Park Hamper - Xmas gone wrong!

dangerousdowning

We've been using the Park Hamper company for about 7 years now, with direct debits coming out every month. Over the years we upped the amounts and for the last couple of years kept it at £750. This was split into £250 of M&S vouchers from my wife's account and £500 of Amazon vouchers from our joint account. The M&S vouchers came through a few weeks back, but not the Amazon ones. As it's all in my wife's name, she called them up and asked where the amazon vouchers were. It was at this point that panic set in, when she was told that there was no order for the Amazon vouchers! I checked the bank and it showed that payments hadn't been taken since Nov 2015; we have about 25 direct debits every month, so don’t check to see what’s come out, just what cash is left in the bank part way through the month, when I know that there is nothing more to come out. As a customer of Park, paying by direct debit, you don’t need to renew every year, it simply restarts for the following year and was great that we knew that every November, we had that money set aside for the majority of our presents. Their terms state:
If you are a Direct customer we will automatically renew your order for vouchers and gift cards next year. We will notify you of the renewal details. If you want to cancel that order you can inform us by logging onto your online Account at 'web address' or by calling the Careline Team on 03457 678933.
I then called them up myself and spoke to customer services, to see what on earth went wrong. It turns out that after 2015, Park were no longer supplying Amazon vouchers and because of this, they simply didn’t renew the order. I questioned why I wasn’t informed of this and was told that when the vouchers are posted, that they are accompanied by a renewal confirmation, but that as they were no longer supplying Amazon vouchers, that I received the vouchers only and not confirmation of renewal. I pointed out that if they were unable to automatically renew my order that I should have been notified of this, by letter or phone (they have never communicated via email with us) and not the complete opposite. The customer services representative did not comment on this.
So here we are with just over 5 weeks until Christmas Day and £500 short for presents. It’s left us with a sickening feeling.
We’re going to write a letter of complaint (for what it’s worth), but to anyone else that uses these hamper companies, I’d advise you check that your order really has been renewed and not cancelled without warning.

Note: please move if I've posted this in the wrong section.

Browntoa

or valuable lesson learnt to check your own bank statements properly each month ??


the £500 is still there in your bank though ??

DomRavioli

Well they didn't take the money, so you should have that money still in your bank presumably?

And to be quite honest, it shouldn't take you almost a year to notice - perhaps a quick flight over to the Debt Free Wannabe board will teach you how to check your accounts and keep everything in check. This could have been resolved 12, even 6 months ago.

MrsTinks

Whilst yes the OP should have noticed, then we all know it's easy to miss things (especially if the DD is there but hasn't been taken, how many people not on MSE REALLY get obsessive about DD's? )

Shoddy by Park yes arguably, but not I think actively negligent.

OP - hop over to DFW for your long term plans - there are plenty of better ways than relying on Park and the like (remember when the other christmas scheme company folded a few years ago and it ruined thousands of peoples christmas?)

For now if you can't find the full £500 in your budget then review what you REALLY need to spend this year. DO you really need to £500 on things from Amazon? Shop around, get some good deals, cut back a little. It's doable! And Christmas is about so much more than gifts at the end of the day

dangerousdowning

DomRavioli wrote: »

Well they didn't take the money, so you should have that money still in your bank presumably?

And to be quite honest, it shouldn't take you almost a year to notice - perhaps a quick flight over to the Debt Free Wannabe board will teach you how to check your accounts and keep everything in check. This could have been resolved 12, even 6 months ago.

They didn't take the money no, but when you have a current account and your salary is different every month and your also using that money for day to day living, your not going to get to the end of the months and say to yourself 'oh look, I've got an extra £41.66 in the account, how did that get there'!!!
This is a company that automatically renewed my my direct debit for the previous six years, so I didn't have to worry about it. I knew that every year it would happen, without me having to take any action.
I have a spreadsheet that details all my direct debits, so I know what my outgoings are and when the car/house/cat insurance, gas, electric, phone, internet, etc contracts are coming to an end, so I can seek the best deal and switch to a new provider. But at the same time, I don't marry those direct debts up to my bank statement every month, just to make sure they've all come out.....i signed an agreement for that!

I'm highlighting a poor practice by Park Hampter, so others do not fall victim to the same thing.