Very.co.uk advice please

rubyredhead

Hi, Sorry if I'm posting this in the wrong place. I'm new and still finding my way around
I need some advice regarding Very.co.uk. I've been with them since May 2013. I ordered a set of bunk beds around that time, but other than that pretty much everything has been paid off as BNPL to avoid interest. I've had quite a few bits on BNPL and (stupidly) assumed the balance was correct. It's only been recently, as I now only have one item left to pay off that it's clear the balance isn't correct.
The one item I have to pay off is a computer (£1299). My balance however is £1450. So I emailed them asking for an account breakdown.
To cut a long story short (as this has now been going back and forth for weeks via emails) it turns out I still have £16 left to pay on the bunk beds (this was supposed to be paid off over 80weeks, roughly Dec 2014). There's also a current interest balance of £130 - for a laptop I ordered and returned in June 2014 (it had no hard drive) and a bouncy castle which was out of stock so I cancelled.
Why am I being charged interest on items I returned/cancelled?! Is there a way I can find out how much "interest" I've been paying off? When I ordered the computer I had a £100 cashback, I asked why the computer was therefore still full price, and they've said it went on to this "outstanding interest" balance.
So, currently I'm still waiting to hear back from them, but I'm starting to think I wont. (I haven't heard anything since Friday). What's my next point of call? I'm sick of all the back and forth with calls/emails. I want to get this sorted soon. Ideally before the weekend as my next statement comes out and more bloody interest added. My APR is also a shocking 49%, which they've hiked up themselves

Tixy

Sounds complicated, and not right.

Just to clarify - the £100 cashback on the computer - how did that work initially? was the purchase price added to your very account £100 less than the catalogue price? or did they actually pay £100 cash back to your bank account?

SeduLOUs

I can only assume you have been dealing with them by phone, as online your remaining BNPL items/orders are clearly broken down with their remaining balances (so it should have been obvious that there was an amount still outstanding for the beds and computer), and you can choose which ones to allocate any money that you pay to. The end dates of the interest free period are also laid out quite clearly.

You can go into your transaction history and look back through all of the statements, so you can see exactly when and how much you have been charged in interest.

Any payments that are made on the statement towards BNPL items are highlighted and say "* A Payment Of £XX Has Been Allocated To Your Outstanding Buy Now Pay Later Item(s)"

I think you need to go onto your online account (or get access to it if you don't already have it) and work systematically back through your statements to the point that the items were ordered to find out exactly where and when it has gone wrong.

rubyredhead

Hey,
Sorry I should have been clearer in my first post. All this time I have been accessing my account online. All funds were getting paid to the correct places, ie: I went into the BNPL items and paid them off correctly, just like you were saying SeduLOUs. However I've had quite a few things bought on BNPL that I didn't notice the total balance of the account was more than it should have been..
This was until there was only the computer left to pay off. I noticed the Balance should've been £1299 but it was £1450. I'd been meaning to email them for a while asking when the "£100 credit" offer was going to be added. I could see it had been added to my account on the statement.
Then it hit me, why was I getting a monthly bill still? The bunk beds were the only thing not bought via BNPL and that should have been paid off at Christmas time (80 weeks). So I emailed them asking about all this....
Their reply was basically that there is still an outstanding balance on the bunkbeds of £16.
and interest of £143 was still being paid on a laptop and bouncy castle. This shouldn't be happening as the laptop was returned straight away as it was faulty, and the bouncy castle was out of stock so cancelled. I'm not sure how much interest I've paid in total though, as these were ordered last summer. Also, said "£100 promotional credit" for the computer was applied to the balance of the laptop & bouncy castle.
I hope this is clearer now.
Any ideas what I can do now? I'm still waiting to hear back from them...

SeduLOUs

As said before you need to work back through your statements to find out where it started to go wrong.

Very aren't likely to be willing to help you if you have a generic "I'm sure I've paid it off" story, but might start listening if you can say "On April 14 statement you began to charge me for interest, but according to my account none of my BNPL terms had expired" or similar.

Trawl back until you find the first statement that generated interest. See if there is any other info on that statement on the ones close to it that gives you a lightbulb moment as to what has happened - even if it doesn't, you'll get further with Very by directing them to a specific statement than a general complaint.

Sorry I can't be more helpful, but without trawling your account for you it' difficult to say exactly what has happened. It's possible you have misjudged and not paid off as much as you thought you did - again your statements will be able to confirm or deny this.

Best of luck.

rubyredhead

There's no mention of the bouncy castle or laptop on my statements. I've found that out from contacting them. There's no way of knowing "when it went wrong". I've been paying off way more than the minimum payment each month, assuming it was all just going on the bunkbeds or a few service guarantees that I've ordered.

SeduLOUs

rubyredhead wrote: »

There's no mention of the bouncy castle or laptop on my statements. I've found that out from contacting them. There's no way of knowing "when it went wrong". I've been paying off way more than the minimum payment each month, assuming it was all just going on the bunkbeds or a few service guarantees that I've ordered.

When you were making payments, did you manually go to the BNPL page and select which item you were making payment against, or did you just send a generic manual payment to the account?

Are the offending bouncy castle and laptop items showing in your BNPL section now?

If you were charged for them, then the orders should be showing on your statements (to increase the balance) or at the least there should be some sort of audit trail in the orders screen to see when they were ordered and/or cancelled.

All you can really do is tot up exactly the amounts you believe you did owe, and the end dates of the BNPL periods for them (you should be able to tell this from the order dates). Then you need to tot up all the payments you have made, with relevant dates, with the aim of demonstrating that you have cleared the value of each item in full before the BNPL period ended.

It's difficult to say what has happened with the bouncy castle and laptop, but it sounds like they were ordered a long time ago so it is bound to be more difficult to resolve now than if you had spotted and queried it at the time. Probably need to keep a closer eye on your account in future, but I appreciate that hindsight isn't particularly helpful to you right now.

Wish I could be of more help.

dancingfairy

From what you're saying it looks like you think you've been paying interest on something you never receieved (as the order was cancelled) and interest on an item that was returned as faulty at the very least.
I would write (actual hard copy rather than email) and ask for an explanation and to see how it has all been calculated. You probably want to know for each month how your payments were allocated so how much went against each item and how much you paid in interest for each item. Hopefully they will write back and give you a clear breakdown of what's happened and how they calculate it.
If you can't get any sense from Very or you don't agree with them and arnen't getting anywhere then you can refer your complaint to the financial ombusdsman to investigate. You do have to have exhausted very's complaints procedure first before you can take it to the ombudsman and it unfortunately can take quite some time before they get to your case.
I'd ask Very for a full detailed breakdown for each month and see what they come back with as a first step.
df

rubyredhead

No thank you for your reply, that's appreciated. Even if just having someone to vent to lol.
I've had another look through all the statements. They're really vague - all I can see is Payment Received - £X, Account interest £X. It'd be much simpler if itemised. All the BNPL stuff has been paid off correctly (ie I went into the BNPL section, paid off items. Statements DO show that too, and no interest paid anywhere)
I was hoping Very would have a track of it - seeing as it was them who told me last week about the bouncycastle/laptop, they can obviously see things I can't.
This laptop and bouncy castle are still showing in the BNPL. As cancelled/returned. £0.00.
Very strange and confusing. I suppose I should give them more time, it is such a mess of a situation. I'm kicking myself for not noticing sooner.

dancingfairy

Would it be easy enough to print copies of the statements or save backups somewhere?
I'm just concerned that Very might lock your account or something whilst your complaint was being investigated which might mean you can't access the information (I'm not suggesting they would do anything maliciously but you know what systems and procedures are like!).
It does indeed sound a mess and I hope you can get to the bottom of it.
df

SeduLOUs

If you can't make head nor tail of it I'd go with what dancingfairy has suggested, and just insist that from your point of view you have paid everything off and should not have been charged interest until they can demonstrate otherwise.