djweeble v Spiteful A&L

[djweeble]

OK Caro, cheers for the input,

 

All points taken on board, I was absolutely raging last night and I've calmed down a bit now.

 

I'll take a step back and redo it all as you advise, after all, it'll just give them a few more days to consider the inevitable

 

BTW, the 1977 bit was just cut and pasted from the original, with the figures modified, must sort that out

 

Thanks.

[djweeble]

Well,

 

This arrived at my home address this morning.....

 

Letter from Alliance & Leicester

 

Our Reference FU2

 

14th Nov

 

Account Number 99 999 9999

 

Dear Mr & Mrs Furious DJWeeble

 

NOTICE OF INTENTION TO PROCEED WITH DEBT RECOVERY ACTION

 

The amount outstanding on your account is £1,243.00

 

This matter is being put into the hands of our Debt Recovery Section to begin proceedings for recovery of the amount quoted, unless the overdrawing is cleared within SEVEN DAYS from the date of this letter.

 

What Happens Next

 

The proceedings could result in a County Court Judgement (or Court Decree in Scotland) being made against you. This could seriously affect your ability to obtain credit and banking facilities elsewhere. Any legal costs incurred could also be added to the amount of your debt. You will be aware from our previous letter that we will notify a credit reference bureau of the default status of your account. This may also affect your ability to obtain credit elswhere in the future.

 

What To Do

 

The situation regarding your account is extremely serious. You must now act to avoid the consequences outlined above.

 

To repay the debt, you can pay cash at any Post Office or Alliance and Leicester branch. Alternatively, you can send a cheque drawn against another account to me. Please write your account number on the back of any cheques sent.

 

Yours Sincerely

 

VJ Carrington

Customer Service Centre

 

OK, now I know they can't do anything while the account is in dispute, which it technically is due to the balance being less than the charges I am reclaiming.

 

The overdraft balance has only gone up to this amount since they closed the account, and can only be due to their charges, which I have no information on at the moment as they haven't sent me a statement and won't even give me any information over the phone.

 

Does anyone have a letter I can send them, basically telling them to sodd off and take a running jump till they comply with my request.

[djweeble]

I've drawn this up, can anyone improve on it ?

 

Otherwise it'll be in the post tomorrow morning

 

Alliance & Leicester PLC

Carlton Park

Narborough

Leicester

LE19 0AL

 

17th November 2006

 

Account Number: XX XXX XXXX Mr & Mrs Furious DJWeeble.

 

Dear Sir

 

Re: Your Reference XXXXXXX/XXXX

 

NOTICE OF ACCOUNT IN DISPUTE

 

 

I am in receipt of your letter of 14th November 2006 which I received on 15th November 2006, and I am writing to clarify that I am currently in the process of disputing all of this debt.

 

I note from your correspondence that you are proposing to commence recovery action on this account - I need to make you fully aware that I am disputing the sum owed and, as such, you must refrain from any further action until this dispute is fully resolved.

 

If you do not stop this action and attempt recovery or proceed by making any adverse comments on my credit reference files, I shall be forced to take legal action against you under the Data Protection Act 1998 without further notice.

 

In addition, I hereby WITHDRAW any and all rights I may have granted you to process my personal data at any time in the past.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

 

DJWeeble

[caro]

You could perhaps just enclose a copy of your LBA (you haven't started your court claim yet have you?) to show the action that you are taking. Otherwise it looks good to me.

[djweeble]

Thanks Caro.

 

I'm still working on the totals for my LBA, I'm taking your advice about the 5 year thing and I'm going to attempt to get the previous figure back after this lot.

 

I now have the account opening date, May 1996, and stupidly I only just realised that they still haven't sent me the details for my Flexiplan account, so I'll be chasing them up on that one as well, there's at least few more grand there.

 

I should have the 5 year total on this account today, so I'll include it in this letter and send it tomorrow morning as a combined LBA and Notice of Dispute, stand by for yet another update

[caro]

You must make sure they know the account is in dispute, or they can take action. Don't worry about other stuff, but place the account in dispute pdq if you haven't done it already.

[djweeble]

OK, advice taken.

 

My totals aren't ready yet so I've sent the above letter by recorded delivery, I'll send the LBA and the reminder about the Flexiplan tomorrow.

 

Just out of interest, I also sent it direct to their CEO Richard Pym [email protected] lets see if I get any response to that

[kingliam]

Let's hope you do get a response, as Caro advised have you made sure that they know that the account is in dispute? This is really important.

[djweeble]

Result............ ish !!

 

Mr DJWeeble

 

Thank you for your email addressed to our Group Chief Executive, Richard Pym, which has been referred for investigation and a reply will be forwarded to you as soon as possible.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Chris Edeson

 

Group Customer Relations Assistant

 

Group Chief Executive's Office

 

Alliance & Leicester plc

 

Probably just a standard fob off reply, but if everyone CC'd letters to Richard Pym, I'm sure he'd soon get a bit miffed

 

BTW, Chris Edeson's email address is

[email protected]

could be another person to bombard with CC's and BCC's.

[djweeble]

OK this is my LBA, it'll be in the post tomorrow morning, and I'll be CC'ing it by email to the CEO and that nice chappie Chris Edeson today.

 

Alliance & Leicester PLC

Carlton Park

Narborough

Leicester

LE19 0AL

 

20th November 2006

 

LETTER BEFORE ACTION

 

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

ACCOUNT NUMBER: XXXXXXXXX, Mr & Mrs Calmed down DJWeeble (Now closed)

 

I am very disappointed that you have failed to respond satisfactorily to my letter of the 23rd October 2006

 

I remind you again that I understand that the regime of 'fees' which you have been applying to my account in relation to direct debit refusals, exceeding overdraft limits and so forth are unlawful at Common Law, Statute and recent Consumer regulations.

 

I would draw your attention to the terms of the contract which you agreed to at the time that I opened my account. It is an implied term of that contract that you would conduct yourselves lawfully and in a manner which complies with UK law, and frankly I am now shocked at your refusal to refund money that I am legally entitled to.

 

By using the incomplete information you have supplied me, I have calculated that, from 1st November 2001 to 23rd October 2006, you have taken a net total of £4750.50 plus £2070.10 which you have charged me in unauthorised overdraft interest on the amounts you have taken. Total £6820.60.

 

I AGAIN request that you refund this amount in full.

 

In addition, there have been further unlawful charges applied to my account since 23rd October 2006, however, as you have retaliated to my initial request by closing my account and stopping me from accessing details on the internet, I am unable to include these in the total amount at the moment. I require that you also refund these charges IN FULL at the same time, and as a gesture of good will I will not claim interest on these extra charges unless I am subsequently forced to proceed to court action.

 

If you do not comply fully with my request within 14 calendar days from recorded receipt of this letter then I shall begin a claim against you for the full amount plus interest, plus my costs, without further notice.

 

Furthermore, I shall submit a Consumer Credit Act 1974 complaint to the OFT on the basis that you have failed to comply with the OFT's direction of 5 April 2006, and are therefore not a 'fit and proper person' to hold a consumer credit licence under the 1974 Act. If you do not understand what this means then I advise you to seek advice from your legal department.

 

Yours faithfully,

[Guest Battleaxe]

Oh goody two of us writing tomorrow, except I am sending mine to Mr Ian Wade. I think we are keeping them busy and promoting their letter writing styles in how many ways can they tell us to sod off.

 

I am waiting now until Thursday to escalate my complaint with the Information Commissioner...

 

Isn't this fun. My postman thinks I am mad, when I exclaim 'oh goody another letter from the bank'.

 

weeble go get them mate..

[djweeble]

Well it looks like writing to the CEO has an effect:D though not as nice an effect as I would have liked:lol:

 

A letter arrived at my home address today filled with all the usual "we think etc, etc", but also offering a goodwill payment to reset my account balances to ZERO. I have to fill in a form to accept it don't know for definate what's in it yet, but I think I have a good idea !

 

I'll probably be accepting this as a part settlement, as this will mean they cannot default me as I'm no longer in debt to them.

 

My mrs will be copying the letter to me by email tomorrow, so I'll post it in here then.

 

I can see a light at the end of the tunnel

[djweeble]

Well here's the letter that arrived at my home in Wales on Thursday 30th

 

Thank you for your emails, dated 17 November and 20 November 2006 respectively, addressed to Richard Pym our Group Chief Executive. I have been asked to contact you on his behalf as we are keen to resolve your concerns as quickly as possible. Please be assured he will receive and read copies of our correspondence.

 

Firstly may I say how disappointed I was to learn of your dissatisfaction with the service that you have received and that it has been necessary to contact us on more than one occasion concerning the charges raised on your account. If you would care to advise me which issues have not been dealt with, as regards your letter of 23 October, then I will investigate accordingly.

 

Turning to your comments about our charges being unlawful may I respectfully advise that Alliance & Leicester has a range of great value current account products offering market leading rates. We believe our charges are reasonable and competitive compared with the industry and are clearly shown within our literature and on our website, as well as being set out on our current account statements.

 

Whilst i am satisfied that the charges have been raised correctly, and in accordance with our Terms & Conditions, we do try to be fair and reasonable when dealing with such requests. Having looked at your account I can see you have received, to date, refunds totalling £84. I am not sure what the incomplete information is that we have provided however in view of the circumstances, and as a gesture of goodwill, I am prepared to offer a further refund of £****.** which will bring both your current and Flexiplan accounts back to a nil balance and I can then arrange to close both of them on a voluntary basis. If you are in agreement with this offer, please sign and return the enclosed copy of this letter in the prepaid envolope provided, within the next 28 days.

 

Please feel free to contact me on 0151 966 4306 if you would like to discuss any aspect of this matter further. I will keep your compliant file open for 8 weeks to give you time to consider my response; if I have not heard from you by then, I will regard your complaint as closed.

 

I look forward to hearing from you

 

Well I'll be replying along the terms of "no information on charges since they closed the accounts (I estimate £300+ ), no details at all for the period from account opening (May 1996) to May 1997, no details at all of the Flexiplan account, etc, etc........

 

Their 14 days (LBA) are up, but I'll wait a few more days after sending my reply to see what they offer, after all, I've got nothing to lose, and a few more pounds interest to gain :grin:

[djweeble]

OK, this is in the post this morning.

 

Marc Harden

Customer Relations

Alliance & Leicester PLC

Carlton Park

Narborough

Leicester

LE19 0AL

 

6th December 2006.

 

Account Number ## ### ####

 

SECOND AND FINAL LETTER BEFORE ACTION

Dear Mr Harden

 

I am in receipt of your letter dated 27th November.

 

In response to your question, the incomplete information refers to the lack of documents sent to me after I served a Subject Access Request on Alliance and Leicester on 6th May 2006.

 

I specifically asked for ALL information from the original opening of the account on 8th May 1996 until your receipt of my request. I was not supplied with any information covering the period up to 26th May 1997. I still require this information.

 

I also required full disclosure of all the transactions etc. on my Flexiplan account, again from it’s original opening, to date I have received no information at all. I still require this information.

 

When my accounts were closed by Alliance & Leicester, I was unable to access online information as to the balances and recent transactions, and to date I have not received any statements to cover this period. I require either online access to the account details or a full list of transactions on both accounts since my last statements in October 2006.

 

Once I have been supplied with the information I have requested, I will be in a position to consider your proposal to clear my balances and close the accounts. However, if this information is not forthcoming by 15th December 2006, I will immediately commence proceedings in the county court to recover all the charges based on the information I currently have in my possession. I also reserve the right to commence further proceedings in order to recover the unlisted charges.

 

I await your response.

 

Yours Sincerely

[Guest Battleaxe]

Tip. When filing in court for non compliance (£150.00 )make sure you get it into the Court before 9am so it will be filed that day and it will be served two days later.

 

If you need the wording let me know and I will give you the link to the correct thread. I can't find it at the moment. i have a tidy up on my desk

[djweeble]

I've been very busy recently and had to leave this for a little longer than I thought, and while the bank have now gone well past my deadline without even bothering to answer my last letter, I've not actioned it any further just yet. I've also been reading a lot of info about the FSO telling the banks to pay up, and it got me wondering.....

 

I am owed well over £14000 that I can account for, but there are also over a years worth of charges that they have failed to supply the information on, so I estimate they owe me around £18,000 in total. I was going to just CC them for 5 years worth then go after the rest, however, after reading about the FSO's statement I though WHY NOT go after the whole lot at once without multiple court cases. By complaining to the Ombudsman and letting him sort it out, I could get the whole lot far quicker and with less hassle.

 

If my complaint to the Ombudsman fails, I can always fall back on the court action and do it bit by bit, so what have I really got to lose ?

 

Anyone got any thoughts on this ??

[djweeble]

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