Anyone had experience of a company/solicitor doing the work of reclaiming? (merged)

justlaugh2

Just had a long conversation with a manager from the above company, He is adamant that they can do better than i could do myself, and thats its the banks fault not theirs that it is taking so long (probably some truth in that). But whenever i mentioned that i wanted to cancel the agreement he said they have all ready put in so much work ( they have only sent 1 letter requesting statements!) that they are rightly entitled to 25%!!
However I tried a few times to end the conversation saying I will take all he said on board and consult a solicitor friend of mine and get back to them. That seemed to get him into quite a flap, so I think there must be a way to get out of this mess otherwise he wouldnt have kept on trying to talk me round, and my friend is looking over the agreement tonight to see what I can do about it with his help.
Failing that I think I will have to stick with them as I will have to pay them 25% or £500 (whichever is greater, which in my case is the former about £1100) whether they do or not.
Will let you know what solicitor says.

Frankandann

My personal opinion is that from a purely financial point of view go for it yourself. I'm not stupid but I am a pessimist. I felt sure once I'd set the ball rolling that I would be the ONE. I would be the guinea pig they would take to court and tear to shreds. But I bit the bullet and won comfortably doing it all myself with the help of this forum.I got over £4000 back from the Co-op in just 5 weeks. Had I gone to one of these "companies" then from what I can ascertain I would have had to hand £1000 of that to them. The cost to me was around £1.50 - that was two envelopes half a dozen A4 sheets some printing ink and two lots of postage (one recorded delivery). I rest my case.

Edinburghlass_2

justlaugh2 wrote: »

Just had a long conversation with a manager from the above company, He is adamant that they can do better than i could do myself, and thats its the banks fault not theirs that it is taking so long (probably some truth in that). But whenever i mentioned that i wanted to cancel the agreement he said they have all ready put in so much work ( they have only sent 1 letter requesting statements!) that they are rightly entitled to 25%!!
However I tried a few times to end the conversation saying I will take all he said on board and consult a solicitor friend of mine and get back to them. That seemed to get him into quite a flap, so I think there must be a way to get out of this mess otherwise he wouldnt have kept on trying to talk me round, and my friend is looking over the agreement tonight to see what I can do about it with his help.
Failing that I think I will have to stick with them as I will have to pay them 25% or £500 (whichever is greater, which in my case is the former about £1100) whether they do or not.
Will let you know what solicitor says.

Is it possible to get out of this by paying the £500 you mention and then doing it yourself?

justlaugh2

Thanks for your reply Edinburgh lass.

I thought so, but the man said it would be whichever is greater, in my case it would be the 25%.
However, since they dont have the statements yet they are not going to know this.
They would also want this payment on ending the agreement which I dont have and cant afford right now and its only a matter of time before they do get the statements.

maifl0wer

Hi i know this sounds stupid but i don't have the time to go through bank statement etc who is to be trusted on internet to reclaim them for me ?? i have 6 kids so im really busy any help greatly appricated thanks i just dont want to hand out details to just anyone

nickmack

maifl0wer wrote: »

Hi i know this sounds stupid but i don't have the time to go through bank statement etc who is to be trusted on internet to reclaim them for me ?? i have 6 kids so im really busy any help greatly appricated thanks i just dont want to hand out details to just anyone

Personally, I wouldn't trust anyone else but myself. It does take a bit of time to read up on the process, but maybe you could do parts when you get the odd 10 mins or so. Are there any friends/family that can help you with the more time consuming aspects?

maifl0wer

unfortunately no husband always working lol lots mouths to fed hehehe i am reading through site and am i right in thinking that i have to get this under way asap as the deadline exstended, do i have enough time ? to request statements and file claim ?? grrrrr gtg kids fighting bbl

The_Bride

Trust me, don't bother using a company, they'll charge nearly a 1/4 of your money. It doesn't really take that long to go through your statements, do it at night once the kids are in bed. I've got 3 under the age of 6 and managed to claim back £2051!

justlaugh2

I thought that I also didnt have time (or the guts)to do it myself and went to a company to do it for me. But after sending them a cheque for £15 and waiting 2 months they had still not even recieved my statements! Had i been handling it myself I would have been able to chase my statements up myself!
Now i have had to get a solicitor involved to get me out of thier agreement.
I would also have had to pay them 25% of anything that i got, In my case that would have been over £1000! (all for just writing and sending the same letters that I can download on here.

My advice would be to do it yourself, sometimes it only takes a couple of letters, and if you have enough time to read through some of these posts then surely you have enough time to fill in the blanks on a template letter.

If you dont get anywhere with the banks after a couple of letters, I have read in a thread somewhere that you can contact the OFT and they can contact the bank for you (for free)

So download and send the letters (keep copies for yourself) and see how you go.
There is loads of support on here if you need it.

Good Luck

edited to add its the Financial Ombudsman and not the Office of Fair Trading.

gstir_2

i will try to keep this short, story goes: i instructed a company to claim back my charges from bank of scotland. got a letter from bank of scotland 6 weeks later to say will pay good will gesture payment of £1174 and i had 14 days to get back to them, this was on 10th march. i contacted charge company to say will only accept payment if bank willing to issue cheque for charges, otherwise refuse it. all along charge company have told me not to contact bank direct. i sent 2 emails to charge company on the 12th & 14th march asking for an update, didnt hear anything, then got letter saying they were back in talks with bank of scotland. i emailed again today for an update to generally be told they havent taken my instructions, havent contacted bank, payment has now gone into an account i no longer have access to, and i should phone bank direct to try and sort it out!! i am furious... plus charge company say ohh and you owe us £278, which i wouldnt mind paying IF they had followed my wishes. where do i go from here, any advice???