Number of Issues with Black Horse Finance

kirklean

Last September I applied for a loan with Black Horse Finance, little did I know what a complete mess and a nightmare that it would be. I wanted £5500 to pay off a couple of Credit Cards. The other half and I attended a meeting at their offices in Dunfermline and they were very plausable and we ended up borrowing £7000 instead. During the meeting, the subject of Single Payment PPI came up but as I am in a stable job and have other income streams, I tried to tell the agent that it was not required and she made it clear that without the PPI then we would likely not get the loan. Little did I know at the time that this is not best practise, was a lie and was not treating customers fairly.
Anyway, the way the process was supposed to work was that Black Horse would raise cheques to the companies that were to be paid. Throughout September and October I kept checking the balance of the one of the cards (as the other had been cleared last week in September). The balance continued to remain so I contacted Black Horse who informed me that the cheque was raised and sent on 23rd September. I then contacted Paypal who said they had no record of the cheque arriving and would run a trace to see if it had arrived but not been cashed for whatever reason. This process took 4 weeks to complete and drew a blank.
I had to contact Black Horse again who then informed me that the cheque had been picked up and cashed by Co-Operative Bank. Strange because none of the cheques were to be made out to Co-Operative. I called them and they initially said that they could not discuss anything with me as I am not one of their customers. I made arrangements however to get their Fraud Officer to call me regarding the missing cheque. He duely did and informed me the cheque had been returned the day after it arrived and Black Horse would have known this. By the time it was eventually sorted out, it was the week before Christmas.
I wrote a letter of complaint stating that this was not good enough, it prolonged the length of time the card stayed active and I was paying for a loan with interest and misselling of PPI that I was unable to put to the use that I had applied for in the first place. A few days later I got a reply from their complaints team who said they would look into it and get back in touch with me just shortly and a warning that if there was any other details they required and I did not reply within 8 weeks that they would consider the matter closed.
We arrive at February and still no reply from Black Horse. I sent a letter the Director complaining that my complaint had gone unanswered. I got a reply stating that the original person that was dealing with the complaint has no left and that nobody had been appointed to take her role. This is of no consequence to me, I just wanted my complaint addressed. That letter stated I should wait an additional 8 weeks to get a response.
I had to write a third letter in April as I had still not received a reply to the original complaint. I received through the post, a pack with information on how to contact the Financial Obudsman but no dead lock letter. I have written several times since but they now just ignore or refuse to acknowledge my letters.
All I wanted was a partial refund for the time the cheque was missing and the lies I was told when making relevant enquiries, cancel the PPI and refund any amounts due and did warn them that I could also insist on 8% interest for the inconviance of call after call, letter after letter. Needless to say I am very disappointed into the lack of meeting any sort of customer charter.


Should I just simply contact the FO or is there anything else I can/need to do? The sticking point was that I have still not received the deadlock letter.

di3004

kirklean wrote: »

Last September I applied for a loan with Black Horse Finance, little did I know what a complete mess and a nightmare that it would be. I wanted £5500 to pay off a couple of Credit Cards. The other half and I attended a meeting at their offices in Dunfermline and they were very plausable and we ended up borrowing £7000 instead. During the meeting, the subject of Single Payment PPI came up but as I am in a stable job and have other income streams, I tried to tell the agent that it was not required and she made it clear that without the PPI then we would likely not get the loan. Little did I know at the time that this is not best practise, was a lie and was not treating customers fairly.
Anyway, the way the process was supposed to work was that Black Horse would raise cheques to the companies that were to be paid. Throughout September and October I kept checking the balance of the one of the cards (as the other had been cleared last week in September). The balance continued to remain so I contacted Black Horse who informed me that the cheque was raised and sent on 23rd September. I then contacted Paypal who said they had no record of the cheque arriving and would run a trace to see if it had arrived but not been cashed for whatever reason. This process took 4 weeks to complete and drew a blank.
I had to contact Black Horse again who then informed me that the cheque had been picked up and cashed by Co-Operative Bank. Strange because none of the cheques were to be made out to Co-Operative. I called them and they initially said that they could not discuss anything with me as I am not one of their customers. I made arrangements however to get their Fraud Officer to call me regarding the missing cheque. He duely did and informed me the cheque had been returned the day after it arrived and Black Horse would have known this. By the time it was eventually sorted out, it was the week before Christmas.
I wrote a letter of complaint stating that this was not good enough, it prolonged the length of time the card stayed active and I was paying for a loan with interest and misselling of PPI that I was unable to put to the use that I had applied for in the first place. A few days later I got a reply from their complaints team who said they would look into it and get back in touch with me just shortly and a warning that if there was any other details they required and I did not reply within 8 weeks that they would consider the matter closed.
We arrive at February and still no reply from Black Horse. I sent a letter the Director complaining that my complaint had gone unanswered. I got a reply stating that the original person that was dealing with the complaint has no left and that nobody had been appointed to take her role. This is of no consequence to me, I just wanted my complaint addressed. That letter stated I should wait an additional 8 weeks to get a response.
I had to write a third letter in April as I had still not received a reply to the original complaint. I received through the post, a pack with information on how to contact the Financial Obudsman but no dead lock letter. I have written several times since but they now just ignore or refuse to acknowledge my letters.
All I wanted was a partial refund for the time the cheque was missing and the lies I was told when making relevant enquiries, cancel the PPI and refund any amounts due and did warn them that I could also insist on 8% interest for the inconviance of call after call, letter after letter. Needless to say I am very disappointed into the lack of meeting any sort of customer charter.


Should I just simply contact the FO or is there anything else I can/need to do? The sticking point was that I have still not received the deadlock letter.

Hi there and welcome

Personally I would give the FOS a ring from here and see what they have to say, in case they say for you to send all your info and they may act on this for you.
Good luck and please let us know how you get on cheers.;)
http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/contact/index.html