So mad!!

janiebump

Hi, posted on here a fair bit, im approx £16000 in the red and currently on mat benefit and struggling. Anyways heres whats got me mad. Last sept our street was dug up by yorkshire water and they turned water off with no notification and it was dirty for days, so in oct we got a leaflet saying that we would be recieving free drainage and plumbing cover for 3 months with homeserve, now i was with these in 2006 and cancelled dd and its inactive as it was just extra expense. I have forgotten all anout it as i have been suffering stress and severe depression and am also heavily pregnant now, due in just over a week. On saturday i checked my account and found a dd for £28 had left my acc to homeserve, was livid and they were closed so have stewed all weekend. Rung them today and they said yes we sent a policy( i havent recieved such policy) they said it was for your 3 free months and then it did state that if you didnt cancel within 14 days of this being due to end that we would take direct debit, we had yopur acc details from before. I said no thats not on, i havent recieved anything and why should i have to call you, they said its our terms, we can cancel but cant refund?!!! grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr sooooooooo mad, im struggling like hell to even afford food and then they do that!!! Just had to vent off!! I even said isnt that illegal without my signature, they said no cos u agreed to it as you never cancelled free policy, i never even recieved a policy and i have a lot more on my mind that ringing someone for a servive i didnt ask for when im ill as it is!!! thanks for listening!! x

MaggieBear

So they've take money off you from a direct debit associated with an old account that you closed, is that right?

And effectively this 3 months free was a new account as far as you were aware, that you did not open - was the company that opened this free 3 months a "parent" company for the company that did the homecare?

If you formally cancelled and closed the old account it doesn't seem reasonable that they've been able to re-open it without a signature (that appears to have been what they've done, rather than opening a "new" account as you'd expected).

It certainly doesn't sound as if it's something they should be entitled to do, do you have your paperwork from the original cancellation at all?

janiebump

I dont have paperwork, i may have if i sort thru all my things, when i went online yest, i bank with natwest online, i looked at all my direct debits and i had one with them and they say next to them active or cancelled and this one said cancelled. I have now cancelled the new one i set up but feel there would have been no way i could have cancelled it before as i didnt know there was one been set up. Its very unfair i might contact watchdog to warn others. Fair enough a free policy or whatever it was but A. i never recieved, and B. why should i have to ring to cancel something i never asked for/set up. Youd have thought they would have contacted me and asked me if i wanted to continue, but no, it was my responsibility to contact them 14 days beofre to advies? I feel cheated :mad:

bobbadog

Ring your bank. The Direct Debit guarantee is there to protect you at times like this.

janiebump

Thats a good point, havent rung them, just the company in question. Do i ask them to produce the document that i allegedly signed to authorise payment?

taxi73

I would also go with the DD guarantee as they had no right to take it as you never agreed or signed up to it.After that I really don't know...good luck on the new arrival..take carexx

Donedoingdebt

This sounds like another form of protection insurance being mis-sold which may or may not hit the headlines one day.

janiebump

On phone to bank now they r useless, they have no sig from me, they are saying that a mandate was sent in, no sig, but they presumed that i had authorised this, and to contact them. The banks saying its not them its homeserve, they keep setting it up in a differnt reference number.

taxi73

Next step then I would put it in writing to homeserve that you didn't order it and making a formal complaint

janiebump

Unbelievable isnt it, i have just rung them as natwest said they can keep resetting up direct debits as long as they change the ref, so i rung homeserve and said that i was contacting watchdod, they said we will pass to complaints dept, half hour later they ring me, it was set up by someone whos no longer there, they cannot trace the phonecall, so are refunding me in full and removing all my details from their system! RESULT, amazing what the W word does to companys!!

neverdespairgirl

janiebump wrote: »

I even said isnt that illegal without my signature, they said no cos u agreed to it as you never cancelled free policy, i never even recieved a policy and i have a lot more on my mind that ringing someone for a servive i didnt ask for when im ill as it is!!! thanks for listening!! x

You are right, they are wrong.

Failure to respond, even if you did get the free policy, can't form a contract.