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Referring Sainsbury's Bank to the FOS
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schiff
Posts: 20,259 Forumite


in Credit cards
I have experienced a failure on the part of Sainsbury's Bank to perform a DD on the credit card I have with them. In fact every monthly DD since June. Each time after worrying about whether it will work or not, I've had to make a direct payment. I have their letter dated May 31st confirming the details and the DD has been showing at the bank due to be DD'd since June.
I've complained about it from June onwards, been told they are dealing with it, and I've insisted on some compensation for the trouble it's caused over that time.
In their last e-mail reply dated August 14th they tell me that I can take my complaint to the FOS! It reads almost like an invitation! Two e-mails from me dated 5th and 13th September with no response, not even an acknowledgement. The last e-mail from me threatens to report the story to the FOS today. Which I'm about to do.
I've not complained to the FOS before. If they find Sainsbury's guilty do they fine them and I get nothing out of it, or do they advise Sainsbury's to pay me compensation and suggest a figure?
I find it astonishing over such a trivial matter as a Direct Debit!
I've complained about it from June onwards, been told they are dealing with it, and I've insisted on some compensation for the trouble it's caused over that time.
In their last e-mail reply dated August 14th they tell me that I can take my complaint to the FOS! It reads almost like an invitation! Two e-mails from me dated 5th and 13th September with no response, not even an acknowledgement. The last e-mail from me threatens to report the story to the FOS today. Which I'm about to do.
I've not complained to the FOS before. If they find Sainsbury's guilty do they fine them and I get nothing out of it, or do they advise Sainsbury's to pay me compensation and suggest a figure?
I find it astonishing over such a trivial matter as a Direct Debit!
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Comments
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If they find Sainsbury's guilty do they fine them and I get nothing out of it, or do they advise Sainsbury's to pay me compensation and suggest a figure?
On the face of it, it's an open and shut case if Sainsbury's accepted your DD instruction and confirmed on each of your subsequent statements that they'd collect payments via that route (they did do this, right?) and then failed to do so, but what's their side of the story?0 -
Complain to the ICO0
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Years_of_debt wrote: »Complain to the ICO0
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Looks like Sainsburys had some issues with their DD's
https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/7311600/sainsburys-bank-credit-cards-customers-hit-with-fees-after-direct-debit-bungle-are-you-affected/ITV Winners Club #87 :eek:0 -
On the face of it, it's an open and shut case if Sainsbury's accepted your DD instruction and confirmed on each of your subsequent statements that they'd collect payments via that route (they did do this, right?) and then failed to do so, but what's their side of the story?
It looks as if I was to some extent at fault. My May DD was with a different bank, I changed to a different bank immediately after it, and that change resulted in their letter of confirmation that the new DD had been set up.
The format of their statements changed from June. The June/July/August/September statements show Direct Debit Amount £0.00. Therein lies my fault. I was confident that the letter of confirmation was enough and that entry didn't register
On Wednesday June 27th, once the DD hadn't worked, I phoned. I was told the problem was with Sainsbury and that I wouldn't suffer any penalty as a result. And I haven't been charged anything in the ensuing months. The CC is a minimum payment contract and of course any technical failure on my part makes the full balance payable and hefty interest charges!
Having said that though, they have had three months to put me right
- this is their last comment dated August 14th:
"We’re still looking into the issues you’ve raised and will contact you as soon as we can."
As I mentioned earlier I've not even had an acknowledgement to my last two e-mails, including wording like complaint, shocking service, reference to the FOS, etc.
I have the name of the MOS I spoke to on June 27th and my complaint has a reference.0 -
I don't understand how an email on 14 August can on one hand promise that investigation is ongoing while simultaneously inviting you to escalate to FOS (which would normally be their parting shot while closing a complaint, i.e. we're not doing anymore, take it to FOS if you want).
If you haven't had any sort of acknowledgement of subsequent emails, you ought to consider the possibility that they didn't arrive, however implausible that may seem, but ultimately if you're not satisfied with their response then you have the right to take it to FOS, either after Sainsbury's issue their final response or eight weeks after you registered the complaint in the first place.
Personally I wouldn't regard FOS as something to 'threaten' them with - all financial institutions are quite familiar with how complaint escalation processes are defined (as per https://www.sainsburysbank.co.uk/contact/contact-customer-care), so I wouldn't expect them to do anything differently in response to such a 'threat'....0
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