Advice needed

Disgruntled_motorist

I recently changed energy suppliers
After the change I received two more direct debits from the old company, the first was for £70 (which was the normal amount), the second was for a ridiculous £690, which was obviously a mistake. I complains to the company and got no joy and so got the Ombudsman involved
The Ombudsman ruled in my favour, chastised the company and compelled them to give me a written apology and a payment of £75 for inconvenience.
I am not satisfied with the verdict as I believe the company did not comply with the direct debit guarantee whereby they are required to give notice of any change of amount and in the case of any dispute the money refunded until the problem is sorted
They did none of these things and held on to my money for a total of 80 days
I intend to sue through the small court system but I want advise on whether I,'ve got a water tight case and whether the £6 a day compensation I,m seeking is reasonable

mije1983

Did you invoke the Direct Debit Guarantee and get the payment reversed?

BoGoF

On what basis are you wanting to claim £6 a day.

waamo

On the information you have provided you do not have a watertight case.

powerful_Rogue

Direct Debits by utility companies can be varied, it's in the terms and conditions you agree to when you sign up.

To invoke the DD Guarantee, you contact the bank, and not the company.

Take the £75 and leave it at that. It's a generous amount.


The most important question is, how much are you going to sue them for and on what grounds?

LadyDee

Who will be at the head of the queue complaining about increased prices to cover all these nonsense compensation claims?

Disgruntled_motorist

Yes I warned the company from the on set that they where breaking the dd charter, they ignored me. I also contacted the Ombudsman and he stated that to claim compensation was not in their remit as they could not make any legal judgements

agrinnall

Disgruntled_motorist wrote: »

Yes I warned the company from the on set that they where breaking the dd charter, they ignored me.

Of course they did, because of this.

powerful_Rogue wrote: »

To invoke the DD Guarantee, you contact the bank, and not the company.

waamo

You have no cause of action. The direct debit guarantee is nothing to do with the company.

On the information provided so far it is doomed to fail.

Disgruntled_motorist

The direct agreement is between you and the company and not your bank Both parties agree to the terms and conditions. The company guarantee to certain rules 2 of which they broke the 1st being the fact that if they change the amount they must give 10 working days notice the 2nd states that if there is a dispute over any direct debit taken then they must refund the money while the problem is being sorted. Regarding my claim of £6 a day, this is what my bank would charge me if I became overdrawn. You've also got to take into account that I warned them from day 1 that they were breaking the rules and they could have refunded the money then but they chose to hang on to it for 80 days The other vital point is the ridiculous sum involved (10x my normal dd) someone should have realised that it was a mistake

stragglebod

Disgruntled_motorist wrote: »

The direct agreement is between you and the company and not your bank Both parties agree to the terms and conditions. The company guarantee to certain rules 2 of which they broke the 1st being the fact that if they change the amount they must give 10 working days notice the 2nd states that if there is a dispute over any direct debit taken then they must refund the money while the problem is being sorted. Regarding my claim of £6 a day, this is what my bank would charge me if I became overdrawn. You've also got to take into account that I warned them from day 1 that they were breaking the rules and they could have refunded the money then but they chose to hang on to it for 80 days The other vital point is the ridiculous sum involved (10x my normal dd) someone should have realised that it was a mistake

Nope.


https://www.directdebit.co.uk/DirectDebitExplained/pages/directdebitguarantee.aspx


The very first bullet point.


If you're going to make up ludicrous daily charges, why not go the whole hog and claim what you would have had to pay if you'd borrowed the money from a legal loanshark at 1000% APR?