"CITYMAIN ADMINISTR" bank account charge

Motorwaym

redpostbox wrote: »

After sending an email, then another because they did not respond, I received the following response. The first phone I only had for 1 day before sending it back! I maintain that I did not receive any correspondence from them by mail, nor did I consent to any amount being taken from my account by direct debit, however I have accepted the offer on the basis that I do accept that I am personally responsible for maintaining my bank account.:

Thank you for your email. We would like to take this opportunity to advise you that Citymain Administrators Ltd is the claims administrator on behalf of Underwriters in respect of BuyMobilePhones.net insurance scheme. We are also responsible for the collection of premiums.

We would confirm your details were transferred to us by BuyMobilePhones.net as having accepted the insurance with the first three months being free, when you purchased an Acer E110 on the 1st September 2010, a Nokia 2220 Slide on the 8th October 2010, and a Motorola Flipout on the 16th August 2011. The insurance offer and information was available to view and remove in the shopping basket on the website during the sales process.

As per the Buy Mobile Phones website terms and conditions, it stated:

17.Insurance
17.1. Customers taking our 3 month free insurance offer must agree to our insurance terms and conditions available separately on our website.

Our letters confirming the set up of the insurance/Direct Debit was also sent to the address above on the 1st September 2010, 8th October 2010, and on the 16th August 2011. These were separate letters to that of the purchase of the phone, and separate to that of your mobile network contract. We also enclosed a copis of the policy documents, which confirm that the ‘period of insurance’ is for each billing month as they are not annual policies and so will continue to run until such time as a cancellation request is received from the insured. It does not end when the mobile phone contract ends. The terms and conditions also advise that the insurance is transferable on to a replacement phone. As no contact has been made from you in relation to this policy, it continued. Following you cancelling the direct debits with your bank, the policies have now been cancelled for you.

We can only act on the information received from Buy Mobile Phones and are not responsible for the sale of the Insurance. Should you require further clarification of the set up of your insurance, we would ask that you contact their Customer Service Team on 0844 880 8100.

It is an individual’s responsibility to regularly monitor and reconcile their own banks accounts, and therefore we would maintain that Citymain Administrators Ltd and the Underwriters are not responsible for the direct debits being taken unknowingly. In this we are unable to accept liability for the payments already taken however, as a gesture of goodwill, the Underwriters have agreed on this occasion to a refund the following:

• A1Ins – After confirming with Buy Mobile Phones, we have agreed a full refund of £173.71
• A1Ins - £100.00
• A1Ins - £75.00

We trust that under the circumstance you will agree that this is a fair and reasonable offer, and if you wish to accept, we would ask that you please confirm by signing and returning a copy of this letter by post, or scanned and sent be email.

---

Hey, May I ask how much you had paid them? I am in a similar position- been paying insurance for 4 years without realising. I have essentially been scammed out of 300 quid and I am really p*ssed off. I received a very similar reply except that mine said they would be willing to refund only 100 out of good will. I literally laughed out loud when I heard that and sent back a reply saying that I would not accept that. Have heard nothing since.

In my case they are saying that I accepted the policy which is complete bull. They are also saying that they sent me policy documents which is also absolute rubbish. All i received was a mobile phone.

Does anyone know what the course of action is if you want to take the matter further? How can this behaviour be allowed, is this not what the Office of fair trade is for? This is such blatant scummy below the belt business model.

MrC01

Sorry I forgot to update people on this. I ended up complaining to my bank. They closed the Direct Debit and reclaimed the money back for me. Never heard anything back from the company (they have to tell you if they try to re-instate it).

Kantankrus_Mare

This is robbery!! I am usually quite on the ball with reading through statements but missed last month for some reason.

Found two payments had gone to this company and when googled I found it was a phone insurance and a link sending me to this thread.

OH had got a new phone a few months ago but certainly didnt knowingly opt for insurance!! Will be cancelling and attempting to get a refund. It's not a huge amount compared to what some have lost but it's the principle! This should be highlighted on BBC's Watchdog!

Thanks to everyone that has put contact numbers and email addresses! :cool:

mywardrobeisnarnia

Hmmmm... turns out I am also a scammable numpty! Since 2009, too. Oh dear!

I've just written them a rather blunt email which I will post a copy of here so people can see what kinds of things to write if I'm successful at retrieving my cash.

Fingers crossed! Thanks to everyone who has provided info in this thread.

mywardrobeisnarnia

mywardrobeisnarnia wrote: »

Hmmmm... turns out I am also a scammable numpty! Since 2009, too. Oh dear!

I've just written them a rather blunt email which I will post a copy of here so people can see what kinds of things to write if I'm successful at retrieving my cash.

Fingers crossed! Thanks to everyone who has provided info in this thread.

One email, 30 minutes later and suddenly £300! FANTASTIC! I love the multiple paragraph bumf about not being liable, and yet still agreeing to dish out the refund. Goodwill? HA! If you write to them they will return your money so please see my arguments below and phrase your own along those lines: no notifications, unclear direct debit name, thought it related to banking charges.

Note the new email they are using ----> [email]admin@citymain[.]com[/email]


Dear Miss XXXXXXX,

RE: Mobile Phones Direct - Direct Debit Reference MPIns.XXXXXXX

Further to your recent contact with our office, we would like to take this opportunity to advise you that Citymain Administrators Ltd is the claims administrator on behalf of Underwriters in respect of Mobile Phones Direct insurance scheme. We are also responsible for the collection of premiums.

We would confirm your details were transferred to us by Mobile Phones Direct as having accepted the insurance with the first three months being free, when you purchased a NOKIA N97 (BLACK) handset on 24 June 2009. The insurance offer and information was available to view and remove during the sales process.

Our letter confirming the set up of the insurance/Direct Debit was also sent to the above address on 29 June 2009. This was a separate letter to that of the purchase of the phone, and separate to that of your mobile network contract. We also enclosed a copy of the policy documents, which confirm that the 'period of insurance' is for each billing month as they are not annual policies and so will continue to run until such time as a cancellation request is received from the insured. It does not end when the mobile phone contract ends. The terms and conditions also advise that the insurance is transferable on to a replacement phone. As no contact has been made from you in relation to this policy, it continued.

We can only act on the information received from Mobile Phones Direct and are not responsible for the sale of the Insurance.

It is an individual's responsibility to regularly monitor and reconcile their own banks accounts, and therefore we would maintain that Citymain Administrators Ltd and the Underwriters are not responsible for the direct debits being taken unknowingly. In this we are unable to accept liability for the payments already taken however, as a gesture of goodwill, the Underwriters have agreed on this occasion to offer a full refund of £293.51.

Should you need any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Yours sincerely,

Administration team.



Email: [email]admin@citymain[.]com[/email]




Registered in England and Wales, Company No: 3979666
Registered address is: Lion House; Red Lion Street; London; WC1R 4GB

Citymain Administrators Ltd (which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority registration number 306535)

For more information on Citymain Administrators Ltd or SPB UK & Ireland please visit our website on spb-uk

We take our commitment to being reSPonsiBle towards the environment seriously. Do you really need to print this email?

---

Original Message

---

From: XXXXXX
Sent: 26 September 2013 14:32
To: Customer Relations
Subject: Refund request

To Whomever it may concern,

I recently noticed a direct debit on my HSBC account that I had previously thought was related to banking charges as I hold a premium account with my bank that covers me for travel insurance/breakdown coverage/etc, however on further investigation has turned out to be for mobile phone insurance with yourselves. I immediately called and cancelled the policy and was advised that it related to a Nokia phone from 2009 and to also cancel the direct debit with my bank, which I have just done so to prevent further payment. However I am most concerned by these charges and have only become more so the further I've looked into it.

Today I have gone through all of my bank statements and paperwork from my Nokia phones as I am fastidious with any bill or contract information that comes through, and can find no information relating to a policy with yourselves or any other company in case it turned out you'd changed names or had been merged with any other groups. I have nothing - no copies of letters advising me a policy was taken out, no details with Vodafone or O2 whom I had contracts with during this period advising me of such a policy, and therefore no way to sign up or cancel said policy if I wanted to get rid of it. I have had nothing since 2009 and it's now near the end of 2013!!!! How was I meant to be aware of a policy I had no knowledge of in order to cancel it? This is unbelievable! I receive bi-monthly requests for renewal from National Geographic and I haven't had a subscription with them in four years!

As part of this search I have come across numerous cases on the internet whereby other customers of yourselves have found themselves in similar circumstances and have been paying for a service they have not signed up for. At £5.99 a month since September 2009 you can see why this would concern me, as I have no record of such a policy nor have I gone forth and sort one out.

Please can you get back to me with details on repaying me my money plus any interest owed, or I will be taking this to matter to my bank to reclaim these fraudulent direct debit charges, as well as the Financial Ombudsmen to notify them of this unbelievable instance.

If you need any further information from me to resolve this please let me know - I have included my address details below to help you find any details on your system that might relate to this matter.

Kind regards,

XXXXXX

ADDRESS DETAILS HERE
XXXXX
XXXXX
XXXXX

strandedinaber

Just got hit with it now - checked my bank balance and wondered what the heck this was. I was promised three months free insurance by Go Mobile but as I purchased my phone on 5th September, I am within the three months, and didn't receive any notification that the charges were about to start. Thanks all. I am lifting various bits from emails and sending them one of my own. Not sure I will get the refund as it's my fault for letting time get away from me but at least it'll only be one month.

Powered_By_Pies

Citymain were also, IIRC, the 'default insurer' banks used to use on the pre-packaged accounts before so many people discovered what a con that whole concept was.

I'm pretty sure I paid out for the 'insurance' for 2-3 years or so on my Natwest Advantage Gold account before I realised what it was. Cancelled it via the online banking, didn't have a clue what it was at the time, but nothing ever came of it so I forgot all about it.

What makes it odd though is that scanning this thread, it seems they don't put up any fight in refunding people who query or complain about it. They're either not running much of a profit at all and it's a one-man or two-man 'enterprise', or there's so many people out there who don't even realise they're paying this that they can happily afford to refund the ones who find out and kick off without it making a sizable dent in their profit margin.

Motorskills

A quick thank-you to the OP and the respondents in this thread, I've been paying these CPP !!!!!!s for years.

Having already stopped the direct debit, I was going to follow up with them per the previous advice, but was pleasantly surprised to receive a letter from them, explaining that the Financial Conduct Authority was involved and that I might be eligible for compensation, yadda yadda.

Watching this space....

SerialRenter

Many thanks for the templates on this thread,

I sent off an email last week after phoneing up and cancelling and today recived a letter offering me a full refund for the 19 months i had paid unknowingly.

Just in time for christmas too

totem

Thanks a million for the info on this SCAM
I was just checking my bank account and found that
CITYMAIN ADMINISTER had taken £6.99 from my account
I couldn't think who this Company was
I put it in Google and up came martin's site and found it was for MOBILE INSURANCE and read some of the many
complaints about them

right away I cancelled the DD with my bank and thanks to your very helpful info on sending them a text I did just that and got an answer right away to say it was cancelled
I am so livid that they did this 9 Mths after the cancellation
they just take the money and then you have to deal with them to get it back BAD COMPANY !!!!
I've had my phone a year and had cancelled the insurance before the 3 free months ended and was pleased to find the letter to prove the cancellation
I will be ringing them first thing Monday to ask for my money back
thanks again