Robertson bl**dy Holbrook!

yan79

Hi.

To cut a very long story short, I've been claiming back some Capital One credit card charges back for 3 years now with Robertson Holbrook.
It's taken from Feb 2007 until summer this year for RH to get the case to court.
Finally in Aug this year Cap1 agreed to pay me in full and issued a cheque to RH on the 14th Aug. This payment showed up on my statement and this is the only reason I knew about it. I left it about a month and contacted RH who denied knowing anything about a cheque. On the 19th Oct I contacted them again to be told that they never received a cheque.
In the meantime I have sent numorous complaints and haven't had a response or even a aknowledgement.
About two weeks ago I got that sick of ringing Tim from RH that I took it into my own hands to contact Cap1's legal team. This was what Tim has been doing since August! I got in touch with a woman named Wendy Starr who was usless and never returned my call and passed me from pillow to post. I gave up with Wendy and contacted Rachel Howey who has looked into the issue and told me that the did indeed send RH a cheque on the 14th Aug and it was cashed on the 28th August by RH. I called RH who spouted a load of old c**p until I told them I had spoken to Rachel who had confirmed that RH had cashed the cheque.
Tim then confirmed he knew that but said they had no record of the cheque. So now I'm sat waiting for him to pull his finger out, stop stuttering and do his bl**dy job properly. Everytime I ring him he just says ''I'm on it'' he never rings me back, he never gets anywhere, I'm doing all his work for him and I'm still pennyless.

I don't know what to do anymore, I'm desperate for this money, I really need it for christmas and in the meantime RH are pratting about as usual.

Any ideas to try to get them to pull their finger out? I've threatened them with the Ministry of Justice etc and as I said I don't even get a response. I must have written 5 emails of complaint. I feel like screaming!

Sorry for the rant.

Yan

Centium5000

I'd say first thing Yan is to ask Cap1's legal team to fax you documentary evidence that the cheque was issued and cashed by RH.

Once you've got this, you'll have a record of RH being in receipt of funds and explain that to them when you call to ask for your money (politely ). Remind them that they are acting on your behalf and are duty bound to act in your interests, agree a date with them when the money will be in your account / your hand and confirm this agreement by email & post.

If they still play dumb when you've explained you have evidence of them taking payment, or they agree but fail to pay, you can take it from there.

The important thing at this stage is establishing that payment was made (correctly) and when.

Hope this helps...

BigBudgie

Hi Yan,

I totally agree with what Centium has suggested.

However, I am hopping mad that you have appear to have been treated this way by this Company. Holding onto your money since Mid August is totally and utterly disgusting.

Please could you let us know a few more details regarding your claim, what amount of charges were you claiming, what are Roberston Holbrook charging you for this wonderful service? Were they claiming just statutory interest or compound interest. When was it filed at Court etc etc.
I am interested in how this particular Company work in practice compared to the description of their service on their website.

Regards Budgie

BigBudgie

Lets try and get this sorted out by the end of Monday for you so that you get some dosh in time for Xmas.

I suggest you send Rachel Howey an email tonight / tomorrow morning. I know that she normally works on a Saturday morning.

Ask her for written confirmation, by return email, with details of the cheque, the amount and cheque number and the date it was sent to RH.

I have a couple of ideas for getting this sorted quickly.

Please post up Rachel's response and please also post up the details of your claim that I asked for in my last post.

As part of this settlement was the balance on your Capital One card also reduced to zero, or should it have been and if so, has this actually happened?

Please try and give us the full story so that we can do our best to assist.

Rgds Budgie

BigBudgie

Thanks Yan,

Your explanations are great.

Just a point for anyone else with a Capital One credit card charges claim, or anyone with a credit card charges claim against any credit card company. There is no need to use a Company such as RH to claim back your charges for you, it's actually a very easy process and there is plenty of totally free assistance on websites like MSE and the Legal Beagles website, where I am noramlly to be found. I am aware that some people would rather pay a claims management company to handle things on their behalf and are quite happy to pay a fee so as to ensure a smooth and hassle free claim process. There is nothing wrong with doing it that way, provided it does actually run smoothly. But in situations like this, when things go wrong it can be a real pain in the backside and especially frustrating when you consider that the claims management company are actually doing very little work whatosever for quite a chunky payment.

I know the way that Capital One operate with regards to settling claims.
They will have refunded all of your charges, plus all of the purchase interest you had ever paid on your account plus statutory court interest on top of the charges plus refunded the court fee, making the total of around £1200.
They action the refund by applying it to your account and then raise a cheque or bacs payment which then deducts the money from your Capital One account, and which balances their books from an accounting point of view.
They appear on this occasion to have sent a cheque to RH, and have confirmed that it was cashed by RH.
As their fee for doing around 30 mins work ( sending three templated letters letters and filing a court claim ) RH would just refund you the charges of around £620 and keep the balance of £400 for themselves !! Not bad work if you can get it eh ?

Please leave things with me for a few hours and let me see what I can come up with for you.

Regards Budgie

yan79

Budgie,

Thank you very much, I really appreciate this. I didn't do it myself at the time as I had a lot on with work and was preganant amongst other things. I wish I had now!!

Just one more thing while we're on the subject of RH.
At the same time (Feb 07) I also put a claim in for about £2000 with a current account I had with Halifax. RH messed about again and the charges never went to court (I don't think) BUT Halifax did make me an offer which RH told me to decline. I have never received these charges back because in the summer all cases got put on hold. What my question is, is do you think I can still get these charges back as I actually claimed before the 'big freeze' and was made an offer or do you think I'm in the same boat as thousands of others who will just have to wait and see?

Thanks again.

Yan

orc_2

BigBudgie wrote: »

Just a point for anyone else with a Capital One credit card charges claim, or anyone with a credit card charges claim against any credit card company. There is no need to use a Company such as RH to claim back your charges for you, it's actually a very easy process and there is plenty of totally free assistance on websites like MSE and the Legal Beagles website, where I am noramlly to be found.

Sound advice.

Just to reiterate, there is no need for involving any claims management company for any claim, even just now, when spirits are a bit down after the SC decision.

Help is available from many sites, not just those mentioned by BB but on CAG and PC web sites. There is terrific support & advice available- totally free, please make use of it. Its your claim, your money and your interest, which can often be a substantial amount.

That money is better off in your pockets.

I hope this works out for the OP, good luck.

orc_2

yan79 wrote: »

Budgie,

Thank you very much, I really appreciate this. I didn't do it myself at the time as I had a lot on with work and was preganant amongst other things. I wish I had now!!

Just one more thing while we're on the subject of RH.
At the same time (Feb 07) I also put a claim in for about £2000 with a current account I had with Halifax. RH messed about again and the charges never went to court (I don't think) BUT Halifax did make me an offer which RH told me to decline. I have never received these charges back because in the summer all cases got put on hold. What my question is, is do you think I can still get these charges back as I actually claimed before the 'big freeze' and was made an offer or do you think I'm in the same boat as thousands of others who will just have to wait and see?

Thanks again.

Yan

Do you still have the offer letter from Halifax? How long was the offer open for?
There is no harm in taking them up on the offer directly by contacting them on the contact details given. However, I think the chances of success are exceptionally slim, if any at all, so please don't bank on it in any way.

yan79

orc wrote: »

Do you still have the offer letter from Halifax? How long was the offer open for?
There is no harm in taking them up on the offer directly by contacting them on the contact details given. However, I think the chances of success are exceptionally slim, if any at all, so please don't bank on it in any way.

Hi.

No, I don't have the letter. It was a fw years ago and have no idea how long the offer was open for. I'm sure I just threw the letter away

Thanks for your advice.

Yan

BigBudgie

Let's get the Cap One side of things sorted first Yan and then we can move onto the Halifax.

Couple of quick questions though, what sort of Halifax account was it? Was it a proper current account with cheque guarantee card or a basic cardcash type account? Also do you currently consider yourself to currently be in financial hardship?

yan79 wrote: »

Hi.

No, I don't have the letter. It was a fw years ago and have no idea how long the offer was open for. I'm sure I just threw the letter away

Thanks for your advice.

Yan

BigBudgie

Hi Yan,

I am still working on this, hopefully will be able to get back to you during the day on Sunday.

Budgie