Littlewoods, Admin Charges & Poor Customer Service-Rights?

eidman

For the past 5 months i have tried in vain to get an admin charge taken off my account for £12 as i was 4 days late paying due to a holiday, however throughout this time i have phoned, wrote letters (unanswered) & e-mailed, but with little success. I have had people ringing me at work chasing me for the money - one of which wouldn't tell me his name, wouldn't pass me on to a supervisor & then hung up on me.
I have since paid the £12 charge, but during the time 'I' was in communication with them, they hit me with further admin charges each month due to this non-payment, despite me asking them not to do so whilst in dsipute, which i belive is how a normal business would do it!

Consequently i now 'owe' approx £54, which i will not pay - Can anyone give me advice on how to deal with this appalling customer service?

Have been advised to find out the MD's name & write to him direct as there is a law that they have to tell me who the MD is? Is thsi correct & what law is it so i can state when requesting.

Any other ideas would be gratefully received, especially as to where i stand on this regards the build up of debt - i.e. Can they send in debt collectors on this even though i have got proof of all my communications with them which proves i have queried & tried to get this resolved?

Thanks in advance, Newbie!

dmg24

You owed the money due to an error on your part, there is no reason why they should not continue to bill you until you pay out.

Sorry it is not what you want to hear, but why did you think that you should not pay the charge in the first place?

pulliptears

I believe some people had some success with claiming unfair charges back through the small claims court, but to my knowledge this was all put on hold with the bank test case (not that up to date with that actually, is it still ongoing?).

You could ask them to reduce to charge to a proportionate amount for their time etc, but to be honest as DMG says it was your fauly.

nuttywoman

eidman wrote: »

For the past 5 months i have tried in vain to get an admin charge taken off my account for £12 as i was 4 days late paying due to a holiday, however throughout this time i have phoned, wrote letters (unanswered) & e-mailed, but with little success. I have had people ringing me at work chasing me for the money - one of which wouldn't tell me his name, wouldn't pass me on to a supervisor & then hung up on me.
I have since paid the £12 charge, but during the time 'I' was in communication with them, they hit me with further admin charges each month due to this non-payment, despite me asking them not to do so whilst in dsipute, which i belive is how a normal business would do it!

Consequently i now 'owe' approx £54, which i will not pay - Can anyone give me advice on how to deal with this appalling customer service?

Have been advised to find out the MD's name & write to him direct as there is a law that they have to tell me who the MD is? Is thsi correct & what law is it so i can state when requesting.

Any other ideas would be gratefully received, especially as to where i stand on this regards the build up of debt - i.e. Can they send in debt collectors on this even though i have got proof of all my communications with them which proves i have queried & tried to get this resolved?

Thanks in advance, Newbie!

Littlewoods!! i once had a load of trouble with them.Would`nt touch them with a BARGEPOLE!!:mad: :mad:

Butlers1982

I agree with DMG, you owed the money, they were right to charge you.

Sorry if thats not what you want to hear, but thats what your agreed to when you signed up for your account and that is well stipulated in their terms & conditions.

Can anyone give me advice on how to deal with this appalling customer service

Where is the poor service?, you didnt pay them on time and they charged you

what law is it so i can state when requesting

You agreed to their Terms & conditions when you signed up for an account, below is one that is very relevant to you and as such, they have broken no law so you have no "break in the law" that you could quote.

Key Information
Default Charges - Charges are payable by you in respect of the following matters:

• You fail to make at least the minimum payment by the payment due date - £12

RadoJo

Unless they agreed not to bill you for further late payment charges whilst you were disputing the first one, then you are liable for all of them I'm afraid. I believe £12 was the amount credit card companies were allowed to charge for late payments, so I see no reason why this shouldn't be considered reasonable for store credit too, so even once the bank charges case is complete, the chances are that this penalty will still stand.

eidman

so not replying to my communications enables them to carry on charging me whilst the orignal charge was in dispute - & lets them get away with putting the phone down on customers without giving their names etc?

I admitted i was wrong in late paying by 4 days, & was unaware of the terms at the time - surely it makes more sense for a supplier to credit the charge & keep the customer, rather than lose the customer over £12?

dmg24

Poor customer service and late payment charges due to your own oversight are two separate issues (I still don't see why you thought you could dispute this charge).

In hindsight, you should have paid the charge and then complained about the customer service issue (although you possibly would not have had the issue if you had paid the first charge?).

Why would the company want to keep your business? Irrespective of their customer service skills, they are still very popular, and losing one customer will make absolutely no difference to them.

hollydays

Again,not what you want to hear,but perhaps they saw it simply as you wanted to dispute the stated terms-some arguaments arent worth having (you just end up repeating the same thing over and over),and need to be brought to a close.Although you say it was "in dispute",do you just mean you didnt agree with their terms and conditions? If so,you cant really argue with a contract.

If you said "I dont think i should pay this ",and she said "its our companys terms and conditions",why should she continue to argue with you?"

What is different about your case that should make them suspend or resolve it?

uktim29

What do you want to write to the MD for? It's your fault. Why is when people !!!! up and end up with companies chasing them it poor service? It's not poor service, it's your fault!

"appalling customer service"

Yeah right! Try paying them on time!

It's your own fault!

eidman wrote: »

lose the customer over £12?

Who wants unprofitable customers? Retail is a very competitive business, this means it's ran for the "now" rather than like a family business that may be making desicions or planning for the next 10 years etc. If they make a habit of making leaks into their profits they'll go bust.

RadoJo

eidman wrote: »

so not replying to my communications enables them to carry on charging me whilst the orignal charge was in dispute - & lets them get away with putting the phone down on customers without giving their names etc?

I admitted i was wrong in late paying by 4 days, & was unaware of the terms at the time - surely it makes more sense for a supplier to credit the charge & keep the customer, rather than lose the customer over £12?

It's not a question of whether they replied to you so much as whether they were prepared to waive the fees. They weren't - you saying that the matter was 'in dispute' is only by your own terms, as far as they were concerned, you had effectively 'asked to be let off the fee' and they had no intention of doing so. The fact you weren't happy about it doesn't mean that you are in a position to impose your own terms and conditions on the existing agreement with regard to your 'dispute'. The charges are laid out quite clearly, but I am now concerned that your pursuit of this matter will mean you are charged more and more the surther they have to escalate it. I would suggest contacing them and trying to agree some payment plan, as otherwise you are leaving yourself open to the charges on this list which could mount up to be astronomical and damaging to your credit.

Default Charges - Charges are payable by you in respect of the following matters:

• You fail to make at least the minimum payment by the payment due date - £12
• Failure by you to respond to an arrears collection communication - £12
• Any dishonoured cheque or missed direct debit payment - £15
• Us agreeing to a reduced repayment schedule with you - £10
• Transfer of your debt to a debt collection agency - £20
• Failure by you to provide a forwarding address to us - £20
• Any court fees & costs incurred by us in pursuit of arrears - £90

We reserve the right to vary these charges (or introduce new charges) at any time in accordance with clause 11. Details of up to date charges in relation to each of these matters are available from us.