Great Letters That Work Hunt

nicoliyah

Dear Sir/Madam
You have recently written to me stating that you plan to charge me £30 for an unpaid direct debit to XXXXX. You have stated that this charge represents your administration fee, to cover the cost incurred by yourselves.
It is my personal belief that such a charge represents a penalty and does not represent a true pre estimate of loss which any charges levied under a contract should be. I do not believe the penalty charges you have levied represent the cost to youselves of not being able to clear my direct debit. I would therefore be grateful if you would review the account and remove the unfair penalty charge from it.
I hope you agree with my analysis and that the charge be removed, In the event that you disagree, I would however be extremely grateful if you would send me a copy of your complaints procedure so that I may pursue the matter further
yours sincerely
xxx

RavingLune

Gentlemen,

Following our open forum in the main office earlier this week, I have been horrified by the state of one of the cubicles this morning. When we started back in April, I had suspicions that XXXX may have been the ‘phantom’ sprinkler in the men’s latrines. He however, has subsequently left (some question whether he’d ever started!) so can no longer be held responsible for this poor behaviour.

I have no desire to spend my valuable time, as I’m sure you don’t too, cleaning other people’s urine from the seat of the toilet. It must be one of us! What do your better halves think about this sort of behaviour at home?

If you sprinkle when you tinkle don’t forget to wipe the seat! Alternatively lift the flaming seat up in the first place !! How does it look to our visitor’s when the call of nature occurs and they seek the lavatories only to find them in the state they’ve been in on several occasion’s this week? Impressive hey? Whoever this may be (it could of course be more than one person), should also consider taking a seat whilst in action as it appears to me that the total inaccuracy of the shot would make them unable to hit a cow’s !!!!!! with a banjo!

Thank you all for your kind attention

sportbeth

nicoliyah wrote:

Dear Sir/Madam
You have recently written to me stating that you plan to charge me £30 for an unpaid direct debit to XXXXX. You have stated that this charge represents your administration fee, to cover the cost incurred by yourselves.
It is my personal belief that such a charge represents a penalty and does not represent a true pre estimate of loss which any charges levied under a contract should be. I do not believe the penalty charges you have levied represent the cost to youselves of not being able to clear my direct debit. I would therefore be grateful if you would review the account and remove the unfair penalty charge from it.
I hope you agree with my analysis and that the charge be removed, In the event that you disagree, I would however be extremely grateful if you would send me a copy of your complaints procedure so that I may pursue the matter further
yours sincerely
xxx

Very interesting. ~I am now going to complain to the woolwich for months of trouble that has just gone beyond a joke now (ending in this week them taking £250 out of my account due to their mistake, bouncing all my transactions and telling me today that I can't have it back for 4 days.

I'm keen to write my last letter to them, in it I shall point out my administration fee of £30 a letter (this is the 4th one) and I will be detailing the postage costs and telephone minutes that I have spent trying to speak with people who "Can't help you madam" (4 calls yesterday and 3 so far today)

I might copy it into the top cahuna at the Woolwich/barclays. Tried and failed miserably to get an e-mail address. Might go to companies house and get the home address for him/her but that will cost me. Any ideas?

nicoliyah

Yeah I've had bundles of grief with Woolwich too over the years. Just post the letter to Chris Billinge who is the customer services manager at Woolwich (or thats what the letter says anyway).
Good luck,let me know how it goes.
Got to do the same with Abbey now (fingers crossed!)

RichyRich

beckyjong wrote:

Hi there, i was wondering if anyone had ever complained to nationalexpress.com the bus company? i wrote in a complaint via their website a few weeks ago but never got a reply. i want to write a letter complaining about yet another issue but i have no idea to what address i could post it too and stuff. any one has a clue?
plus i've never really written a complaint before so i was wondering if i could push my luck and see what hints i could get ...
my issue is that ..
a week ago i was sitting in the bus going from london to coventry. pulling out of london, my bus driver sees some unknown foreign luggage scattered on the side of the street, so he pulls over and picks it up and puts it into our coach. alot of the passengers were getting quite worried because for weeks we've always been told to leave suspicious luggage behind and here he was picking up suspiscious luggage. so for a good hour, everyone was very tense and scared fearing the worst that it was a bomb or something, luckily though, another coach eventually calls our driver saying it had fallen from their coach. we end up making a big detour to wait at some other coach station to let the other guy come and pick it up from us. this whole journey caused us an hour extra of our journey plus that hour where everyone's really scared and tense wondering if we're some suckers for a terrorist attack or not ...

does anyone think this is any cause to complain .... ? or should i just leave it be?
plus... i don't even know how to ask for compensation or even if i should be asking for any conpensation or anything ..

any help?
thanks alot

newbie complainer,

joanne

If you want to write to them, I would do so to thier head office:

National Express
4 Vicarage Road
Edgbaston
Birmingham
West Midlands
B15 3ES

You can find the registered office of any limited company at this web site: http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/info

mrbadexample

I had a very boring office job once...

Customer Service Manager
Nestlé Consumer Services
P.O. Box No. 203
York
YO91 1XY

8th December 2000


Dear Sir,

I am writing to express my dissatisfaction with one of your products, namely a small “Milkybar”. Although I found the “Smooth Creamy-White Chocolate” to be of excellent quality, my enjoyment was marred by the “Fun puzzle” printed inside the outer wrapper (enclosed).
The puzzle depicts a number of items; the problem is to add the number of stars to the number of hats in the picture. I quickly established that there were four stars in the picture, but my nightmare began when I tried to ascertain the number of hats. There are two hats similar in style to a Stetson, or “cowboy hat”. However, there are also two items that appear to be knotted handkerchiefs. I would argue that these items, in true Blackpool-beach style, are indeed traditional English headwear, or in other words, a hat. In the same way that a carefully folded sheet of newspaper can be made into a hat, knotting the corners of a handkerchief makes a hat. Undoubtedly, the item remains essentially a handkerchief, but it is also a hat.
With the above facts in mind, I came to the conclusion that the answer was eight – four stars and four hats (of two varieties). Imagine my consternation when I read the solution, and found that the answer was deemed to be only six. The whole experience left me less than satisfied with your product as a whole. Please could you explain the reasoning behind this answer, and justify why a knotted handkerchief does not constitute a hat, when the Great British public have been wearing them on our beaches for years.
I look forward to hearing your comments on this matter at your earliest convenience,

Yours faithfully,


Mr J.C. ****** BSc (Hons)


They did reply, promising to take the comments into consideration next time they reviewed "which, we might add, may not be any time soon." No freebies though!

mrbadexample

S** M*******
Capital Tower
Greyfriars Road
Cardiff
CF10 3AZ

2nd August 2001


Dear S**,


Following receipt of a letter similar to the one enclosed, I contacted Guardian for a motor insurance quote. As the quote was so uncompetitive, I specifically requested that the operative ensure I was not sent any more letters. I do not wish to hear from companies with exorbitant premiums, as I have no intention of using their services.
Shortly after this request, I was sent another letter as a follow-up to my quotation. Since I had made a point of requesting no further contact, I returned this to the address on the back of the envelope with a letter asking that no further communications be sent. However, this morning I received the enclosed letter. This simply reinforced my belief that Guardian are not only expensive, but also incompetent. If you are unable to follow an instruction as basic as this, how do you expect to convince me that you will handle my insurance efficiently?
Please let me reiterate. I will never use Guardian’s services. It is therefore pointless to send me any more junk mail. All further mail will be returned to you, postage unpaid. Please feel free to send me details of car insurance, home insurance, motorbike insurance, travel insurance, accident and health insurance, and any other services you provide. I will be more than happy to return them to you.
I look forward to hearing from you,

Yours sincerely,


Haven't heard from them since, suprisingly.

mrbadexample

Customer Comments
2 Vantage Court
Tickford Street
Newport Pagnell
Buckinghamshire
MK16 9EZ

26th September 2004

Dear Sir,

I am writing to express my extreme dissatisfaction following my recent visit to Newport Pagnell motorway services (Southbound). Although I would initially have written to the Manager of Coffee Primo, I have been unable to find contact details, so would ask that my comments are passed on.

On Saturday 25th September at approximately 1.00pm, together with two friends I stopped for refreshment at Newport Pagnell services, where we entered Coffee Primo. After ordering, I moved up to where the drinks were being served, and was horrified to see the condition of the “clean” mugs. I suspect most people would have been unable to see this, as they are stored quite high up, but being taller than average I was able to see inside the mugs. They were filthy. I would estimate that 10% had the residue of previous drinks clearly visible inside.

I asked the girl who was serving the drinks to ensure that she used a clean mug, and pointed out to her the condition of some of the others. She lacked the courtesy to even speak to me; instead she merely picked one up and showed me the inside before dispensing my drink.

One of my friends asked for cream to go with his filter coffee. However, the portion of cream he was given was past its use-by date, and so was returned. He was informed that no other was available. We then went over to the milk jugs. Only semi-skimmed was available, and judging by the state of the jugs they had not been cleaned for some time. On seeing this I elected to drink my coffee black, even though I would not normally choose to do so.

As we left the seating area, having finished our somewhat unsatisfactory drinks, I walked back past the “clean” mugs. Even though the condition of these had been pointed out to the female member of staff on duty, they remained untouched. No remedial action had been taken.

I find it inconceivable that:

(a) The mugs were being used in a dirty condition.
(b) No action was taken when this was pointed out.
(c) The serving staff had a complete lack of communication skills.
(d) The cream offered was out of date.
(e) The milk jugs were dirty.

When you consider the notoriously expensive prices at Coffee Primo and motorway services in general, I would expect at least the most basic standard of food hygiene. On this occasion, the standards fell woefully short of any level of acceptability. I chose not to complain or seek a refund at the time, as I did not have the confidence in the staff to believe it would be taken seriously.

I invite your comments on the above matters, and give you the opportunity to convince me that this is not indicative of the standards throughout the Welcome Break Group.

Yours faithfully,


£20.00 in vouchers...spent at Burger King at different services.

mrbadexample

Customer Services Department
Telewest Broadband
Evolution House
1 Chippingham Street
Attercliffe
Sheffield
S9 3SE

29th April 2003

Account No. 0*******3

Dear Sir,

I am writing with reference to the £2.00 “Non Direct Debit Admin Fee” that has recently been applied to my service charges for April and May 2003. I must inform you that I am not prepared to accept this charge for a number of reasons:

Firstly, I have not previously been advised of this additional payment, so have not had the opportunity to accept or reject the charge. Furthermore, I have been a customer since August 2002 and have not previously been charged an administration fee for paying my bill.

The reason I do not pay by direct debit is that I am not confident in your ability to ensure my bills are correct. Although I have been a customer for only a short time, I have already been sent incorrect charge details. I therefore have to carefully check each bill in its entirety before payment. I do not feel comfortable paying by direct debit for variable amounts as I feel it allows you to take whatever payment you believe is due – it would then be down to me to seek a refund if I had been overcharged. There would also be nothing to prevent you adding further charges without consulting me, as in this situation. Clearly, this is not in my best interests.

Since I became a Telewest customer in August, I have experienced a number of unnecessary problems and service issues. I have experienced service failures, incorrect charges on the bills, unwarranted restrictions to my services, and aggressive debt recovery techniques, even though I have had no problems paying my bills.

In the near future, I will be moving house: I will therefore be looking for a company to provide a telephone line, internet broadband and cable / satellite TV. I would appreciate it if you could explain to me exactly what benefits Telewest have to offer, as the service I am currently receiving is less than I would expect.

I would be grateful if you could ensure that the “Non Direct Debit Admin Fees” applied to my account are credited, and that this charge is not applied in future. I do not believe I should be penalised due to my choice of payment method. I would happily pay by direct debit if I had no previous problems with Telewest bills; however, this has not been the case.

Thank you for your consideration in this matter.

Yours faithfully,


£24.00 off next bill

mrbadexample

I do tend to look for a profit. If it takes me ½ hour to write a letter, and I get £20.00, that's £40.00 per hour. MUCH more than I can earn at work. I won't complain unless it's justified though. I have more, but should probably stop now.