Hi miaha

I'm sorry you feel we haven't taken your complaint seriously.

As I said in my earlier post, expressions of dis-satisfaction from a domestic customer or micro-business must be treated as a complaint and handled in accordance with the complaints procedure as outlined on our website.

If 56 days have elapsed since you first raised this with us and you have exhausted all avenues of the escalation process, you can refer this to the Ombudsman.

You can approach the Ombudsman earlier if the above procedure has been followed but we have been unable to reach a satisfactory resolution. In this case, ask for a deadlock letter to be issued. This will allow you to go straight to the Ombudsman.

Hope this helps.

Malc

Jalexa,

I am in the process of changing to a new bank, following which I will be making complaints about the Nationwide Building Society.

Please do not make presumptions as to my knowledge or what I am about to do and do try to avoid emotive words like ' rant.' and 'blind.' It detracts from the issues.

miaha:

I contacted the Nationwide they refused to act to reclaim my money.

For the benefit of others as I won't participate in a rant.

When I said in a previous post "or more than 13 months has elapsed in which case the bank should already have cancelled the mandate. That's an easy issue to deal with, the bank must make an immediate refund", perhaps I should have added that if a bank declines to invoke the Direct Debit Indemnity Guarantee "immediately" the customer has recourse to the bank's complaints procedure and after 8 weeks to the Financial Ombudsman Service, in which case the bank would incur a hefty case fee regardless of the outcome. On the face of it Nationwide would have had no defence.

Its a disappointment when an organisation gets off because a customer is blind to the correct application of a complaints procedure.

Hello Malc and Jalexa,

SUMMARY:

E on under a false business name wrongly extracted money from my Nationwide Building Soicety Account, denied it for three weeks, then repaid it. ( E on's employees) refused to deal with our complaints. E on sent a further letter claiming we were on a re-payment plan (another a lie) once again [they] refused to take action regarding our complaint.)

THE FACTS:

On the 10th of September this year, Powergen took money from my Nationwide Building Society account ( £369.80) without my prior consent or knowlege.

After some research I discovered that Powergen is now a defunct company and is now trading under the name of E on. When I contacted E on they denied any wrong doing. I contacted the Nationwide they refused to act to reclaim my money.

Since Powergen had supplied us in 2007 with gas and electricity E on took it upon themselves to re-open my old account. Not only did they take my money but took it on the wrong date (of the original direct debit). My bank did not challenge this unusual amount of money from my account.

Finally, E on admitted they had taken the money, that they had no right to take it and that they would return it. (This was after I told them I would make a claim against them in the County Court.) As previously stated E on took over three weeks to repay the money, denied that they were still trading under the name of Powergen, denied breach of the Business Names Act, denied keeping inaccurate records in breach of the Data Protection Act.

Following this we received a further letter from E on declaring that I had been on a re-payment plan. After contacting E on again I was told that I am in credit by hundreds of pounds and that I had never owed money to E on or Powergen. Once again I complained, this time Wendie Baillon from the Directors' Office who has refused to forward our complaints and refused to correspond further on the matter. In her letter she stated that ' should you require any further information with regard to our Codes of Practice on our complaints procedure please visit our website.........'

E on's Legal Manager also refuses to take these issues seriously and refuses to forward our complaints E on' complaint department or to their regulators).

I am fully aware of my rights under the Direct Debit Guarantee, the Busniess Names Act, the tort of negligence, breach of contract, negligent/fraudulent misrepresentation, the Data Protection Act. possibly the Company Act in regard to legal personality and possibily taxation matters.

E on and /or Powergen (or their employees ) seem to be in complete ignorance of all the above regulations and laws to safeguard consumers against their practices. Why should I have faith in them?

Hi miaha

Must admit, I'm somewhat confused by your post.

We changed name from Powergen to E.ON at the end of 2007. I am not aware of any transactions which still carry the Powergen name but could be wrong.

The rules governing Direct Debits are strict and are set out in the Direct Debit guarantee. As Jalexa says, if we've broken the guarantee, a customer is entitled to an immediate refund from their bank or building society via an Indemnity claim.

I also agree with Jalexa's comments about the complaints process. Any expression of dis-satisfaction from a domestic customer or micro-business must be treated as a complaint and handled accordingly. If, after 56 days, we have not resolved the issue, the matter can be referred to the Ombudsman for an independent ruling.

There is more information about the complaints process on our website.

If you feel your original complaint has not been dealt with, I would suggest contacting our Director's Office and asking for it to be looked at again. The complaint will be re-opened from the date you originally raised it with us.

Sorry if this is a bit vague miaha but hope it helps point you in the right direction.

Malc

miaha:

I do not know what you mean by "in reality it does not work".

What exactly doesn't work?

Thank you Jalexa,

We know what should have been, but in reality it does not work. I hope this is not such a rant for you to consider.

miaha:

I won't deal with the specific case you mention since it is a bit of a rant but I will comment on a couple of points for the benefit of others.

There are only two mechanisms that allow money to be "taken" from a bank account. The first is where a Direct Debit mandate is in place (and has been used in the last 13 months). The Originator uses a reference number, and when originally setup a company name was provided to the bank. When a Direct Debit is collected using the Originators number the original name appears on the bank statement even if the company has changed names. This does not mean that the wrong company received the funds. If a Direct Debit amount or date differs from the previously collected amount without the notice specified in the mandate (the default is 10 working days) the account holder is entitled to an "immediate" refund from their bank. You just need to ask your bank, I mean insist. The cashier's terminal has a workflow to implement the refund.

The other mechanism is where the supplier has been provided with the debit card 16 digit long number. If the number was provided for a single transaction, only a single withdrawal should be made. It's possible for the 16 digit number to be provided on a recurring authority basis but in that case you should receive prior notice. If you didn't the merchant is in breach of Visa or Mastercard rules.

An energy supplier cannot refuse to consider a complaint. It is sufficient to raise the issue. If the company does not respond then a domestic or micro-business customer can ask the Energy Ombudsman to consider the complaint 8 weeks after first raising the issue, regardless of whether the company has responded.

Since it is more than 13 months since Powergen became E.ON I can tell that either there were previous Direct Debits collected which probably displayed as Powergen on the statement, or more than 13 months has elapsed in which case the bank should already have cancelled the mandate. That's an easy issue to deal with, the bank must make an immediate refund.

I hope that is helpful to others in a similar situation.

IMPORTANT. CONTACT Eon NOW!

I forgot to add that during a recent telephone conversation with an employee of E on's it was stated that E on often overlooks customers credits. I strongly advise all past and present E on customers to contact the company and request a review of their previous bills. It could be that you too have overpaid without even knowing!

In September 2010 I noiced that Powergen took 370 from my bank account. This came as a surprise as I did not have any dealings with this Ltd. compnay. I then discovered that it was E on using the name Powergen. This money was not owed to either business. It took me 4 weeks to recover my money. Now E on have sent a bogus letter to me stating that I was on a Repayment Plan. This was an error according to their legal manager and their director's secretary .

Both refuse to coomence a formal complain against their own actions and E on.

Can anyone advise us how to deal with a non existent company, along with 2 employees of E on who refuse to deal with complaints from customers?