Smackbat v Smile take 3!

[Smackbat]

Hi All,

 

Just filed my 3rd claim against smile today, they never learn do they! Ha ha ha.

[Smackbat]

Well I filed my claim and smile have acknowledged the claim, in the mean time however there has been a bit of to-ing and fro-ing over the secure message system. It goes a little something like this (read from the bottom up for the true picture.

 

"Hello Chris,

This is the first time that Smile have mentioned that I have had refunded more than was previously claimed. Looking at my account I can see that I was refunded £85 on 26/09/06. This payment was made after I filed my original claim at the court house, so was therefore not taken into consideration. On settlement of the claim, Smile decided to pay back £4,429.28, despite the earlier payment of £85. I took this as Smile's decission to do so, had I been offered £4,344.28 I would have accepted in light of the earlier payment.

I can see that I was again charged £25 on 12/06/07 and will again be charged a further £20 on 21/06/07. As these charges do not make up part of my current claim, and I will most likely be charged further charges in the future. I will be happy to discuss the final settlement figure in court.

Regards

Smackbat

Hello Smackbat

 

As previously mentioned, you have been refunded morew than you have been charged. As such no more refunds will be applied to your account.

 

If you wish to take this further please address all further correspondence to.

 

Vivian Calderbank

19th Floor

Miller Street

Manchester

M60 4AL

 

Regards

 

Chris

 

Message Sent to Bank

-----------------------------------------------

To : BANK

Date : 04/06/2007

Subject : Manager

 

Chris,

 

The charges I am claiming for were made on 13/02/07, 11/04/07, 19/04/07, 20/04/07 and 23/04/07 as stated in my letter dated 25/04/07.

 

Therefore I am to continue with my claim.

 

Regards

Smackbat

Message From Bank

-----------------------------------------------

Operator ID : CHOPKI

Date : 04/06/2007

Subject : Manager

 

Hello Smackbat

 

The refunds applied to your account were on 10-10-2006, 03-10-2006, 26-09-2006.

 

Regards

 

Chris

 

Message Sent to Bank

-----------------------------------------------

To : BANK

Date : 04/06/2007

Subject : Manager

 

Hello Jackie,

 

Please advise on what date the charges were refunded to my account. I have had a look at the account and can not see any refund.

 

Rgds

Smackbat

 

Message From Bank

-----------------------------------------------

Operator ID : JBURGA

Date : 01/06/2007

Subject : Manager

 

Hello Smackbat

 

I've had a look at your account and can see that all charges have been refunded to your account.

 

Regards

 

Jackie Burgess

smile Complaints Team

 

Message Sent to Bank

-----------------------------------------------

To : BANK

Date : 22/05/2007

Subject : Manager

 

Dear Val McCarren,

 

Please advise why this transaction was authorised by the bank from a DEBIT account if there was not enough money to clear. I suggest that this is due to unlawful bank charges. Seeing that I have had no satisfactory resonse to my outstanding query, I have today claimed for £250 plus court costs and interest via Money Claim Online.

 

I look forward to your response

 

Yours faithfully

Smackbat

 

Message From Bank

-----------------------------------------------

Operator ID : BPSML1

Date : 21/05/2007

Subject : Account Management (debt Management)

 

Hello Smackbat

 

Even though there wasn't enough money in your account, I've had to make these payments for you:

 

Item: Delta

Reference: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.

Amount: £xxxx

 

Our charges are in the tariff. Just visit smile.co.uk - the internet bank and select the account from the list on the left hand side, then click on 'tariff' for details of these charges.

 

Please pay enough money into your account to get back inside your limit straight away. Make sure no more money is taken from your account in the meantime.

 

Try to make sure this doesn't happen again. If it does, we may ask for your cards back and we don't want it to come to that.

 

You can call us on 0870 241 1068 to talk to us about this. We're open between 8:00am and 7:00pm Monday to Friday, and from 9:00am to 1:00pm on Saturday.

 

Thanks

 

Val McCarren

Head of Debt Management"

Anyway, needless to say I will just see if they settle or go to court. Anyone else think they'll go to court? No didn't think so.

Regards

Smackbat

 

 

[Smackbat]

HELP ME! I need some advice. I received a letter this morning, dated 31/05/07 - 14 days to arrive.

 

"Dear Mr Smackbat

I'm sorry that you've felt the need to write to smile about the charges applied to your account.

To ascertain the correct level of refunds to be applied to your account, I have undertaken a detailed review of all prior refunds. To my surprise I have found you have been refunded £765.00 more than you have been charged (see enclosed schedlue of charges). Taking this new information into account I'm not in a position to refund any of the charges you have mentioned.

At this stage we are required to let you know that smile will regard the complaint as closed if we do not receive a reply within 8 weeks of this response.

Blah blah blah

Chris Hopkins

smile Complaints Team"

Guess what? There was no attached schedule of charges! I've double checked my calculations and I believe I got it right.

 

I'm going to respond demanding they demonstrate to me where they think I have been overpaid. Using the schedule of charges I sent them back in 2006, can they highlight the ones that are incorrect. If they fail to do so I within 14 days, I will accept the failure to do within the specified time period as acceptance that the previous refunds were in fact correct, and I will consider this matter finished.

 

My concern is this; if I have claimed wrong back in 2006 and they paid up in error, can they reclaim this or not pay my claim of £250? Some advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks everyone

[Smackbat]

I fired off a letter on the 21st in response to their attempt to put me off;

 

Vivian Calderbank

Head of Debt Management

Smile

19th Floor

Miller Street

Manchester

M60 4AL

21st June 2007

 

ACCOUNT NUMBER: xxxxxxxx

Dear Vivian Calderbank,

In response to a letter dated 31st May 2007 from Chris Hopkins (copy attached), which I received on 15th June 2007.

I am surprised that you have found that I have been refunded more than I have been charged previously to the tune of £765, however the enclosed schedule of charges that was referred to were not in fact enclosed. Therefore I have done my own calculations again and believe that my calculations were correct the first time.

As Smile insist I respond to you via mail and not via the secure messaging system, I am writing to reiterate my stance and that I do not consider this matter closed.

Please find below a copy of the correspondence so far in the secure messaging system that Smile are now not happy to communicate through.

“Hello Smackbat

As previously advised, if you wish to take this further please address all further correspondence to.

 

Vivian Calderbank

19th Floor

Miller Street

Manchester

M60 4AL

 

Regards

 

Pamela Eason

 

Message Sent to Bank

-----------------------------------------------

To : BANK

Date : 13/06/2007

Subject : Manager

 

Hello Chris,

 

This is the first time that Smile have mentioned that I have had refunded more than was previously claimed. Looking at my account I can see that I was refunded £85 on 26/09/06. This payment was made after I filed my original claim at the court house, so was therefore not taken into consideration. On settlement of the claim, Smile decided to pay back £4,429.28, despite the earlier payment of £85. I took this as Smile's decission to do so, had I been offered £4,344.28 I would have accepted in light of the earlier payment.

 

I can see that I was again charged £25 on 12/06/07 and will again be charged a further £20 on 21/06/07. As these charges do not make up part of my current claim, and I will most likely be charged further charges in the future. I will be happy to discuss the final settlement figure in court.

 

Regards

Smackbat

Message From Bank

-----------------------------------------------

Operator ID : CHOPKI

Date : 10/06/2007

Subject : Manager

 

Hello Smackbat

As previously mentioned, you have been refunded morew than you have been charged. As such no more refunds will be applied to your account.

 

If you wish to take this further please address all further correspondence to.

 

Vivian Calderbank

19th Floor

Miller Street

Manchester

M60 4AL

 

Regards

 

Chris

 

Message Sent to Bank

-----------------------------------------------

To : BANK

Date : 04/06/2007

Subject : Manager

 

Chris,

 

The charges I am claiming for were made on 13/02/07, 11/04/07, 19/04/07, 20/04/07 and 23/04/07 as stated in my letter dated 25/04/07.

 

Therefore I am to continue with my claim.

 

Regards

Smackbat

Message From Bank

-----------------------------------------------

Operator ID : CHOPKI

Date : 04/06/2007

Subject : Manager

 

Hello Smackbat

 

The refunds applied to your account were on 10-10-2006, 03-10-2006, 26-09-2006.

 

Regards

 

Chris

 

Message Sent to Bank

-----------------------------------------------

To : BANK

Date : 04/06/2007

Subject : Manager

 

Hello Jackie,

 

Please advise on what date the charges were refunded to my account. I have had a look at the account and can not see any refund.

 

Rgds

Smackbat

Message From Bank

-----------------------------------------------

Operator ID : JBURGA

Date : 01/06/2007

Subject : Manager

 

Hello Smackbat

 

I've had a look at your account and can see that all charges have been refunded to your account.

 

Regards

 

Jackie Burgess

smile Complaints Team

 

Message Sent to Bank

-----------------------------------------------

To : BANK

Date : 22/05/2007

Subject : Manager

 

Dear Val McCarren,

 

Please advise why this transaction was authorised by the bank from a DEBIT account if there was not enough money to clear. I suggest that this is due to unlawful bank charges. Seeing that I have had no satisfactory resonse to my outstanding query, I have today claimed for £250 plus court costs and interest via Money Claim Online.

 

I look forward to your response

 

Yours faithfully

Smackbat

 

Message From Bank

-----------------------------------------------

Operator ID : BPSML1

Date : 21/05/2007

Subject : Account Management (debt Management)

 

Hello Smackbat

 

Even though there wasn't enough money in your account, I've had to make these payments for you:

 

Item: Delta

Reference: http://WWW.FLOWERSDIRECT.

Amount: £36.29

 

Our charges are in the tariff. Just visit smile.co.uk - the internet bank and select the account from the list on the left hand side, then click on 'tariff' for details of these charges.

 

Please pay enough money into your account to get back inside your limit straight away. Make sure no more money is taken from your account in the meantime.

 

Try to make sure this doesn't happen again. If it does, we may ask for your cards back and we don't want it to come to that.

 

You can call us on 0870 241 1068 to talk to us about this. We're open between 8:00am and 7:00pm Monday to Friday, and from 9:00am to 1:00pm on Saturday.

 

Thanks

 

Val McCarren

Head of Debt Management”

Yours faithfully,

Smackbat

 

[Smackbat]

Having checked my account today, I have received a mysterious credit to the sum of £120! Is this an attempt by Smile to put me off the scent?

 

Well they haven't filed a defence, and I've no idea if this £120 is from them or not. So I've sent them a secure message to remind them that they owe me £280 by midnight tonight or I shall file a default judgement against them!

 

"FAO Val McClarren, Head of Debt Management.

I know I have been advised to write to you via snail mail, however this secure message will have to surfice in light of the time constraints involved.

Toady is the 28th day after claim 7QZ77168 was filed in the Northampton County Court against smile for £280.

I have today noted that a credit of £120 was credited to my account over the weekend, however as I have no communication from yourselves I am unsure what this is for, I am assuming this is from yourselves in order to resolve the outstanding claim. Please can you confirm this?

Needless to say my claim was for £280, therefore if I am not in receipt of this full amount by midnight tonight, or smile do not enter a defense, I will be filing a default judgement against smile tomorrow.

Yours faithfully

Smackbat"

Come on smile, pull your fingers out and sort this out.

[Smackbat]

Ha Ha Ha, Strike Three And You Are Out!!!!!

 

Smile Have Today Paid The Full £280 Into My Account. Another Victory For The Mortal Consumer!!