Dfs ppi

emmilee · 13 September 2009 at 11:16PM

IN 1998 we bought a sofa & chairs from DFS, at (as best I can remember) a cost of maybe £1600, under the usual buy now 4 years interest free credit agreement.
DH had no credit history so couldn't get the credit, but I did so it was taken out in my name - with PPI, however I was a student & he was working, so the PPI was useless as we'd only have needed to claim if DH had lost his income but only I was covered by the policy.
I realised this within a month of the policy starting & rang DFS to cancel & was told I couldn't cancel it. I firmly believe that I was completely missold this policy but in the absence of any account details and given the time that has passed, I presume I'm too late to claim on this one? If not, any ideas how I'd go about it please?

di3004 · 13 September 2009 at 11:25PM

emmilee wrote: »

IN 1998 we bought a sofa & chairs from DFS, at (as best I can remember) a cost of maybe £1600, under the usual buy now 4 years interest free credit agreement.
DH had no credit history so couldn't get the credit, but I did so it was taken out in my name - with PPI, however I was a student & he was working, so the PPI was useless as we'd only have needed to claim if DH had lost his income but only I was covered by the policy.
I realised this within a month of the policy starting & rang DFS to cancel & was told I couldn't cancel it. I firmly believe that I was completely missold this policy but in the absence of any account details and given the time that has passed, I presume I'm too late to claim on this one? If not, any ideas how I'd go about it please?

Hi there

I would still give it a try anyway, but with it being an older case as such with it being 1998 it may be a little more difficult.

However, it still worth writing to them to try and complain and reclaim on this and if they do not resolve in your favour, contact the Financial ombudsman service (FOS) who may suggest your best options here.
It may be the case that the FOS will not be able to investigate, as the business who sold you this finance may not have been covered as such with GISC where the FSA taken over in Jan 2005, but still there is no harm in giving it a go, as some have still been successful with older cases.

I say if you don't try you will never know.
You do seem to have good reasons here.

But for more information check out Martin's useful information here:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/ppi-loan-insurance

Was this actually arranged and sold to you by DFS or a broker?

You write to the ones who sold this to you, for instance the broker then and they have 8 weeks in full to respond, keep at them until they resolve or issue you with the final decision, they will let you know if you are able to use the Financial ombudsman service (FOS) or not, but in this case there is no harm as stated above in contacting the FOS and if they can't help, they may have other suggestions for you.

On the above link you will find the templates, you can use them if you want to or just as a guide with your own words, do not worry about writing the amounts down though, but give your reasons.

Best to post by recorded delivery, this is your proof of posting.

I'm sure there was another post on here like this one the other day as well, check through the threads when you have a few mins.;)

Good luck and please keep us posted.

Cheers
Di

emmilee · 13 September 2009 at 11:43PM

Thanks. I'll get on with it, like you say, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I only wish Martin had been around telling me how to keep a hold of my money 10-15 years ago.

di3004 · 13 September 2009 at 11:48PM

emmilee wrote: »

Thanks. I'll get on with it, like you say, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I only wish Martin had been around telling me how to keep a hold of my money 10-15 years ago.

Your very welcome, give it your best shot anyway.;)

lol I know he would have come in handy then as well wouldn't he?:D

Please keep us posted hun and we do wish you well, keep at them is best. XX

emmilee · 14 September 2009 at 12:24PM

It was sold by DFS, it was our 1st home & we were very naive. We went into DFS and the salesman there sold us the sofa & arranged the credit & PPI. I am certain that I only made one call to see if I could cancel the PPI & just took their word for it when they said no. I was (& still am a bit), of the impression that it was my own stupid fault for not reading the small print & properly considering our needs when we signed up. However, I have no doubt that the policy was missold.

emmilee · 14 September 2009 at 12:37PM

I've just been reading through Martin's guide. We bought the sofa in 1998, late Summer (we moved at the end of August and had nothing to sit on for a while). I guess therefore that the agreement ran until 2002, although I am sure that our payments started straight away so maybe it only ran til 2001. I know for sure that I have no paperwork.
I think I'll ring DFS under the guise of ordering my new sofa & see if they still have my details, if so I shall pursue the matter. If not it'll go down as experience.

cyclonebri1 · 14 September 2009 at 12:40PM

emmilee wrote: »

It was sold by DFS, it was our 1st home & we were very naive. We went into DFS and the salesman there sold us the sofa & arranged the credit & PPI. I am certain that I only made one call to see if I could cancel the PPI & just took their word for it when they said no. I was (& still am a bit), of the impression that it was my own stupid fault for not reading the small print & properly considering our needs when we signed up. However, I have no doubt that the policy was missold.

DFS were, and may still be swines for doing this. They caught me out about 5 years ago. I wanted to pay cash, money in pocket, and expected a few quid discount. No discount, so I said right I may as well have the free credit. Bought the suite, an extra chair and footstool. I didn't pay enough attention to the total as un beknown to me they slipped PPIns on the receipt without even mentioning it. It was not untill over 2 years later when I was checking to see when the agreement ended that I spotted what they had sneakily done.

Straight on the phone but to be honest I may as well not have bothered. 100 salesmen and 2 managers later they denied what had happened.
Anyway I did ring the company they used for the finance, !st Direct I think it was and they were fine about cancelling it there and then with no more payments. Still cast me over £120 for insurance I did not need, did not want, and did not know I had :mad:

Got a promise from the present manager of a discount on our next purchase, but a), as if I'd go back, and b), it would probably be a different manager by then who'd again deny all knowledge. I'll shop elsewhere.;)

PaulinWeston · 14 September 2009 at 12:46PM

Di & emmilee!!

The six year period starts from the point that you noticed the mistake - NOT as alot of companies would like you to believe, the date of the agreement..

In Kleinwort Benson v Lincoln City Council [1998] UKHL 38 the House of Lords changed the law of mistake so that 'ignorance of the law' is now no longer 'no excuse'. The effect of the decision is, as Lord Hoffman pointed out, that the Limitation Act 1980 can now operate to extend the limitation period in cases of mistake of law. This means that the limitation will only now run from the date of your knowledge of mistake.

The Law it relates to is Section 32 (c) of the Limitation Act 1980.

In addition, Section 32 (b) of the Limitation Act 1980 deals with postponement of the limitation period in case of fraud and concealment. If they (the company that sold you the PPI) concealed any facts from you (i.e. your right to cancel, policy exclusions etc etc etc) then again - the 6 year period only starts from the time you discovered the deception!

Write to DFS straight away claiming interest at 8% (statutory rate) on the payments. If the FOS cant help - then the county court will :-)

melorablack · 14 September 2009 at 9:56PM

The problem is after the account has been closed for 6 years you will be lucky if they have any paperwork from the time of sale, including the agreement. Give it a go with the company, then the FOS and if all else fails you can go to the court. I'd always recommend claiming yourself and through the FOS first because it's free

beccabel · 15 October 2009 at 7:22PM

I was hoping for some advice regarding DFS ppi. We bought some furniture from DFS in December 1999. We told the salesman that we didn't want any insurance but he said that we could only have the 4 years free credit offer if we took out the ppi. We were very young at the time and believed him. I now know that we were lied to and the product was mis-sold and so have been trying to reclaim the premiums from DFS. I sent a letter to DFS stating that we had been mis-sold the policy. They have replied and interestingly did not deny that the policy was mis-sold, but state that the claim is invalid because of the age of the order - they say we 'had sufficient time to contact them whilst the agreement was in place'. We did not know at the time that we had been misled, so had no motive to contact them during the agreement.

Although the furnture order was in 1999, the payments continued until 2003 - so the account was still active within the last 6 years(just). I also know they have some form of records from the details they gave me in the letter.

Should I try the Financial Ombudsman Service or would this account be seen as too old for complaint?

Also, I have the original order reference but I do not have a copy of the original paper work. In the PPI reclaim guide, it says that you should ask the lender for a copy of the paperwork - can I just request this from DFS?

Dfs ppi

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