Zest took payment after bankruptcy

Reaper

Got a letter today from the administrators saying:

1) If you had a credit amount with Zest you won't get it back (they didn't quite say that but it is clear you are an unsecured creditor, which normally means much the same thing).

2) They were "unable" to prevent Zest taking more money by Direct Debit AFTER the date they went into administration. They are looking into whether this is refundable if it put you further into a positive balance, or whether the other creditors will grab it.

If they decide not to refund it, then it occurs to me it might be worth a shot under the Direct Debit Guarentee with the bank. I'd argue the DD was taken in error and indeed the Zest administrators have said as much. If they accept the arguement then the bank, not Zest, is obliged to refund the money.

thyme_2

Did you write to your bank and tell them to cancel the direct debit? If you did then the bank should refund you as this would be their error. Ideally if anyone has a direct debit set up - and I know a lot of people who do not think to do this is 1. Cancel in writing to your bank and 2. Cancel with the company you were paying. 3. Make sure you take copies of the letters. This is over and above any DD Guarantee. They cannot argue with you then and have to refund you.

Reaper

Happily I have just seen a refund apear in my bank account, so it looks like the administrators decided they did have to give the money back.

RhiannonB_2

If you're gonna cancel a direct debit i'd do it by phone to my bank all calls will be recorded and you know for definate that the direct debit is cancelled, plus make a time and date note so that if it is not cancelled you can fall back on the phone call and you have evidence.

michaels

My own stupidity - I just cancelled my Zest4 DD - then looked at my account and found they had taken a 300 quid payment earlier today based on the estimated reading on the date they went in to administration - this is an over reading.

My choices seem to be - try to get the money back under DD rules or from administrators or play along with the reading and pay my new supplier less as my first usage will (appear to) be very small - assuming that they don't come round and take and actual reading (have to tell the wife not to answer the door to meter readers me thinks...

MOCHA

Zest took a dd payment from me on 6th February and at that time I didn't know they'd folded.(Found that out from this site) . I've now cancelled the arrangement and seem to still owe them about £25. Will they chase me for it?
Have to say I'm glad I didn't have a credit balance when they ceased trading.