Are Argos ripping me off?

RichyRich

davelewis wrote:

cor - the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977

I have just been revising this for Contract Law!!!

As me a question, go on ask me a question......:D

So have I!

Tallyho: just because Argos have a legal dept doesn't automatically make their contract legal. =You're right, it is breach of contract and as such a charge for it is only enforceable if it is a genuine pre-emption of the costs involved in dealing with that breach (Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Company v. New Garage & motor Company). The company is also under an obligation to mitigate those costs (British Westinghouse v. London Underground) so they cannot claim that they did something even though they knew it would cost them more if they knew about the non payment.

Just take a look at This thread to see how many people has successfully claimed back bank charges.

Rich

RichyRich

Tallyho, I have three times given you the legal basis for the charges being unenforceable in law and you have three times ignored what I have said. A penalty charge is an unfair contract term regardless of whether you signed up to it or not, regardless of whether breach was anticipated or not.

Rich

RichyRich

Another thing - Just because it's common practice among banks to have high charges doesn't make it legal either (and for that matter might contravene European Competition regulation...)

Poppy9

Tallyho wrote:

The whole idea of these charges is too try & educate people to take financial responsibility .

Are you joking? The retailer trying to educate people in the use of credit finance. :rotfl: The retailer introduces incentives to entice people to buy their goods that they wouldn't buy otherwise. They hope the buyer will make mistakes on the interest free periods so they can charge higher prices for their goods. In fact some companies go out of their way to make it 'easy' for you to miss settlement dates. Look at your credit card bill. Mine are always dated at least 10 days before I receive them. Also companies are not obliged in law to tell you when settlement is due so if you buy something from a retailer on buy now and pay in 1 or 2 years time it's upto you to make a note of the due date, it's often hidden away in the small print. They don't have to write to warn you that time is nearly up.

Your examples with BP and your employer don't really compare. BP don't sell you petrol on interest free credit and I doubt your employer would defer more than 28 days in taking payment for your services. It's perfectly legitimate to query the charges a bank or credit company levy on you. Often the T&C you sign are non-specific on the exact charge and these charges maybe varied by them writing to you (usually lost in advertising leaflets). They do not have to ensure that you have received the charges update. Is this fair?

To the OP - are you telling us the full story? You cannot get interest free on purchases under £95 in Argos. £95 is only interest free for 3 months. Also Argos do write to warn you that the interest free period is coming to an end and how much it will cost you if you don't settle. I know because they wrote to me a month ago to advise me after I bought a trampoline on the interest free. I logged on line and set up a future payment to ensure I cleared the bill a couple of days before due.

jennybear

I have just looked this up and apparently the fee for a returned DD or cheque or missed payment is £17.50 so I am a big confused. OP did you get charged £35 a time or did you miss two payments at a total cost of £17.50 each? The £17.50 is written in the credit agreement.

debs626

Tallyho wrote:

The whole idea of these charges is too try & educate people to take financial responsibility . She obviously hasn't & the table is now costing £130 quid instead of £25 .

In Argos's case I beg to differ

There just taking advantage of him because he failed to pay. They would be more intrested in selling him credit than detering him from missing a payment, its in there best intrest if he misses a payment.

Im not disputing them charging him for missing a payment im disputing the amount ! its way over the top.

edited, just seen post above and £17.50 sounds about right

Coupon-mad

Having just read this thread I would agree that it is certainly worth disputing these charges with Argos. If it was me I would phone in the first instance and chances are the Argos person on the phone might refer to it as a 'penalty' if you steer the conversation that way.:rolleyes:
Then you can write to the Head Office/Chief Exec quoting the law mentioned elsewhere in this thread (good studying, guys!) and pointing out that their own staff say it's a penalty charge (therefore it's not legal).
I just feel that the charge is disproportionately high and could be challended as an unfair contract (doesn't matter if you signed it if the fundamental contract is unfair/disproportionate, I think).
A few years ago I used to work for a major Bank helping to draw up loan contracts - although in loans Dept, not in Legal Dept. Interestingly, one of our main considerations when dealing with a complaint which threatened to go to the Financial Services Ombudsman was the cost. We would usually pay a hundred quid or so in compensation if a complaint looked justified, without referring to Legal Dept, because I believe it costs more than that to the Company if the FSO investigates a case.
Argos scenario sounds similar to recent Bank charge challenges.

RichyRich

What they call it is largely immaterial. The courts will (should) look at what it actually is, not the name attached, so even if a member of staff said "there's a penalty of £15", wouldn't actually make it a penalty if it could be shown to be a genuine pre-emptive estimate of the costs involved of dealing with the breach.

Signing the contract does not make the law about penalty charges void. Taking the example of banks, if you need a bank account (for wages etc), you have no choice but to sign up to those charges. You have no bargaining power.

Rich

tin

Tallyho wrote:

The point being made was over justification of prices so I quoted my company hourly charge which I think it outrageos but there you go , you obviously didn't grasp the fact that it was to do with pricing , NOT Argos charging her . . I was saying that if you are going to ask Argos to justify there costs why don't you ask BP why there petrol costs so much . Why do baked beans from Lidl cost 9p when baked beans from Heinz cost 25p ! The price you see is the price you pay . If you don't like it don't buy it & then moan when you don't adhere to T&C's & get charged .

Err. that's excactly what you said in the first place just re-worded which does not change the argument!

Again I say you are not comparing e.g the stated price of e.g. beans with the stated price of the credit. You walk into BP or Aldi, or speak to your company, and say "yes I will buy at that price". The OP has walked into argos seen interest free and thought "yes I will buy at that price". The charge is an exceptional item that's come later. If the OP ever thought, "yeah that 25 quid table will end up costing me £130" they CLEARLY would not buy.

Also are you SERIOUSLY telling me that £35 is near a realistic cost to process this charge within argos? The cost of a few cycles of processor time, a sheet of paper, envolope and stamp? Maybe in some situations 5 mins attention from someone who gets paid maybe at the absolute most £20 an hour? Perhaps if their contract negotiation with their bank has been really really poor, a £1 charge for handling the bounce (again, for a few milliseconds of computer processor time)? Come on, apply some common sense!

I must say as others have, to get interest free on £25 is a bit odd as some have already said. There must be more to the story than that!

aj2001

What ever you people say does not help op, they might remove charges on good will basis most company do, Halifax bank charged me £20 when the cheq I cashed bounced now it wasnt my fault the shop that gave me cheq did not have enogh funds, but it does say in their t.c that there will be a charge but when I phoned customer service they removed the charge.

Most companys work on interest and these shop cards have way haigh interest so to entice you they have to give you 0% interest and upto what value you can have 0% interest so they want you to forget and then they make some money...

anyway op needs to speak to c/s and be nice and persistant and I am sure some charges will be removed, main thing to remember is do not be angry and to let the person that c/s know it was a mistake, noone reads small prints which is a shame as companys get away with alot.

Op I hope they remove your charges, but make sure you clear this in which ever way as you dont want to be on bad credit.