Clever legal people (PPI) and pony

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picolenicole

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Morning everyone,

I was just wondering if anyone could give me some help or advise, on the following......

In August I filled in a PPI claim pack from a company, lets call it company x but most of the details were wrong so I crossed the wrong detials out and wrote the correct ones in then signed it.

I then didn't hear for company x at all for weeks, untill a letter form the back came saying "company x did not have a valid letter of authority and would not discuss your accounts with them. Until we receive a valid letter of aurthority from company x we will correspond with you directly."

After all this came I went away to Italy for a week and half. When I got back there was a letter form company x saying I had to sign it before they could progress the complaint, letter is dated 24/09/2012 (I only landded back in England on the 23/09/2012, so never signed the letter, by this point I thought I would leave it as I had not been up dated on what was happening and thought it was a wase of time)

Then (sorry nearly done and nearly the horsey bit) a letter form the bank with a refund offer, not loads but enough to buy my pony a whole new set of electric fencing and a whole new winter wardrobe :D with some left over :D

So you can guess by now I have picked out a brand new wordrobee and have ear marked what the monies will be spent on.

This is the problem, company x are now saying I owe them 30% plus VAT of what they have won. But I cannot see how thay have won anything as they could not get any details on my accounts due to having invalid paper work.

Gets stranger.... I have just rang the bank and asked if the claim was completed by company x and the bank said they got a new letter of aurthority on the 25/09/2012.....how when I didn't get the letter untill 24/09/2012 and still have the letter unsigned in my grubby mits????

The bank has removed the companies aurthority to acess my account and have told me I don't have to pay them anything. Brill if this is true.....

So my question is do you think I still have to pay a company for a service they could not complete and have somehow managed to get my signature without me doing it??????

Also whats the best way to introduce a pony to electric fencing?? His winter field has far to much grass and his muzzle in now rubbing really badly, no matter what I do. I have tried vet wrap still rubbs, so I have to keep moving him his old field with no grass and feed him hay. Stupid when we have loads of room and grass, cannot top the field already asked mother-in-law. But I can fence it, how do you strip graze, or would you just section a small bit off, then slowly move it to make that section bigger??

I can offer tea, coffee, juice and cookies for any help :D
 
You signed an agreement. The company you signed the agreement with did the work for you - you wouldn't have approached the bank by yourself. A refund has been agreed, the paper work you signed told you what the fees are.

Possibly legally you could wriggle out of it but morally you owe them the money. If you were going to approach the bank yourself you wouldn't have ever signed paperwork which meant you were going to lose 30% of the refund.
 
I would send co x a copy of the letter they sent you dated 24/9 thanking them for the letter and say you do not wish them to progress the claim. Keep a copy of this.

I'd imagine some grubby chappie keen to get his commission paid out from the 30% has forged your signature to the bank (based on your earlier signature on the first letter they got wrong that wasn't accepted by the bank) and hence the bank thinking they HAD authority. Or phoned the bank and conned them into thinking they HAD authority somehow.

I'd also be asking the bank to a) send you a copy of the letter of authorisation they purportedly had (it may be they DON'T have and it was a bank mistake) and b) to write to company x and tell them they do not have authority - and send you a copy of this, and c) to write and confirm that they didn't have authority from company x and they've dealt with you directly

I think once I got all that^ I might feel safe to spend!
 
Oh dear! You could have done the claim yourself for absolutely free and kept everything that was paid back. All the templates and instructions are on the Martin Lewis website (moneysavingexpert.com). I'm afraid you signed up to the t&c's so unless you can prove the signature isn't yours you will lose the fee. But I completely agree, it is absolutely disgraceful that someone could forge your signature and get away with it, so I would certainly go down fighting. Why not go onto the forum boards at MSE and see what people there say?
 
I don't think a horsey forum is going to be the best place to get advice. Speak to someone who know's what they are talking about as I suspect this is going to get complicated. Yes you signed the t&cs BUT they have acted illegally - minefield.
 
Do not pay the moneys! if you did not sign the form then they can be done for fraud. Feel very strongly about this as we did the same, hired a company to do it, they did nothing so in the end i did it myself anyway as company said they had lost paperwork and i had to resign,then when company realised id got refund attempted to bill me 30%! Turns out they had forged my signature on a new form, after id got refund, to attempt to get there 30%. It looked nothin like my signature! lol. money grabbers! x
 
only if YOU signed the contract......
otherwise null and void, and yes it is fraud.
a friend of mine used one of these companies despite being advised she could do it herself. Paid 1k up front, the company went bump, she lost her money and had no PPI repaid :(

be very careful....

also are you aware that not only should you have your PPI returned, including the contractual interest they applied the the amount borrowed, (the original insurance) but also a flat 8% basic simple interest that you would have been awarded as standard had you chosen to pursue this through the local small claims court?
 
Thanks you lot, I only posted in here as I know that you lot are very clever. (From other posts regarding legal matters etc.)

The company said they would ring today so will see if they do (as I question the authority signature last night), I cannot see how they did any work on my behalf as the bank told them to obtian a signature wich they didn't. So will see what they have to say and I will request a coppy of all the paper work and "work" they did.

Still cannot believe they may have forged my signature!!

Thanks so much.

ps have looked on money saving expert, got really confused but may just ask the question anyway
 
Of course they did work on your behalf - you signed a contract, they contacted the bank for you and gave information which allowed the bank to process a refund! You know they contacted the bank because the bank wrote and told you.

As I said, legally you may be able to wriggle out of it, morally you owe them the money.

You could have gone direct to the bank and saved yourself the 30%, you chose to use a company that charges, now they want paying.
 
You appear to have signed an agreement to give the pip reclaim company permission to act on your behalf to get a refund from your bank.

I would establish from the company what information they got from your bank. Ie the amount of ppi you paid to the bank and what correspondence they sent to you bank.
if they don't have any details from the bank, which they shouldn't have as the bank have said they will not give them the information without a letter of authority which is standard data protection act procedure .

Then I fail to see how they are entitled to any money as haven't done any work other than possibly sending a letter requesting the information or a refund of the ppi. I would as a good will guesture offer then £20 per letter they have sent to your bank or tell them to proceed with any legal action they might take. They do have to earn their cut of money from ppi claims.

It seems they have contacted you bank with one letter and the bank have decided to put them off with the "dpa" and pay direct to you. Not your fault.
 
Hmm I'd check the paperwork small print personally. What is the actual agreement.

I'd be inclined to ask to see the letter with your signature on and if they have signed as you I'd be reporting it. If they haven't and they've simply sent an unsigned letter in addition to the original I'd pay, I'd probably see what the total cost was for and deduct a percentage for having to deal with the bank myself if they were meant to be doing it all.
 
Would love to read small print but all I filled in was a form like a questionaire, never got a coppy of it. Or of any other paper work.

It was name address date of birth details of loan and if I was employed or not then sign. This was the letter with all the misstakes, as in they had the wrong date of birth and wrong name on it, part of it was filled in on computer then printed.

Will see what the company say if they ring.
 
Ditto advice about Martin Lewis MSE forum. They did do the work for you, but if they did so without correct paperwork from you I would raise an issue of methods they used... if you didnt give permission how could they present signed authority to bank??

There was a discussion about this on Radio 4's Money Box programme about people charged large commissions on these PPI claims (a couple were more than was recovered, so in that sense you did ok with yours). Maybe look up BBC website for advice too...
 
Did you get a book of terms and conditions or anything with terms and conditions in writing in your hand once you had signed the questionnaire type form ?
 
Ok i worked for a short time for one of these companies, usually they charge an upfront fee (usually no win no fee), they should then have a solicitor to act on your behalf & all communication is usually done via the companies solicitor. The PPI company should have not only claimed your PPI back but also interest & in some cases compensation, the money should then of gone to the company who deduct their fees (usually 25%) from the payout & you should then receive the remainder of the money. I would be inclined to tell the company to do one, as they havnt really done their jobs properly.
Only downside to claiming the money back yourself is Banks are quite clever, i had a friend whose parents claimed their PPI back directly from the bank & they had a payout of £3k, which they accepted, when it was looked into properly they were actually owed £8k, but as they had already accepted the offer it was to late to do anything, if your going to try & claim it back yourself make sure you work it out correctly & get everything back you are owed.
 
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I'd say that legally you have signed a form which probably carried the T&Cs within it somewhere, and those will say that you're obliged to furnish the company with enough information/paperwork to enable them to do the job (i.e. provide them with an LOA if required). If you don't, that's you breaching the T&Cs so they will still be able to get the cash from you. So technically you do owe them the money.

HOWEVER if they have signed an LOA on your behalf, that's fraud. As someone else has said, I'd ask the bank for a copy of that LOA. I'd also write to the company (keep a copy - I personally like to email, ccing in another email address of mine, so there are records that it's been sent). Tell the company that you're outraged that they have signed this LOA on your behalf, you could not possibly have done it as you were out of the country and can prove it, and it's fraudulent. Tell them that you are considering reporting them to the Ministry of Justice (who regulate these companies) for breach of the Data Protection Act, as they are misusing data (your application form, which had your signature) to contact your bank fraudulently.

You can then go one of two routes:

1 - reach an agreement with them (say £20 per letter or something, as others have said) to bring the matter to a close.
2 - pursue THEM for compensation for being naughty and fraudulently signing the LOA. You can push it to the MoJ or the Financial Ombudsman, who are now considering complaints about the activities of claims management companies.

I would go with 1 but that's just me!

And as others have said - please claim yourselves, it's FREE (well, price of a stamp) - FOS are watching PPI cases very carefully and in nearly all cases are siding with the customer for the full amount + interest + 8%. Even if a case has previously been settled, you are entitled to go back to the company, demand an increase and go to FOS if not happy, because of the new info which has come to light. I'd do it. There is a lot of money involved.
 
Never got any sort of paper work at all, no book of C&T's or what happens next nothing.

I'm all for paying for a service but what has rattled my cage is how the hell they got a signed LOA when I never signed one then tried to tell me to sign it as it could be for a different claim, that I know nothing about as I only had the one claim with them or anyone. So very confused, about how it happend.

Thanks for the advise and help.
 
Tinypony said:
Ring Trading Standards.
Click to expand...
This

I am absolutely amazed that some posters are talking about your 'moral responsibility'. These PPI recovery companies have very few morals of their own. They send emails and texts to all and sundry, trying to coerce every-one into claiming and some of them expect you to contact the bank to find out the details of what was paid into your account yourself. I certainly wouldn't pay this company anything, they've done nothing legal for you, however they may have accessed your Bank account illegally.
 
I would say the company sent a letter to your bank asking for details, bank said no but acted upon the letter directly with you cutting out the middle man. Doesn't mean that the claim company have faked a signature and by the lack of t&c's it sounds like they shouldnt be having a cut of the money either.

I would however before cashing the cheque contact your bank and ask exactly how much you paid in PPI because I would put money on it your only being offered half if not less that what you paid. If you cash the cheque you have accepted their offer end of !
 
I don't think theres any way they have a contract with you if you have not recieved ant terms and conditions from them I would contact trading standards or it might be the financial standards authority .
 
Get down to Citizens advice and they can tell you exactly what to do. I have the same problem with a certain company not doing their job, and to make matters worse they lied, and are still lying about my ppi claim, so i want to know how to do them for breach of contract. As its really quite disgusting how many other people have had problems with them.
 
Never mind trading standards. Ask them about the letter of authority. If they wont waive ur fees in light of the unexplainable signature then go to ministry of justice the regulatory body. You did sign a contract and i'd be amazed if the terms allowed for you to not owe there fees but the signature you didn't give could be the way out. I work in the industry but for one of the good guys, what made you sign up to 30%!
 
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