Companies Pretending Not to Receive Letters.....

olly300

This is just a rant.

Having been fobbered off by companies/organisations saying they haven't received corrections to misspellings of my name, change of address, change of bank details, complaints, etc by telephone or normal mail I have started to send all these by recorded delivery to some companies, or make sure a cheque is enclosed.

However even when I have do this some companies claim that they haven't received the letters even when I can either:
1. go to track and trace and give the name of the person who is signed for the letters.
2. point out the exact date that they cashed the enclosed cheque

It seems that lots of companies have to be threatened with a regulator/highe r authority before they do anything correctly.

In the past month I've had problems:
1. getting a direct debit form of Tiscali - I had to state I would complain to OFCOM if they didn't send me one as I had asked them 3 times and they were trying to charge me an administration charge for not paying by direct debit.
2. getting the council to spell my name correctly on my council tax bill -I wrote to them 4 times which they acknowledged and then had to complain to the directly to the Finance Director before they corrected it. (No council tax bill can't prove address as problems with other bills)
3.and now I'm having a problem with my car insurance company.

inmypocketnottheirs

I am afraid this is just another example of corporate incompetence that is endemic these days. I have lost count at the number of times I feel as if I am doing someone else's job.

olly300

inmypocketnottheirs wrote: »

I am afraid this is just another example of corporate incompetence that is endemic these days.

The direct debit form one felt surreal - a customer is asking for a way to give your company money which will keep you in a job. Even if you are a temp if the company doesn't make money you don't have a job.

ovetta2001

If you have proof that the companies are getting the letters then you can contact cit advice bur and get some help. I'm guessing they are breaking the law and something can be done.

fudgeukraine

Don't know if this is still the same, but when I worked at Tiscali (not in the letters dept though) the letters were sent to the main contact centre (milton keynes), sorted into the relevent dept and them posted again to that department (either in Milton keynes or 2 places in Scotland). Once it was received it'd go in a pile and then be dealt with on a chronological basis. Once it's been read and dealt with then a note would be on the system.

Unfortunately, while it eventually got dealt with it did have a habit of being a slow process, especially if there was a backlog. This often meant that people on the phones would get it in the neck from customers who are awaiting a response. Again, can't state if this is the case as been a while since I was there.

olly300

fudgeukraine, Tiscali responded very quickly when I informed them I would be contacting OFCOM if they didn't send me a DD form within 14 days.

ovetta2001, The laws they breaking depends on the situation. Most of the time there behaviour falls foul of contract law. (Yes I've asked a solicitor)

RadoJo

Even recorded delivery or special might not help with larger companies. I used to work for a large multi-national, and we used to 'sign' for all our recorded and special mail on a manifest - basically rather than checking each package by hand, the deliverer would list all the packages which were 'supposed' to be in there and we would sign en mass.
As such, although it was a real time saver it meant that there was no way of being sure whether we had received a particular item or not, although the sender would be able to log on to 'track and trace' which would say it had been delivered.

All in all, I prefer e-mail - you get a delivery report ifit has gone astray and you can check delivery within minutes!

olly300

RadoJo wrote: »

All in all, I prefer e-mail - you get a delivery report ifit has gone astray and you can check delivery within minutes!

You can set up email systems not to send delivery reports/read receipts or ask you if you want to send one and click "no". Plus lots of companies refuse to give out email addresses and make you use a web form so you have no proof of sending/delivery which you need to show if you need to take the matter to a few regulators.

50% of the companies I've had problems with in the past few months have acknowledged emails and the other 50% haven't. However in the cases where they acknowledged the email they still not resolved the issue properly until I have sent a complaint letter a month later.:mad:

Having taken companies to regulators I have learnt if they state they haven't received something sent by fax, recorded/special delivery or with a cheque in it they have cashed - they are simply not believed.

RadoJo

Olly - I prefer to do things by e-mail, but I am aware that I am in a minority, particularly when it comes to larger companies. Whilst I prefer the medium, I agree that companies seem to treat e-mails as second-class communications and they are left to fester electronically as it were!

However on the few occasions where I have found a company who have a good e-mail system, the ease of the process is so pleasant! I can call someone to ask what they need from me, send it, and have delivery confimation all in one phone-call, plus the nice feeling of being environmentally friendly - no photocopying things in case they get lost, just scan and go! Plus, it is so easy to bring up details of previous commmunications without the fear that you have thrown the piece of paper you need away!

I do know what you mean about e-mail 'forms' though - I always copy what I have sent into another document and put the date on it so I know exactly what I have sent and where - it is too easy for companies to ignore you when you haven't got a name of the person you contacted!

I think this just shows that some companies are always ready to blame someone or something else when an error has occurred.

dangeroussports

What you could do is write them an email in invisible writing!

You could say you sent it and if they querie it tell them to change the colour and font!