Great 'Who Pays Compensation If You Ask?' Hunt

bhiman

Dear Derrick,

I am not sure why you felt the need to specifically mention "Indian Call Centre" and "by someone in England". Especially seeing that most if not all the other complaints/hassels/compensation issues relate to this country!!Just out of curiosity, would you have specifically mentioned it if the problem had started with "someone in England" and sorted out by an "Indian Call Centre" chap.

Cheers,

bhiman

derrick wrote:

Needed to phone Norwich Union about transferring a personal pension from another company into my PP with them, the guy I spoke to had to go and ask someone else every time I asked a question, (Indian call centre), was on the phone for 1½ hours and did not get my queries answered, phone again day after, another ½ hour with no answer, 2 days later phoned another number, got all my Qs answered, (by someone in England), then asked for £150 compensation, this was credited to my bank account 10 days later with profuse apologies.

Dragonmist

Curry's let me down badly. I ordered a cooker, washing machine and dishwasher from Curry's at 2 Rivers, Staines. October 2004. Yes a long time ago but it still rankles. Delivery was set to 2 - 6 PM on the Tuesday. I phoned at 6 pm, and there wasn't even an answerphone. I phoned next morning and the manager told me the place was flooded, and the roof had caved in, so I couldn't have my machines. I pointed out they shouldn't have been there, as they were supposed to be delivered from Ewell the day before. He offered £50 compensation. I then was shunted from place to place and told my machines couldn't be delivered until the weekend. I had already had the old machines removed on the Tuesday ready for delivery. I was left with no cooker, dishwasher or washing machine. I was told that the van couldn't get through the gate as the gate was too narrow. Lie #1. Continental horse boxes came in and out all that day for a horse event.
The story changed. They would have had to park in the middle of the road which was dangerous. Lie #2. There is a side road by the house [private entrance to garages] and there is little traffic here anyway apart from residents. They then said they couldn't come in as they didn't have permission. Lie #3. None of the security cameras showed them at any gate. Eventually when they were delivered when it was getting dark and starting to rain. They put them in the garden and drove off. The cooker was damaged, so I had to have it repaired. I never got any compensation. We lived on takeaways for 4 days, and had to pay for the launderette twice.

I bought 2 phones on Ebay. After a week I sent them [28/02/06] back at the Sellers request as one stopped working. He is a Power Seller with 12,500 positive feedback. He didn't get them. 9 and 1/2 weeks later the Post Office returned them to me. He did not get a card through the door, and his Postman hadn't seen the parcel either, so I assume it was at the back of some depot and forgotten about. I am still using a borrowed phone, and am out of pocket for the cost of the phones and £4.52 postal charges. The Post Office have refused compensation. As a widowed pensioner I can't afford to pay out for more phones, so I'm stuck with a phone that I can hardly hear on. I really need two anyway which is why I bought a pair. The Post Office deny all responsibility, but looking at the Seller's Ebay feedback, I know who I believe.

carlih1

mjanet wrote:

basimile :beer:

Lately I have had money back from AOL ,£60 ( in small amounts over a 2 week period as I kept complaining ),plus reduced broadband / phone rental.

How did you do this, i was in free trial which was cancelled in time and they charged me two months worth of broadband which i never had they still wont refund th money!

Carli

brown11

basmiles wrote:

As a 'professional' complainer I bring in around £600 a month from complaints. I travel a lot for work so a great deal of these relate to airlines and hotels. I've just had a refund of £650 from Hilton for a poor stay with many errors, £250 from a US hotel for an error in the rate a couple of weeks ago, £270 for a security alert in another US hotel a few weeks before that. On airlines I've had a free upgrade to first with BA due to their catering dispute, a free trip on Concorde - bought with 100,000 BA miles I was given due to a previous problem. I've scored over £500 from my bank in the last year for mistakes, my Amex Platinum annual fee (£275) has been waived. Most of my clothes are bought by insurance or airline compensation for delayed luggage - always look for complicated and tight airline connections. I'm currently in dispute with a credit card company and a mobile phone company. I would expect at least £100 in compensation from each.

Of course I also play the free balance transfer game investing the money in an ISA and high paying deposit accounts and use a cashback credit card. I'm also a seriel collector of Tesco extra points - I now have enough for my £1,500 watch from Goldsmiths (£375 of Tesco vouchers).

I've kept a record for most of this year and have received around £5,000 in cash or cash equivalent benefits from complaints and careful use of offers.

basmiles

Although I am all up for saving money I am pretty certain this is NOT entirely above board. Basmiles mentions travelling for business - I assume they then claim back travel costs etc from their company. If a complaint is successful and a refund is sent - I hope this is paid back to their company as I would imagine it is legally the company's money? If not I assume the tax man is informed about all this extra income gained without taxation.... - I'm pretty sure they like to have their cut of £7200 per annum:(

lynneinjapan

finnerty wrote:

when i moved in to my house 3 yrs ago I found that both my gas and electric were with N-power, i had to arrange with them for new meters to be fitted as the gas one had been removed and the electric was on a card meter i signed all the paper work and direct debit forms and recieved confirmation of my account set up with them...after a few months i noticed no money had been debited, i phoned them they said i wasn't registered with them and to contact transco ...transco said i was with them <takes breath > I then had to resign up to n-power Direct debits etc ....This went on for 6 months countless phone calls and they still said i wasn't a customer of theirs.

I had a bad time with Npower too:

Returned to my house in 2001 after 2 years living overseas (house had been rented out while I was away, but I'd lived there for nearly 4 years before I went), they wrote to me 3 times in a month to ask for my previous address, I explained my situation to them three times (never taking more than a week or so to respond), and they STILL tried to make me pay an upfront charge until I got on the phone to them and told them where to go. I changed suppliers ASAP, duly got my final bill from Npower and paid it... and then got another (estimated bill) 3-4 months AFTER I'd left them.

Never got to the stage of demanding compensation from them - but I'm getting really sick of them sending someone to my front door every 3 months or so to try to get me to go back to them! I don't (usually) take it out on the salesmen, as I know they're only trying to make a living, but I always explain to them that after the service I've had from Npower it's extremely unlikely that I will EVER go back to them, and if I do it won't be as a result of talking to a door-to-door salesperson, so they might as well stop wasting their time and mine. The last one offered to get me taken off the list of addresses they call at - I only wish someone had done that 4 years ago!

madmoneysaver

Lea37 wrote:

We bought a suite from SCS and when it was delivered the delivery men just shoved it through the door, dropped the 3 seater on its back once and just generally took no care with it.
When they'd gone we noticed a scrape on each sofa (we bought a 2 seater and a 3 seater) and we rang the number given on the letter for problems.
They sent out a couple of people to repair the scrapes and then for some unknown reason sent out another guy to fix it again (he was confused too) which was lucky however as he did a much better job.

We're not sure where we stand compensation-wise however as we haven't actually paid yet (it was a buy now, pay next year deal) and we also took out a 5 year cover thingy on it so we think it got fixed by them.

I don't really see why we should pay full price for damaged goods even if they have been repaired well plus we had to wait in on 2 separate days for the work to be done.

Any advice?

Hi,

We had exactly the same sort of problem with SCS. We had a 3 + 1 seater delivered back in october last year and just like you the delivery men (sub contracted) took no care whatsoever with the goods. Being a cream fabric suite you can imagine what dragging it accross our floor did when they stepped in with their dirty feet (it was a rainy day). Obviously I made comments on the delivery note and was straight on the phone to customer services. They agreed to send a company to clean it all only for us to realise that there was some damage as well which you couldn't notice unless the staines were removed. I was back on the phone with them (pretty useless customer services it has to be said) and was told it wasn't reported blah blah blah. I had to be firm and ask to speak to supervisors and went from a person to another explaining what happened over and over again. They finally agreed to send a bloke around to check the problem and we got a letter telling us the part was ordered and it would be replaced in a few weeks time. Obviously not satisfied with this and Extremely upset with them as I'd been chasing them all the time etc and no one would contact me to update me at all, I ended up sending a snotty letter to them demanding replacement like for like of the suite or compensation or else I would report them to the trading standards/watchdog.
I got a phone call from the local store Sales Manager and when we came to discuss the compensation she said £35 but could only go up to £75 if she had to. I demanded replacement like for like then which she agreed to!! Silly considering that they had to make another one 3 seater and armchair, put the protection on etc and take the damaged one the minute they brought the new one in. And this certainly must have cost them more than giving me a decent discount! LOL I also demanded that they were proper SCS delivery blokes and it was all granted, it all went smoothly in the end!
Now I'm making the most of the protection we bought because our baby's been sick on the suite a couple of times and we're having the suite cleaned for the 2nd time soon :T .
Go on do write to them and stick to your guns!!!
Good luck!

HardToPlease

At the last bank holiday, my partner and I booked a room for two nights at a hotel near Ashford in Kent, The Croft Hotel. I won't bore you with the details but it was awful. We stayed one night, had a dreadful breakfast and then went to reception to complain and to tell them we were leaving. I told them I was not inclined to pay the £78 they wanted and was asked what would I pay. I said £40 which they accepted. Later that day we went to the New Flying Horse in Wye who had a room free. It was superb and only cost £80.

brown11

bulchy wrote:

Got a letter from Npower on saturday saying they have credited my account with £50, still havent got my dd sorted out, and havent seen a bill with this £50 credit, knowing Npower, the bill will take about 2 months to get here.
Sue

There are guidelines that enery companies are obliged to meet - one of them is billing. From what I understand it should take no more than 14 days (10 working days) for current billing. [35 days for closing an account and final billing. I think you should seek Energy Watch support on your issues with this supplier.

toozie_2

My Mother in Law died, the phone line was in her name, so I phoned to ask for the account to be put in Father in Laws name.

Two weeks later Father in Law received a letter from BT addressed to his late wife, thanking her for signing up to BT Broadband-they didn't even have a computer!!!

When we phoned back , they'd already taken the first bradband payment from his account. It took serveral letters of complaint, explaining the trauma it caused that his late wife had supposidly signed for broadband...after the date of death. Eventually as a gesture of goodwill, they refunded that quarters line rental. It was a long prosses of heavy complaining tho!

smashing_2

First post, but hopefully a fruitful one for people who have a genuine complaint...

I agree that as a nation we are not always very good when it comes to complaining. We tend to expect, and thus accept, bad service. Consequently we get... more bad service.

The standard 'Can i speak to a supervisor?' doesn't always cut the mustard. Sometimes you need to do something more drastic to get these companies' attention. The answer lies with a little known online money claim service from the government, and it's a lot easier and cheaper than you might think.

So here's the details if you've reached your wits end with XYZ PLC.

1. You've kept a diary of your woes, or can recreate one from e-mails.

2. You've e-mailed, phoned, and complained several times. On every phone call you've asked the rep to 'make notes on your account'.

3. You've been reasonable throughout, not shouted at any customer service people, but incompetence and disorganization have conspired against you.

4. You're clearly in the right, they're clearly in the wrong.

5. You've had enough of people not calling you back, or delivering on promises. You feel that you aren't getting through to anybody with any power. You decide to take it to the next level.

6. You sue them using the Government's online claims service at http://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk, which gives you easy access to small claims court and county court actions. It costs from just £30, depending on the amount you are claiming. You pay with a credit or debit card.

7. They get a summons 2 days later.

8. Their legal team or top-tier complaints department gets back to you very very quickly.

9. They resolve the matter.

10. You cancel the court action.


Two Real World Examples

Lawsuit A

A large UK broadband company which shall remain nameless, failed with unbelievable incompetence when it came to cancelling my broadband account. I first asked them in September 2005 to cancel the service, and by November they had still failed to do this, and were still sending me bills.

I needed to get broadband from another company for work reasons, and could not wait any longer. So I went ahead and installed a second phone line, and had the broadband installed on that.

Around the same time I informed the company in a 'Without Prejudice' e-mail, that any more time I spent dealing with their incompetence, would be charged at "my hourly rate of £150". Every e-mail they sent subsequently, asking for invoice payment or failing to address my request, was replied with variations on the theme of... "I strongly recommend that whoever is reading this, seriously consider sending this to a senior manager, or your legal department, since subject to my earlier e-mail and formal notice dated xx/xx/xx, I am charging you for my time in dealing with your incompetence, and will be suing you if necessary to reclaim it. Time spent on this e-mail... 10 mins. That's another £25".

When they finally disconnected my service in April 2006, and sent me a bill for all those unwanted months, I sued them for my time, the cost of installing a second phone line, and the monthly phone charges. Total claim... over £500, including the £50 court fee.

Within a few days they were calling me, and offered me the full amount I was asking for, provided I sent them proof that I had the second phone line installed. I did this by return e-mail, and got all the money I asked for, subject to not naming the company publicly. Strike one up for consumer activism.


Lawsuit B

Successful bidder on eBay fails to pay for item, claims their teenage son made the transaction without permission. Their feedback shows they have a history of non-payment, with four similar incidents in the past. I advise them that a bid on eBay is a legally binding contract, and will consider legal action if necessary, but this gets nowhere. The cost of the item I'm selling is £190.

It's a Monday afternoon, and I fill out a claim for £220 online (including £30 court fee).

Tuesday it's processed by Northampton County Court. They mail out the summons.

Wednesday morning the summons arrives at the eBayer's house.

Wednesday lunch time I get an e-mail saying the cheque is in the mail.

The cheque for £220 arrives the next day.


Some Useful Tips

The online claim process is very easy, but you only have a limited space in which to detail the particulars of your claim. I suggest you write a 150-200 word account of the circumstances, before going to the Money Claim site. This will save you frustration from being 'logged out automatically' etc.

It helps if you write in a somewhat legal manner, but it's not strictly necessary. The main reason is to convince the person reading it that you have a strong case, and are clearly not an idiot. Legal language definitely helps here. If you are not comfortable writing in this way, or have no experience of writing contracts or the like, try writing the claim in chronological manner, including dates and facts where appropriate, and then change any references to 'I', or 'they', to 'the Claimant' and 'the Defendant' respectively. It will read much better.

Don't get emotional in your claim, stick only to the facts. Write as if you were a policeman standing up in court.

The online claim form itself is incredibly finickety about symbols such as exclamation marks or quote marks when writing your description, and is universally unhelpful if you do this. It can be very frustrating trying to find out why your description is not being accepted by the online form. This will hopefully be solved in future, but for now, have patience, and avoid all punctuation marks whatsoever, other than commas and full stops.

You will need the address of the company or person you are suing. If it is a company, make sure it is the Head Office of the company. If it is an individual, and you are not sure of their address, consider using an online electoral roll service such as 192.com, or TraceSmart, to double check.

Don't worry too much about the court fee, which varies from £30 upwards depending on the amount of the claim. Providing you win, the defendant will have to reimburse you for this.

You can use the online service to claim up to £99,999, but if you're claiming that much, you might want to retain a lawyer.

'Without Prejudice' is a term that means whatever you are writing or offering cannot be brought up in court. You can use it in a sentence, or write it as a heading across the top of a letter or e-mail. It's a good term to throw into an e-mail, providing you do not want to refer back to that e-mail in future. Do not use it in your claim form.

Be reasonable about the amount you are claiming. I did not charge the broadband company for 12 months line rental on my 2nd phone line (the minimum contract with BT), but I could have argued a case for it. Instead I kept that back as a 'point of reasonableness' when I spoke to their legal people on the phone. It's debatable as well whether you can claim for your time, but it seemed to work for me.

Do not opt for the 'claim interest' option on the claim form, if you don't understand it or are confused by it. I was.

Be prepared to provide proof of anything you say in your claim.

Good luck!