TOTALCARE taking DD without instruction

fishermansbuzzer

I had a direct debit of £2.99 which started in June 2012 under the name of Totalcare & Support, this is an old DD from when I purchased a Tiny computer many years ago, I cancelled this DD when Tiny went bust.

I contacted Totalcare & Support by phone 0845 1213359 and told them they were taking money from my account which I had not authorised, they said these old DDs were started up in error when they upgraded there system in May 2012, the guy said I would get my money back within 7 days.

I contacted my bank and had the DD cancelled and a block put on any Totalcare/Tiny/Time and Supanet DDs, I am pleased to say I have recieved the money back from Intouch Investment Refunds,
this is not the Intouch investment Company in this country ( Somerset) but a Company set up by Supanet trading from Cypress under the same name.

This scam has affected a lot of people, but no one seems bothered about stopping it

Yvonneblair

northerncromb wrote: »

Have you received a refund yet?

I had the care package with them 17 years ago and over the past 6 months they have taken 6 payments out of my bank, I contacted them and they said they would re-emburse me, they did but not the full amount, still owe me £9. I will be getting back in touch with them tomorrow. They should not be allowed to do this to people.

sarahg1969

I've just discovered they've been taking it from us (from an old bank account that we don't really use much) since June. Called the bank and managed to reverse the one that went out on Friday, but they say we need to contact Total Care about the previous ones.

I'm shocked!!

shncoe

Checked my bank statement after reading about totalcare and they have been nibbling away at my money since may 2012, called bank and they were brill, but why let it happen in the 1st place !!!!
All i can think off is that i too bought a tiny desktop about a decade ago !!!! mad aint it......

Mairee

I've also had issues with an account that just has one D/D on it a month so because of them taking £2.99 before i had put money in for the exisiting dd it took me overdrawn on an unauthorised overdraft. First I knew was when I was hit with a £125 bank charge ( a £5 pd charge on being overdrawn as well as £25 for not paying it) Got myself in a bank charges spiral because of this £2.99. Paid it off same thing happened following month after making sure enough money to cover charges & dd. This month they tried taking £5.98 thankfully found this post! I cancelled the cover about 10 years ago. The bank as a "goodwill" gesture have dropped this months £95 charges and have said to get in touch with the company & reclaim all bank charges and the original fees charged. Do I stand a chance of getting any of it back hmmm jurys out on that one but so so cross!

triceratroll

I received a letter about 2 weeks ago from Smile to say that I was £75.86 overdrawn. Amazing as i closed this account 6 years ago. Apparently total care and support had restarted a DD and had taken 2.99 a month from April to September and the rest is bank charges. I contacted the bank initially because I couldn't understand the letter and eventually got to the bottom of it. Range total care - got the usual blurb about sorting it out and not to worry, blah blah blah. Rang the bank back to explain and was given 2 weeks without charges to allow the money to be refunded. Bank has just rang me tonight to say that nothing has happened - shock horror - and they were giving me another 2 weeks to sort it out. It was explained to me tonight that because Total care had made the claim this forced the account to be re-opened - hows that? the example i was given why it happens is that if someone gets a payday loan and then closes their account to stop them claiming the money back that's fraud but what has that to do with a old DD on a closed account. Now apparently I have to sort this out and all I can say is thanks for all the numbers you have posted. Smile or Co-op whichever you chose, are totally wiping their hands of it and say its my problem!

amber_missy

I'm a bit disturbed because I have found that they have been taking £2.99 from my savings account - an account I've never given out to anyone before! I've never taken out "insurance" for phones or PCs or any other kind of technology because I find it a total rip-off! I don't know how they've got my account details! I'm fuming!

battleborn

amber_missy wrote: »

I'm a bit disturbed because I have found that they have been taking £2.99 from my savings account - an account I've never given out to anyone before! I've never taken out "insurance" for phones or PCs or any other kind of technology because I find it a total rip-off! I don't know how they've got my account details! I'm fuming!

They must have got them from you, it would be impossible for them to know your details.

amber_missy

battleborn wrote: »

They must have got them from you, it would be impossible for them to know your details.

Logic tells me this is true - but as I've never used that account for anything other than savings and never give it out (I know my current account details by heart so it's the only one I use - I would have to get my card out to actually find out the account number for this one) - and again, I've never signed up for any kind of insurance with anyone because I think it's a scam - the amount you pay in is more than the cost of the equipment.

I've tried calling the number my bank gave me, but no-one is answering. I've requested a ring back from their website and I'm going to ring my bank again and request a refund with the DD guarantee.

Just re-rang HSBC and they were great - they're refunding it within 1 working day and are going to further investigate. I've suggested they e-mail their customers to ask them to double-check their accounts for this kind of activity.

battleborn

amber_missy wrote: »

Logic tells me this is true - but as I've never used that account for anything other than savings and never give it out (I know my current account details by heart so it's the only one I use - I would have to get my card out to actually find out the account number for this one) - and again, I've never signed up for any kind of insurance with anyone because I think it's a scam - the amount you pay in is more than the cost of the equipment.

I've tried calling the number my bank gave me, but no-one is answering. I've requested a ring back from their website and I'm going to ring my bank again and request a refund with the DD guarantee.

I cannot understand how they would have pulled your bank details out of thin air.
If you have dealt with the company before, then somewhere along the line you have given out these bank details to them, if not, then you need to report to the Police as clearly something criminal is going on.