Citymain Administrators/Buymobilephones.net

mattwillco1

Hello everyone, I noticed the dreaded £6.99 monthly withdrawals too from City Main administrators and this last month, from A1Comms. It turns out I have been paying since mid-2013, which I was annoyed with. Although I accept that I should have been more fastidious about my finances, I never knowingly allowed this policy to start.

I immediately cancelled the direct debit and wrote a fairly strongly-worded email to the CityMain Administrator email and effectively threatened that if I did not receive a refund within 48 hours then I would report them to Financial Ombudsman.

36 hours later I received an email from them stating that they had acted on instruction from Buymobiles.net and that it is the responsibility of the account holder to manage their finances. Nevertheless, they offered £75 as a "goodwill gesture". Although not fulfilling totally what has been taken, I have accepted this and feel this is a reasonable amount.

For all those who have just discovered that they have been swizzed by this company, I urge you to make a fuss and demand your money back.

My parting words are that I will not be purchasing a phone from buymobiles.net again - bad business practice by them associating themselves with an iffy firm.

melissa007

mywardrobeisnarnia wrote: »

Successful refund of cash with email copies here forums.moneysavingexpert[.]com/showpost.php?p=63265016&postcount=96

Can anyone advise how to get this link to work?

melissa007

yoshijjb wrote: »

For anyone else still looking into this, I'd recommend following mywardrobeisnarnia 's advice. I pretty much copied and pasted the email, tweaked it so that it worked for me, and the next day they told me they'd refund me £50! Cheers! :beer:

I can't get this link to work, can anyone help?

rs65

melissa007 wrote: »

Can anyone advise how to get this link to work?

Have you tried removing the square brackets?

vip49

So after looking at bank statements and tracing it back to a mobile phone contract taken out in 2012 and finding the original order receipt where there is no mention of the insurance. Cancelled the DD last month and contacted them they have sent what seems to be a standard email back and in that email offering a "gesture of goodwill" for £100. After paying in excess of £200 should I accept the offer or fight for what I believe is right and try and get a full refund?

Quentin

vip49 wrote: »

.... I accept the offer or fight for what I believe is right and try and get a full refund?

Obviously fight!


You can prove you never agreed to this.


You have 6 years to chase for a debt - don't be put off by them telling you it was your responsibility to check your account - they are the ones at fault, not you.


See this thread:


https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/356424

vip49

Thanks Quentin I shall send them another mail like the one in the link thanks for confirming heat I believed I should do

divi18

Hi Everyone,

If you copy and edit the e-mail to send to City admin they will cancel your insurance as well as give you full refund. I had been unknowingly paying £9.99 each month since Feb 2015, There was no need for the insurance as I am already covered by my bank and I am pretty sure there was no indication of a phone insurance in the document I was presented with from the company. I just e-mailed city Admin yesterday and they replied back this morning that they will be refunding the full amount I have been paying. Its worth a try.

CampGareth

Well it looks like I've been going about this the wrong way.

Finally googled the 5.99 monthly charge from citymain and came across this thread among others. I bought a samsung galaxy S back in 2010 and have been paying for insurance I never signed up for ever since.

Called citymain on the 1st and today they got back back to me saying:

Further to your recent contact with our office, we would like to take this opportunity to advise you that Citymain Administrators Ltd is the claims administrator on behalf of Underwriters in respect of Mobile Phones Direct insurance scheme. We are also responsible for the collection of premiums.

We would confirm your details were transferred to us by Mobile Phones Direct as having accepted the insurance with the first month being free, when you purchased a Samsung I9000 Galaxy S handset on 15th October 2010. The insurance offer and information was available to view and remove during the sales process.

Our letter confirming the setup of the insurance/Direct Debit was also sent to the above address on 15th October 2010. This was two separate letters to that of the purchase of the phone and separate to that of your mobile network contract. We also enclosed a copy of the policy documents, which confirm that the ‘period of insurance’ is for each billing month as they are not annual policies and so will continue to run until such time as a cancellation request is received from the insured. It does not end when the mobile phone contract ends. As no contact has been made from you in relation to this policy, it continued.

For this reason we are unable to consider reimbursement of the premium paid to date, as cover has been provided in line with the request for this alongside your original purchase, and documentation confirming your cover has been supplied to the address that you have supplied.

Should you wish to discuss this any further, please do not hesitate to contact us further.

Yours Sincerely,

Citymain Administrators

Now I'll modify that email in post number 63265016 and we'll see what happens. Certainly Citymain seem reluctant to return the money.

john.d_3

Having worked out a few weeks ago that I was paying £5.99 a month for insurance I had never knowingly asked for, I contacted Cityman asking for a full refund for the 4 years of payment. They initially responded with a letter saying it was my fault for not checking bank statements, that it was in the small print, and they'd sent me a letter telling me, but that as a gesture of goodwill they would refund £100.

I responded refusing this and denying having received such a letter (which I didn't) and asking again for a full refund. Today I received a further email agreeing to a full refund.

So everybody out there go for it - clearly they recognize they are in the wrong and it just takes a little pushing to get a full refund, and don't accept anything less.