Santander Cowboys - DFS Account

bobthecat_2

I’m having a problem with my Santander credit agreement from when I bought my sofa from DFS. Bear with me as this is a long story and I may start waffling. If anyone else had had any similar experiences with these cowboys any advice would be much appreciated.

I bought the sofa in April 2009 and had no issues with any of the payments until now. In January I had a direct debit returned by my bank which I hold my hands up and say that this was a fault of my own. I check my bank account regularly online so soon as I noticed the returned direct debit I phoned Santander and made an automated payment of £39.78. I then assumed that the payments would carry on as normal.

It then came to the payment date in February and nothing happened. So I phoned Santander to see what was happening and they couldn’t explain why the direct debit wasn’t taken. I made a payment over the phone again of £39.78 and was told that the next direct debit would go out on the 23rd of March.

I called them again on the 1st of March just to double check the dd was set up and I was informed that it was and it will be taken on the 23rd.

The 23rd of March came and again no dd showed on my bank account. So I called Santander again made a payment again of £39.78 and was told that the dd wasn’t going out because there was no date on their system. Right so why wasn’t I told this on the numerous other occasions I have called??? Anyway, I was told that it was all set up again and the next dd would go out on the 23rd of April.

Then the next day they tried to take £66.78 out of my account!! As I wasn’t expecting this to go out it got returned by my bank as it would make me overdrawn. I got on the phone straight away to Santander to find out what they are playing at. I explained I had already made a payment for this month and wanted to know what the extra £27 was for. Surely when I called the day before they could have informed me that a dd was due to be taken and not taken my payment over the phone. The £27 is for late payment charges for February! Hold on one moment… as far as I was concerned the money was there in my bank to be taken in February, they just didn’t take the dd. I kicked up a fuss about the charges and got one of them removed.

Ok, so one thing down and another few to go. Because the dd for £66.78 was returned by my bank my bank have charged me £30 for the privilege! I have to go through Santander to get this back which I’m sure will be fun. If anyone has experience of reclaiming from these and help would be appreciated.

Right it comes to April the 23rd… you can probably guess what I’m going to say now! No payment has been taken. So I call Santander again. ‘Your account is in Arrears are you ready to make a payment over the phone today?’ Well yes I am but first I would like to know what the hell is going on with the dd. The guy on the other end replies ‘it has been cancelled because if 2 dd are returned the dd is cancelled by us’. Ok but I want to pay this off each month but you are not really helping matters. I ask him to see why all the other dd haven’t been taken when I was informed they would be. He then puts me on hold for 20 minutes.

He comes back to say that on the 1st of March I was informed over the phone that I would have extra charges on the next dd as it was written on the system by his colleague. I said I was never informed of this and start getting pretty angry at this time as he then said this is what it says so it must be true. I then go off on one because I don’t take kindly to being told I’m lying! He asked if I could be put on hold again so he can look into it further, I said no I would like you to call me back. It was left with him saying he would call me back the same evening.

He didn’t call me back and I wasn’t holding up much hope that he would so I’ll be calling this evening to make a complaint. I need to try and compose myself before hand as I tend to go a bit manic when I speak to these so called customer service advisors.

I’m considering using my 0% balance transfer facility on my credit card to pay them off and pay off my credit card on my own terms. Has anyone done this before?

angel_islington

You have my sincere sympathies. I am currently in the process of a complaint against Santander, quite an extensive one after nearly a year of incompetence. My experience is very similar to yours, you try to sort out a problem but they seem to intentionally make it difficult for you to do so.

My advice, don't bother calling them. You won't get anywhere and anything you are told holds no weight at all. In my experience, they won't do what they tell you they will and you will just go around in circles, wasting your time and money. The best thing to do is document all correspondence with them, dates, times and names and then send them a letter by recorded delivery. Then you wait for them to not reply and you have to send them another one. With any luck you might eventually get a reply. In my letter, I told them to only reply to me by mail and not over the telephone. Everything needs to have a paper trail. They are the most useless company I have ever dealt with.

Good luck, let us know how you are getting on.

izbuz

I have had the same problems with my dfs account. I didn't sign an agreement with Santander either. Yet all the problems have arisen since they took over. Returned direct debit; late payment charges(even thigh these were paid on time); slow updating computer system and customer service agents that don't understand policies and can't understand me. I have spent a huge amount of time on the phone, wasting credit and energy, you get sent in circles! They change dates for direct debits without informing you, take payments without informing you and this month refunded my payment( for some reason!) I also had a direct debit come out before the 28 day period: number 1: for the wrong amount and number 2: after i had just paid them, thus taking me over my credit limit, thus more charges! Then the phone calls began 'you owe for this month' I bloody well do not you charged me twice! ' a direct debit has been returned' (the one for next month for the wrong amount!) here we go again! Im bored, I'm tired and fed up of wasting my few days off! lets see what happens from my complaint? thank god in a while the sofa will be paid of and i will never have to be in an agreement with Santander again. Spread the word this bank sucks!:mad:

jerribre85

i have had non stop problems with my dfs/santander account it states on my credit agreement that the dd will come out in the 16th of everymonth, they could quite get that right and took it 3 days late :mad:i have called them and called them, complained to them and its has taken weeks and still not got a reply regarding my account / complaint they have tried to charged me for default charges and i have said i am not paying for the bulls up!!!! never again will i get a credit agreement with santander!!!! i am going to be sending one for complaint letter and email then taking it to the financial ombudsman, and reclaiming my phone bill charges plus alot more!!!

I WOULD NOT RECOMMENED ANYBODY SIGNING AN AGREEMENT WITH SANTANDER FOR ANY FORM OF CREDIT!!!!:mad::mad:

PNPSUKNET

does it none say on or after, how can you complain if its late....

McGilligan

I purchased a new sofa from DFS in Feb 2010. I signed the credit agreement from direct debit to start in Feb 2011 over a course of 6 months. Three weeks ago I had a cheque wrote out from my building society for the full amount. Ddespite asking them in the letter to notify me when they received it I was ignored. When I eventually got through to them on the phone they told me they had not received my cheque. I now have a letter from the building society confirming that my cheque ws recived by then and when they cashed it. I went the my local Santander where I bank to cancel the direct debit who told me even if we cancel it they may still take the money because the loan department is nothing to do with us. Every time I ring Santander I am going round and round in circles by pressing numbers on the phone and being told you are through to the wrong department.

ajones28

If you do decide to write in...personally I think it's definitely the best option... request a copy of the recording of the call, where you were supposed to have been advised that extra charges were going to be added to your account. If they say they don't have it, ask them how do they know that the advisor told you about these extra charges then; just because it's written down doesn't mean it's true. I have worked in Call Centres for years and I could tell you a story or two about things advisors have done wrong!
If an advisor forgets to tell the customer something and they know they aren't going to get caught out if they lie about it later, they aren't going to risk a telling off by being truthful are they?!?
They unfortunately employ literally anyone in Call Centres nowadays, as long as you can talk on the phone and use a computer, you've got a job. Even if you have no experience of Customer Service.
As for the companies, they are constantly on at advisors to hurry hurry hurry, everything must be done as quickly as possible to get as many people answered and off the phone as quickly as possible. So Customer Service can sometimes be the last thing on advisors minds who just want to meet the targets and get their sales commission. I mean for goodness sake how hard can it be to set up customers Direct Debits on the correct dates each month!!! It sounds like a serious lack of training to me.
Don't give up fighting though. I would not back down on this one until they had refunded all your losses and also made a good will gesture, on top of that, for your time and upset. Oh yeah and address the letter for the Manager of the Call Centre, otherwise you will have to go through another of the advisors first...who obviously have less authority than the Managers, where good will gestures are involved.

KTAT

Hello

I am the Customer Service Manager for DFS and would like to see if we can help you. Please call us on 01302 330365 or e-mail us at [EMAIL="customer.service@dfs.co.uk"]customer.service@dfs.co.uk[/EMAIL]

Kind regards

GAINSBOROUGH

I would like to say I have no complaints about DFS. Their sofas are excellent, I had my previous one for 9 years and it was still pretty good. I bought my present one last year which is also very good. My only complaint is with Santander. My DD was suppose to start on the 22 of this month but I decided to send a cheque for the ful amount (nearly £1400.00 ) on the 5th January. They constantly told me they had not received this cheque despite my letter from the Nationwide building society stating they cashed my cheque a week after receiving it. Only today have they sent me a letter to say they have found the "missing cheque". This has been one nightmare and has made me decide if I want a new sofa again and the credit is with Santander, then I shall go elsewhere. If you are buying from DFS please be on your guard which is a shame because DFS have good sofas.

GAINSBOROUGH

Totally agree. Nothing wrong with DFS sofas but Santander? If they are going to be loan company for DFS in the coming years, then I wont but from them again and will tell my friends the same.

Lyndsey_R

Hi I am just wondering if anyone has had their issues with Santander/DFS sorted to a satisfactory level as me and my husband are going through a similar complaint at the moment with them. In February they failed to collect the dd and when we rung to see why and try to pay over the phone we were told that there was nothing o/s and therefore didn't owe anything that month. We tried to explain that we were no in arrears due to their error but they wouldnt have it. We were promised the DD would come out on the due date in March and this never happened and again when we phone told the same thing and that we couldnt make the manual payment as the system didnt show any arrears. We were again promised that the DD would come out in April and guess what it didnt so another few phone calls and we were told they were very sorry there had been a system problem which is why it didnt show any arrears on the account. This was resolved and then my husband wrote in and complained as they decided that due to their error they would need to extend the credit agreement to February 2012 when it should have finished in Nov 2011. We recieved a letter of apology and a £40 cheque as way of an apology which were were happy to accept and continue paying off. Now we have received a default letter and 12 phone calls in the last 5 days from different advisors even though my husband phoned them to ask what the letter was all about as we thought the matter had been dealt with. We were told to file the letter and continue paying. Last night another phone call and this time we have been told what we had been told in the letter and over the phone is wrong as the system will not allow the term to be extended and is showing the 3 payments are in arrears. I am totally stressed out with them as you don't get any sense from them and each advisor tells you a different story. I have now esculated the issue to the FSA and hopefully we'll get the matter resolved as the stress is not doing me any good as i am 7 months pregnant and feel like they are harrassing me.
If anyone can give any kind of advise on this matter I would be most grateful

Thanks