LouizeM V Littlewoods Flexi Account

[LouizeM]

Stage 1 - DPA Request

 

"Littlewoods Shop Direct Home Shopping Limited

1st Floor,

Skyways House,

Speke Road,

Speke,

Liverpool, L70 1AB

 

Data Protection Act 1998

Subject Access Request

Dear Sir/Madam

Account holder: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Address at which account was held: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

Please supply me with a complete list of transactions and charges relating to my closed account, held with you from 1997 until the account was closed entirely on 5 November 2002. Alternatively, a complete set of printed statements for that period will be acceptable.

 

Additionally, where there has been any event in my account history over this period which has required manual intervention by any member of your staff, or any other person, I require disclosure of any indication or notes which have either caused or resulted in that manual intervention, or other evidence of that manual intervention in relation to my banking business with you.

 

If you are unable to supply this data because there has been no such manual intervention, then please be so kind as to confirm this in your response.

 

I enclose the statutory maximum fee of £10. You have 40 days in which to comply. Furthermore, if I discover that you have levied disproportionate penalties against me, then I shall be reclaiming them, and also reclaiming the enclosed £10 DPA subject access request fee.

If there is specific information which you require in order to satisfy yourself as to my identity, please let me know by return.

 

Yours faithfully"

Its really old but worth a try I guess......

[Guest Lueeze]

How many claims? You'll be like me soon!

 

[LouizeM]

I have received a letter from Littlewoods as follows:

 

"Thank you for your letter dated 25th May 2006 requesting subject access under the Data Protection Act 1998, which was received into the Data Protection Unit on 09th June 2006.

 

Firstly, I would like to apologse for the delay in your request reaching the correct department and for any unnecessary inconvenience this may cause you.

 

I am in the process of collating all of the information required from different areas of the business. On receipt of all relevant documentation the details will be mailed to you.

 

Should you require any further assistance in this matter, please dont hesitate to contact me on 08457-165547, Monday to Thursday, 9.15am to 5pm or Friday 9.15am to 4pm.

 

Once again, my sincere apologies

Kate Redman

Data Protection Unit"

 

The address for this correspondence was detailed on the letter as:

Littlewoods Shop Direct Group

Kershaw Avenue

Crosby

Liverpool, L72 0LG

(which I believe is the main address anyway)

 

I'll wait until the 40 days have expired before chasing this and reporting them to the Information Commissioner.

[LouizeM]

Full disclosure received today - very confusing print out though, not sure it details penalty charges

[LouizeM]

From the information received there were no late charges - just interest payments and a default notice. So, Im going to request the "Default Notice" be removed as detailed on this link http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/legalities/11659-how-get-your-default.html?highlight=%22signed+authority%22

 

Will post first letter tomorrow, as follows:

 

"Letter sent by Royal Mail Recorded Delivery

IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED

Finance Department

Littelwoods Shop Direct Ltd

Kershaw Avenue

Crosby, Liverpool

L72 0LG

17 July 2006

Dear Sir or Madam

 

Account number – EXXXXXXX

After recently obtaining a data protection disclosure from yourselves and a copy of my credit file from Equifax, I was concerned to note that your company has placed a "Default" notice against the above account which I opened in 1997 and is currently settled in full.

 

According to my Equifax report, I cleared this account, 4 years ago (Sept 2002), and although you have updated my credit file to show “settled”, I was not however aware that you had issued an “official Default Notice”.

 

In addition to this, I also note that in your data protection disclosure to me (ref: xxxxxxxx), there is no record of this being issued in the “Breakdown of Annotations for account Exxxxxxx”.

 

I therefore require you to urgently substantiate the Default Notice or remove this from my credit account with immediate effect as inaccurate information.

 

Items required to substantiate the Default Notice:

• ·You must supply me with a true copy of the alleged agreement you refer to. This is my right under your obligation to supply a copy of the agreement under the legislation contained within s.78 (1) Consumer Credit Act 1974 (s.77 (1) for fixed sum credit). Your obligation also extends to providing a statement of account. I enclose a £1 cheque in payment of the statutory fee.

• ·You must supply me with a signed true and certified copy of the original default notice with proof that this was delivered to me.

The above must be supplied to me, within 14 days of receipt of this letter or if it is unsubstantiated, it must be removed with immediate effect from my credit file. I remind you that you are legally required by the Information Commissioner to hold and supply the most accurate and up to date information on your customers. I therefore trust that you will deal with this matter, with the urgency I require and I look forward to receiving your response.

 

Yours faithfully"

[Chimera]

ooohhh.. good luck - will keep checking to see how it goes with the default letter.. have sent vodafone something similar

[LouizeM]

Thanks, If I dont hear anything by 5th August - then I'll write to the Information Commissioner to complain and then send them another letter, via recorded delivery again, informing then of this action and demanding a response!

 

Good luck with yours too.....

[powerful_rogue]

If you havent heard anything back within 14 days of sending that letter, Dispute the default with the credit agency that holds it.

 

No need to write back to the company.

[LouizeM]

Oh right - thanks for that!!!

 

X

[LouizeM]

If I dont get a response by 4th August, then on the following Monday I will issue a letter to Equifax, Experian and Call Credit...

 

[LouizeM]

How long does it take to update credit files??

[LouizeM]

I downloaded my credit file and the default notice is still there!!! Apparently it takes up to 28 days for credit reference agencies to "investigate disputes"..... So thats yet another month to wait.

 

Anyway, I phoned Littlewoods about 10 times the other day - each time a different number, and speaking to people who I can only describe as having the brainsize of a peanut, until eventually being given an email address of "[email protected]". I emailed him requesting the default be removed as its unsubstantiated and wasnt even detailed on the Data Protection Act disclosure, attached PDF copies of my correspondence over the last few months and cc'd in the information commissioner, financial ombudsman and all 3 credit reference agencies. He replied with an email saying its nothing to do with him and told me to call Customer bloomin Service. Like I havent called them a billion times already!

 

I replied with the fact that as a paid employee he should at least pass on my request to the appropriate person rather than expecting me to track down who's responsible in a rather large and apparently disjointed organisation that doesnt seem to know its @rse from its elbow. If you're detecting Im a bit angry, you'd not be wrong!

 

So my question is, if the Credit Reference Agencies fail to get a response like I have, are they legally required to simply remove this from my credit file? Littlewoods is now the only blemish on my record and I want it off....

[LouizeM]

The Financial ombudsman has just got back to me, store accounts like this are not within their remit. I have to report them to:

The Compliance Manager

Finance & Leasing Association

Imperial House

15-19 Kingsway

London

WC2B 6UN

Fax: 020 7420 9600

Email: [email protected]

 

So ive emailed them the information......

[LouizeM]

Stuart says its not him that deals with credit ref agencies. He said its the DRD team 08702402244

[LouizeM]

Now the FLA say its not them

 

Trying the FSA - Financial Services Assoc

[email protected]

 

Will see who they say I need to put this to

grrrr...........

[LouizeM]

Ive just spoken to collections at littlewoods again!! Apparently they are refusing to remove the default notice as they have a "duty of care"! and putting it to me in writing... so heres the issues

 

• DPA Disclosure requested, and no record of Default notice being issued was present on it.
  
• Requested by recorded delivery to remove alledged default as its not on the disclosure and I have no record of receiving
  
• Littlewoods legal team apparently said that its not a statutory default notice, they dont have to substantiate it, they believe it was correctly logged and they dont care if its on my disclosure or not.

I am reporting them to the Information Commissioner now as this is bang out of order.

[LouizeM]

Just heard back from Equifax - Littlewoods have verified to them the accuracy of the default. I have queried exactly what that evidence was since they have refused to evidence to me and their data protection disclosure did not show this. They replied with "they are satisfied" - what does that mean??? And why cant I have access to information relating to me? Im very annoyed about all this.

[LouizeM]

Finally done it, submitted an official complaint with the information commissioner, included all supporting documents -will see what they say.

[iwgunter]

Any news Louize?

[LouizeM]

Hi, well I made a formal complaint to the information commissioner sending them copies of everything I have received from Littlewoods with a cover letter detailing the particulars of the matter.

 

They emailed me on 19 October requesting a copy of my credit rating which shows the default notice.

 

However, since then Ive not heard anything.....As its been over a month I think I'll email the Information Commissioner.....

[LouizeM]

Just emailed the Information Commissioner back - with the following

"Dear ICO

Its been over a month since I submitted the response below. Would it be possible to receive an update on how this is going?

I have also just been alerted to this section of the DPA (1) An individual is entitled at any time, by notice in writing to any data controller, to require the data controller to ensure that no decision taken by or on behalf of the data controller which significantly affects that individual is based solely on the processing by automatic means of personal data in respect of which that individual is the data subject for the purpose of evaluating matters relating to him such as, for example, his performance at work, his creditworthiness, his reliability or his conduct.

Since I never received a Default Notice from this organisation – does the above make this illegal too?

Please advise

Thank you"

[LouizeM]

I finally received a letter from the Information Commissioner basically saying that Littlewoods are allowed to put a default marker on my account. Thankfully, this runs out this year and so my credit record should be back where it was! However, I think its awful and I recommend that everyone who is subjected to this sort of treatment should do what Dave did and request cedit reference agencies remove your electronic record and only allow manual searches - they are legally required to do this if you ask....

[LouizeM]

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