How can I get money back that belongs to me

Tom_McAteer

I know that this is not a money saving tip, but a question on how to get money back from a company who have taken it in error but are slow in repaying it.

I am at the point of taking legal action through the small claims court, so before I do I want to see if there are any alternatives.

The company I have been doing battle with is - De Agostini UK Limited - the magazine publishers who specialise in weekly/fortnightly magazine collections - e.g. build your Spitfire week by week, etc.

I had two subscriptions with them - Classic War Movie Collection - D3003113 Clint Eastwood Movie Collection - D4008990. I moved address in January this year. Not only did I set up a Royal Mail re-direction, but also notified De Agostini of my change in address, along with my subscription numbers.

My magazines were still being delivered to my old address. I phoned them up to change my address details. They were still being sent to the old address. I tried on a couple of other occasions to get my address changed. The same thing happened. I sent them an e-mail making a complaint, and asking for my details to be updated and confirmation to be sent to me, along with an offer of compensation for inconvenience. I said that if I did not hear anything, I would cancel my subscriptions. No reply was received so I cancelled the direct debits and advised them by e-mail of what I had done and that I would like to cancel my subscriptions. A few days later, I received a request for outstanding payment of £17.98. I had also received further issues of the magazine which I sent back to the Managing Director with a note explaining my reasons for returning the items. I spoke to their help line and clarified and agreed the outstanding payments that were due. I asked that they confirmed cancellation of the account once they had received all of their payment. I received another letter requesting payment of £14.98 in respect of the Classic War Movie Collection, which I sent by cheque along with a note stating that if I did not receive some kind of confirmation that the payment had been received, then I would cancel the cheque because it could have been lost in the post. No confirmation had been made. I received a confirmation e-mail from De Agostini on 23 May 2005 confirming cancellation of both accounts. On 1 June 2005, a further amount of £17.98 was deducted from my bank account in respect of the Clint Eastwood collection. I rang De Agostini and spoke to a chap who agreed that the account had been cancelled and paid to date and arranged for the money to be credited to my bank account. I spoke to a clerk at my bank to make absolutely sure that the direct debits had been cancelled. I showed him a bank statement we had obtained that had this payment of £17.98 on. He said that the direct debits had been cancelled and that De Agostini had obtained the money by using the debit card number and security number we had given them when setting up the subscription. If they were to do it again, then this would constitute potential fraud and we could ask the bank's fraud team to investigate this. I spoke to a team leader at De Agostini about this and explained what the bank had said. He said that they would investigate everything about my file and call me back on 6 June.

A couple of weeks ago, I received a phone call to say that the payment was being returned by cheque that day. Nothing received. I phoned up earlier this week and was told that a cheque was sent out on 30 June. I have still not received it

What I want to know is if there is anywhere else other than the courts I can go to get my money back.

Again, I apologise for this not being a money saving tip, but in a way it is. Although this is a small amount, it's mine and I want it back. That money could be in a bank account earning me interest.

Any help that anyone can give me would be appreciated.

Thanks for reading.

Tom McAteer

max2002ad

To me this is a moneysaving question as you are trying to stop losing money to a company.
i have to aggree that from my own personal experience De Agostini is an absolutely awful company to deal with and the sooner they go bankrupt the better.
The best thing i can recommend is that you send a letter by registered post informing them that if you did not recieve the amount you are owing plus your expenses you will take them to the small claims court to recover your costs.
If you then give a time limit on the letter say within 28 days then that should get them to realise that you are serious and you are not going to go away.
Of course if they don't you need to prepared to take them to court and if i was you i would charge them them for taking them to court.
Hopefully your situation will be resolved before this point.

Good Luck !!!

Xbigman

Unfortunately you have to keep on at them and they will eventually repay you. At what point you decide you have had enough and go for small claims is up to you. Likewise, how much are all these calls and letters costing you? Sometimes these companies are simply not worth bothering with for the sums involved.

If they have used your debit card without authorisation because you cancelled a DD then that is fraud and you should get on to the banks fraud team now. 'If they do it again' is rubbish.
Regards



X

daveboy

It's correct to post this but it has nothing whatsoever to do with credit cards.

Bossyboots

I agree with Xbigman. The fraud has already happened. Report it now.