"CITYMAIN ADMINISTR" bank account charge

hop-heinz · 9 March 2011 at 6:07PM

Hi All,

Thanks for your contributions, I am absolutely furious about this! Like others I bought my phone from "buy mobile phones net" and it looks like they set up this direct debit without me being aware of it!

I phone the insurance and cancelled it - the sales chap was very happy to do this. Also, I have set-up a complaint with buy mobile phones.net - 08000195599 who promised that they will get back to me within a week regarding a refund of all my payments. Since the initial posts on this thread a couple of years passed but it looks like the practice of selling the mobile phone insurance has never been made clearer! Is this not a reason for consumer action letter?

I cannot believe that this practice of selecting the insurance by default and labelling it as "3 Months FREE Insurance" is some that should not be an Opt in rather than "opt out" option.

Anyway, I feel that mobilephones.net have should be able to do it better - certainly it is a way of making a lot of consumers unhappy as this thread is certainly proving the case!

A

screwbiedooo · 4 April 2011 at 4:43PM

I realised this was on my statements and cancelled by calling my bank 10 months later @ 5.99/month. I bought a phone from buymobilephones.net and had not knowingly agreed to insurance. This is a marginally legal SCAM.

They give it to you and hope you won't notice it (most of us don't).
You silent consent allows them to extract your cash. Once you remove that consent they have to

1) stop doing it
2) repay you as much as you reclaim

Unless, they have evidence of a contract between you and themselves. They don't! Do not be shy about getting a refund. They rely on your false belief that you were obligated to give it to them and cannot reclaim it. You can.

Citymain is not buymobilephones.net. On the phone they describe themselves as insurance administrators and are cagey about answering questions about themselves. In any case, your phone contract was with buymobilephones.net, thus Citymain are INTERLOPERS, with whom you have no contract.

You can lawfully request ALL YOUR MONEY BACK and they will have to give it to you. Contact [EMAIL="customerrelations@citymain.com"]customerrelations@citymain.com[/EMAIL].
Their phone number is 01983 618300. If they do not you may start an indemnity claim with your back to help you recover your electronic numbers.

Ron_Weasley · 21 June 2011 at 9:52AM

backinbusiness wrote: »

You only check your statements properly once a decade?!?

Of course I do. It was a simple mistake on my part that I had wrongly believed it was for something else, and at £4/month it was under the radar for further investigation. My own stupid fault, I know.

timbstoke · 21 June 2011 at 10:44AM

Ron_Weasley wrote: »

Of course I do. It was a simple mistake on my part that I had wrongly believed it was for something else, and at £4/month it was under the radar for further investigation. My own stupid fault, I know.

This would be the part where you write them a letter before action, pointing out that you never entered into an insurance contract with them, and that you expect an immediate refund of all monies paid to date.

j4t_2 · 24 August 2011 at 12:20PM

Got charged 5.99 for 3 months tracked down it was the insurance, I thought I opted out, they said I didnt, requested cancellation and repayment of charges. I got this back upon cancellation, any help guys on the refund side?

Thank you for your email received in our office on the 23rd August 2011.

We would like to take this opportunity to advise you, that Citymain Administrators Ltd are the claims administrators on behalf of Underwriters in respect of Buy Mobile Phones mobile telephone insurance scheme. We are responsible for the collection of premiums and processing of insurance claims.

We would confirm your details were transferred to us by Buy Mobile Phones as having accepted the insurance with the first three months being free when you purchased a Samsung Nexus S, however, if your handset was replaced or upgraded the Insurer is able to transfer the benefit of the insurance cover simply by you advising us of the new make, model and IMEI number of your new handset. Our letter confirming the set up of the insurance/Direct Debit was sent to the above address on the 18th March 2011. In this instance the Direct Debit letter was not returned to sender by the Post Office or as undelivered and we therefore continued with the cover. We are always happy to issue duplicate copies of the terms and conditions at any time upon request from the policyholder or Buy Mobile Phones.

This policy document also confirms that the ‘period of insurance’ is for each billing month as it is not an annual policy and will continue to run until such time as a cancellation request is received from the insured.

Also, please be advised that the setup of the paperless direct debit is actioned at the point of sale and your bank details are taken when purchasing the handset, under the direct debit paperless rules there is no requirement for a paper contract to be signed.

Therefore, we would advise that as the Underwriters have held your handset on cover until the cancellation of your policy, we regret the premiums are non refundable.

Finally, we can only act on the information received from Buy Mobile Phones and are not responsible for the sale of the Insurance, therefore, if you require further clarification of the set up of your insurance, we would ask that you kindly contact their Customer Service Team on 0844 880 8100.

We trust we have answered your queries satisfactorily, however if we can be of any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us.

Yours sincerely,

Daniel Bailey
Assistant Customer Relations officer
Citymain Administrators Ltd

j4t_2 · 25 August 2011 at 11:57PM

anything guys? or have I missed the boat when this was an issue?

tallyhoh · 26 August 2011 at 8:45AM

try your bank as you didnt authorise the DD

MrsClifford · 2 September 2011 at 11:16AM

I just noticed this on my direct debits on my internet banking, and I have been paying them since september 2009!!!!
Before I called them I googled them and this forum came up. My quick thinking husband then said why dont I try and claim another phone because my contract isn't quite up yet (4 weeks away) with the particular phone i got the insurance with, although i have have a new phone with another contract now. Then I could sell the phone that I get and then I would get most of the money I have spent over the last two years back!! Then I just need to cancel the insurance policy!!!

Apparently when I signed up for the contact I had to "opt out" of the insurance as the box was ticked. I also received a letter when I got the phone which had this information on it and that I had to cancel it after 3 months other wise it would start to charge me. However, as most people wouldn't I never looked through all the paper work. But what I am annoyed at my self about is that I could have claimed two phones over the past two years but I never, I bought new PAYG phones and put my contract sim in them!!! aaarrrgghh!

Anyway I phoned up and claimed a new phone, I will receive it in the next few days and then I'll just sell it and get most of, if not all of, my money back that i have payed them over the past couple years then I will cancel my DD to them!

wpeteraces · 18 October 2011 at 8:46PM

Yep, me too, been paying for months. Will now take this up with WATCHDOG ON BBC TV.. ROBBERY !

ihatesneekyphoneinsurance · 6 December 2011 at 7:23PM

Wow! - £239.60 down the tubes! - what a buch of bucking blastards!!! - could really do with the cash right now!!!

Got this from customer relations:

Thank you very much for your e-mail that we received today, we have noted your comments.

We would like to take this opportunity to advise you, that Citymain Administrators Ltd are the claims administrators on behalf of Underwriters in respect of ********** mobile telephone insurance scheme and we are responsible for the collection of premiums and processing of insurance claims.

We would confirm your details were transferred to us by ****** as having accepted the insurance with the first three months being free when you purchased a Nokia ******, however, if your handset was replaced or upgraded the Insurer is able to transfer the benefit of the insurance cover simply by you advising us of the new make, model and IMEI number of your new handset. Our letter confirming the set up of the insurance/Direct Debit was sent to the above address on the ****** 2007. In this instance the Direct Debit letter was not returned to sender by the Post Office or as undelivered and we therefore continued with the cover. We are always happy to issue duplicate copies of the terms and conditions at any time upon request from the policyholder or Buy Mobile Phones.

This policy document also confirms that the ‘period of insurance’ is for each billing month as it is not an annual policy and will continue to run until such time as a cancellation request is received from the insured.

Also, please be advised that the setup of the paperless direct debit is actioned at the point of sale and your bank details are taken when purchasing the handset, under the direct debit paperless rules there is no requirement for a paper contract to be signed.

Therefore, as Underwriters have held you on cover since the inception date until you cancelled your policy on the ********** 2011 and a claim could have been made had the need arisen, the premiums we regret are non-refundable.

We trust we have answered your queries satisfactorily, however if we can be of any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us.

Yours sincerely,

Louise Marshall
Customer Relations Manager

Buckin Blastard! - not one single correspondence from them in over 3 years - they must rely on people forgetting about this direct debit thing. What other company that you are a long term customer of doesn't at least contact you once during a period of over 3 years - Come on!!!! That's a bucking joke!!!!!! Someone else contact watchdog cause I cant be bothered thinking about these bucks any more

"CITYMAIN ADMINISTR" bank account charge

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