A word of warning about pensions

samuela66

Afternoon


My Dad sadly passed in April, I thought I had everything sorted out, but received several letters from both of his pensions (private) at first I was just going to write cheques to cover what they said he had been overpaid, but then I decided against that and left it in the hands of the bereavement team at his bank.
They wrote to me over one claim and said he does not owe this to Fords pension we have wrote and told them so, I then got quite a sternly worded letter from the other one, who I had called and told there was nothing owed it had been clarified by the bank (this was the pension company I had to resort to writing to, after they ignored five calls about his passing. I called his bank again and said are you quite sure, they were positive, so I called got an answer machine (surprise) told them yet again he owed no monies to them.
Two weeks later a letter arrived from the same person saying he owed no monies to them, no apology just that.
So just to let people know check before you pay, because I did actually believe both of these companies and would it ever have been returned to us?


Thanks
Sam

Pollycat

Sadly, there's incompetents in every job.

If you feel strongly enough (I probably would) and you still have the 'stronlgy worded letter I would write to them (could you find the contact details of someone higher up than you had been dealing with?) about their poor administration and inconsiderate attitude and lack of apology when finally realising they were wrong.

You may not get a response but for the cost of a stamp, I'd feel better.

samuela66

Hi Pollycat,


I do feel strongly about it, and my partner told me to do exactly that, these people deal with bereavements on a daily basis and should show more compassion.
His mobile phone bill with Tesco (£13)who I emailed and asked how to pay as his bank account has been frozen has been sent to a debt collector I have just discovered.
Like you say incompetence but it takes a lot of strength to keep going with these things as nothing has been easy since it happened.
thanks
sam

getmore4less

Some institution have standing contract to offload tidying up accounts. British gas used Phillps and Cohen in 2010 don't know if they still do.

Pollycat

samuela66 wrote: »

Hi Pollycat,


I do feel strongly about it, and my partner told me to do exactly that, these people deal with bereavements on a daily basis and should show more compassion.
His mobile phone bill with Tesco (£13)who I emailed and asked how to pay as his bank account has been frozen has been sent to a debt collector I have just discovered.
Like you say incompetence but it takes a lot of strength to keep going with these things as nothing has been easy since it happened.
thanks
sam

Has the debt collection agency put additional debt onto your Dad's mobile bill?
If they have, I would contact Tesco and tell them you are - and was originally - willing to pay your Dad's outstanding bill but not any additional debt charges.
Do you still have the email?
I would go to the top on this one. I'm sure someone will have contact details for Tesco CEO.

This is something that the media would like.

For me, it would become a matter of principle.

When my Dad died (almost 4 years ago) I dealt with everything and luckily didn't experience any issues.
It's bad enough dealing with the death of a close relative without encountering incompetenve, lack of compassion and rudeness.

malc_b

Sometimes their incompetence turns out to be useful. My mother passed away. I contacted all her banks and credit cards to inform them. ~6 months later I get a letter from M&S saying £75 is due on credit card, please pay this. So I phone up and ask what's going on. Turns out it was CPI which hadn't been cancelled. They agreed to refund the £75. Hang on a minute, why has a retired person got CPI, you mis-sold this (and a quick google revealed that there was a refund scheme in place for this, and although time was up, there was a clause allowing late claims for extenuating circumstances. So as her executor I lodged a claim for repayment of CPI and have had a letter saying this will be paid (I'm still waiting on the cheque at the moment though).

If it wasn't for their incompetence of failing to cancel CPI I wouldn't have found out about this.

Also, never put with bad service. The keys words are I want to make this a formal complaint. Log it, send me a reference number and a date and address my issues. And if I am not happy I WILL be taking this to the regulator. Every complaint that goes to the regulator immediately incurs a charge, so most, if you convince them you will take it all the way will compensate you before that. And if they don't and the regulator awards nothing then at least you have the satisfaction of getting even by costing them money.

samuela66

Hi Pollycat


I could write a book about everything that has gone wrong since my Dad passed.
The funeral home put his wrong date of death on the coffin luckily I noticed and got a reply of "aren't you clever noticing that"
Then they called us at 9am the morning after the funeral which was 3pm saying we had to pay an extra £250 because of his weight.
I emailed Tesco straight away as they use my email to send the bill (pops was not into techy) as I said the account was frozen and if they could tell me how to pay I would, I did this twice, heard nothing, then a letter came from Tesco stating he owed £13, but on this letter there was no email or phone number for contacting anyone, I emailed again nothing.
When the debt collection letter came I could not believe my eyes, I called the company and the boy on the line just kept saying well pay me and it will be done, I said NO it is a matter of principal here I will gladly pay Tesco I am certainly not paying you, I don't think any other charges have been added to it.
I'd happily go to the media, its an absolute disgrace
When I called Virgin to cancel his phone and TV, the buffoon I spoke to there did not put me through to the bereavements team but took it upon himself to cancel it and then send a bill with charges for cancelling the contract early !!!!!!!!!!!! and at the end of the call said have a fantastic day.... Oh yes I will my dad died yesterday thanks!




sam