Next Retail Ltd - dismal behaviour

morzov

I recently had two "catalogue" accounts opened in my name and had to apply for protective registration with CIFAS to prevent it happening again.

However, someone has now opened a Next credit account fraudulently in my wife's name. So we immediately reported it to Next fraud team.

What happened next really makes you wonder.

Firstly, no word of thanks for undoubtedly saving them money on the fraudulent transactions that would have followed had we not reported things.

Then to add insult to injury, although my wife gave express permission for me to talk to the operative at Next,they said they could not talk to me and were not prepared to tell either of us how the account had been opened. The operative said "I'm not prepared to break the law". When I enquired which one she said "look it up". In other words she had no idea.

Upon asking to talk to a supervisior she immediately replied "there are none available - phone back later". When I pointed out that she hadn't even paused to check she just put the phone down.

This whole episode makes both of us extremely angry.:mad: At least with Littlewoods and Freemans my enquiries were dealt with courteously and professionally and Littlewoods even offered to pay for ! year's CIFAS registration.

As for next well we have written to the Head of Fraud and the MD seeking an apology - but we will take a lot of convincing to ever darken their doors again.

uktim29

How do they know your wife gave you premission to talk to them?

andyrules

uktim29 wrote: »

How do they know your wife gave you premission to talk to them?

I read that as she gave permission to Next, rather than to him.

uktim29

Could be either way? Thats why I've asked.

mrsmortenharket

Data must not be disclosed to other parties without the consent of the individual whom it is about, unless there is legislation or other overriding legitimate reason to share the information (for example, the prevention or detection of crime). It is an offence for Other Parties to obtain this personal data without authorisation.
So Next would require written information from your wife stating that they can talk to you. Although if your wife rang & then passed the phone to you, that would be ok.

I hope all this fraud gets sorted

Lisa

andyrules

mrsmortenharket wrote: »

Data must not be disclosed to other parties without the consent of the individual whom it is about, unless there is legislation or other overriding legitimate reason to share the information (for example, the prevention or detection of crime). It is an offence for Other Parties to obtain this personal data without authorisation.
So Next would require written information from your wife stating that they can talk to you. Although if your wife rang & then passed the phone to you, that would be ok.

I hope all this fraud gets sorted

Lisa

Yes, it's true if a nuisance sometimes. OH has given verbal permission over the phone to our CC company, and they must have made a note coz they talk to me.

morzov

Oooooooohhhh wrote: »

Its irrelevent

It was the wife involved and if next wish to insist to speak to her they may do so barring legal reasons not too which I cant see of any.

As for the other stuff not great but at the end of the day they dont need to go beyond the minimum legal obligations

You have no right to choose who to speak to etc

Frankly you sound a bit unreasonable to me and whilst it is obviously a stressful thing to happen it is not nexts fault

There was a clue in my post - (I should have clarified that my wife was speaking on the telephone)- during the conversation she gave express permission for me to talk on her behalf.

I don't understand your point that I have no right to choose who to speak to.That was not in issue.The point is that Next refused to tell either myself or my wife the circumstances in which a fraudulent account was opened in my wife's name. Aside from the fact that the way in which they operate makes it very easy to do this sort of thing their subsequent refusal to help also effectively denies us any chance of finding out who may have got hold of our details and I probably don't need to tell you that no one else will try to find this out for us.

I don't know how you can conclude that challenging this state of affairs is unreasonable.

uktim29

But if thats the case why didn't the one they wanted to speak to just carry on the conversation?