Angry at Amazon Credit Card

scholt

Hi

I want to draft a letter of complaint to Amazon today. I transferred some of my CC balance to their 0% introductory offer and was at first really impressed with their customer service.

My first bill arrived on the 10th May and I set up a D.D immediately. However when the second bill came I was told I now owed 2 months and a £25 late fee.

I called up and was told that I should have been informed that the D.D took effect from the second bill. I wasn't and was pretty peeved. They have agreed to refund £12.50 of the fee immediately and the supervisor will assess the other £12.50 but can't guarantee it will not affect my credit record and have also frozen the card (not that this actually bothers me)

I want to complain - has anyone got a few pointers on what to include in the letter? In the 7 years I have owned a CC I have never made a late payment but now because of these clowns.......

I must admit I had a little sob when I got off the phone - why is it all so f***** hard ?!

Thank you

kuohu

I think it is quite common for you to have to pay the first month on a new card manually, and then after that the DD will kick into action. On all cards, not just Amazon. I had to do this earlier this year with a new HSBC card, and I even set up the DD straight away once I had the card - not wait for the first bill.

But stick to your guns (calmly) and they should refund the fine as a gesture of goodwill. Undoubtedly they will have covered themselves in their T&C's somewhere, but if they admit that they should have highlighted the delay on DD setup (and didn't) then you have a right to be aggreived.

In the letter I would stay factual and list the relevant dates, ie the date when you set up the DD (did you have to post off a mandate or was it online) and the payment due date from the statement. What was the time between these dates? You could say something along the lines that 'I expected the DD to be setup during the 4 weeks between those dates and was not advised otherwise'. Also.. does your first statement highlight that the DD isn't setup and that manual payment will be required?

Just some thoughts and I hope it helps. Good luck.

Chortle_2

Make sure as well, that you are not going to 'lose' the 0% deal because of this! Normally, if you make a late payment on a 0% card, they immediately put you onto their 'normal' rate, as technically, you've broken the T&Cs of the 0% deal.

Without being funny, did you not notice that they'd not taken the first payment?

scholt

Chortle wrote:

Make sure as well, that you are not going to 'lose' the 0% deal because of this! Normally, if you make a late payment on a 0% card, they immediately put you onto their 'normal' rate, as technically, you've broken the T&Cs of the 0% deal.

Without being funny, did you not notice that they'd not taken the first payment?

Thanks for your replies Chortle and Kuohu

Nope - I did not notice they hadn't taken the payment. To Be Honest that could say a lot about my money management - or lack of and why I find myself here....:o

It may well be the standard for CCs - that the first bill must be paid manually but I still think they have a duty of care to tell the customer this (I didn't know see!) instead of - 'ah yes Direct Debit the easy way to pay blah blah'

kuohu

Chortle - that is a good point. I have just read the online T&C's of the card but can't see a reference to losing the promo deal if a late payment is made. There may be a separate T&Cs for the promo which isn't online maybe?

Scholt - as Chortle said you want to make sure the 0% isn't affected by this. Can you send them a secure message via the online banking?

domestic_goddess

You should have had a letter of confirmation that the direct debit has been set up along with the direct debit guarentee. On this letter it would have said to keep paying as normal until your statement tells you that your direct debit is in place. Thats what it said in my oh's letter.

You can also ask them if they record their calls and ask for them to listen to that call!

ihatebanks_3

Amazon don't takeaway the O% credit card offer, and tell them it usually takes 10 working days for the direct debit to be setup and that you gave enough notice. Also I find it that you should not accept the half way offer immediately and to speak to a manager asking for the full refund, if the manager says no take the half and let them know you'll be taking it further.

At the start of the call be calm, be friendly with the customer service rep and offer to pay the next month's payment aswell (if you can) if they will refund the full charge.

Hope this helps.

ukbadger_2

Well they took £25 off me as I missed the first payment following DD set up - I had a miscarriage was in hospital for a few days and when I came out lets just say I had other things on my mind than checking I had paid the £9 ish minimum payment.

I called when the statement came in with the £25 penalty on - explained the situation re baby and was subtley encouraged to pay £50 over the phone with my debit card equivalent to several months minimum payments (at their suggestion) but they refused a refund.

At the time I wasn't really ar*ed - I was pretty devastated but now I get so mad when I think about it - maybe I should try a letter as well ...

Oh - I have still not received my £15 Amazon Voucher - halifax say it's amazons problems etc etc

scholt

ukbadger wrote:

Well they took £25 off me as I missed the first payment following DD set up - I had a miscarriage was in hospital for a few days and when I came out lets just say I had other things on my mind than checking I had paid the £9 ish minimum payment.

I called when the statement came in with the £25 penalty on - explained the situation re baby and was subtley encouraged to pay £50 over the phone with my debit card equivalent to several months minimum payments (at their suggestion) but they refused a refund.

At the time I wasn't really ar*ed - I was pretty devastated but now I get so mad when I think about it - maybe I should try a letter as well ...

Oh - I have still not received my £15 Amazon Voucher - halifax say it's amazons problems etc etc

good grief thats terrible! (sorry for your loss)

They did indeed try to get me to pay over the phone too.

ukbadger_2

I 'm going to try a letter - I think that because they are offering 'free' credit that some organisations can be rather sneaky at getting extra cash. They got me to pay £50 which they sold to me as more convenient as would sort out next months payment too - in fact the minimum payment was only £18 for the two months - they get your 0 percent loan reduced quicker this way I guess.

Maybe it's mission impossible but worth a try ...

scholt

ukbadger wrote:

I 'm going to try a letter - I think that because they are offering 'free' credit that some organisations can be rather sneaky at getting extra cash. They got me to pay £50 which they sold to me as more convenient as would sort out next months payment too - in fact the minimum payment was only £18 for the two months - they get your 0 percent loan reduced quicker this way I guess.

Maybe it's mission impossible but worth a try ...

Its always worth a try.... will let you know how I get on