Denied the right to see my balance!

elaine2303

Hi all.
For the last four years or so I have had an account with a mail forwarding company in Nottingham. I have had 2 letters forwarded in that time but the standing order has always been paid to keep the account live as I live mainly in Spain at the moment. That was £27.50 + £5 that went into my balance to pay postage. I didn't like the idea to begin with but as it was part of the deal, I thought ah well, I'll need it eventually so...

All was fine until about 18 months ago when I started to be blocked from signing in to the site. I wrote to the company and explained this and they reset my password. Okay for a while then it happened again. Same thing. Password reset. Bearing in mind that the password was not forgotten or typed in incorrectly, I was a little sceptical about this but it seemed to be okay again. For a week or two.

Then it happened again. I do not have time to keep messing around with this and as I didn't need it, I left it thinking maybe it will be a bug that would be fixed the next time I tried to get into my account.

Nope.

This time I was taken to a link to join some site that I didn't want to join but that the site owner had added in order to take payments. I wrote to him and said I don't want to join Zoopals or whatever it is. He okay, I'll rest your IP address. What that has to do with it I have no idea. I write web sites and that is totally new to me but I sent him the IP address and waited.

Tried to sign in the next day. Still sent to Zoopals!

By now I was angry as he was still taking my money and for an updated account that was more expensive as I had plans for it. I told him I wanted to get to my account balance NOW or I would close the account and apply for a refund for all the time I have been locked out.

I was sent the same link to Zoopals and a standard email! I said I wanted the account closed and a full refund for the last two years. He said that under no circumstances would he give me a refund as it was all my fault for forgetting my password every time. Absolute rubbish. He also said that I hadn't given a month's notice so the account would not be closed and I would be charged for it. I told him I wanted to see my balance and he said that I paid for mail forwarding and that access to my balance was not included in that, that it was a privilege and at his discression.

At that point I fell about laughing and closed my email. I am certain this is illegal but I don't know where to look to find the law that he has broken by denying me access to an account that has MY money in it.

Can anyone help me with this?
Thanks

kazwookie

I'd be cancelling the SO or DD.

If you have only had two letters in as many years, do you still really need it?

preable

just cancel the SO its that easy

Paul_DNAP

I can't see anything illegal in that. It's all very shoddy, a maybe a bit shady.




Ring them back, let it be clear that you are giving your one month's notice and get a clear verbal indication of date your service will end and the date your last payment will be taken. Tell them you want a refund of any outstanding balance at the end. Don't just cancel the DD/SO as you're still contractually bound to pay the service, and they'll be chasing you through the courts if you miss a payment (I don't know why, but there's just something about the way you describe them that suggests they'll turn very nasty the split second you owe them money.)


You can't get "the last two years" refunded, the only way to do that is jump in a time machine and cancel the service two years ago when it first became apparent that they were incompetent.

eddddy

elaine2303 wrote: »

I am certain this is illegal but I don't know where to look to find the law that he has broken by denying me access to an account that has MY money in it.

It would be standard contract law.

Read the contract you have with the mail forwarding company, and determine which term(s) they breached - if any.

Then calculate the losses you have suffered as a foreseeable result of that breach.

Then claim those losses from the mail forwarding company.

elaine2303

Thanks to you all for the replies. I had an email from the owner telling me I hadn't paid the dd. I wrote back telling him I said I was closing the account in my last email to him and he should check it.
Silence.
I will officially close the account but there is no way that I am leaving about £60 in my account for him.
And to the first reply, yes, I kept it open because I have just started a business in Spain and need paperwork forwarded. This is the closest office to mine in England which is why I chose it. Looks like I'll be using someone else after this.