Let's Make Cap1 Uncomfortable

[naz_b]

wow i used to feel like i was the only one... capital one has left me feeling soo low, i get phone calls from them every couple of days, even after i explain them the situation two days late another person calls asking for the charges to be cleared on the account etc.. so one time i got so upset that i took it out on the caller, telling her it was her fault i couldnt pay off the charges cuz they kept on adding more charges even when i payed the amount they wanted, didnt let her talk so she shut the phone in my face... i think maybe there should be a standard letter template we could all send to the complaints office.

im going to sleep well knowing im not a victim of capital one anymore.

[Guest Battleaxe]

Looks like Crap1 and MBNA use the same tactics. please read the protection from Harassment 1997 Act and file a complaint with your local constabulary, but don't go the lower end of the Totem write to the Cheif Constable with a cc to your MP. then sit back and watch what happens.

 

Write to Crap1 with a copy of the letter to the Cheif Constable and your MP, and let them squirm. of course address yur letter the Crap1 Cheif Exec send it recorded delivery.

 

This my next move. o h don't forget to reporrt it to the OFT at the same time..

[naz_b]

hiya, thanks for the advice. im going to be sending a letter to capital 1 first telling them to stop calling me. its not only them uts barclays bank as well. they are all terrible...

thanks again

[scottishpol]

:o Teaspoon.....you could be the arrow in the CAG bow, or to put it another way, the teaspoon stirring up C1's nice hot cuppa:D

 

No wonder their staff at the call centres are so rude and unhelpful.

 

We need to devise a firm plan of action in order to confidently move forward with this suggestion/idea/complaint.

 

One thing I am sure of is that everybody involved has had enough of C1 to last a lifetime.

 

Battleaxe, what do you think the outcome would be from your proposed actions?

[Guest Battleaxe]

30 November 2006

 

Mr Gavin Theobold

Customer Advocate Office Manager

MBNA Europe Bank Limited

Chester Business Park

Chester

CH4 9FB

 

Dear Sir,

 

Account xxxxxxxxxxxx

 

In reply to your letter dated 27th November 2006; as a responsible lender you would have listened to what I said when I first contacted your office regarding the returned Direct Debit payment and when I could make payment. Your organization chose to ignore this conversation and started a concerted campaign of harassment. You have also breached the Data Protection Act by sharing my information with a third party without my consent. I have no way of knowing if my information is secure now it has been sent offshore. I have been informed this third party is paid a bonus if I make a payment under duress and constant harassment.

 

I am expected to believe you when you write stating that my telephone number has been removed from your automatic dialer. I am sorry, but your behaviour in the past does not warrant my trust that you have undertaken this action, and that you will not start harassing me in the future. You should have done this before I had to resort to the only recourse left to me and report your conduct to the relevant authorities.

 

How many times do you need to be told that a payment would made, for me to be met with a response from your operatives, that you will keep harassing me until the payment is made? This is not the action of a responsible lender. Your actions have caused distress and an apology will not remedy that. If you had been sincere you would have listened in the first place and not embarked on the course of action you did. As a result of your actions I have had spend money seeking legal advice and researching the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.

 

You are aware that I have reported your conduct to the Office of Fair Trading and the Police. This is no longer a civil matter but a criminal matter in the terms of the above mentioned Act and as such your organization can be prosecuted for breaching the Act. Please refer to http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts/1997/97040--a.htm.

 

This matter is not closed and I will be seeking redress for damages and distress.

 

I have been asked to present all my documentation regarding this matter to the Crown Prosecution Service for review.

 

I have also made representation to my Member of Parliament.

 

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

 

Phillipa Smith

 

 

 

 

Cc Cambridge Constabulary CC-xxxxxxxxxxxx

Hertfordshire Constabulary (information)

Office of Fair Trading L/Complaint/xxxxxxx

Information Commissioner’s Office (Data Protection Act)

 

 

They hate it, this is my reply to a letter of apology after I brought pressure to bear

[Guest Battleaxe]

Oh Kent got a repy from Mr Robert Udy today,sayingit is going to take a bit time to respond to his request for SAR. really???? clock ticking.

 

Filing tomorrow in Court for non compliance by MBNA. Yahoooooo....

[elizabeth1]

Battleaxe - that letter is brilliant!!! well done you!!!

[scottishpol]

You have also breached the Data Protection Act by sharing my information with a third party without my consent. I have no way of knowing if my information is secure now it has been sent offshore. I have been informed this third party is paid a bonus if I make a payment under duress and constant harassment.

 

 

Could you please tell me how this came about?

[Guest Battleaxe]

Scottishpol,

 

MBNA use a call centre in India to make outbound calls to customers. they also send details to Global Vantedge a DCA in New Delhi. If you check further regarding Data Protection this information is not supposed to go outside the European Union. I cannot quote exactly, but I read it somewhere.

 

In Mumbai a hundred or so operatives are sitting at computer screens with all our financial details in front of them.

They have all your security information, your bank acount numbers, your phone numbers, dates of birth, employment, mother's maiden name..

 

 

Surely you have read about people's information being sold by these operatives to others. I am not saying this happened in my case, but it has happened.

 

Just how secure are the details once these are sent offshore?

 

In our SAR we asked for MBNA to disclose exactly what are the security arrangements. They have not replied and how is this information transmitted offshore. We have also asked for information about disclosing our details to a third party and exactly who are the third party.

 

We do not know exactly who operate these call centres on behalf of MBNA and Capital One, yet our information is given to them.

 

Example. BT operate a call centre at Doncaster, yet BT do not employ the call centre staff, they are employed on contract from several employment agencies, paid by the employment agencies who tender for the contract to staff the Call Centre for a certain period of time. There is a turnover of staff every six weeks. If the call centre operatives do not achieve a certain number of sales, there a disciplinaries and dismissals. it does not take much to for a disgruntled operative to retaliate.

[TUTTSI]

Very interesting with what you have said regarding external third parties being aware of all our own personal user info. This is know also to my husband who had heard of this recently as well and you also ought to know that info held in UK County Court Files are also worked on by external subcontract admin and secretarial staff. This we found to be very to be very uncomfortable with that the fact your personal info is not kept securly.

I am sure we should not be hi jacking this thread but I do think you have a point and I myself are certainly interested in the India call centres.

DS

[elizabeth1]

This thread has really got me thinking now!!

 

So should these banks be using "call centres" in India etc.. - because they hold all our financial and personal details as you say - just makes me wonder whether this should be happening at all??

[Guest Battleaxe]

Just another approach to make Capital One feel uncomfortable. perhaps a query to the Information Commissioner might help.

 

The only other way is to stop doing business with institutions who use call centres outside of the UK. We moved our power and gas from PowerGen because of this. We do not use BT Yahoo broadband because of the same reason. we pay a bit more for our bradband service, but at least it is in England and we do not pay for calls regarding technical services. By not patronising these companies it is the only way can protest about our informatin going offshore. We have been victims of internet fraud and it had to be someone who had all bank details. No-one would tell us anything, but we have our suspicions. it is not nice having your bank account stripped, especialy when when we do not do internet banking and had our cards n our possession. our cards were not cloned and our identities got stolen. This is partly how we got into this mess and then it snowballed with the bank adding charges while all this was being investigated. Now you know why Iam so aggrieved.

[scottishpol]

I understand your concerns Battleaxe, recently I have been thinking about the exact same issue regarding non UK call centre security.

 

The recent tv programme highlighted the issues involved with identity theft.

 

I received a call from from a C1 "agent", they initially made out that they were from C1 but the girl had a very strong North American accent.

I started to ask a few more questions about her identity and managed to find out that she in fact was not an employee of C1, but of a call handling company in Canada that was simply contracted to C1.

Exactly who they were is still a mystery to me.

Since I refused to confirm my own details she would not tell me any more information.

This worried me!

[Guest Battleaxe]

The only way to treat these call centres is not answer any of the security questions and when they start harassing, remember, these operatives are on a bonus if they get a payment out of you, so the calls will continue, you immediatley send the letter in the Library section and for the heck of it run off a copy of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, report it to you member of parliament and to the OFT and then send the lot to the Chief Exec of Crap One.

 

Make sure you keep a log of the time they call you.

 

Protection from Harassment Act 1997

 

There are two parts of this England and Wales first part and Scotland second part

[blackrain]

I leave the thread for a few days and it explodes! Will try to sneak some time today to read all this but looks very interesting. Especially the call centres and Teaspoons entries.

[sonic007]

hi there all

 

yes another cap 1 unhappy customer refused my charges and now sending me a letter to bring my account up to date else l get a default against me

looks like its to court we go then

 

s.mann

[elizabeth1]

Sonya,

If you've already been writing to them asking for your charges back etc.. with Pre Lim letter and LBA letters etc.. and they have simply been refusing to repay you - means your account is in dispute - they shouldn't be defaulting anyone while and account is in dispute - you should tell them this (either by letter or phone and contact them to tell them so)

 

Try do some reading around the different boards here you will see how others dealt with this situation - there are threads on here where others had similar threats from Banks/credit card companies.

[Guest Battleaxe]

Don't ring them, the call will end up in India. they don't care at all. never talk to them on the phone, make them put everything in writing. they hate it. Their letters are so weasle worded bcause they have to behave. on the phone they say one thing and do another.

 

Write a letter remind then the account is in dispute, and that you have notified the OFT, (you can do this online) send it recorded delivery.

 

Then by email send the OFT a copy of your letter to Crap 1. This way you are building a case up against Crap 1 should they even try to default you.

 

Once you have commenced sending letters Prelim and LBA the account is in dispute and Crap 1 will be in doo doo if they do issue a default.

[scottishpol]

Just bringing it back to the top because since this post was conceived, I have all of a sudden stopped being incessantly called by C1.

 

Has this happened to anyone else?

 

Are C1 trolling the board?

I think so!

[elizabeth1]

Scottishpol

I just let people talk to the robot on my answer machine now - amazing how many people don't want to talk to that machine!!! :D

[TUTTSI]

Scottishpol

I just let people talk to the robot on my answer machine now - amazing how many people don't want to talk to that machine!!! :D

 

and don't you just find if you do not answer they hang up and do not leave a message

DS

[elizabeth1]

DS,

 

I agree - I could say about 95% of people never bother leaving a message!!! Not a lot of point in answering calls to people who don't listen to what you are saying is there? I just let the machine get rid of these calls now - makes me laugh everytime they hang up without leaving a message

[TUTTSI]

DS,

 

I agree - I could say about 95% of people never bother leaving a message!!! Not a lot of point in answering calls to people who don't listen to what you are saying is there? I just let the machine get rid of these calls now - makes me laugh everytime they hang up without leaving a message

 

What I do not like is when you do answer the phone there is deafly silence and you are saying hello, hello.......

then some person comes on and you know instictively what they are going to say, I always tell then that the person they want is out and that takes care of that or I leave it to go on the answer machine and as you say they never leave a message. So it could not been very important.

DS

[blackrain]

Right it's about time something was done. Sorry for the delay (xmas, separation, moving etc) and I have limited internet acces at mo... however....

 

It is fairly clear that there are a lot of disgruntled customers and ex-customers here on this forum and enough to at least get one of the relevant authorities to sit up and take notice.

 

So, with this in mind what does everyone think is the best place to start?

 

Suggestions of mine would be everyone who was defaulted without relevant notice writes a letter at same time. Would that be to the OFT?

 

My main gripes are:

Defaulted without a proper notice

Account handed to Debitas and CapQuest while in dispute/subject to court claim

 

I do have a whole lot of other gripes (phoning after telling them not to, not replying to correspondence, general incompetence and lying about 'promises' I made to pay but I'm not sure how much I could make of all that).

 

Everyone put sensible suggestions and if anyone has a template letter we could all use that would be great (I'm no great letter writer - although getting a lot of practice).

 

[karens25]

i hate cap 1, havent been able to file my claim due to lack of funds, although i have sent the lba and they have just passed my file to a dca, legal and trade,even though the account is obviously in dispute! they are threatening me with getting a charging order against my house!! its probably going to turn out that cap 1 owe me money once ive added the interest and court fee!!

lets get this show on the road!!