Argos and Abbey

matty_c608

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

Not sure where this goes, maybe a Mod ought to move it to a more appropriate section for better responses! But...............

Here's my story in short, and I was wondering what all you Money experts would do!?

We went into argos one day to buy a Sofa Bed. Got to the til, and swiped the Debit Card. They said the Argos sytem was down, and so the till lady called the manager. He swiped it in again, and managed to get a receipt off. Then he said it'd be delivered blah blah.. Sounds good.

Well we found out they had charged us for 2 sofas, which put us in the red. That was a £30 charge. At the time we did not know this, and decided to go for some food shopping, still expecting there to be money in there to spend. This was another over withdrawn transaction and so another £30 charge!

Few days later, after realising, we made complaint to argos. They tried to put it right, and put both lots of money (2 sofas worth) back into the account by accident. We left it at that for a few days, thinking maybe it was a good will something. But we were wrong, it was just a mistake at their end.

We knew we had money in the account, so decided to do the weeks shopping again. That put the money down quite a bit! Then because argos decided to rectify things themselves, they withdrew 1 sofas worth from the account without telling us. This put us in the red again, another £30 charge.

This means that we have incurred £90 charges at no fault of our own. Also lots of expensive telephone calls, lots of time wasted... What should we do? What compensation are we entitled to? Are we able to claim AT LEAST the £90 charges back from argos?

Any help would be greatly appreciated! And also any examples of letters!

Matt

Robert_Willing

[QUOTE=matty_c608We went into argos one day to buy a Sofa Bed. Got to the til, and swiped the Debit Card. They said the Argos sytem was down, and so the till lady called the manager. He swiped it in again, and managed to get a receipt off.

Well we found out they had charged us for 2 sofas, which put us in the red. That was a £30 charge.

You should easily get that £30 back.

At the time we did not know this, and decided to go for some food shopping, still expecting there to be money in there to spend. This was another over withdrawn transaction and so another £30 charge!

You should easily get that £30 back.

Few days later, after realising, we made complaint to argos. They tried to put it right, and put both lots of money (2 sofas worth) back into the account by accident.

We left it at that for a few days, thinking maybe it was a good will something. But we were wrong, it was just a mistake at their end.

I would not have thought it was a good will gesture.

We knew we had Argos money in the account, so decided to do the weeks shopping again.

Not a good move in my opinion.

That put the money down quite a bit!
Then because argos decided to rectify things themselves, they withdrew 1 sofas worth from the account without telling us.

Seems reasonable to me.
This put us in the red again, another £30 charge.

This means that we have incurred £90 charges at no fault of our own.

I make it £60 through no fault of your own and £30 down to you for pushing your luck


Also lots of expensive telephone calls, lots of time wasted... What should we do? What compensation are we entitled to? Are we able to claim AT LEAST the £90 charges back from argos?

I think you can claim £60 back.

I think that you are fully entitled to £60 back from Argos.
I think you might get further compensation for the two mistakes made by Argos.

If you are lucky you will get perhaps £100 in total from Argos.

They should also get the first two times you went over your limit removed from your record.

I doubt that they will get the third one removed.Matt[/QUOTE]

Perhaps they will.

Bossyboots

I think most people would have realised Argos had made a mistake with the double refund and not attempted to spend the money without at least checking. Their mistake was to take two lots in the first place and they should pay the costs you incurred for that, but I don't see that they have any liability for the rest of it.

student100

I think the last charge is through your own fault; you tried to spend money which wasn't yours.

The other two are not your fault. I suppose they are really Argos' fault, although Argos might argue that the charges were levied to you by Abbey and therefore they are an issue to take up between you and Abbey, and nothing to do with them.

If I were you I'd first try phoning Abbey, explaining the situation. They might offer to refund the charges. If so, then your complaint is really settled, although you could write to Argos asking for a small amount of compensation for the hassle involved.

If Abbey say they can't refund the charges, write a calm, sensible letter to Argos asking for the £60 back plus perhaps an additional goodwill gesture to cover the hassle. Make sure you enclose a photocopy of your till receipt, including the numbers at the bottom which show the date, time, store and till number and will allow them to trace the transaction.
Argos might still say "no", or offer to refund only as gift vouchers, however if you're lucky they'll give you "cash".

Argos' address is:

Argos Ltd
489-499 Avebury Boulevard
Milton Keynes
MK9 2NW

(You need to write to head office, not the store).