Littlewoods owe me money and won't close my account

spamwise

Hi there,
I'm new to this website, so not 100% sure if I'm in the right place here.
Basically, I recently paid off the balance of my Littlewoods account (£1400 approx as the balance showed). I paid this in full on 20.05.2017. On 27.05.2017 Littlewoods issued an adjustment of interest (?) which amounted to £287.22 (in credit).

I called Littlewoods on 20.05.2017 after I paid off the account and asked them to close it. They said no problem, but it can take up to 14 days. Fair enough.

On 27.05.2017 I seen the adjustment they had made resulting in me being in credit. I called them again and the adviser said they would issue me a cheque for the outstanding amount of £287.22, but this can take 14 days...fair enough.

I called again on 18.06.2017 to find out why a) my account still had not been closed and b) why the cheque had not been sent out. The adviser said that they were not aware I wanted the account closed or the cheque sent out...it appears the initial adviser on 20.05.2017 and the second advisor on 27.05.2017 just didn't bother doing anything they said they would.

I have now contacted Littlewoods again (on Friday 23.06.2017) via Facebook and was told to submit (via an online form) my requirements to close the account and to request my money back. I did so on Friday only to be told it is likely to take 120 hours to get any response.

Basically, I have no faith whatsoever they will resolve this issue and since they owe me almost £300 what can my next step be? I have just typed up a (reasonably) formal letter which I intend to send to them demanding payment. Can I charge them interest and late payment fees? Admin fees for all the hassle I'm going through to recover this debt? Is a month a long time to wait for a refund like this or am I just being impatient?

Any help, advice or comments would be very much appreciated!

Cheers
Sam

Gavin83

spamwise wrote: »

Can I charge them interest and late payment fees? Admin fees for all the hassle I'm going through to recover this debt?

No and no.

spamwise wrote: »

Is a month a long time to wait for a refund like this or am I just being impatient?

I don't think a month is a long time to wait. However this is likely to be longer than a month, which is starting to extend into this territory. Personally I'd wait for them to respond to your latest correspondence and if this isn't satisfactory then issue a letter before action.

daytona0

spamwise wrote: »

Basically, I have no faith whatsoever they will resolve this issue and since they owe me almost £300 what can my next step be? I have just typed up a (reasonably) formal letter which I intend to send to them demanding payment. Can I charge them interest and late payment fees? Admin fees for all the hassle I'm going through to recover this debt? Is a month a long time to wait for a refund like this or am I just being impatient?

Any help, advice or comments would be very much appreciated!

Cheers
Sam

Just bear in mind that you would only ever be entitled to 8% PA interest which, in your case, is roughly 6p per day.... Plus you can only really claim it back for unreasonable time waited; the first 2 weeks probably weren't unreasonable. So that puts your interest claim at less than £1 for 2 weeks.....

Late fees = NO, because you have no contract with them which ties Littlewoods to late fees

Admin fees = not generally claimable.

Best bet is to send them a letter before action and, if you really want, ask for £1 extra to cover the interest costs (and any other fees you wish to ask for, however they are not likely to be legally obliged to pay them). If they refuse then you can take them to small claims court and present your case.

Could also just let them sort out the problem and ask for some compensation for the inconvenience (this may well be much more than the interest incurred, maybe £5 or £10 gift voucher?). Though having your account closed down is probably a strong indicator that you do not want to do business with them in the future.

spamwise

Hi, thanks for the replies. Yeah, I do realise the interest would be negligible - I just thought there should be something since they're basically holding my money and being incredibly unhelpful. But yes, will give them a few more days then send off the letter

I'd just like my money back with as little hassle as possible and for them to close the account so it comes off my credit report.

Thanks again

libra10

It might be worth contacting them on Twitter as they have a Help section.


https://twitter.com/LittlewoodsHelp


HTH