STUDIO CARDS - Late Payment charge ?

appleblossom

dbonbon wrote:

I guess i've touched a nerve there?

Getting into debt for the sake of having a £40 xmas tree seams ludicrous. If the person is that hard up then not buying the tree in the first place would surely have been the more prudent approach. Don't spend above your means. It's the start of the slippery slope.

Not with me you haven't no - you asked a question, no-one had answered it at that time so I did.

Chocmonster7

neilwoods wrote:

Yeah thats good advice Choc, cut a tree down to teach about enviroment, great contradiction in terms there.

Never heard of managed forests then? http://www.forestry.gov.uk



Re: Question as to whether Studio charge on outstanding amounts this is from the terms & conditions on their website:-

You have the opportunity to spread your payments and the flexibility to select the payment method that suits you best.

Option 1 – you will be sent a statement every 28 days showing the minimum payment due. For this option you will pay your instalments by direct debit and every 28 days you will be charged just 2p, for every pound owing, together with a service charge on any purchase added to your balance on your previous statement from the date of despatch of each item up to that statement. There will be a minimum service charge of £1, 29.5% APR typical (variable). Written quotations available on request. For direct debit information call 08702 40 26 20.

Option 2 – you will be sent a statement every 28 days showing the minimum payment due which you will be expected to pay within 21 days. You may pay your instalments by cheque, bank giro, debit card, credit card or postal order, and every 28 days you will be charged just 2.6p, for every pound owing, together with a service charge on any purchase added to your balance on your previous statement from the date of despatch of each item up to that statement. There will be a minimum service charge of £1, 39.8% APR typical (variable). Written quotations available on request.

There is no extra charge if you choose to pay the whole amount within 21 days. Availability of credit is subject to status and the amount you have available to spend.

scottish_blend

yep - correct balmk

Fortunately I do care

Definitely does when I read the (loads) of smallprint on the back say they don't take the payment via the bank. Not to worry - I'll win, thanks to my new found - money saving expert-supplied confidence

you_llneverwalkalone

:mad:

These bunch of cowboys charged me £20 for a late payment as well....I,ve wrote a letter of complaint to them...I,ll wait to see what there reply will be!

DAISY_DOLL_2

Same Happened To Me Last Year I Always Pay On Time

Chq In Post Again

That Old Chestnut

I Now Advise Every One That Will Listen Not To Use Them

I Think I Have Recouped My Money Back On Lost Sales

I Feel Much Better

donnagreen83

I had major issues with this company which have only recently been resolved even though it began in March 2005!!

They are rubbish at sending statements out which means that you receive them only a few days before the payment due date, therefore the payment needs to be made immediatley.

My nan was taken ill and then died a few days later, consequently I was about 2 days late sending the cheque to them. They applied a late charge and I emailed them to say that I was unhappy about this as I put a note in with the cheque explaining the reason for the delay. They begrudgingly agreed to remove the charge but this did take some arguing.

I then received a £30 gift voucher from them because of what had happened and thought how nice. What a fool!! It turns out that these vouchers are issued to either pay the admin charge OR £30 to have as goods. This was not explained on the voucher so I used it to place an order.

I then received a statement showing the full charge of the order, I queried this on several occasions in writing as you dont tend to get much sense out of the over the phone but didnt have th courtesy of a reply, therefore the inevitable late charge was applied to my account.

I continued to battle on and then had to query not only the voucher but the late fee.

This continued for some months, eventually I spoke to a woman in the 'Customer Services' department who was supposed to be in charge. After much arguement she eventually agreed that she would remove the admin fees (which now totalled about £160) as long as I returned all goods. Luckily as the original statement had the full charge I hadnt even unpacked them!!

She said that she would arrange for a courier to collect the items and would let me know when this would be. I heard nothing from her and then received a call at work as my elderly neighbours had had a man knocking on their door demanding to collect the parcel, when they explained that he had the wrong house he said that he had been given their address to collect the parcel from.

I phoned studio yet again and managed to get it all sorted out, I wasnt asked to apologise to my neighbours even though they had been upset by this and eventually the parcel was collected and a letter left by the courier saying the account was clear.

I then received another statement for late payment charges and the whole process started again. I told them that I had a letter saying my account was clear but was told that this wasnt possible so obviously I am also a liar as well!!

They then sent me to a debt collection agency as I continued to refuse to pay the charges which were again back up to about £200. I eventually spoke to somebody in charge at the debt collection agency (which incidentally is just an in-house department of Studio Cards) and after several agruements by phone, letters and faxes I started to get some sense.

I think the fact that I threatened to counter sue them for compensation, charges for letters, costs of phone calls and harrasment that they started to take me seriously.

I have never received an apology for any of the things they did/did not do and am quite happy to say that I will never use them again and would recommend that everyone steers clear!!

I was also one of the customers who had used them several times and decided not to use them, then thought that I would just buy from the sale leaflets, but NEVER EVER AGAIN!!

I hope this helps, all I can say is stand your ground and also keep every letter they send and send a few back to put your point across in writing.

D

lisyloo

Just a tip - If you are hard up then it might be worth waiting until the last minute to get a real tree.
These are sold at knock down prices towards the end.

Obviously it means you might now have it when you really want it but if you have debt then it might be worth the wait.

princessmoneysaver

I ordered some items before Christmas, they never arrived. This week I have had a statement saying they have been returned to them so I still have to pay £4.75 delivery charge & because I didn't pay this by Jan 4th they is now £1.07 charge added on - they are getting none of it!

chuckles1066

Is there any reason they classify interest as a "service charge" or an "administration fee"?

I presume they don't possess a Consumer Credit Licence?

In which case their charges are pretty much unenforceable.

frisbee

I phoned to pay my bill and close my account in november because of a pricing mix up on there part with my order.Apparantly i payed them 54p short and because of service charges i now owe them £6