new to reclaiming BrightHouse Charges and OSC/DLC

[lala25]

You might also be pleased to know that this company along with others of their ilk, will now come under Parliamentary scrutiny

 

 

[dx100uk]

if these fleecing companies didn't charge the compulsory insurances then p'haps they'd get a better

return on payments and the amount of people that default runaway or stop paying

 

the whole business plan was setup from day one on the profit made from them.

 

that's why they've been able to swallow the losses for so long.

 

any other company would have closed years ago with those type of losses

 

dx

[lala25]

quick catch up..

 

 

brighthouse now have 10 days left of the 8 weeks allowed for a reply,

 

 

surely they dont count THAT phone call as a response.

 

 

. looks like i'll be sending the papers to FOS

[Jason BrightHouse Web Rela]

Good Morning lala25,

 

Thank you for contacting me again here over the weekend.

 

I can confirm correspondence was sent out to your property dated 12 February 2015. I will send a copy of this letter to your property once again today.

 

I am unable to say on here what the letter stated due to data protection.

 

If you have not received the copy by the end of the week, please let me know.

 

Many Thanks

 

Jason

Web Relations

[lala25]

Good Morning lala25,

 

Thank you for contacting me again here over the weekend.

 

I can confirm correspondence was sent out to your property dated 12 February 2015. I will send a copy of this letter to your property once again today.

 

I am unable to say on here what the letter stated due to data protection.

 

If you have not received the copy by the end of the week, please let me know.

 

Many Thanks

 

Jason

Web Relations

 

i have not 'contacted you' before? also i have not recieved any letters from brighthouse dated 12th Feb or other? may i suggest recorded delivery and then i can be sure of it reaching me, thanks

[Jason BrightHouse Web Rela]

Good Afternoon lala25,

 

Sorry for the confusion. I thanked you for contacting me on this thread again, not by any other means.

 

I can have the letter sent recorded delivery today to make sure you receive the letter.

 

Many Thanks

 

Jason

Web Relations

[SabreSheep]

LaLa,

I would recommend you keep us in the loop if you do receive that letter to make sure you get advice.

[lala25]

Good Afternoon lala25,

 

Sorry for the confusion. I thanked you for contacting me on this thread again, not by any other means.

 

I can have the letter sent recorded delivery today to make sure you receive the letter.

 

Many Thanks

 

Jason

Web Relations

 

Thankyou Jason, i will look out for its arrival in the next few days, what a good job i wrote on here or i would never of known about it

[lala25]

i will do, sabresheep. im keeping you all informed every step of the way and hoping it will help others in the same situation

[lala25]

THE LETTER FINALLY ARRIVED!

 

Further to your letter dated 5th February 2015,

we have fully investigated your complaint regarding the insurances on your account

and decided not to uphold your complaint.

We have summarized below the findings from our investigation.

 

Since you became a customer on 16 December 1999 you have had numerous credit agreements with us,

you have on all occasions signed for the Optional Service Cover(OSC) and Damage Liability Cover (DLC) when it has been available.

 

The OSC has been used in the past on more than one occasion with the repair of both the washing machine

and more than one television and a loaner was provided at these times.

The option to return your LG 47" television was used which is also covered under the OSC.

 

The OSC can be withdrawn from any agreement with just 7 days notice.

During the time you have been a customer of Brighthouse, the Manager and Deputy Manager have never been approached

to question the removal or the need for the covers you are requesting the refund of.

 

In regards to the mis-selling of the DLC,

all customer would need to provide proof of home contents insurance in order for this to not be added,

as we need to protect our products while they are in the customers possession.

 

 

Your local store did not see proof that you had your own insurance and therefore added it to all agreements which again were signed while you were in store.

 

If you wish to see copies of the agreement from 1999, the store will be more than happy to provide you with one.

 

To conclude:

 

You have been through our standard sign up process

You have signed for the credit agreements and separately for the OSC and DLC initialled the explanitory notes

We have found no records to show that you have queried these covers prior to your complaint

 

Therefore, we find no evidence of mis-selling OSC and DLC.

If you are able to provide more evidence to support your allegation to being mis-sold both insurances, we will be happy to investigate further.

 

Please note that under the terms of our Complaints Procedure, this is our final response.

If you are dissatisfied with our final decision, you may refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

You need to do this within 6 months from the date of this letter

 

 

. The six months expires on the 12 August 2015.

For more information please read the enclosed guide 'Your Complaint to the Ombudsman'.

 

The address of the Financial Ombudsman Service is:

Financial Ombudsman Service

Exchange Tower

London

E14 9SR

 

 

If you would like any other Help or information, please call us on 0800 526069

 

We are sorry for the inconvenience we may of caused you and hope the points above are helpful in showing how we have reached this decision.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Allen Simmons

Customer Relations Representative

 

Encs: FOS explanatory leaflet 'your complaint and the ombudsman'

 

 

(there is no leaflet enclosed)

 

i was supposedly sent this letter originally on 12th February, i have now 'lost' nearly 2 of those 6 months given for contacting the ombudsman

[dx100uk]

but ofcourse you were told you must have it and to sign here.

 

as every customer always was until the Septembers changes when they made them compulsory

renamed them

and hid then in the agreement small print.

 

it matters not if you've 'used' some of the cover

[everything is cover by the sale of goods act anyway]

 

it matters not you were supposedly told numerous times you can cancel it & it was optional

we sent hundreds of bit of paper with it on - bit late to complain now we think....

 

disgusting.

 

dx

[lala25]

quote from oxford dictionary ...

 

mis-sell.. Sell (something) to a customer on the basis of misleading advice

 

so yes i signed the paperwork because i was told i HAD TO have insurances if i wanted my goods to find out 16 years down the line that IF i had spoken to a manager i could of had it [osc] removed, (this i wasnt informed of at the time) i would say i have been misled

[lala25]

looking through all my old agreements and can not find a full explanation of OSC and DLC anywhere, although in ,explanatory notes, it does state this..

 

'If you fail to pay any Optional Service Cover amount or DLC premium on the due date for its payment, the relevant contract will lapse and, in the case of DLC you may be in breach of your obligation under clause 8(b) unless the goods are otherwise insured against fire,theft and accidental damage'

 

i think i can translate this into Brighthouse store staff lingo.. you have to have it, you have to pay it, or you will breach your contract.. am i missing something?

[dx100uk]

in a nutshell yes

 

they say you must have DLC if you've not got home insurance that covers HP goods

 

the issue which has always been the bottom line in all this is

 

there ARE NO RULES WHATSOEVER

that state goods on HP 'must' be insured

[lala25]

i should point it out in my letter to FOS?

 

so far on the complaint form i have written this..

 

I took out numerous agreements with Brighthouse over a 16 year period 1999-2013.

I was told i would have to take OSC and DLC if i wanted to take my items home.

 

i believe i have been mis-sold both of these insurances,

as 16 years later i have been informed via media, that i was given misleading information to force me into taking OSC,

and failed to inform me that if i had my own home contents insurance i would not need Brighthouses Damage Liability Cover.

 

Brighthouses excuse for not giving me the correct information is that i never asked to speak to a Manager, who could of helped me.

 

I had no knowledge of this,

which is obvious from the fact that i paid for OSC and DLC on no fewer than 40 agreements in my time as a Brighthouse customer,

and could of saved myself a good sum of money otherwise.

 

Optional Service Cover and Damage Liability Cover are not fully explained in any of the agreements,

although in the explanatory notes it does state 'if you fail to pay any Optional Service Cover amount or DLC premium on the due date for its payment,

the relevent contract will lapse, and in the case of the DLC , you may be in breach of your obligation' to me,

 

this reads 'you must pay Optional Service Cover and DLC or you are in breach of agreement?

 

Optional Service Cover is an insurance against breakdown, although goods would be covered under the sale of goods act anyway,

during the time it took me to pay for them (most items 156 weeks)

 

Damage Liability Cover is insurance against Damage/Loss, which had i been informed i could of used my own house insurance at a much cheaper cost.

[lala25]

Received letter back for FOS today...

 

'we deal with a wide range of complaints about financial services-

but unfortunately, from the issues you've raised, it doesn't look like your complaint is something we would look into.

This is because the business you have complained about isn't covered by the Financial Ombudsman Service

as there is no regulated activity provided prior to 1 April 2014'

[lala25]

 

the business you have complained about isn't covered by the Financial Ombudsman Service as there is no regulated activity provided prior to 1 April 2014'

 

can anyone explain what this means please, and what i can do next?

 

thankyou

[marcus6]

can anyone explain what this means please, and what i can do next?

 

thankyou

 

What you do next is take them to court, the FOS can not help as they do not have the power? As BH now come under FCA

[Old Cogger]

business practices from watchdog

9 February, 2015 | By Matthew Chapman

 

The Financial Conduct Authority is weighing up an investigation into the business practices of rent-to-own retailers such as BrightHouse.

 

The City watchdog’s director of consumer lending Linda Woodall claims correspondence with BrightHouse, PerfectHome and Buy As You View has unearthed “concerning statistics” and set off “alarm bells”, according to The Sunday Times.

 

Woodall said half of all customers that bought products on rent-to-own contracts, failed to pay in full and 22% were forced to either surrender the product or have them repossessed.

 

Her comments emerged in an all-party parliamentary group on debt and personal finance in December and the committee is set to publish its report on Tuesday.

 

The inquiry into the scrutinising of rent-to-own retailers’ business practices was set in motion in September, shortly after it emerged BrightHouse owner Vision Capital was laying the ground work for an IPO.

 

Vision Capital hired Rothschild to explore its options, including a possible IPO that could value it at between £550m and £750m.

 

At the time the inquiry was announced, a BrightHouse spokesman said: “Our customers choose to shop at BrightHouse because they value our range of top quality products for the home, our affordable weekly payments and the personal service we offer in nearly 300 communities across the UK.”

 

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[dx100uk]

and all made on the back of charging customers DLC and OSC when they already had free SOGA to protect them

 

rendering both totally useless and mis-sold

 

they knew from day one what they were doing by compulsory charging for DLC/OSC etc etc

it was part of their initial business plan upon set up

 

and if they hadn't of done that

all of them would have been out of business years ago

 

now they hide it in the T&C's too

[lala25]

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/feb/10/rent-to-own-firms-ripping-off-customers-say-mps

 

quote from this article

 

MPs called on the FCA to ban compulsory insurances, review the possible mis-selling of insurance and introduce “health warnings” to ensure customers were aware of the total cost of RTO agreements and the risks of repossession.

 

might be worth my waiting and see what happens with this..

 

http://www.appgdebt.org/inquiry/

 

this article contains a link to the report from the enquiry, time for the regulators to make the miss selling of OSC and DLC official

[dx100uk]

yes that was the main reason for the very quick re-write of the new agreements.

 

hide the insurances deep down and no-one will spot we've renamed them.

 

then make it very obvious upfront that they are not insurances

but part of a 'wonderful' customer no worries package

that no matter what happens the products will be mending/replaced etc etc.

trouble is, the punters will have paid for a brand new machine 3 times over anyway

so these companies are nevr out of pocket.

 

the repo bit troubles me too.

once over 1/3rd they cant repo

even under 1/3rd they have no right of entry anyway.

[lala25]

http://www.appgdebt.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/BrightHouse-APPG-submission.pdf

 

this one is brighthouse submission to questions put to them by APPG for the enquiry thier replys are 'interesting'! especially ...

 

Q: What proportion of goods are seized and resold?

 None, goods are never seized. Goods are only ever taken by us from a customer’s home

when they choose to voluntarily surrender items, and after all other options have been

explored and exhausted.

[dx100uk]

that is ofcourse after we've scared them witless by threatening to get the police to call round.

 

 

dx

[marcus6]

It looks like its a good time to take them to court if you ask me, with all whats going of with them and the FCA the last thing they would want, is to be seen fighting a case in court regarding OSC & DLC