Direct debit taken for 5 years after cancelling.

atarisrocks

Recently a company I used to use contacted me as they could see they had a open direct debit for under my partner name coming from his account but the service was under my name as I dealt with collection for it and it has come to light they have been taken £40 a month since around November 2017.

I cancelled this by email but since it had been nearly 5 years I have not got this email anymore as evidence.

The company cannot find the email either but they should have evidence of me not collecting my product as I used to have to sign for it every week also the emails informing me of the contents each week stopped.

Who responsibility is it to prove it was cancelled and what the best way to get the money back?

la531983

A few questions.

a) Why did you not cancel it yourself your end? Direct Debits can easily be cancelled by the customer their end.
b) how has it taken 5.5 years to notice this? 
c) What is the service in question? Has this service been used in any way, shape or form since November 2017?

RefluentBeans

I doubt you’ll get the money back. 

I think you have to show you cancelled it. Had it a few times on this forum from Microsoft and other companies - normally they should send you an email to remind you they’re collecting a payment but I don’t think there’s any law that says they must do that.

When you cancelled it, you said this was by email - did they send you an email confirming the cancellation? If not how do you know the email was received? 

In any case - just cancel it now. Ask for some money back, but I doubt you’ll get 4 years of backdated money back. Maybe 12 months 

born_again

Is this a Direct Debit or a Continus Payment Authority?
Makes a lot of difference.

You need to check bank account & see how it has been taken.

Do you have a Gmail acc it was sent from? If so unless you delete the mail, it will still be there.

la531983

born_again said:

Is this a Direct Debit or a Continus Payment Authority?
Makes a lot of difference.

You need to check bank account & see how it has been taken.

Do you have a Gmail acc it was sent from? If so unless you delete the mail, it will still be there.

It could also be a Standing Order, in which case the OP has between no hope and Bob Hope in getting anything back. 

atarisrocks

la531983 said:

A few questions.

a) Why did you not cancel it yourself your end? Direct Debits can easily be cancelled by the customer their end.
b) how has it taken 5.5 years to notice this? 
c) What is the service in question? Has this service been used in any way, shape or form since November 2017?

I was always under the impression you have to cancel it through the company so the lack of knowledge of how DD work is on us.

My partner is not the best at keeping an eye on things financially.

It was a veg subscription services from a local farm school which you had to go and collect in person every week so there should be a record that I had collected a box since 2017 as we had to sign for it so they should had a left over box every week for 5 years and my name unsigned.

My email was a outlook and I am missing some emails as it jumps from 2013 to 2018 in my sent emails.

powerful_Rogue

atarisrocks said:

la531983 said:

A few questions.

a) Why did you not cancel it yourself your end? Direct Debits can easily be cancelled by the customer their end.
b) how has it taken 5.5 years to notice this? 
c) What is the service in question? Has this service been used in any way, shape or form since November 2017?

I was always under the impression you have to cancel it through the company so the lack of knowledge of how DD work is on us.

My partner is not the best at keeping an eye on things financially.

It was a veg subscription services from a local farm school which you had to go and collect in person every week so there should be a record that I had collected a box since 2017 as we had to sign for it so they should had a left over box every week for 5 years and my name unsigned.

My email was a outlook and I am missing some emails as it jumps from 2013 to 2018 in my sent emails.

What about received emails, or did you not get a conformation back?

m-holland

A Direct Debit expires if not used for 13 months

edit: ignore me, didnt read op properly

la531983

m-holland said:

A Direct Debit expires if not used for 13 months

They were seemingly still taking it every month for nearly seventy months, 40 quid a pop, so that isn't relevant here.

Think there actually needs to be clarity it actually was a direct debit though, it could have been two other things. 

RefluentBeans

atarisrocks said:

la531983 said:

A few questions.

a) Why did you not cancel it yourself your end? Direct Debits can easily be cancelled by the customer their end.
b) how has it taken 5.5 years to notice this? 
c) What is the service in question? Has this service been used in any way, shape or form since November 2017?

I was always under the impression you have to cancel it through the company so the lack of knowledge of how DD work is on us.

My partner is not the best at keeping an eye on things financially.

It was a veg subscription services from a local farm school which you had to go and collect in person every week so there should be a record that I had collected a box since 2017 as we had to sign for it so they should had a left over box every week for 5 years and my name unsigned.

My email was a outlook and I am missing some emails as it jumps from 2013 to 2018 in my sent emails.

What were the terms? What did it say about missed collections? Did they respond to your request for cancellation? 

I agree it’s negligent from the company to not raise an issue before hand, but it was coming from your partners account, so it should’ve been identified by one of you two.

Like I said - think it’s going to be hard to get 4 years of money back, more realistic to get past 12 months back. 

Grumpy_chap

atarisrocks said:

It was a veg subscription services from a local farm school which you had to go and collect in person every week so there should be a record that I had collected a box since 2017 as we had to sign for it so they should had a left over box every week for 5 years and my name unsigned.

I don't think the OP is going to get a refund here.
This type of venture sounds like a community interest organisation. 
If that is correct, then they probably do have some supporters who pay the subscriptions / make donations but don't ever collect any produce.

The organisation would also likely be run by volunteers or students learning business skills. 
It is a small local organisation and will not have detailed record keeping that the OP suggests they should have. 
I suspect the "sign for it" is very manual, print a sheet every week, or in a book, and you simply sign every week / month that you collected your veg so that the organisation does not have people collecting double.

The organisation has also lost out as the OP's box still needs to be prepared and kept back and then composted once the box has deteriorated beyond a usable state.
Perhaps it would be fair if the organisation gave the OP the veg that they did not collect now, so about two boxes of compost.

It really does seem beholden on the OP to check bank statements more frequently in the case of such a regular payment:

atarisrocks said:

it and it has come to light they have been taken £40 a month since around November 2017.