Fearnley vs Abbey

[Sp00ky]

Well, im new here and i am SOOOOOOOOOOO looking forward to getting one back on shAbbey. I have had MANY problems with them over the years, from their mortgage, insurance services to banking.

 

The best they have done on me is cancel the WRONG direct debit which ended up with me being declared bankrupt! it cost them £3500 to have it annulled and when my solicitor then approached them for compensation and an OOC settlement, they declined saying i should take them to court. This was obviously going to be their action knowing that i wouldnt be able to lay my hands on the 2k needed to begin proceedings.

 

Anywho, my DPA letter is sat here ready to go to Antony Turbitt at Bradford, along with a cheque for £10 made payable to Abbey National PLC.

 

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO looking forward to this, its been a LONG time coming.

[Sp00ky]

I have a quick question to add to this as well. Just looking at some of my 2001 statements, i note that at that time, Abbey were charging £3 for all counter transactions on my account type. Anyone know or tried to claim these back as well?

 

Thanks

 

Sp00ks

[Lula]

Hi Spooky,. What were these counter transactions? is it a business account?

[Sp00ky]

Hi Spooky,. What were these counter transactions? is it a business account?

 

 

Hiya,

 

It was when they charged people who had a plain current account £3 to go into the branch and use the counter. I think it was to try make people use the cash machines instead of taking up staffs time.

[Lula]

Well I have to say that I have never heard of this before, but having thought about it I would say that if you were using your own bank and they charged you for going into the branch for withdrawing your money, then I think that this could be classed as a penalty.

 

Any mods out there care to add anything ?

[Sp00ky]

i dont think it lasted very long. A few months maybe. tbh, i had forgotten about it myself until i look at my statements.

 

Well, my letter has gone off to Abbey in Bradford today.Ironic that i posted it and i can see their building from my office window!

[Sp00ky]

Just to check with you guys, i vaguley remember reading somewhere that it would be a good idea to chase up the letter once its sent. I sent mine to the guy in bradford, would i be best chasing it up now?

 

Cheers

 

Sp00ks

[Sp00ky]

Received a letter today from Abbey, not sure what to do with it as it seems abit of a stalling tactics letter to me. It reads...

 

Dear Mr Fearnley,

 

Thank you for your letter dated 4th November 2006 which we received on 6th December 2006, requesting information on your bank account. I also acknowledge receipt of your £10 fee.

 

I confirm that arrangements have been made for the information you have requested to be sent to you. The transactional information remaining on our systems, normally covering the last fourteen months, will be sent out in the form of individual duplicate statements. You should receive these within five to seven working days of the date of this letter.

 

Any previous transactions have been archived onto micorfiche and it is not possible to provide you with a computer pring out of this information. However, we have made arrangments to send you a list of archived transactions between 2000 and 2005, under seperate cover.

 

You have also asked for details of any 'manial interventions' that my ahve been made on your account and i am sorry that we are unable to help with this request.

 

I can explain that we consider 'manual intervention' to mean an action that is not automatic or conupter-driven. Not all manual interventions are recorded, for example if a member od staff looks at a paper document relating to your account, a record is not always required. Similarly some interventions may relate to work carried out by a departmenr rather than indiviudals where no central record of activity is ketp because this is not the kind of information we need, or more importantly, that a customer would usually request.

 

If you have any questions please call us on the above number.

 

Yours Sincerely

 

Pam Speed

Business Manager

Banking Services.

 

 

So hmmmmmm. Took over a month for them to get my letter, how strange given that i posted it in Bradford about 300 yards from their office !! I think there may have been some sarcasim there from them and i put November instead of December LOL

 

Im sure i read something on this microfiche kak on here before as well.

 

anyone any advice on what to do next?

 

Cheers

 

Sp00ks

[firefly1975]

Hi, I recieved the exact same letter from abbey on 6th december. Followed by 14 months worth of statements a day or 2 later.

Finally today (27th) i got a complete list of transactions for the remainder of the last 6 years.

 

Not exactly a quick turnaround... I dont know a lot about this but i would allow 40 days from the date they say they received your S.A.R - (Subject Access Request).

 

 

I sent my letter to the london office (triton square) and it was signed by the same person as yours... maybe the delay was due to which office you sent it to ?

[Sp00ky]

Hi, I recieved the exact same letter from abbey on 6th december. Followed by 14 months worth of statements a day or 2 later.

Finally today (27th) i got a complete list of transactions for the remainder of the last 6 years.

 

Not exactly a quick turnaround... I dont know a lot about this but i would allow 40 days from the date they say they received your S.A.R - (Subject Access Request).

 

 

I sent my letter to the london office (triton square) and it was signed by the same person as yours... maybe the delay was due to which office you sent it to ?

 

 

did they mention the microfiche to you in your letter? if so, how did your older statements arrive? looks like the signature is a VERY bad photocopy on the paper LOL. I had no doubts it was a standard letter. I knew someone that worked at the bradford office of Abbey when all this started and they hired a team of people just to bosh out standard letters all day !

 

Cheers

Sp00ks

[firefly1975]

did they mention the microfiche to you in your letter? if so, how did your older statements arrive?

Cheers

Sp00ks

 

Yeah, it was the very same letter.

 

The microfiche statements were just a list of transactions printed on plain paper. All in one bundle, not seperated into months or anything, just one long list.

[Sp00ky]

transactions or charges?

 

if they were transactions, did you have to got through them yourself and get all the charges out ?

 

Sorry to ask so many questions.

 

I can beleive they have have kept the £10 cheque !! LOL. must remember to add that on the end with the 8% interest

[firefly1975]

transactions or charges?

 

if they were transactions, did you have to got through them yourself and get all the charges out ?

 

Sorry to ask so many questions.

 

I can beleive they have have kept the £10 cheque !! LOL. must remember to add that on the end with the 8% interest

 

Yes, Transactions, every blinking one... Spent hours today trawling through them all to find the charges... right pain.

[Sp00ky]

Just so i know, do i just add the 8% interest on the total amount of charges, or do i have to work it out a different way ?

 

Thanks for any help

 

Sp00ks

[orfoster]

Use the spreadsheets listed in the Banks Templates Library to calculate the interest.

[Sp00ky]

Use the spreadsheets listed in the Banks Templates Library to calculate the interest.

 

 

cheers

[Sp00ky]

Well, Finally received my statements through today, 4 days before the 40 days was up. They tried to give me the mocrofiche speil, but i just sent the microfiche letter via recorded delivery and that seemed to do the trick.

 

Im going to do all the maths now on how much they have (edit) me of

[Sp00ky]

Couple of questions guys and gals.

 

Firstly, does anyone have a breakdown of Abbeys 3 letter codes?

 

Also, can i claim back the £15.00 fees for unauthorised overdrafts that are on here

 

Cheers

 

Sp00ks

[Sp00ky]

Well, thats those totted up.

 

My claim going in is for £1212.31

 

+ £1.00 for the recorded delivery and the £10 fee they actually took from me for the statements.

 

They omiited about 10 months worth of information from the paperwork they sent me, however i did have statements for that time period so i have used those to add in any other fees

[Sp00ky]

Urgent Help Needed

 

I have received quite a strange letter from Abbey this morning. It reads: -

 

Dear Mr Fearnley,

 

Thank you for contacting us and i am osrry that you have been so unhappy that you have felt you must complian.

 

One of my team will be responsible for investigating your complaint and i have enclosed our Complaints leaflet, which explains our procedure for doing this. High quality customer service is of great importance to us at Abbey and we will do everything we can to resolve your complaint in a timely and satisfactory manner.

 

I know it is important to you that we resolve your complaint quickly, but we want to complete a thorough investigation and sometimes this can take time. If we have not contacted you before then, we will write to you in four weeks to let you know what is happening.

 

If you have employed someone to handle your complaint on your behalf, please note: employing a htird part complaint-handling firm, or a solicitor, or a financial adviser does not affect how we review your complaint. Please be aware that:

 

Abbey does not charge you to investigate your complaint

Abbey will not be liable for any costs incurred if you do decide to employ a third party to handle your complaint during this review

Abbey, in general, will only make payment directly to the account holder(s) of your complaint is upheld and redress is due.

 

Although i do not know what the outocme will be, i di hope that we will be able to find a solution that you are happy with.

 

Yours Sincerley

 

Andrew Hanson

Business Manager.

 

 

Is this just a fob off letter and shall i prepare to file in court? I sent my money reques tto them on the 12th January, by recorded delivery with a statement of interest charges.

 

any help would be welcome please

 

thanks guys and gals

[Sp00ky]

Please guys, can anyone help with this please? I need to know if i need to be looking at issuing court action or not.

 

Thanks

[Armsoft]

Please guys, can anyone help with this please? I need to know if i need to be looking at issuing court action or not.

 

Thanks

 

Hi SpOOky

The letter is just one of their standard blah, blah, blah letters they send out in the hope that you`ll just sit around waiting for them to investigate your complaint.

You`ll need to wait till Hell Freeze`s Over to get a positive response from them.

The only language they understand is Court Action, and untill you venture into the probable unknown world of the court system, they won`t start listening to you.

If you`ve already sent your initial letter and calculations asking for your money back, you need to leave it 14 days from the day they would have received your letter before sending them your LBA, and you then give them a further 14 days to ignore you, before filing in court (or online at MCOL), once you`ve done this the fun really begins:D

 

Stick with it, you`ll get your money back in the end.

[Sp00ky]

Hi Armsoft,

 

thanks for that. I intend on taking them all the way. Aint no way im giving up on this one. Whats the LBA letter? I already have my N1 Claim Form filled in and ready to print out and file... oh yes.... im not walking away from this LOL.

 

I sent the request letter for my money back on the 12th January recorded delivery. Thats why they have sent this recent letter through. So they would have had until the 27th to reply. Do i still have to wait until that date, given they have replied with the fob off letter?

 

 

 

Thanks for replying my friend.

 

Sp00ks

[Sp00ky]

ahhh its ok. I found the LBA

[Armsoft]

Hi Armsoft,

 

thanks for that. I intend on taking them all the way. Aint no way im giving up on this one. Whats the LBA letter? I already have my N1 Claim Form filled in and ready to print out and file... oh yes.... im not walking away from this LOL.

 

I sent the request letter for my money back on the 12th January recorded delivery. Thats why they have sent this recent letter through. So they would have had until the 27th to reply. Do i still have to wait until that date, given they have replied with the fob off letter?

 

 

 

Thanks for replying my friend.

 

Sp00ks

 

SpOOks

The LBA is a `Letter Before Action`

You should give them 2 x 14 day periods in which to give you your money back (or agree to give you it back)

 

The 1st 14 days is covered by your first letter asking them nicely to refund your charges (found in the Templates Library)

 

The 2nd 14 days is covered by the LBA, this letter tells the bank that you want your money back and if they are not prepared to give it back then you will start court action (found in the Templates Library)

 

It is important to give them the two periods, as if it ever got to court you need to be able to show that you have been fair, and gave them sufficiant time to reflect on your request and make a sound decision is; you havn`t tried to rush them into a decision.

It may sound a bit `softly softly`, but it`s what the court would expect to see.

 

As they have written back as a result of your 1st request, you can now send the LBA, then wait 14 days from when they receive it before filing in court or online at MCOL.

Good Luck:)