Bill from nowhere

r.jenkins36

We have our weekend papers delivered and visit the local shop to settle up, usually once per month. We always pay the full amount of what has been asked, sometimes after a little discussion and adjustment because they have several times failed to deliver.
A few weeks ago we were told the account was "on hold" due to "a large sum outstanding". We immediately queried it and it has taken them 3 weeks to come up with a statement, that shows debt going back to December 2016!!
I have no way of knowing if the account is correct or whether they expect me to pay for their accounting !!!!-up.
Is this reasonable? Legal?

r.jenkins36

The shop is Bargain Booze Select Convenience

Gavin83

How are they justifying the charge? Are they claiming to have undercharged you? Not charged you at all?

SnowTiger

Perhaps related to this: "Bargain Booze owner prepares for administration".

Perhaps your payments weren't recorded (to put it politely) correctly.

Administrators will go through the books and attempt to get any (recorded) unpaid debts settled.

Do you have evidence you paid? Did you pay by card or receive a receipt? Has anyone else who has a credit account with the shop had a similar demand?

Do employees remember you settling your bill?

It may end up being your word against theirs, however it's unlikely a shop would allow a paper bill to go unpaid for more than a year.

r.jenkins36

The statement shows 14 occasions when we paid. Each time we had gone to settle i.e. zero the account but the statement shows it never got to zero. This suggests to me that the shop is singing a different song than the accounts. Also, there are several incorrect delivery charges. I believe the onus is on the retiler to prove that the account is accurate and reasonable. I can prove its not either. I am unconvinced the have credited non-deliveries or even all payments. Their accounts are haphazard so why should I pay for their !!!! up? I have made the shop an offer, which is based on the deliveries they claim from 1 December 2017 to present and using the charges they say are correct, even though the statement shows higher charges.
Is that reasonable?

r.jenkins36

By the way, thank you Snow Tiger, I think you have made some very good points. Unfortunately we do not have receipts - it was entered in the local book. Seems like this book does not match the accounting records!"

DoaM

How much are they claiming you owe? (The amount may guide you as to the cost versus benefit of fighting this, especially if it's the administrators chasing this).

MothballsWallet

DoaM wrote: »

How much are they claiming you owe? (The amount may guide you as to the cost versus benefit of fighting this, especially if it's the administrators chasing this).

Sounds like it's the shop themselves from what the OP said.

r.jenkins36

Hi. Its the shop that has raised it based on a statement produced on a "central system". Its only £40. But a cynic might suggest that £40 clear bottom line profit x 50 customers per shop they try this with (or more) x 700 shops makes interesting maths.
I have no problem paying what I owe, though I might grumble that its taken 18 months.
My problem is that if the shop agrees a figure that is to clear the account and is based on local knowledge at the time - (which it has on 14 occasions over 18 months), taking into account non-delivery, actual delivery etc and central accounting says its a different figure, all that says to me is that someone is rubbish at filling in forms.
Don't I have a right for an account to be shown to be accurate? Why should the central accounts be right and the local shop be wrong?
My understanding of contract law is that unless there is something very specific, the law has to rely on reasonableness. The doubt between the shop figures and the central system figures (and even the statement contains incorrect charges so is demonstrably wrong) surely it is reasonable that local knowledge is likely to be more accurate that a remote system which has had no contact with us and relies on someone providing data some time after actual transaction, and no doubt alongside many transactions i.e. some guy filling in forms for 50 or 100 customers at the end of a week.

lincroft1710

There is a possible answer to why paying a bill would not zero the account. If the bill was sent on a Wednesday to include that day's paper(s) and wasn't settled until Friday, then the account would still be showing Thursday's and Friday's papers unpaid.

Fosterdog

It could also be to do with the papers not received, if you settled up once a month when they had already generated a bill or submitted figures to head office then maybe they had no way of discounting the missing papers from the submitted figures. I would have thought most people would phone them on the day to report a missed paper to give them chance to get one to them not wait until up to a month later to let them know of a problem. At least that's how it used to work when I had a paper round as a teenager.