Unreasonable Behaviour Clydesdale Financial Services

vidal_3

I have just written a letter to Clydesdale Financial Services because I feel they are behaving unreasonably. Just wanted some view from Forum Users. I've changed personal details for obvious reasons

Customer Relations Department Clydesdale Financial Services


Account number: 020******************

Dear Sir/Madam


I am writing to you to complain about a charge of £22.50 for a late payment of £12.16 due on 24/12/06.

At that time I suspected fraudulent activity on my bank account and took steps to address that. Unfortunately I inadvertently cancelled the direct debit arrangement between myself and you leading to the missed payment in December.

Yesterday I received a letter from you outlining the missed payment, cancelled direct debit and the late payment charge.

I called today to discuss the matter and spoke firstly with S***and then the Team Manager M**** B****. I was hoping for some degree of understanding and flexibility from either of them, particularly as I had explained the genuine mistake I had made in cancelling the direct debit.

Both of them were very unhelpful and refused to refund the late charge payment which I believe under the circumstances is very harsh and unreasonable. I have not intended to miss the payment and feel that the way in which the direct debit was cancelled would allow your staff to be flexible and refund the charge.

It does not bode well for a financial organisation to penalise someone who is firstly a good customer and secondly has behaved with good intent to prevent financial fraud.

Mr. B**** informed me that he does have the discretion to return late payments but in my case felt it wasn’t appropriate. Goodness knows what is appropriate if my genuine reason isn’t?

I made a payment by debit card for the missed payment date and this was taken over the telephone by another employee.

I hope that you will consider my request to refund the charge and I look forward to hearing from you.

Astaroth

I have to admit that I dont think you have a particularly good argument as "accidently cancelled the DD" isnt much better than a simple "I forgot"

As to the letter itself, I personally would go into a little more detail of the circumstances around the cancellation of the DD if you are wanting to gain any kind of sympathy.

You also do not say how they were unhelpful. To me at least, simply because they do not agree with you and therefore do not give you a gesture of goodwill does not make them unhelpful. Was there anything else about their service which was unhelpful or is it simply you didnt get what you want?

May be worth also considering 1) saying you look forward to receiving their response within 14 days of the date of the letter and 2) if you want to go more hard hitting you could mention that you are aware of the OFTs findings on unfair charges and will go down this route if you do not receive a satisfactory response (within the time limit) - be warned that this however can get someones back up and make them dig their heals in further

vidal_3

Yes some good points thank you. Maybe on reflection I should have explained the cancellation in more depth. I cancelled some DD's because they stay on your account even if dormant and I like good housekeeping. I just selected the wrong Bank identifing number and the wrong DD got cancelled. I should learn to wait a day before writing it sometimes makes your head clearer.

Voyager2002

You mention fraudulent activity: perhaps you should say that you were frightened and upset, hurried to make yourself as secure as possible before any more money was taken, and as a result made a mistake.

And I don't think you should say anything about the OFT: at this stage you are trying to get their sympathy rather than win a confrontation.

MarkyMarkD

I don't think that they are being particularly unreasonable, on the face of it.

It isn't easy to cancel a DD - you normally have to say "confirm" a few times, if your bank is anything like mine - and to cancel the wrong one is therefore pretty unusual.

The right response to suspected fraud on your account is to inform your bank's fraud department, not to randomly cancel DDs.

Maybe if you explain why you suspected fraud, and then why this led you to cancel the wrong DD, you may get some more sympathy.

In my experience almost all banks refund charges in the first instance of this type - do we assume correctly from this that you've failed to make payments before, or are Clydesdale a harsh exception to that general practice?

To be honest, many people probably cancel their credit card DDs precisely because they don't have sufficient funds to make the payment due, and hence they probably suspect that you are in the same position. Which further explains their scepticism and lack of apparent sympathy.

vidal_3

Your wrong Mark... I have never missed a payment. And the Abbey direct debit list I was given does not include all the recipients details. In some cases it is just a reference number. Cancelling is done by using the 'in branch' telephone to a call centre in India and you only have to say it once!

I have informed the bank about my concerns and they just offered to swap the D/D's over to a new account.

I'm sure you are right about excuses from customer with no funds but not in my case. I think its even more unreasonable to tar everyone with the same brush.

Rafter

Under the contract you signed with Clydesdale, they made it very clear they would charge you for their costs, because you have breached your contract with them.

Whereas in the case of a bank or credit company they simply apply an automatic penalty which costs them next to nothing in the case of the costs associated with calling you, resetting up the direct debit and everything else £22.50 doesn't seem unreasonable.

It was your mistake and do you really think it is reasonable that other clydesdale customers pay for your error, however well intentioned?

R.

MarkyMarkD

Vidal

You mentioned tidyness and obsolete DDs - just as an aside, whilst it might seem untidy to have obsolete DDs against your account, the risk to you of leaving them alone is far less than the hassle of incorrectly cancelling one.

Bossyboots

Vidal do you have online banking with Abbey? That gives you a list of DDs, an option of reviewing all the details and cautionary questioning before deleting. This would seem to be a better way of you doing it in the future to prevent a recurrence of this mistake.

MarkyMarkD

Absolutely, Bossyboots. I was assuming Vidal was doing it online - apparently wrongly. I would have thought it even harder to cancel the wrong one if asking a member of staff on the phone to do it on your behalf.