Fraud - Help needed

cissmiace

Hi there guys,

My mum is very upset and is in need of real help, as her bank will do nothing.

A couple of months ago she ordered a free trial of vitamins and paid postage and packing.
The company she purchased from have now taken funds on various occasions from her account to the total of over £200.

She has called her bank (The Co-op) and has even spoken to them in person, and they will not block this company, or help her in any way.
The last phone call she had with them, she told them that this company could take as much mony as the wanted from her account and the co-op would do nothing about it.
The person on the other end of the phone claimed 'Well how do I know you havent agreed to it?'

The person then went on to blame my mum for the whole thing, telling her she must of opted into it.
There was nothing of the sort.

She was also told that 'it is not fraud its a dispute' and 'she must wait 15 days by law for the company to reply and until then noone can do anything' - in the mean time they can withdraw more money.

Can anyone help us? Shes very upset and I just dont know what to do to help her

McKneff

I dont honestly think there is anything you can do.

These people give out these 'free trial' for say a month and in the small print there will be terms that say 'you have to actually cancel at the end of the trial'

Companys like this rely on the fact that people who forget to cancel and unfortunately, your mum has been one of them.

kazzah60

there would definitely have been some information in the VERY SMALL print about ongoing payments
your mum MUST have entered her card details in order for the company to charge her- if this really WAS a free offer- why would she have needed to enter payment details?

th truth of the matter is these companies rely on people like your mum who don't read all the small print and then proceed to fleece them for items they neither want nor need.
Your mum needs to contact the company taking the money and ask them how she cancels her "membership" or cancels the ongoing sales and payment for the items

in this instance the bank is quite correct

copier_guy

would "losing" the bank card help?

cissmiace

She entrered her card details because she had to pay for postage, so Obviously I knew that.

She has contacted them numerous times to cancel, as the T&C state:

"We will gladly accept returns and issue full refunds (less shipping and handling), no questions asked - for returns received within 30 days of the order date"

They will not reply.

AbbeyDhabi

copier_guy wrote: »

would "losing" the bank card help?

In all likelihood, no. The company can continue to claim the money even after a card is 'lost', if the initial claim for the continuous payment authority was made before the 'loss' was reported.

Saints2011

copier_guy wrote: »

would "losing" the bank card help?

Wouldnt work, otherwise people would always lose the card.

meer53

Your mum should contact her card issuer and tell them that she cancelled the agreement and give them the date she did this. They can then dispute this for her but they can only dispute debits taken more than 15 days after the date of the cancellation and only debits within the last 120 days. Anything taken before this will have to stand. The chargeback will be actioned as the agreement was cancelled, doesn't matter whether they have responded to your mum or not, the fact that she has attempted to cancel is all that matters.

Annisele

The Financial Ombudsman Service published some examples of cases where consumers wanted their money back after paying with "plastic cards".

I think that your mum should write to the bank (*write*, not telephone), and tell them that she doesn't want any more payments to be taken, and that she wants the previous payments to be refunded to her.

One solution - rather drastic! - might be to close her account and open a new one elsewhere. If Coop don't seem inclined to be helpful, she might want to do that anyway.

cottager

cissmiace
To confirm what's been said here, and unfortunately what your mum seems to have got involved with, this is what Martin has to say:

The Ugly: Recurring Payments - Always Avoid.
This is a huge WARNING, recurring payments are dangerous. That's the name for any regular payment set up from credit or debit cards rather than bank accounts. They used to be called 'a continuous payment authority' but whatever the name, they're hideous for one large, bold reason:
"You can't cancel them. Only the company you're paying can do that!"
This means if you want to end a subscription and can't contact it, or fall into dispute with it, there's little that can be done, without huge effort, to stop it.
Avoid, detect and fight these hideous transactions!
Read the full Recurring Payments guide.

The full piece is here, including details of how to go about cancelling:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/recurring-payments