Overcharged - what are my rights?

moneymatt_2

NTL have made a mistake on my account and – for about 8 months – taken 2 lots of Direct Debit. They’ve admitted the mistake and were supposed to have sent a cheque to me for £200 (the amount they’d taken in error) as a refund. I never received the cheque and, after many phone calls, I decided to write to them to demand £350 – i.e. the original amount plus £150 compensation (bear in mind this has been going on for 9 months now!). I received a letter of apology and was told that the cheque would be sent to me. I’ve still not received it.

So, I’m going to write another letter, but would like to know what my rights are. Could I instruct bailiffs? Can I impose further charges on them? It galls me that a) their service is so bad, b) doubtless, I’d have been severely fined if I hadn’t paid for 9 months, so the more I can punish them, the better! Any ideas on what my legal rights are here?

Thanks,
Matt

Bossyboots

Why haven't you simply invoked the Direct Debit Guarantee and made your bank pay the money back? Unauthorised direct debits (which is what each duplicate payment is) will be covered under the scheme and your bank has to refund them immediately (whether that happens in practice is another matter and you may need to be insistent with them).

timberflake

Bossyboots is right, you can simply tell your bank to invoke a "chargeback". Obviously you will need to explain the situation to the bank but they should do it straight away for you.

moneymatt_2

...hadn't thought of that. Do I still have a legal right to hit them with a charge? Could reclaiming the DD affect that?

timberflake

moneymatt wrote:

...hadn't thought of that. Do I still have a legal right to hit them with a charge? Could reclaiming the DD affect that?

I don't think you can quantify the compansation at almost double what they overcharged you. I would think you would be entitled to the interest you lost plus MAYBE a little on top. Have your bank do the chargeback, inform ntl that you have cleared that up but still want "compensation" and see what they say.

moneymatt_2

actually, that might be a little tricky as it's not a case of refunding a specific DD. The DD was around £20 - it should have been changed to £15, but was change to £35 (ie 20 + 15) which came out as a single DD. Still, I'll give the bank a call...

Charging double what they overcharged me is a pittance in comparison to what a bank would charge for 9 months of being illegally overdrawn!

Bossyboots

moneymatt wrote:

actually, that might be a little tricky as it's not a case of refunding a specific DD. The DD was around £20 - it should have been changed to £15, but was change to £35 (ie 20 + 15) which came out as a single DD. Still, I'll give the bank a call...

Charging double what they overcharged me is a pittance in comparison to what a bank would charge for 9 months of being illegally overdrawn!

The key here is what have you been invoiced? My pet insurance company invoiced me for one figure which included a discount and then took considerably more out of my account as they ignored the discount applied. My bank were happy to refund the whole premium immediately as they said the insurance company can only take what they billed for and the whole DD thereby fails.

If you have invoices and can therefore prove the amount taken was in excess of those they will refund you. The only difficulty I can see is if they take back the whole direct debit and not just the difference, you might find yourself internetless if NTL decide to throw a strop.

TIGs

Ring NTL again tell them you're contacting watchdog or the ombudsman normally find that gets rather a fast response lol