Very - Direct Debit Overpayments, Refunds and Late Charges

AndyCK1

I apologise if this is in the wrong area, but I have a question with regards to Shop Direct, trading as Very.co.uk.

At the end of March I was issued with a statement showing I had an outstanding amount of £131, which I then paid off online to settle the account. I now owed nothing at all to Very.

On 20th April, Very took a direct debit payment from my account for £43, which they shouldn't have done as nothing was owed on my account.

I spoke to Very to ask them to refund the £43 and was told to contact my bank as I would have to ask them to have the DD refunded. OK, I contacted my bank and did this, and this was refunded by the bank without any hassle. With 20 days between settling the account and the DD payment being taken, I would hope Very have better systems than this, and would have known the balance had been paid off in full and a DD payment was not needed. But that could be a whole other can of worms.

Today (22nd April), I looked at my Very account and saw they'd applied a £15 Unpaid/Dishonoured Fee.

I contacted Very to ask why this fee had appeared on my account, only to be told it was due to the direct debit payment they took (that they should never have taken in the first place) being late paid. To be fair to Very, this direct debit could have appeared late to them as I was in the process of switching banks, using Halifax's switching service.

However, my point still stands - I was being charged a fee for a payment that should never have been taken by Very in the first place. Very have now refunded the fee, but I am concerned this could catch someone else out in the future and for a higher amount. Not just for fees applied to someone's account, but also for DD payments they may take that they shouldn't take.

Should I complain further as a point of principle to hopefully stop this from happening to other people? Is this unfair practice from Very, or a genuine error? It was only because I pushed the point that the fee was for a payment that should never have been taken in the first place and asked to escalate my complaint to a senior person did I get a refund of the fee.

Grateful for any advice please!

Thank you!
Andy

Very.co.uk_company_representative

Hi Andy,

We're very sorry to hear of the problems you have experienced with this Direct Debit payment being taken.

Our system for Direct Debit payments works by taking either the minimum, Take 3 or full payment on the payment due date as displayed on your statement. The payment amount we take can be selected when the Direct Debit is set up.

Unfortunately, as in this instance, our system would not take into account any further payments you make to your account after the statement was produced which can lead to situations such as this where an account balance is cleared in full via payments made through alternative channels with the requested Direct Debit payment still being taken on the payment due date.

When this occurs we do advise our customers to contact their bank for the payment to be refunded. This is in line with the Direct Debit Guarantee and ensures that the customer is refunded as swiftly as possible.

With regards to the £15.00 administration fee applied to your account - we'd need to check your account to confirm exactly why this was applied but would imagine, as you have stated, that this may have been due to the paying bank being changed. If you would like for us to look into this for you then please email Help@VeryHQ.co.uk & we can help from there.

Hope this helps

Dave
Very Network Team