in big motoring world because of this event and also their reputation which you are now discovering on Facebook and on this forum and no doubt elsewhere. On the basis that you don't want the car any more and you want your money back, you need to hurry things along. I think the first thing is that you need to decide if you are prepared to bring a claim in the County Court. Even without the warranty money, the claim is worth more than £10,000. For actions less than £10,000, you bring a "small claim" and this means that even if you lose the case you won't be liable for the other side's costs. If you win the case then not only will you get your money plus interest but also you will recover all of the costs of the action. For actions more than £10,000, you go to something called the "fast track" and in the event that you lose the case, then you could be liable to reimburse the winner some of the costs. This means that in addition to not recovering your own money, you would lose your own court fees and also you would have to to bear the costs of the other side probably something less than £5000 – but as a rough guess. If you bring your court claim then your chances of success are almost 100%. Frankly if you brought a court claim then I can imagine that big motoring world will put their hands up and pay you out rather than face go to court and losing and getting a judgement against them. However, it you need to consider that this is a risk factor – although my view it is a negligible risk factor. If you did bring a court case, it wouldn't be instant. If they put their hands up then it would probably happen very quickly. If they didn't put their hands up then you could take anything up to a year for the matter to be resolved and during that time you would be without your car and without your money and in the middle of litigation. I'm explaining this to you say that you understand how it works. Bring a court case would be really the last resort when everything else has failed. However, I'm quite certain that you would win and it would be stupid of big motoring world to try to resist. In order to bring a court case you would have to send a letter of claim giving them 14 days to accept rejection and organise the refund otherwise you would begin the claim. Don't imagine that you could bluff this. If you did send a letter of claim then you would have to go through with it otherwise you lose all credibility and you might as well pack up and go home. So with this in mind, here are possible courses of action you could take. You can simply wait and see what their reaction to your letter of rejection will be. However they may not reply or else they may find some other reason to delay and of course during that time you will be without your car and without your money blah blah blah, not knowing if big motoring world were going eventually to start acting sensibly and respectfully towards you. The second thing you can do – and I think this has been suggested on Facebook – is that you can go along there and simply make yourself present and talk to other customers and generally speaking make a nuisance of yourself and embarrass them to the point where you would be explaining to other potential customers to be careful, to look on Facebook, and to do some careful research before they put their business to big motoring world. This has a reasonable chance of success although you would have to be careful. You should go accompanied by a friend and there should be no anger, no arguments, nothing that could be considered as being overly aggressive so that big motoring world would have no justification in kicking you out or even worse, calling the police. If you did this, then I would suggest that you record everything on the telephone carried in a pocket. A fully charged battery will probably keep a voice recorder and a telephone going for more than 20 hours or 30 hours. The other person can video any incidents so that everything is clear and you can inform big motoring world then it will be going up on the Internet. If you did this, my favourite option would be to issue the letter of claim giving them 14 days, and then going along to big motoring world with a copy of your letter of rejection and a copy of the exchange between the mechanic and the warranty company and a copy of your letter of claim – all settled together – and probably about 20 or 30 copies in all and I would start handing them out to any customers who came in. Big motoring world will soon get the picture and they will either move your the premises in which case you stand outside and carry on doing it or they will finally give in. Of course there is a chance that they won't give in and they will simply call your bluff – but in that case I think you have no choice other than to follow through with your 14 day threat in the letter of claim and to begin the legal action. At the same time you should be putting up reviews on Google and also trust pilot explaining exactly what has happened and also explaining that the mechanic has confirmed to the warranty company that there is the serious problem, that you have asserted the right to reject and that this is been ignored by big motoring world and that you have now sent a letter of claim and that you will be starting a legal action in 14 days. Once again, don't bluff about the legal action. If you threaten it – then you must mean it – and on day 15 you click of the claim. You don't need a solicitor for any of this. It's all fairly straightforward and of course we will help you all the way that it the decision is yours to make and I think you need to make it fairly quickly. I think the cost of starting an action for about £13,000 is 5% and then also if it goes to trial which I would say is almost impossible – there would be an additional fee. You would claim interest at 8%. A judge might award a lower figure but frankly if you can show that big motoring world is attempting to ride roughshod over your very clear statutory consumer rights, I can imagine that the judge will want to show displeasure by awarding the full 8% which is a pretty good rate – even though it's not compensation for the hassle and the distress you are going through. If you decide to get solicitor, then if you win the case, because it is over £10,000 you will recover some of your costs but you won't recover all of them. If the solicitor begins by having exchanges of letters then I doubt whether you will be up to recover the cost of those and you could easily find that you're chalking up 500 quid or even a thousand simply on initial exchanges of correspondence. Also you need to bear in mind that if after having exchanges with a solicitor, big motoring world cave in – then you definitely won't get those costs back because you won't have gone to court and therefore a judge will not have made the order for payment of those costs. I suggest very strongly that you avoid paying any money for a solicitor and that you do it yourself. It's not a big deal – although you will have to you react quickly to the help we offer on this forum. Also, an additional benefit is that you will learn a lot and you will gain confidence and eventually you will feel good about suing anybody else who gets in your way. Nothing not to like! If you do decide to instruct a solicitor then you must take control of the solicitor. Most of them prefer to sit in an office writing letters on the clock. If you do decide to instruct a solicitor then you must instruct the solicitor very firmly that they should send one letter of complaint giving seven days. A second letter – a letter of claim giving 14 days and that they must then begin the action. If you don't do this. If you don't take control then it will simply cost you money, you will be without your car even longer and of course without your money. The whole thing is a nightmare. I think I've laid out the options but please do ask questions. I hope you can see that this is the kind of advice that you won't be getting on Facebook. Nothing against Facebook. It's good as a meeting place and to make people realise that they aren't on their own – but after that the advice given is weak and confusing.  
    • What makes you say that?  I have no idea how I would go about that or why they would even entertain discussions now that they've won the Court case
    • Our main Equity Partner, Cabot Square Capital invests 
    • Yes it’s the garage and warranty company. And then my husband forwarded me the email. 
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    • Hello,

      On 15/1/24 booked appointment with Big Motoring World (BMW) to view a mini on 17/1/24 at 8pm at their Enfield dealership.  

      Car was dirty and test drive was two circuits of roundabout on entry to the showroom.  Was p/x my car and rushed by sales exec and a manager into buying the mini and a 3yr warranty that night, sale all wrapped up by 10pm.  They strongly advised me taking warranty out on car that age (2017) and confirmed it was honoured at over 500 UK registered garages.

      The next day, 18/1/24 noticed amber engine warning light on dashboard , immediately phoned BMW aftercare team to ask for it to be investigated asap at nearest garage to me. After 15 mins on hold was told only their 5 service centres across the UK can deal with car issues with earliest date for inspection in March ! Said I’m not happy with that given what sales team advised or driving car. Told an amber warning light only advisory so to drive with caution and call back when light goes red.

      I’m not happy to do this, drive the car or with the after care experience (a sign of further stresses to come) so want a refund and to return the car asap.

      Please can you advise what I need to do today to get this done. 
       

      Many thanks 
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    • Housing Association property flooding. https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/topic/438641-housing-association-property-flooding/&do=findComment&comment=5124299
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    • We have finally managed to obtain the transcript of this case.

      The judge's reasoning is very useful and will certainly be helpful in any other cases relating to third-party rights where the customer has contracted with the courier company by using a broker.
      This is generally speaking the problem with using PackLink who are domiciled in Spain and very conveniently out of reach of the British justice system.

      Frankly I don't think that is any accident.

      One of the points that the judge made was that the customers contract with the broker specifically refers to the courier – and it is clear that the courier knows that they are acting for a third party. There is no need to name the third party. They just have to be recognisably part of a class of person – such as a sender or a recipient of the parcel.

      Please note that a recent case against UPS failed on exactly the same issue with the judge held that the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 did not apply.

      We will be getting that transcript very soon. We will look at it and we will understand how the judge made such catastrophic mistakes. It was a very poor judgement.
      We will be recommending that people do include this adverse judgement in their bundle so that when they go to county court the judge will see both sides and see the arguments against this adverse judgement.
      Also, we will be to demonstrate to the judge that we are fair-minded and that we don't mind bringing everything to the attention of the judge even if it is against our own interests.
      This is good ethical practice.

      It would be very nice if the parcel delivery companies – including EVRi – practised this kind of thing as well.

       

      OT APPROVED, 365MC637, FAROOQ, EVRi, 12.07.23 (BRENT) - J v4.pdf
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Charges refunded


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Success! Just had my charges refunded for a missed direct debit (£35). My advice is to stay calm and be persistent. If you are refused just ask to speak to the next person up the line. Eventually you will get some common sense as these charges are completely indefensible. They are a penalty and do not reflect the actual cost to the banks as has been stated before.

 

If you spend a lot of time getting there ask for your time to be refunded too. I know somone who worked out how long he had spent writing letters and on the phone to sort things out and charged them pro rata his daily rate. The bank paid up. Remember it works both ways. Your time is just as valuable as the banks!

 

One other thing has anyone noticed that the Abbey call centres are now based in India and therefore it takes twice as long to sort anything out. :D

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Success! Just had my charges refunded for a missed direct debit (£35). My advice is to stay calm and be persistent. If you are refused just ask to speak to the next person up the line. Eventually you will get some common sense as these charges are completely indefensible. They are a penalty and do not reflect the actual cost to the banks as has been stated before.

 

If you spend a lot of time getting there ask for your time to be refunded too. I know somone who worked out how long he had spent writing letters and on the phone to sort things out and charged them pro rata his daily rate. The bank paid up. Remember it works both ways. Your time is just as valuable as the banks!

 

One other thing has anyone noticed that the Abbey call centres are now based in India and therefore it takes twice as long to sort anything out. :D

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Well done. Good advice.

I would just like to qualify it by saying that one should be careful not to get sucked into the Bank's own channels of complaint. This is frsstrating. It means waiting for their deadlines to expire, having to progress on to their next step in their own process.

 

It is important to express your equality with their process. Set your own reasonable deadlines. Set your own pace. Insist that responses be given in what you consider is a reasonable time - typically 2 or 3 days. Not the 5 or 8 weeks which the banks say that you must accept. If the bank says that it is not their policy to do it this way, then you explain that it is not your policy to do it any other way. If they refuse then let them know that they are merely forcing the issue into court a little more quickly than it would otherwise do.

 

As Paul1207 says, work your way up the line, but take names. Get telephone numbers. Don't accept promises to phone you back. Keep the initiative. Always say that you will call them back. Tell them at what time you will call them back. This way you are never kept waiting not knowing whether they have forgotten or they are not going to or what.

 

Charging for your time is an excellent idea. The court rate for a lay representative is currently £9.75 an hour. It is cheap at the price and tell the bank that this is your rate - alhtough I have generally asked for £50 or so as a minimum.

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Well done. Good advice.

I would just like to qualify it by saying that one should be careful not to get sucked into the Bank's own channels of complaint. This is frsstrating. It means waiting for their deadlines to expire, having to progress on to their next step in their own process.

 

It is important to express your equality with their process. Set your own reasonable deadlines. Set your own pace. Insist that responses be given in what you consider is a reasonable time - typically 2 or 3 days. Not the 5 or 8 weeks which the banks say that you must accept. If the bank says that it is not their policy to do it this way, then you explain that it is not your policy to do it any other way. If they refuse then let them know that they are merely forcing the issue into court a little more quickly than it would otherwise do.

 

As Paul1207 says, work your way up the line, but take names. Get telephone numbers. Don't accept promises to phone you back. Keep the initiative. Always say that you will call them back. Tell them at what time you will call them back. This way you are never kept waiting not knowing whether they have forgotten or they are not going to or what.

 

Charging for your time is an excellent idea. The court rate for a lay representative is currently £9.75 an hour. It is cheap at the price and tell the bank that this is your rate - alhtough I have generally asked for £50 or so as a minimum.

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I am just preparing my case against Abbey thanks for the advice, Stephen has also agreed to give me some help in this matter so I feel better prepared.

I am sorting out my Lloyds bank account today as I expect (correct me please if I am wrong) that Abbey will close my account during these proceedings?

Already this has cost many hours of my time I like your style with charging for your time, although if everything proceeds at a reasonable pace I am happy with my money from the charges back (so far I've worked it out to be £388 and that is with an 18 month gap in my statements which I shredded in shame at the time.)

 

Cheers again for posting your story.

 

Lee.

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I am just preparing my case against Abbey thanks for the advice, Stephen has also agreed to give me some help in this matter so I feel better prepared.

I am sorting out my Lloyds bank account today as I expect (correct me please if I am wrong) that Abbey will close my account during these proceedings?

Already this has cost many hours of my time I like your style with charging for your time, although if everything proceeds at a reasonable pace I am happy with my money from the charges back (so far I've worked it out to be £388 and that is with an 18 month gap in my statements which I shredded in shame at the time.)

 

Cheers again for posting your story.

 

Lee.

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Don't forget to get the interest they charges you as well

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Don't forget to get the interest they charges you as well

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In the letter I lifted from this site it says about 8% so it would be £388, plus whatever was charged in the missing months, plus the 8% quoted. I don't know exactly how much was charged in those months but it was a significant amount if I remember that period correctly. :(

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In the letter I lifted from this site it says about 8% so it would be £388, plus whatever was charged in the missing months, plus the 8% quoted. I don't know exactly how much was charged in those months but it was a significant amount if I remember that period correctly. :(

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I need to have a look at that letter - but anyway, you want to recover your charges plus any interest they charges you on those charges if they put you into overdraft. Then, if you have to go to court, you will claim 8% on top of that.

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I need to have a look at that letter - but anyway, you want to recover your charges plus any interest they charges you on those charges if they put you into overdraft. Then, if you have to go to court, you will claim 8% on top of that.

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Charging for your time is an excellent idea. The court rate for a lay representative is currently £9.75 an hour. It is cheap at the price and tell the bank that this is your rate - alhtough I have generally asked for £50 or so as a minimum.

 

Surely that's a penalty payment - expect the bank to take you to court for a refund :lol:

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Charging for your time is an excellent idea. The court rate for a lay representative is currently £9.75 an hour. It is cheap at the price and tell the bank that this is your rate - alhtough I have generally asked for £50 or so as a minimum.

 

Surely that's a penalty payment - expect the bank to take you to court for a refund :lol:

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Hi,

 

This is the letter so far. I have basically used exactly the same letter as the template which I assume most people did? If not let me know and I will draft something myself:

 

Abbey National House
2 Triton Square
Regent's Place
London
NW1 3AN

Dear Sir/Madam,

Current Account number: MY NUMBER!

I have held the above mentioned current account with your bank for over 5 years. During this time I have incurred charges for exceeding my overdraft limit due to cheques being cleared at unfortunate times, unauthorized overdraft fees, direct debits and standing orders being dishonoured (and in some cases honoured) due to insufficient funds.

It is my opinion, and that of the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), that these charges are punitive in nature, not a genuine pre-estimate of cost and not intended to re-reimburse your losses for a breach of contract occurring. Further to the 1999 Consumer Credit Regulations quoted by the OFT, there are numerous cases in law that prove that punitive charges in contracts are unenforceable at English law.

Murray v Leisureplay (2004)
Dunlop Tyre Company v New Garage and Motor Co. (1915)
Bridge v Campbell Discount Co. Ltd. (1962)

Additionally your charges are a direct breach of the Unfair Contracts Terms Act 1977 which require that contract terms be reasonable. I do not believe these charges are reasonable as outlined in the aforementioned Act.

Accordingly I request that you return to me ALL charges made on this account in the last 5 years by way of personal cheque within 7 days of receipt of this letter. If you choose not to do so, I will start proceedings for recovery in the County Courts, as I believe that legally I am entitled to this money back. By doing so, you will be liable for my court costs and for an extra 8% APR as permitted under the County Courts Act (1984).

Alternatively if you decide NOT to accept my suggestion for settlement of this issue, I wish to make a formal request under the Data Protection Act for a complete and exhaustive list of all charges made on this account over the last 5 years. As you are no doubt aware, you are afforded 40 days to comply or else request an extension from the Information Commissioner. If you are of any doubt that this information is covered by the Act, then I draw your attention to the case of Durant v FSA 2003 where the Court held that bank statement information is indeed personal information for the purposes of the DPA. In any event, this information is requested with a view to prospective legal action on my part and therefore would be covered under the same Act. 
Please treat this letter as my formal DPA request. 

Yours faithfully,



ME!.

 

Edit: Noticed the re-reimburse on the letter. Has been modified on the original.

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Hi,

 

This is the letter so far. I have basically used exactly the same letter as the template which I assume most people did? If not let me know and I will draft something myself:

 

Abbey National House
2 Triton Square
Regent's Place
London
NW1 3AN

Dear Sir/Madam,

Current Account number: MY NUMBER!

I have held the above mentioned current account with your bank for over 5 years. During this time I have incurred charges for exceeding my overdraft limit due to cheques being cleared at unfortunate times, unauthorized overdraft fees, direct debits and standing orders being dishonoured (and in some cases honoured) due to insufficient funds.

It is my opinion, and that of the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), that these charges are punitive in nature, not a genuine pre-estimate of cost and not intended to re-reimburse your losses for a breach of contract occurring. Further to the 1999 Consumer Credit Regulations quoted by the OFT, there are numerous cases in law that prove that punitive charges in contracts are unenforceable at English law.

Murray v Leisureplay (2004)
Dunlop Tyre Company v New Garage and Motor Co. (1915)
Bridge v Campbell Discount Co. Ltd. (1962)

Additionally your charges are a direct breach of the Unfair Contracts Terms Act 1977 which require that contract terms be reasonable. I do not believe these charges are reasonable as outlined in the aforementioned Act.

Accordingly I request that you return to me ALL charges made on this account in the last 5 years by way of personal cheque within 7 days of receipt of this letter. If you choose not to do so, I will start proceedings for recovery in the County Courts, as I believe that legally I am entitled to this money back. By doing so, you will be liable for my court costs and for an extra 8% APR as permitted under the County Courts Act (1984).

Alternatively if you decide NOT to accept my suggestion for settlement of this issue, I wish to make a formal request under the Data Protection Act for a complete and exhaustive list of all charges made on this account over the last 5 years. As you are no doubt aware, you are afforded 40 days to comply or else request an extension from the Information Commissioner. If you are of any doubt that this information is covered by the Act, then I draw your attention to the case of Durant v FSA 2003 where the Court held that bank statement information is indeed personal information for the purposes of the DPA. In any event, this information is requested with a view to prospective legal action on my part and therefore would be covered under the same Act. 
Please treat this letter as my formal DPA request. 

Yours faithfully,



ME!.

 

Edit: Noticed the re-reimburse on the letter. Has been modified on the original.

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Ok. I think that the letter misses out an element of reclaimable value. Sorry, it's our fault. After the figure for charges you could add a figure for interest which they have charged you - if the charges have resulted in you being charged overdraft interest. If they haven't then you can't.

 

However this makes it complicated to calculate. So, you can either calculate the overdraft interest which you have paid over the years and say

"plus £xx.xx interest at 16% (whatever the overdraft rate or higher rate is) which you have charged me on the overdraft value of the charges which I am claiming"

 

or you can simply say that if they do not pay you your charges then your claim in the county court will be for the charges plus the interest they have charged on the overdraft value of this sum plus the County Court rate of 8% on the total plus your fixed costs.

 

In other words you are using the overdraft interest as a bit of a bargaining counter.

Frankly they won't give a stuff It's all your money and I would claim it all now or in court, it's up to them whether they want to do it the easy way of the hard way.

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Ok. I think that the letter misses out an element of reclaimable value. Sorry, it's our fault. After the figure for charges you could add a figure for interest which they have charged you - if the charges have resulted in you being charged overdraft interest. If they haven't then you can't.

 

However this makes it complicated to calculate. So, you can either calculate the overdraft interest which you have paid over the years and say

"plus £xx.xx interest at 16% (whatever the overdraft rate or higher rate is) which you have charged me on the overdraft value of the charges which I am claiming"

 

or you can simply say that if they do not pay you your charges then your claim in the county court will be for the charges plus the interest they have charged on the overdraft value of this sum plus the County Court rate of 8% on the total plus your fixed costs.

 

In other words you are using the overdraft interest as a bit of a bargaining counter.

Frankly they won't give a stuff It's all your money and I would claim it all now or in court, it's up to them whether they want to do it the easy way of the hard way.

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Thanks for the quick response,

 

I unfortunately only know of £388, there is a period where I don't know what was charged so I could either put £388 plus interest etc. and call it a day or wait for my list of charges over the entire 5 year period under the DPA request.

 

The only reason I have an overdraft is thanks to this whole messy business with Abbey (and CapitalOne but one thing at a time for me I think) so there are overdraft interest costs involved.

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Thanks for the quick response,

 

I unfortunately only know of £388, there is a period where I don't know what was charged so I could either put £388 plus interest etc. and call it a day or wait for my list of charges over the entire 5 year period under the DPA request.

 

The only reason I have an overdraft is thanks to this whole messy business with Abbey (and CapitalOne but one thing at a time for me I think) so there are overdraft interest costs involved.

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Wait for the rest

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Wait for the rest

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I thought that would be best so that's why I didn't include any figures.

 

Am I right that they have 40 days to respond to a DPA request?

What are the chances honestly of them actually fulfilling my request immediately? From my understanding and reading other people's accounts it is quite slim.

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I thought that would be best so that's why I didn't include any figures.

 

Am I right that they have 40 days to respond to a DPA request?

What are the chances honestly of them actually fulfilling my request immediately? From my understanding and reading other people's accounts it is quite slim.

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Yup. 40 days

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