Chase my debtors

They have already promptly and happily charged my card for £67—regarding my order of Humax Freeview set-top box, but the devices were not in stock by the time…

They promised that new stock will arrive in a week, about 13/09. Guess what? It’s 15/09 today and not a single bloody word from them.

Yet another company not willing to stick to their commitments.

I will chase them all.

16/09
Gave them a ring today. Delivery was deferred till 20th. This time they said it must be definitely coming.
OK – marked for follow-up. Should arrive by 21st, before I go on holiday. Let’s see.

20/09
They called me back. Great. May be after all it was genuine order delay. They are sending the terrestrial receiver tomorrow, and it should be with me on Thursday 22th. Could well be completion of the order. But then, £67 was the really lowest price for that kind of device… could have spent up to £80.

22/09
The item is finally delivered. I’ve been waiting for four hours then went to supermarket to pick up some groceries, and then they came (Sod’s law isn’t it? :)) But they left things to neighbours, who promptly brought it to me. So it stands there awaiting installation now. It was a shame they have delivered it right before I went on holiday.

DONE now. Justice restored.

The Lesson: the cheapest is often the longest wait and the worst quality of service… I know it already pretty well, but this time I was caught on it again. Have I ordered from another company (a bigger one), for two or three quid more, I could have been enjoying the terrestrial receiver service for about a month by now, without wait, calls, frustration.

13/09 Recently I was referred there by my hand surgeon. This is quite unique institution, not found in province.

These guys – instead of decently settling their financial claims with my insurance directly without bothering me with the details—required pre-payment of £275 and then they leave you settle the bill directly with the insurance company.

This is a hideous habit,—just attempt to move their own hassle to patients’ shoulders and attack on patients’ finances. What if I weren’t able to muster £275 straight away? There are lots of people on low incomes out there who could NOT pay the same way.

Anyway I should send the receipt by fax tomorrow and insurance will probably pay back the money.

Rant:
Is this bloody topic ever going to end? Every bastard should be chased and only then they crack up and finally pay under relentless pressure. Are there any decent people left who will pay their dues without a reminder, huh?!

FUCK!

Copied & Faxed the receipts now.
Let’s see where it brings us.
In theory shouldn’t be that bad, really, outpatient treatment is covered even if the clinic is in London – I’d be “out of scale” only if I had to undergo “inpatient” treatment (God forbid!)

During today’s call they have confirmed that they will send me a cheque for £275. Yippee – these go into current account, these are real money! :) like free cash withdrawal. :)
They said it the cheque comes through pretty quick.
Waiting for the cheque now… :)

03/10 After returning from holiday, I’ve found the cheque in my mail.
Now, £275.00 are back in my pocket. I’ll cash it straight into my new Nationwide account today.

DONE.

I realised that there are TWO sets of charges coming my way: Credit Card payment (Worldpay) AND Direct Debit (irregular, which was weird). When it happened for two months at totally irregular dates, I got sick & tired of this crap.

Rang them today, after receiving yet another double charge. Had to wait 12 minutes on the line, however got to them, and ensured that they compensate the extraneous charges (having happened 2 times already – £60 in total!).

Now only credit card billing will remain (which 1) is stable and 2) will ensure my money stay with me for extra month and a few days), and broken Direct Debits are cancelled.

After that I filed the company expense reimbursement for the last 3 months and old ISP Direct Debit remnants.

Total: £166.70 for 25 minutes on the phone, just by chasing what’s mine rightfully but wasn’t given to me.

Very invigorating. Worth it, I guess. :)

One of my best friends is a solicitor. Having known about my problem, he offered me FREE help with squeezing the money out of the BITCH, he knows her personally and has a personal grudge against her. Yippee! :)

I will call the estate agents and confirm that she holds the deposit, also will get a copy of final (outgoing) inventory report to start with. Then I’m giving her ONE LAST warning – the benefit of doubt – if she has forgotten, she must apologize and PAY NOW, within 5 days.

If she doesn’t, the bitch goes to courts and let us squash her to pieces. I hate this kind of people. I was very polite to her and never missed a single payment. Why do I have to endure this shit now. It’s just unfair. So if she tries to fob me off, she ends up in courts and will pay through her nose to me AND the court.

——09/08Final Notice

I’ve sent her a notice today—her last chance to settle things decently & peacefully.
Let’s see what excuses has she got to say.
All copies of mail go to my solicitor now.

18/08No answer

Should go to Stephen and tell him to start chasing the biAtch.
I’ll give him a ring.

Stephen insisted that I resume calling.
I gave her mobile a ring today. Somebody else answered her mobile phone and told she’s in a meeting. I think she started to hide from me. Well this is what courts are for. I’ll still try to get ahold of her on the mobile.

Pay up, biAtch, this is my hard earned money. I’m not letting it go.

14/09Another call
Went out and rang from my mobile about 3PM.
She (surprise!) picked up herself and promised to recall in the evening, referring to being in a meeting.
OKAY – let’s give her another benefit of doubt.
The results are achieved by relentlessness, not by being rude. Which I’m not (don’t want to bust this thing here, I can be very polite and considerate when needed.)

By 8PM, rang again. Obviously we defer the ultimate decision. Well, I left a message. Let’s keep on the pressure!

01/11Feedback
Eventually she wrote back. Took quite a time. She wants to retain £675, leaving just £300 for returns. How do you like “table for £300, chair for £250”... it’s merely ridiculous. She must be totally crazy. :) Well, I didn’t expect anything else from this bitch, did I?

1. Consulting my solicitor now, about the chances to go to courts (AND WIN!).
2. Need to visit the estate agency to order a copy of dilapidation report.
3. Need to visit Citizenship Advice Bureau and ask what can I do to fend these unreasonable charges.

(Damn, I have to hold myself tight not to let my hatred out too much. Yes, I am very much pissed off, but when you’re pissed off, you’re vulnerable. So I shouldn’t succumb to anger, because anger is defeat and keeping your cool is victory.)

So on we go. Fuck you Lizzie, lick my arse, bitch.

10/11Preparing for action
I have been to citizens advice bureau (CAB) and the advisor told me he totally agrees with me and I should try to change the agreement – even if that requires me suing.

I will do a small research on prices of furniture items, and there we go.

By receiving the first bill I found out that their figures are totally cocked up. Another company to chase – bring ‘em ON!

Rang them today. A very helpful bloke over the ‘phone helped me to bring in the real readings and confirmed that the old readings were in fact not “C” – customer readings, but “E” – merely estimates. This made sense instantly.

Also I’ve changed tariff to one more suitable for me. Shouldn’t save too much but at least, will definitely pay less for my electricity.

My landlords, BTW, happen to get some £40 refund. ;-)

Last time they tried to conveniently ignore one of two parts of the claim. This time this issue is marked as repeated and totally separate claim.

I expect to review on 07 July if there is no answer. Gave them my mobile and ensured they write it down.

“Never Ever Give Up”.

——01/07Received letter from BT

...where they try to 1) give me a lesson on how they bill (irrelevant), 2) confirm that they have warned me that charges may apply (like I didn’t know? question is to apply them honestly!), and 3) say “according to our records you’ve been charged correctly”. (which I still don’t approve cos there is no reason for it).

I just have to find a timeslot before 6PM one day soon to ring the guys and beat the stuffing out of them!

Battle continues.
——04/07Rang the buggers again

Got to that very guy who answered me and briefed him on what REALLY happened. He promised an investigation.

——08/07Received another letter

Confirmation letter from BT – investigation started with Fault Management Team. Waiting for results.

——26/07No response so far

There you go bastards. Pay up…

——18/08Rang them

They just repeated the same daft answer: “we believe you’ve been charged properly.” Well, I dare to disagree.
We’re escalating it to higher-up managers and I should receive a ring from them. Let’s see!

——19/08Callback from BT. Richard

Richard rang me first thing in the morning. I was driving, but he cleverly left his number. I rang him but he was on the ‘phone. And then he finally caught me on my mobile :)

Whew. Finally someone not deaf and with enough authority has really listened to my gruesome long story. He offered me a refund of £60, “as a goodwill gesture”, which I accepted. Thus they still have some payment (which I’d say is fair enough), and I am not charged outrageous money for the faults I did not make.

“I’ll refund £60 to your account straight away, Sir!”

Yesss! :)) About bloody time!
OK, so be it. Will now monitor the actual refund. The reminder about it is in the GTD system.

——24/08Follow-up call
Followed up by phone, because in the online billing I could not find any indication of refund coming through.

The money (not only £60 but £60+VAT = £70+!) are indeed in my BT account and will come through in next bill which is unfortunately 15 November. But then they will arrive in form of “Account in Credit” and will become retrievable to my current account.

TA-DA!

Result: £60 + VAT = £70.50 – expected to be available for withdrawal by mid-November (round 15th)

One of them being my former landlady who still holds my £975.
I am considering a legal action if she doesn’t cough them up soon. Before that I’ll just call the CAB and get myself prepared and updated on the potential course of action.

Let the biatch pay twice. I never had missed a single payment to her and now she dares to play games…

Second being BT who charged me £115 + VAT = £135.12 for the work on something that was not even located within my house! Bloody ‘ell! And you have to wait in the queue when ringing them—they don’t return your E-mails. Last ring of mine was a masterpiece of call forwarding. They listened to me, then forwarded me elsewhere. The third forwarding happened at 8:03 PM and led me… right, to an automated recording with their working hours… yes, 8 to 8. Beep beep beep, good bye.

So let the “fockers” pay up. It’s a matter of honour, I’m not letting it go.