Do I have a claim for being mis-sold?

yan80

Hi,
About a year ago, I purchased a sofa from Oak Furniture Land. I was intending to pay for it up front but the salesman advised me I could get it on finance if we wanted. Initially I said I didn't want finance because of having to pay more on interest, to which he responded that the finance package was 0%. I specificallly remember asking him "Oh so the loan won't cost me anything?", to which he replied "No, it's effectively a no brainer".

Re-assured by this, I signed the paper work. I cannot remember if I checked the paper work (I usually do) but as we were moving in to a new house, there is a possibility I did not.

Roll on a year and I receive a letter from the finance company, Hitachi, who informed me of how much i've paid and I realised that I am getting charged 5% interest. That's about £350.

I'm furious because I specifically asked twice if there was no interest. Do I have any case to complain about this and get my money back? I don't want to return the sofa, I just don't want to pay interest.

Thanks for any advice.

BoGoF

What evidence do you have? If none, you are going to have to pay.

waamo

What does the paperwork you signed say about the interest rate?

yan80

We have no paperwork that mentions 0% finance. It was all spoken word. I was very clear in asking about this.

It's effectively my word versus theirs. It's hard lesson to always check the paper work. I usually do, but i'm just so frustrated with the guy.

BoGoF

So what does the agreement say about interest?

Their website shows they do 0% interest on some

yan80

I forgot to mention that we digitally signed this on the computer in the shop. It's the only reason I can think of, for why I did not see the interest charge.

BoGoF

Surely you got a copy?

yan80

BoGoF wrote: »

So what does the agreement say about interest?

Their website shows they do 0% interest on some

The agreement I have says 5% interest. But it's not a signed copy. I remember signing it digitally on the computer in the shop, so for all I know it could have been 0% on that one.

[Deleted User]

It wasn't. The one you signed was 5%.

Clear it early if you can to save money.

unholyangel

yan80 wrote: »

The agreement I have says 5% interest. But it's not a signed copy. I remember signing it digitally on the computer in the shop, so for all I know it could have been 0% on that one.

In order to have a enforceable agreement, the credit agreement needs to contain certain details - such as amount you're borrowing, rate of interest and the total you'll repay, the frequency of any scheduled repayments and how much those repayments should be.

So if you don't have a signed copy, then ask them for one - so you know exactly what you agreed to.

Have you checked whether the agreement was always under a 5% interest rate?

Edit: Having looked at the website, they do offer interest free credit but only on purchases over £3500 and only over 3 years. What were the terms you thought you were agreeing to?

yan80

Thanks for the help to everyone so far.

The print off I have is labelled as "Pre-contract credit information". It contains the total amount of credit, duration of the agreement, the monthly repayments, the interest rate and the total sum I will have to pay.

It also contains information about missing payments and other legal aspects.

So this isn't even a copy of the contract it seems. I've just tried to log on to the Hitachi website to look at my account and I can't even do that. It rejects my password and after resetting it, it still does not let me log in.

Something funny going on here.