Freemans refusing to pay commission, grr

littlewren

I wasn't sure where to post this, so hope it's in the right section of the forum.

I have been a Freemans customer for over 20 years and as I don't intend to order anything else, I want to close my account. My commission stands at £4.78 and I knew that to claim it, it needed to be £5.

So I ordered two towels - that I didn't want or need - which cost £11.20, this would give me 10% commision, therefore £1.12 and added to the £4.78 would take me over the £5 limit.

The towels were added to my Flex account and I made a payment in full - as I say, I wanted to close my account.

I received an e-mail a few days ago to say that my latest statement was ready for me to view and when I looked at my commission, it still stood at £4.78. Thinking it might take a couple more days to appear I left it, but it didn't change.

So I e-mailed Freemans customer service to ask when they would be updating my commision to the correct amount of £5.90. This is the reply I received:

Dear Mrs ******

Thank you for your email.

Unfortunately commission is not accrued to payments which put the account balance into credit.
Commission is accrued on payments made against outstanding balances only.

We apologise for any disappointment this may cause.


Kind Regards

****************

How can they do this? I can't find anywhere on their website that says this. In the commission section of their Help page, it just says:


Commission of 10% is payable on a select group of Customer accounts. (I have always received commission). If an account earns commission it will be indicated on your monthly statement. Commission claims must be for £5 or more. Commission cannot be claimed for product and payment protection premiums, next day delivery charges or administration fees. Should your account fall into arrears, we reserve the right to offset any earned commission against your balance. Where commission remains unclaimed for a minimum of two years or in the event of a nil balance on your account for a minimum of six months, we reserve the right to withdraw any accrued commission. We reserve the right to make changes to the way in which your commission is paid. Should your agency fall into arrears we reserve the right to withdraw commission on your payments. In addition, we reserve the right to use any outstanding commission in order to bring your agency out of arrears. Customers who placed their first order on or after 1st July 2003 are not eligible to claim commission unless you have been specifically informed otherwise.

Any advice would be much appreciated, many thanks.

Azari

Are you saying that because you made a payment before the cost of the goods were added to your account they are not paying commission? i.e. that it was the order in which sums were added and subtracted that is causing the problems?

Sounds weird.

Ask them to send you a copy of the specific terms that you agreed to that allow them to do this. (If you really think it's worth the hassle for £5. Quite honestly I can't see the point of spending £11 on something you neither need nor want to get £5 back - you're still £6 down on the deal.)

Can you sent the items back under DSR and do it again in the order they want?

littlewren

Azari wrote: »

Are you saying that because you made a payment before the cost of the goods were added to your account they are not paying commission? i.e. that it was the order in which sums were added and subtracted that is causing the problems?

Sounds weird.

Ask them to send you a copy of the specific terms that you agreed to that allow them to do this. (If you really think it's worth the hassle for £5. Quite honestly I can't see the point of spending £11 on something you neither need nor want to get £5 back - you're still £6 down on the deal.)

Can you sent the items back under DSR and do it again in the order they want?

Thankyou for your reply Azari. I looked at my account and saw that the payment was due soon and instead of paying the minimum payment, I paid the full amount as it was only £11.20. So it was done in the correct order.

Although I said I didn't want or need the towels, it was a case of, well if I have to reach the £5 before I get the commission, I'll pick up a couple of nice Christy hand towels that were on a BOGOF. I have since used them.

I think it's the principle here, too. I should have £5 in commission, yet they are holding back payment and, as I say, nowhere on the site does it mention what the customer services representative put in his e-mail.

And as I want to close my account, I don't see why I should lose out, £5 is £5.

mjm3346

Wonder if as you paid in full they are in some way treating the payment as a new account so no commission would be due on the payment?

If a credit account customer pays by credit/debit card, a new account will be opened

Fridaycat

Are you sure there is not a minimum payment threshold before you earn commission? I know on Littlewoods that any payments under £20 don't get commission. But on the other hand, if you pay "early" - i.e. order something, say, for £21 and pay it off in full and not over 20 weeks or whatever, you'll get your commission on the £21 payment still.

pmduk

It's all very well pursuing it on the basis of principle. But is it really worth the time, stress and expense of fighting them? Just be grateful of getting shot of them.

littlewren

mjm3346 wrote: »

Wonder if as you paid in full they are in some way treating the payment as a new account so no commission would be due on the payment?

Thankyou for your reply mjm, no it's been added to my Flex account and is showing as being in that account.

littlewren

Fridaycat wrote: »

Are you sure there is not a minimum payment threshold before you earn commission? I know on Littlewoods that any payments under £20 don't get commission. But on the other hand, if you pay "early" - i.e. order something, say, for £21 and pay it off in full and not over 20 weeks or whatever, you'll get your commission on the £21 payment still.

Thanks for your reply Fridaycat, no it's not that, I've been claiming commission from them for years making small orders and had no problems.

littlewren

pmduk wrote: »

It's all very well pursuing it on the basis of principle. But is it really worth the time, stress and expense of fighting them? Just be grateful of getting shot of them.

Obviously I won't be pursuing them in the small claims court or anything like that, but I don't see why I should let it go when it's owed to me. I certainly don't intend getting stressed out about it but I will pursue them by e-mail/phone as it's not fair and if they did that to everyone, all those £5's would add up.

littlewren

Well, I wrote to them 2 days ago and although they say they will reply within 24 hours, nothing back yet. I will post if they do reply. :undecided

WelshBluebird

Hold on a second.
You spent £11 on something you did not need or want, so you could get £5 back from the commission?
Am I understanding that right?