[Gumbygreeneye]

Dear All,

Is it me or is cancelling contracts and direct debits about 50 billion times harder than starting them? They never tell you when you start the contract that a pint of blood, two testicles and a virgin's codpiece are needed to cancel it!

I've spent most of the day today, dutifully phoning up insurance companies and other companies telling the I need to cancel my contracts at the end of the month. If it's not a letter they want with a months notice, it's a cancellation fee. All I'm trying to do at the end of the day is clear my outgoings from the bank before I leave, but NOOO! They want forwarding addresses and to send me bills for when I'm already gone. It's clearly a strategy to keep you with the same company by a process of attrition.. it's so difficult to cancel you may as well stay with them!

To top it all a monthly direct debit that I had that finished two months ago told me I owed them £1200 as they had forgotten to actually take the payments over the last 6 months! Great a £1200 bill right when I'm about to leave!

AND!... AND! The company that I occasionally do shifts for still hasn't paid me for MAY!

Trust me on this. If you don't get the answer you want from the spotty 16 year old on the end of the phone, call again and ask the same question to the older person on the end of the phone who will try to help more.

The emigration process.. easy.. relying on the systems in this country.. pick a suitable 4 letter word yourself!

Some days. it's not worth getting out of bed!

[zardell]

Dear All,

Is it me or is cancelling contracts and direct debits about 50 billion times harder than starting them? They never tell you when you start the contract that a pint of blood, two testicles and a virgin's codpiece are needed to cancel it!

Some days. it's not worth getting out of bed!


:D :D :D


You have just given me the best 'good old belly laugh' I have had in ages.....absolute classic.

Don't know where you are going to in NZ, but do let me know...

I would love to sign on with a GP like you.

Julie

xx

[Bubbles]

They never tell you when you start the contract that a pint of blood, two testicles and a virgin's codpiece are needed to cancel it!



:laugh :laugh :laugh

Sweet !! :nice1

My thoughts are with you at this difficult time Gumbygreeneye.
It does get better, honest.

Have a beer, I think you could do with one.

John

[Cardiff Irons]

Definitely not just you. And some would say a pint of blood, two testicles and a virgin's codpiece is getting off lightly :D.

I've just taken to sending people a letter "signed for" (costs about a £1) and then cancelling any direct debits/standing orders. Usually does the trick, unless of course you're owed some money back, in which case it becomes really messy.

I've become so cautious about the hazards of cancelling contracts that whenever people knock on my door asking if I want to change electricity/gas/telephone/hard drugs suppliers, I immediately barricade the door, don full army surplus uniform and adopt a sniper position. They could be saving me several million pounds but I just KNOW that the pain of cancelling my existing supplier makes it a worthless exercise.

Roll on NZ, I'm sure it's a whole lot easier out there :roll!

[Gumbygreeneye]

Thanks all for the support!

Would love to have a beer but off to do late shift in 3 minutes.. patients wouldn't appreciate Would end up paying even more before I go!!

Seer you tomorrow!

Cheers,

KJ

[marcia]

Your expressions are wonderful - gave me a good old laugh :nice1

Like Julie says where are you going to in NZ - we want to sign on with you as our GP!!! Will you do house calls to Palmerston North???? :p

[StevieD]

Just about the biggest fiddle of them all the direct debit scheme. It is clearly the fault of the company concerned, they are eligible for their mistake, check the Direct Debit guarantee that they alway bleat on about to see if you have any options to shaft the company for the 1200 quid - I would!!!

[Cardiff Irons]

I've had a similar lark with the electricity company (British Gas). They asked me to do a meter reading a month or so ago, which I did. I was then informed that I owed them about £800! I asked them how that could be, seeing as I was paying a monthly instalment which THEY set (apparently every quarter they review my situation to make sure I'm paying the right amount on my direct debit) and was told that they hadn't read the meter since we moved in back in Aug 2003 and had been estimating.

When I asked why no meter readings, there was a lot of umming and arring, followed by "well, we come down and read the meter if you let us know when you're in". I responded with "the meter box is sitting on the outside wall of my house, come and read it whenever you want!".

I asked them if they had an obligation to read the meter rather than continually estimate and was told that they were supposed to read it at least every two years. "What happens if you don't then?", I asked, which brought lots more umming and arring and "I'll have to go and ask someone".

I lodged a complaint and was told someone would contact me within 3 working days. I'm still waiting.:mad:

[sizzlingbadger]

:laugh :laugh

Excellent post Gumbygreeneye, love the expressions.

Have to say direct debits are the bain of our lives to. Do seem to be a little better over here and it's a lot easier for me to sort accounts out that are in my husbands name. Found in the UK no one was willing to talk to me only my OH, here just as long as they know I'm his wife they're fine :D Makes a huge change.

[mossum]

Would you happen to be a black adder fan ?????

Loving the expressions !!!!!

Had a bit of a tiff with O2 canceling a contract phone - arrrrrgh the saga went on for about 9 weeks :no

cant wait to cancel loads of things that i consider to be a rip off ....council tax, car insurance etc etc . Already done the TV licence in anticipation of not being here by 2007 - everything crossed !

vic x

[NannyOgg]

Vic

I am just about to cancel woth O2 - what happened?

Nanny x

[Oregonkiwi]

I also always have a hard time getting "customer service representatives" to understand the meaning of the word "cancel".

I read about this in the newspaper recently - a guy had a really bad time trying to cancel AOL, but he recorded it and posted it on his blog for the world to hear:
http://insignificantthoughts.com/2006/06/13/cancelling-aol/

[Babette & Andy]

Excellent timing this thread!! Thanks for brining a huge smile to my face :yes

4 months (!!) ago we paid our final bills to British Gas, who combined both our Gas & Electric into one final payment. Their payment systems have subsequently got their knickers in a twist stating we've overpaid on one and not paid the other. The overpaid account system then automaticaly generated a refund cheque to us, whilst for the other we've had 2 reminders asking for payment, followed by Debt Collection agency threatening letters (sent to my in-laws address).

2 VERY long international phonecalls to British Gas' wonderful department called 'Customer Service' (which by the way routes you as expected via the wonders of ofshore callcentres somewhere in India), we have been given assurances that all would be rectified at their end.

But then . . .

Again received a Debt Collection agency letter demanding payment :uhoh
by 7th July. Have since written a 3 part complaint e-mail (as their system only allows 2000 characters), and received 2 replies (within 15 minutes of eachother) - 1 stating they can't help as our accounts have already been closed suggesting I call them with the issue (already tried that!), the 2nd apologing and assuring that the 'outstanding' (what outstanding???) amount has now been written off.

The Saga continues . . . :uhoh

Babette

[mossum]

LOL

I will sound totally thick when I explain .......

But I'm no mobile whizz kid - just need to occasionally talk & text . I rung them up to cancel ... no prob blah blah - the man muttered something about a code ??? I'd no idea what he meant . any how after the 4 weeks - my phone was still on - rung again -& I was told I'd requested a puk code ????

well i'd no idea what a puk / pack / pok ???? code even was - told them I just wanted it cancelling as I'd got pay as you go card to use . Was told OK - will be 4 weeks (now totaling 8 weeks & 2 x DD's ) !! 4 weeks pass & phone still on !!!!

A day spent argueing with them eventually resulted in my phone being turned off 1 week later - this was after a long long discussion with a manager - who had listened back to my recorded ( was not informed - must have been answered before hearing that recorded bit ) phone calls . Grrrrrrr - at times I wonder if I'm speaking in swahili !!! In the end I just kept saying over & over again - just turn my phone off !!

In defence of O2 -I think I got trainees & i am a bit of a freak magnet - & If its going to go wrong - it will go wrong for me ..... ( makes mental note to speak s l o w l y and c l e a r l y in the future )

Am sure it will be fine for you

Oh & BTW on pay as you go I've only spent 20 quid since feb !!! Much much better than 30 a month on contract - no wonder they did not want to disconnect me !!

HTH

vic x

[Diny]

We had the same issues when we cancelled our various accounts & DD's before we left.

With one account (One Tel telephone supply) they tried to charge us a 'disconnect fee'.

This is what I did.

I asked them how much we owed on actual calls, I noted the amount. I then sent them a cheque for the amount along with a letter saying that we would not be paying the cancellation fee as nowhere in the small print was it stated that we would have to.

We got a re-directed (to NZ) letter from them after a couple of months thanking us for our payment and the outstanding amount on our bill was zero.

It worked for us - maybe just TELL them what you are going to do. It's always adviseable to do a follow up call at a later date just to check you're not being reported to the credit check agencies for running away on a bill - but this hasn't been the case for us.


Diny

[kiwidollie]

Know where you are coming from Greeneye.

We are not bothering with Direct Debits anymore as we had such aggro getting all our stuff sorted before we left the UK.

But...............................we were sucked into setting up ONE Direct Debit over here with our power company and guess what? They cocked it all up - some misunderstanding between them and the Bank and for two months running now we've been charged a penalty ontop of our bill for not paying on time!!!! Aargghhh. Hubby must have used up a day of his life on the phone to the numpties at Mercury trying to get it sorted. Each person he's spoken to has had to have the full story from start to finish - they then promise that it's sorted and we will have no further problems. You guessed it we then get another bill with a penalty charge ontop for late payment and the whole thing starts again!!!!!

No more Direct Debits ever for us. I like to walk in with a wad of cash now, slap it on the counter and get a receipt - job done.

Sorry..... turned into a bit of a ranter myself there. Deep breathing..... calm down....:o)

[Diny]

No more Direct Debits ever for us. I like to walk in with a wad of cash now, slap it on the counter and get a receipt - job done.

)


I'm with you there Ali !!!

Electricity, phone, gas etc over here are charged monthly anyway (instead of quarterly) so (for us) there seems no point in setting up a monthly direct debit - like Alison, we just write a cheque or go into the PO with a wad of dosh and pay it.

It's a wonderful feeling knowing that you have no outstanding bills and no shocking 'demands' falling into your letterbox every 3 months.

DD free and loving it !!!!!!!!

Diny

[K&CS]

Babette - exactly the same thing happened to us with Scottish Power. We were sent a very threatening letter last month (despite paying in full the day we moved out on 16 Feb), and eventually got through after spending a fortune on phone calls - thought we'd sorted it all out until another threatening letter came last week.

Was also going to post on here if anyone worked for ntl and if so, how do you get through to them? They also want to take us to court over non payment of our final bill which we paid in February!! Unfortunately, if we do ever get through, the people at the other end don't speak good enough english to understand what we are saying. They ignore emails and letters, but just continue to send threatening letters! It is outrageous!! There is no communication whatsoever between departments. I read once that ntl are the company most complained about in the UK - I can see why!!!! The UK does not do customer services well - it's one thing I certainly do not miss.

Kate

PS Diny - we are also DD free here and pay monthly bills and it is so much better.

[Avalon]

Wow - I feel really guilty now. :uhoh We had no problems cancelling our DDs in the Uk nad very few problems with them at all - the bank just refunded us the money straight away.

When we came out - OH phoned the companies, cancelled without a hitch, then we did speak to the bank and stop the DD instructions (to prevent money being "accidently" taken), and then waited for teh few refunds we were due.Thats was cool.

Here we have DDs for leccy (with Genesis - and a prompt payment discount kicks in) and Phone (telecom). I havent set up a dd with Orcon for internet cos so far thier accounts dept has been poor and i dont trust them to bill me properly.

So sorry I cant join the rant - and a barrelfull of hugs to everyone who is having a nightmare - and thanks for giving us a chuckle.

[Smiler]

Just as an aside, we had a terrible time with British Gas who overbilled us 457 quid when we moved house one time, because their operator transposed the digits on the meter readings.

Luckily we had photgraphic evidence with a dated newspaper. But getting any sense (or a refund) out of them was impossible. You never spoke to the same person twice, calls not returned etc.

We sat down and wrote the whole episode out as a play, aptly named the British Gas Pantomime. Lots of he said, she said and it's behind you, type remarks and good humour.

We sent it to the Chairman (forget his name now) and got a refund in 3 days. :clap

I was just looking for it to copy here as it was soooooo funny. Despite all the hassle it helped us get the frustration out!

The only probs we had when leaving the UK where with Demon, A-O-ruddyL, 1&1 and OH's Orange account. Even though when we cancelled they sent him a PAYG sim card to use if we returned to the UK, they continued to take the DD's (which we missed) and now refuse to refund. :mad:

Everyone else was fine. I'd certainly recommend cancelling DD's asap too, to stop the money going out.

[Diny]

Avalon - you still get prompt payment discount without paying by DD. It's quite a good discount too.

Diny

[katandbob]

oops I think we got off lucky, cancelled all without a hitch, I cancelled our life insurance dd the day before we left, and then forgot to ring them to cancel the policy....I remembered a week ago, rang from NZ and they answered after a few rings (good job as I was on my mobile) and they had said the policy was still running, even though they hadn't managed to get the payment, I explained we were now in NZ and I had forgot to ring them, they said No Problems we will cancel it, and refund any dues, and have a good life in NZ!

the only trouble we had was with NTL (right bunch of W- U-nowaters) but after numerous hours on freephone I got them to send me a letter saying they were in error and we didnt owe them anything... good job we had 6mths at Robs mams before to sort it out.

Have taken note of dd issues and will go to post shop also, btw, did you know that National charge for using Online facilitys!...oh well another thing I wont be getting!!

and I do laugh at the visa adds.....they try to make out that 12.65 % is a good deal!!!!! ha ha ha....and they charge you to deal with the account on top of that!

rob says hes glad though as we will never get one ever again!

kat

[Gumbygreeneye]

Good God! What a nest of vipers I've opened up. Really chuffed with the response. It reminds me of a line in the "Good Life" that Tom says.. "It's not me that makes life complicated, it's everyone else".

I can't believe that moving to a different country is far easier than cancelling car insurance. Can you believe the muppets want me to cancel it a week before so they can get a letter out to me in time on the last day to sign? You're telling me I can't cancel my car insurance for a predefined date as I can only cancel it on the day and then, get the letter 5 days later in the post. I won't be in the country! So they want me to cancel it 5 days ahead.. probably at the time I need the car the most! Good grief, is that not logical?!! AND! ..they're charging me £45 administration for the privilege! I should send them the bill for the pain I had yesterday.. at my hourly rate you owe me..... see how they like that!

Thanks for the support and you know what, I wish I'd started posting earlier. It's been even more an asset to use that reading the posts only! :clap

[felix]

[QUOTE=Gumbygreeneye]Dear All,

Dear G, we got a £900 bill for elec. they had underestimated on over 2 years..add to this £2500 to get out of the mortgage..we know how you feel..all days b4 we left//////////////add to that we got $2.64 for a £ a year ago or so..now its over $3 to a quid..add to that we bought our NZ house last year at the pinnacle of the market...............araaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!! But it WAS ALL WOR :clap TH IT...........15months in and loving it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Avalon]

:o

Just wanted to say sorry to anyone who was upset by the language in my post. I got a bit carried away and I apologise. :o

[willsken]

:o

Just wanted to say sorry to anyone who was upset by the language in my post. I got a bit carried away and I apologise. :o

:D

[sarahw]

The one we had trouble with on our move was cancelling our gym subscriptions (David Lloyd I think from memory) - ruddy expensive every month anyway & we hadn't even been for the previous 3 months & then they told us they wanted 3 months' notice!!!! -I told them I would have liked the luxury to have 3 months notice to plan our overseas move & that their policy was totally rediculous in the society we lived in - refused to pay seeing as we would be leaving the country a month later & wouldn't even be here to 'use' the gym for the other 2 extra months they wanted. (It turns out the 3 months was in tiny tiny print on their contract!)

They tracked us down somehow to my Mum's address sending very threatening letters - in the end we paid since we didn't want trouble if we came back to UK but I was really angry with them - who has 3 months to plan their move when they have an overseas job offer?!! Anyone cancelling your gym subs - do it early!!

Ooh feel better for getting that off my chest even though it was a year & half ago!!