seeking advice re dispute in regard to direct debit payment

mmoalem

hi there all
the dispute i have is with IKEA store card. we have set a direct debit to pay all monies automaticly on time. I have now recieved a bill for penalty as they clain the direct debit was canceled and we havent paid the debt on time. Wehave not canceled the dd and our bank (natwest) says that according to their records the dd been canceled by the originator (ie IKEA) but they are unable to provide a writeen statment to this extent...
now ikea blames the bank and the bank blames ikea and in the meantime i have to pay the penalty charges and interest.
what is the best way to tackle this? who do i need to contact for advice?
any advice will be greatly appriciated...
BTW - i had so much headache with this ikea card since we got it three month ago - they seems particularly resistent to setting up dd proeprly - so my 2 pence of advice: do not touch it with a barge pole.
cheers
michel

jonesMUFCforever

IKEA (and most other large companies and organisations) set up d/d's themselves under a system called AUDDIS. They can set them up and cancel them! I am slightly suprised that Nat West could not at least have given you a printed list of your d/d's which in the case of my bank would have shown whether the d/d was cancelled by the originator, bank, or you.
I would pay the bill for now but it is the card services of whoever runs their card that you need to complain to and get the charges refunded.
These days everything is logged to your employee number in financial services and it would not take long for someone in authority to clear this up once and for all.
When the matter is resolved I would close the account and go elswhere.

MarkyMarkD

IKEA would be unlikely to have randomly cancelled your DD unless a payment was refused, or they confused your account with someone else's.

I think you need to persevere with NatWest - I don't find it acceptable that they can't write you a letter saying that the DD was cancelled by IKEA. It will CERTAINLY show on their systems who cancelled it.

JohalaReewi

Try contacting BACS who operate and oversee the DD scheme. Say you need help with a Direct Debit problem and that you are a consumer. Explain your situation and see if they can help. They should be able to get the bank to sort itself out and say who cancelled the DD in writing. You should then be able to persue IKEA to get your additional charges refunded.

http://www.bacs.co.uk/BPSL/directdebit/contactus/gettinghere/