Strange Response From Abbey To Request

[dave]

It might be worth sending an amended version of this - amended to state that you believe that the (part/full) amount that they are claiming for is unlawful due to being made up of unlawful charges. Due to their stalling tacticts, you do not want information regarding the account passed on to ANYONE. This letter makes it clear (at least to their legal team).

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=5078

[NickR]

Well, it's now ben about 130 days since I first asked for my statements. Since then I have sent them 2 more duplicate requests by recorded delivery.

I have spoken to the complaints department on many occassions and been told that they have a backlog and it will be dealt with as a matter of urgency. I have also received 2 letters from the complaints department claiming that my original request never arrived and the 2nd request has gone missing!!!:-? :-? they would look into my complaint within 8 weeks.!!!!!

They have now aknowledged my request and said the usual microfiche argument blah blah blah... we will send you the statements when we can.

Still only 12 months worth of statements have arrived :shock:

I have justy spoken to the complaints dept again who assures me that I will get the statements within 10 days. I have taken the persons name and extension number and been told to call her if there is any problem after 10 days.

Although I now think there is a chance I will get the statements. I'm keen to proceed without the remaining 5 years as I think 130 days is a complete joke.

I have also received a letter from a debt colllection agency working for Scabbey demanding my £2,000 overdraft be paid back however I think they may leave me for a while as I wrote to them explaining that I disputed the amount owed and until Abbey supplied the correct statements allowing me to dispute the amount they will simply have to whistle for their money.

 

 

Please can you advise what to do next incase I need to proceed without the 5 previous years statements ?? Can I estimate based on last 12 months.

 

Any idea how long things take from here??

I'm getting greyer by the day and the feeling of pushing water up hill is begining to wear me down a bit. However I shall not despair as I want to teach them that they can not delay the inevitable and just hope that people wil get fed up and give up the fight.

[funkyparott]

Why are you messing around and accepting their stalling tactics. They must love you.

 

Don't bother with the complaints department. Write to the head office recorded delivery a letter before action.

 

As soon as your deadline is up immediately file a summons through the County Court for the estimated amount you are owed and for the breach of the DPA.

 

No more complaints department nonsense.

 

If you don't they will keep on J****** you off and laughing at you.

 

FP

[NickR]

Well I've finally received 6 years worth of statements

 

I'm adding up how much they owe me (It's gonna be about £4,000).

 

 

Please can someone advise me who at Abbey I should send the preliminary approach letter to, as I seem to have spent too much time talking to and sending letters to various people at Abbey and I want to make the next part as quick and painless as possible.

 

Thanks for your help and I'll keep you all posted.

[:Boy:]

I am still waiting for my statements, my first request was on the 20th June 2006. I have not had any letter about Microfiche though.

 

I have filed at County Court as they had not supplied the statements and Abbeys Soliciters have acknowledged the claim and intend to defend. This will be interesting!

 

I am also going to send my Pre-lim today for £2600.00, not the correct amount of money, but how am I to know if they won't send me my statements?

 

If I am wrong (and I recieve the statements to confirm this) I will change the amount. Otherwise, I would like to see them in Court defending this amount, the minute they produce the statements in court shows that they have commited an offence by not supplying them too me!

 

Best regards

[Glenn UK]

I am also going to send my Pre-lim today for £2600.00, not the correct amount of money, but how am I to know if they won't send me my statements?

 

Its ok to estimate use your statements to get an idea of what the charges were likely yo be and make it clear in any letters that you have estimated due to not having the statements

 

the minute they produce the statements in court shows that they have commited an offence by not supplying them too me!

 

Best regards

 

FWIW this is not necessarily true, they have to send you data from relevant filing systems as defined within the DPA. They have been arguing that thier archive systems are not relevant.

 

As much as i believe their storage systems generally fall within the scope of being a relevant filing system, I would be cautious of jumping on them in court if they do prouce statements.

 

The court will decide if its from a relevant fling system and whether they have or have not complied with the DPA.

 

If they are defending you need to do a lot of research into the arguments about what is or is not a relevant filing system so you can put across a good argument as to why it is from a relevant filing system.

 

HTH

 

Glenn

[:Boy:]

Thanks for that, I have calculated a charge for every month that I had the bank account, I think that is fair, as I know I was having charges left right and centre, it used to eat up my wages!

 

In terms of going to Court, unless I will be the exception, I can not see them turning up, for under £5000 at County Court, they do not get anything back. I have had 2 Halifax accounts go this far and they have settled as well as Capital One (I'm not getting confident or cocky) but Abbey may use the Microfiche 'Relevant filing system' etc, but in all the correspondance that I have recieved they have not mentioned 'Microfich', 'Archives' or anything like that.

 

They have commited an offence by not supplying the data that was requested, I am still waiting for the statements; I would rather have the statements so I can calculate the correct amount of charges and Interet that they have levied on me.

 

Buts lets wait and see:)

[Glenn UK]

Good for you,

 

but you must do the research if you havent already because you dont know if they have or have not committed an offence because you dont know for certain whether they hold your data on a relevant filing system.

 

It doesnt matter what you or i think about their system, its entirely possible that the ICO will rule their system is not relevant when they visit abbey on the 6th. where wil that put you?

 

its a small but important point and the very fact they have entered a defence to your claim suggests you should do the research and be prepared.

 

You wont have time to read and digest and prepare your case it you wait till they drop their case, if they indeed do.

 

They have commited an offence by not supplying the data that was requested, I am still waiting for the statements; I would rather have the statements so I can calculate the correct amount of charges and Interet that they have levied on me.

 

Buts lets wait and see:)

 

FWIW I dont believe that the ICO ruling is bininding in law either way, its for a court to ul;timately decide what is relevant or not, but a ruling by the ICO would be a stick with which to beat the opposition with.

 

Depending on which way it goes will depend on who's holding the stick, you or the Abbey!

 

JMHO

 

Glenn

[:Boy:]

You are absolutely right, I never thought of it like that.

 

I think the best outcome would be for me to get my statements! I think in terms of the 'Relevant filing system' I could always play the fool. Common sense would dictate that a hugh multi million pound company not keeping good records of data is ridiculous, its a silly statement to make and would not do the company any favours, especially if the press got hold of this; it makes you then wonder how much of your personal data is at risk, if you were a business person would you do bussiness ot pay someone to do vital work for you and then they admit in court that their data does not fall under a 'Relevant filing system'? My 5 year old daughter can create a file in her folder and make things into a simple order!

[NickR]

Please can either of you tell me which department or person I should send my preliminary approach letter to at Abbey.

 

Thanks

 

Nick

[:Boy:]

I have sent mine today to:

 

Marc Winder

Head of Complaints

Abbey PLC

PO Box 5129

Milton Keynes

MK9 2YN

 

Good luck!

[Glenn UK]

Nick

 

i sent mine to the prescott st office, it doesnt matter and deliver it to whatever of their addresses you want.

 

Take it to the local branch if you wish.

 

whatever way you go make sure you have either proof of positng of proof of delivery both is best.

 

im not sure they have an office called 'giving people money back when wev'e taken it unlawfully office' but it would simplify things no end wouldnt it?

 

JMHO

 

Glenn

[NickR]

I have been working my way through the process and have just been informed that the Abbey wish to defend in full the claim I have made. I now have to pay another £100 on top of the £120 I have already paid for the case to be moved to my local court (Epsom).

 

I will continue, however I'm starting to get concerned that I will be asked to attend court and argue my case. It appears that a large amount of cased have been settled in part or in full by this stage and often in less time than my own. Is it usual for cases to continue until this stage as I have not received even a part offer.

 

Although I am unhappy that I have paid nearly £4000 in charges over the past 5 years I am not particuarly knowledgable when it comes to law and I don't think I would be very good in court. The bank have filed a defence that looks very much like a standard responce.

 

Has anyone actually gone to court and lost???

 

Is my case typical?? I have followed advice on the site up until now

 

 

Thanks

 

Nick

[alanfromderby]

The £100 fee is payable at the Allocation Questionnaire stage even if you filed your claim with an N1. Abbey seem to have adopted a policy of allowing claims to get to that stage, knowing that people may back out when they realise they have to pay a further fee.

 

Whilst it is always possible that eventually a case will go to court, I can confirm that my case, along with many others, were settled shortly after the AQ was filed.

[:Boy:]

I have recieved my statements from Abbey.

 

They are photocopied on to A4 pages. They only include:

 

Date, subject (i.e. ATM cash) 3 letter code and the running total (i.e. -147.15)

 

I am very wary, becuse the dates are not in order, it is as if someone has cut and pasted the dates together. It would go something like this:

 

01/09/00 Int Debit IDB 0.00

04/09/00 000000205602140 DDB -19.50

05/09/00 081257456 DDB -161.63

04/09/00 ATM cash ATC -10.00

05/09/00 01285754 DDR 161.65

 

It is like this through the 4 years of statements, I am not being suspicious or anything, but when I kept phoning to find out where the statements were, I kept on being told that the Legal team are going through them, and when they have finished with them I will get them.

 

What I found surprising though, was that the charges only amounted to £548.00, yet I know full well I was paying about 2 charges a month, as we were living on the breadline and the charges used to keep coming and coming.

 

I can scan what the statements looked like, if anyone is interested.

 

Best regards

[lostinparadise]

Hi D5T

 

I received the same kind of information in the format you describe.

 

I had already instigated a claim against them for Data Protection Act Non compliance through the court.

 

I mentioned on my allocation questionnaire that i was not happy with that part of the info and the solicitors at the time wrote back and said that shABBEY couldnt provide it as the info was corrupt and thats why they had "transcibed it". I had CC'd shABBEY on the letter and shortly after the information was sent to me in the same format as the rest of the statements.

 

Im not sure why they do this but id write to them stating you have a claim with the courts (if you have) and that you do not want transcibed information but copies of the orignal microfiche/statements.

 

Dont know if that helps but thats what i did!!!

 

LIP:grin:

[NickR]

I have just handed in my Allocation Questionnaire to Epsom Court together with my £100 fee 07/11/06. I was told that I had until 14/11/06 to do so.

Can anyone tell me what happens now??

Is there a time limit that Abbey have to work with as I hope my claim is settled by Christmas. The claim is just under £4,000 and they intent to defend. I have not had so much as a part offer at this stage.

Thanks for your help

Nick

[NickR]

The deadline for submitting my AQ has passed. 14/11/06.

 

The court have not heard from Abbey. What Now????

 

The court tell me that The Abbey have an extension for another 14 days!!!

 

 

What happens if they do not contact the court within the next 14 days (10 day left) ?????

 

 

Please can someone advise me what may happen as I'm concerned that things may continue like this for ever!!!!

 

I'm sure that if I had missed the deadline the case would have been closed. It seems very unfair that because the bank can't be bothered to meet court deadlines they should be given more time.

 

Thanks for any advice, I hope I'm getting towards the end of this process.

 

 

Nick :-?

[alanfromderby]

The court will have sent an order to Abbey stating that they must file their AQ within 14 days or their defence will be struck out - you should get a copy of this order in the next couple of days.

 

If they default on that then you can apply for judgement.

[NickR]

After waiting for an age the district judge has decided that the case is now to be heard on 03/03/07 and has been allocated 1 hour.

 

I have been asked to provide all the documents that I intend to use during the hearing and provide copies to the Abbey and the court.

 

I am glad that it seems to be coming to an end but I have some real worries!!

 

 

I thought that no cases have been lost by a claiment, am I right??

 

Please can someone advise me what I should do next and what information I should prepare. I was really hoping that It would be resolved without the need to attend court.

 

I will of course donate some of my money to the site if all goes well.

 

Thanks for any advice. :idea:

[NickR]

I apologise for asking all the questions without reading the information that is already available.

 

I simply started to panic.

 

I have just seen READ THIS NOW if you have received a court date and it contains most of the information that I need.

 

I shall start preparing the bundles.

 

Is it worth contacting The Abbey at this stage to inform them that I intend to proceed. With the hope of receiving an offer or could this approach jeopardise the hearing or the outcome in anyway?

 

 

Thanks

 

Nick :-|

[NickR]

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