How do I put a monetary value on emotional distress?? VENT

ezmerelda

Apologies if this is in the wrong place, I didn't know where else to put it.

Volkswagen finance took 2 unauthorised lots of £4500ish out of my account, leaving me massively overdrawn on 2 different occasions. First time, VW finance manager investigated, I was apologised to profusely and assured this was a one-off error. They offered to pay any bank charges etc, thankfully bank were very understanding and waived charges so no problem there, but I was without access to any money for a good 3 days till the whole thing was resolved. I also had to take time out of work to go to dealership, into town to bank to try and beg for some money (which didn't work), spent a ridiculous amount of time on the phone to the bank, and the reason I found out this had happened in the first place was because my card was declined in the supermarket (most embarrasing).

Second time was the same, card being declined in supermarket again. More trips to dealership, more phonecalls to bank and dealership, more stress. But this time the bank were not so kind and will charge me for the returned direct debit and unauthorised overdraft, again VW immediately offered to pay the charges etc and are yet again going to investigate. More apologies etc, but now it's got beyond me being able to accept that we're all human and sometimes mistakes happen. I want compensating for my time, travel and stress this has caused, the chap at VW has been very nice and agreed I deserve some sort of compensation for the grief this has caused me, but has asked that I put in writing the monetary amount I'm requesting.

Most of it is easy enough, charges, mileage, parking, phonecalls, time out of work etc can all be given specific numbers, but how do I put a value on the stress this has caused? Having my card declined at the supermarket, having to grovel at the bank to try and access some cash, and just to top it all off, I've been declined for credit cards - normally not an issue but we go to USA next week on holiday of a lifetime and have no CC for backup. I don't know how much this will have affected my credit score, but I'm imagining having two huge direct debits returned, going massively overdrawn twice and having several charges on my account won't have helped any.

Anyone any ideas? I don't want to just dream up a figure out of thin air, but don't know what else to do.

Cheers for reading x

GoldFool

If I were you, figure it out basically and tell them how you've figured it out. For example:

- Every hour you spent dealing with this mess and being inconvenienced for it. Includes driving, living without money, phone calls etc. Note each hour and then slap at least the minimum wage on it, but preferably what you earn per hour in your job. For each full day you were inconvenienced without money, call it eight hours.

- Full charges for phone calls / petrol.

If you do it on hours spent dealing with the issue, it's clear you aren't pulling a figure out of the air - and if they do want to give less, they'll at least know you've got some thought behind you. They might say no, but at least you've shown you're taking what they did - twice! - very seriously and so should they.

vikingaero

I think something along the lines of £150 for the first time and £250 for the second time (plus the charges, mileage etc etc)

Write them a letter telling them that if they do it again then you will immediately escalate your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. And let's pray that they don't !!!! it up again.

ezmerelda

Thanks. Totalling it up from memory, I think I spent a good 8 hours on the phone, going to and from the dealership and to the bank (not including time spent on the phone ranting about it to the OH and various other people ), so that's a day's work on it's own.
There's at least £50 in bank charges, will check the phone bills - several calls to the bank were from my mobile so won't be cheap. I don't have parking receipts as I never thought to get them at the time, but there was 2 or 3hrs parking in town, probably about a fiver or so. How do I work out mileage? If I know how many miles I get to a tank and how many litres it takes, can I just do the maths from there? Probably looking at 50-60 miles in all.

Off the top of me head with my rubbish maths, I'm reckoning a little under £200 for all that. I just don't know what to say for the other stuff, embarassment and stress etc. Much as I like the sound of set figures, £150, £250 etc or hourly rate for the days I had no access to money, I don't want to seem unreasonable or greedy - it would mean I'd be asking for a total of around £500 which personally I'd be more than happy with but would they think I'm taking the pee a bit? Would CAB be able to advise? (meaning, is there any point me going to them?)

I'd been advised to contact ombudsman service, if it hadn't been resolved quickly the second time I would have done, but they returned my money the following day. Would they still investigate if I told them about it? I also heard something about breach of the direct debit guarantee, don't know the details but that was definately mentioned. The bank have now cancelled DDs from VW so I know it won't happen again if by some chance they haven't sorted it at their end, there will be no more attempts to extract many thousands of pounds from me!

KILL_BILL

detail the inconvenience that you have incurred BUT DONT put a monetary value on it if your first letter to them.

That way they may offer more than what your looking for in the first place.

If they come back with an amount which is much lower than you think that you should get then go back with a counter offer

unhappyvirgincustomer_2

can you change the payment from a direct debit to a standing order? I know won't help with what has happened already but they will not be able to do it again.