The Phone-Coop - Direct Debit from my account paying for someone else!

abedegno

Was doing a bit of end of year cleaning on my bank accounts and I noticed that The Phone Co-Op had been taking two direct debits out of my account each month. Further investigation showed i was paying for someone elses customer account (to the tune of over £130.00) in addition to my own!

I contacted The Phone-Coop who said they were going to investigate it. I then read up on the Direct Debit Guarantee which seems to provide me with a full and immediate refund for incorrect direct debits so I proceeded to phone my bank (Santander) - big mistake..

After waiting on hold I eventually got through to an advisor somewhere in South Asia and explained some incorrect direct debits were taken from my account. Despite what I thought was me provided explicity clarity on the direct debits to reverse (by listing their mandate numbers and values) she was able to reverse the incorrect debits, and apparantly once this has been done they cannot undo the error and I must repay the company manually.

I raised a complaint and did get £15.00 credit to my account as an apology, but was advised that their systems can only to direct debit guarantees for up to two months in the past and I must go back to the originator (The Phone Co-Op).

Fortuantly The Phone Co-Ops customer service seems quite good and they're IT team is looking into the issue and should re-credit me soon.

I wonder if anyone else has had similar issues with incorrect direct debits being made by their service providers (Gas, Elec, Phone etc) or if they've encountered similar mistakes from The Phone-Coop

Heinz

Santander has the worst reputation of all the banks now. Your experience has just added to the list.

£15 credit indeed! I got 2 x £30 from them for a rude counter person.