Hastings Direct have messed up twice! Who can I report this to?

*Kat*

I called to change my bank details over in December. They messed up in January and didn't request the DD from my bank. They blamed my bank and so I called them, and the bank told me they didn't even request the DD (or something like that!).

2nd month, DD came out of new account as expected.

3rd month. They have tried to take the money from OLD account and have sent me a letter saying that they were unable to get the money from the account and so have stuck a £20 charge and need me to pay.

I'm so fed up. I spent an hour last time sorting this crap out - pretty much doing their job for them.

GRRRRR - can I report this to anyone?

Quentin

You need to make a formal complaint in line with their complaints procedure.


Ask them to reimburse you the £20 (pay it "under protest" so that they cannot have an excuse to cancel your policy, which will cause lots of hassle for you till you are able to get a cancellation "reversed")


If you are unhappy with their reply to the complaint you can escalate to the FOS for their adjudication at no cost to you

Hastings_Direct_company_representative

Hi Kat,

I'm sorry to see there's been a problem with your account and I'm happy to look into it for you. This kind of issue can happen if you've issued an instruction to your bank to cancel the Hastings Direct mandate because blocks are then put in place to prevent us making any more collections - even from another account. You might need to instruct your bank this could be the case, however we're more than happy to see if there's another reason from our end. Please, can you email help@hastingsdirect.com with your details and reference this post so we can identify you?

Kind regards,

Joe

Quentin

OP by all means take up Joe.


But still put your complaint in and get the clock ticking on it (they have 8 weeks to reply, and you cannot escalate to the FOS till they do or the 8 weeks have passed)

magpiecottage

Quentin wrote: »

OP by all means take up Joe.


But still put your complaint in and get the clock ticking on it (they have 8 weeks to reply, and you cannot escalate to the FOS till they do or the 8 weeks have passed)

In effect, the e-mail to the address given amounts to a formal complaint because the FCA defines a complaint as any oral or written expression of dissatisfaction which falls under FOS jurisdiction.

(These are not the exact words but are what it means).

So the clock starts ticking for the 8 weeks - even if the business does not realise it.

*Kat*

I'm furious. I called Hastings Direct today to sort this out. They pretty much said I was wrong, and that there's no way they had taken the direct debit in February (which I have proof of on my bank statement!!). Then they tried to say that even though they had no idea how it happened, they were only going to reduce my default charge to £10!!

Ridiculous and infuriating.

tasticz

Op, do as quentin says pay ye amount they have asked under protest make it clear that you're paying under protest and then send a complaints letter to them asking them to reimburse the money

If they reimburse you then you et your money back if they don't agree they have to reply to you in letter saying the case is closed bla Bla but you can take it to FOS at this point just take it to FOS win or lose no cost to you but costs them 695 I believe

magpiecottage

Did you contact Joe at Hastings Direct?

No point in going into battle uncessarily!