Satellite Aftercare are stealing my money

DaisyBella_2

I am looking for some help and advise please. about 3 years ago we had Satellite Aftercare - £6 a month (yes waste of money I now know). Anyway I saw the light and cancelled. A few months later they sweet talked me with 3 months free and a reduction to £5 a month. Anyway after the first 3 months they then tried to claim £65 which obviously bounced as I didn't have that amount of cash available. I cancelled againl. A few months later I again get a call - I explain to them what happened - they apologised and said there was a computer glitch!!!. So move forward to about Aug/Sept last year I get a call from them - they were just confirming we still had the same address?? Seemed random but they didn't try and talk me into anything. Well lo and behold on the 7th October 2009 they zapped £10 out of my account!!!! I spoke to my bank and then contacted SatAfter care about 8 times. Each time I was told I was being refunded the amount. I eventually emailed them had a response from an account manager to say she would sort it out (in Jaunuary) but I heard nothing. Nothing until today when they have again zapped £13 (random amount) out of my account. I have phoned my bank, they have again cancelled the Direct Debit but cannot reverse the transaction - even though I phoned them first thing this morning. They have advised me to contact SatAftercare. This is infuriating as I got nowhere with them last time. I have had no correspondence from them.

What can I do - are they just going to be allowed to take money out of my account whenever they like? My bank said they have cancelled the DD again, but there is nothing to stop SatAfter to set it up again!!! I am at my wits end. I can't afford this - I live from week to week - and what happens if they up the amount they are taking???

I haven't phoned them today yet cos they have only ever lied to me each time I phoned before and I never got the initial £10 back.

Please help!! :cool:

tallyhoh

Isnt there some sort of direct debit guarantee, sure your bank is responsible for this. Check the rules at your bank.

DaisyBella_2

tallyhoh wrote: »

Isnt there some sort of direct debit guarantee, sure your bank is responsible for this. Check the rules at your bank.

I have made numerous phone calls this morning:

Bank told me to contact originator - they have cancelled the DD again but cannot help further.

FOS have sent me to FSA

FSA have taken my details and will get back to me.

SatelliteAftercare have promised a refund (doubt it).

I will wait to see what FSA have to say when they get back to me. Other than that I don't see I have any choice but to close my bank account and open a new one - otherwise who is to say that SatAftercare won't keep taking my money forever!!!:mad:

happymonkey40

All Direct debits are covered by the Direct Debit Indemity, ask your bank to raise one, they have to refund you the money as it was taken without your permission, also if the payment has been taken today and you have called them today, they should be able to reverse the money back into your account. call your bank again and mention the Direct debit guarnatee and state you want to raise an idemity claim. Hope this helps;)

DaisyBella_2

happymonkey40 wrote: »

All Direct debits are covered by the Direct Debit Indemity, ask your bank to raise one, they have to refund you the money as it was taken without your permission, also if the payment has been taken today and you have called them today, they should be able to reverse the money back into your account. call your bank again and mention the Direct debit guarnatee and state you want to raise an idemity claim. Hope this helps;)

Thanks for this - I thought the same! Unfortunately no luck - bank says nothing they can do they cannot reverse the payment???? Not sure what this Direct Debit Guarantee is all about - seems not to be worth the paper it is printed on - sigh :cool:

DaisyBella_2

DaisyBella wrote: »

I have made numerous phone calls this morning:

Bank told me to contact originator - they have cancelled the DD again but cannot help further.

FOS have sent me to FSA

FSA have taken my details and will get back to me.

SatelliteAftercare have promised a refund (doubt it).

I will wait to see what FSA have to say when they get back to me. Other than that I don't see I have any choice but to close my bank account and open a new one - otherwise who is to say that SatAftercare won't keep taking my money forever!!!:mad:

Update: FSA phoned me back and suggested I contact Trading Standards and UK Payments Association. The results are:

UK Payments Association: Had to leave a message for them to phone me back.

Trading Standards: Call automatically routed to Consumer Direct. They are now putting this forward as a criminal case (back to Trading Standards I think). Have suggested I send Satellite Aftercare a Template letter from their website.

Hopefully this will stop Satellite Aftercare from taking my money in future :mad:

happymonkey40

Can i ask who you bank with? As they seem not to know what they need to do, whenever i have had a DD taken from my account, i have always received the funds back the same day, here is what is written by the FOS stating all banks MUST refund customer when a DD is taken incorrectly.

If the originator or the bank/building society makes an error, the customer is guaranteed a full and immediate refund of the amount paid.


[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Direct debits are now a major part of daily life, with many people using them each month to pay their household bills. The direct debit guarantee is a powerful safeguard for customers. So it’s important that firms make sure their staff understand its provisions.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Unfortunately, many do not. Here are some of the things firms have told customers (incorrectly) when problems have arisen:[/SIZE][/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]‘We don’t operate the direct debit guarantee.’[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]‘You’ll have to contact the originating company for a refund.’[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]‘We need a month’s notice to cancel a direct debit.’[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]‘The guarantee doesn’t apply – because you haven’t suffered a loss.’[/SIZE][/FONT]

happymonkey40

I have also found the actual statement for the Direct debit guarnatee please read below: it is your bank that is in the wrong they MUST refund the money back to you with no problems.

This Guarantee is offered by all banks and building societies that accept instructions to pay Direct Debits.
If there are any changes to the amount, date or frequency of your Direct Debit (insert your organisation name)will notify you (insert number of) working days in advance of your account being debited or as otherwise agreed. If you request (insert your organisation name) to collect a payment, confirmation of the amount and date will be given to you at the time of the request.
If an error is made in the payment of your Direct Debit, by (insert your organisation name) or your bank or building society, you are entitled to a full and immediate refund of the amount paid from your bank or building society.

• If you receive a refund you are not entitled to, you must pay it back when (insert your organisation name) asks you to

You can cancel a Direct Debit at any time by simply contacting your bank or building society. Written confirmation may be required. Please also notify us.

DaisyBella_2

happymonkey40 wrote: »

Can i ask who you bank with? As they seem not to know what they need to do, whenever i have had a DD taken from my account, i have always received the funds back the same day, here is what is written by the FOS stating all banks MUST refund customer when a DD is taken incorrectly.

If the originator or the bank/building society makes an error, the customer is guaranteed a full and immediate refund of the amount paid.


[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Direct debits are now a major part of daily life, with many people using them each month to pay their household bills. The direct debit guarantee is a powerful safeguard for customers. So it’s important that firms make sure their staff understand its provisions.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Unfortunately, many do not. Here are some of the things firms have told customers (incorrectly) when problems have arisen:[/SIZE][/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]‘We don’t operate the direct debit guarantee.’[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]‘You’ll have to contact the originating company for a refund.’[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]‘We need a month’s notice to cancel a direct debit.’[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]‘The guarantee doesn’t apply – because you haven’t suffered a loss.’[/SIZE][/FONT]

As I am currently with a debt management agency (Gregory Pennington) - my bank account is with Thinkbanking (www.thinkbanking.co.uk) - so not sure if this makes a difference to the Direct Debit Guarantee

clang_uk

If this were me I would go ballistic at them!! You need to write to them telling them that you cancelled your account, and under all data protection rules you would expect your data to be deleted and not be contacted again. Then call and (if needs be swear - this is a great trick) be put through to a more senior agent. Ask for their name and ID. Tell them your story, tell them that this is the equivalent of theft and if this happens again you will be contacting the police, you should expect your money refunded to your account within 7 working days. If this hasn't happened, call them again and speak to the same agent. Send another letter. Ensure you have all this copied.

I would also tell the bank to deny all DD from this company, they surely must be able to do this.

Unless you have a lot of DD can you change accounts?

Treat this very seriously as companies like this will just ignore your requests until you give up and let them take the money.

Good luck with it!

FraudBuster

Are they associated with these?


http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/digital-tv-services/182612-continuous-payment-authoritys-satellite.html


http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2010/02/david-reynolds-of-satcover-gui.html