Domestic and General - Taking Direct Debit for years

[willoughbyc]

I signed up for a year of cover on a washer dryer and have just found out that they have been taking the payments since 2011 without me realising or indeed authorising it.

 

I spoke to them and they were incredibly unhelpful - a rude and arrogant woman on the phone who said that they were not regulated by anyone and fundamentally they could do what they liked.

 

They claim to have been sending me renewal notices each year which I have not received - I moved property so cannot verify this.

 

Their main line of defence is that when they sent the first renewal letter it said that unless you cancel then it will automatically renew. I cannot believe that this is allowed?!?

 

Can anyone please help me claim my hundreds of pounds back? I could have purchased about 3 new machines now for the amount they have charged!!!

 

Any help greatly appreciated.

[fkofilee]

DD Guarantee - If they have been taking these via DD. You are able to reclaim these under the DD Guarantee.

Apologies about the short response.

 

https://www.directdebit.co.uk/DirectDebitExplained/pages/directdebitguarantee.aspx

[Bazooka Boo]

Hello & welcome to CAG.

 

Firstly, you need to stop talking to clowns on the phone, they've shown you just how much contempt they have for their customers!

 

Lodge a formal complaint with them, and exhaust their complaints procedure if needs be, exactly how much are we talking about here?

 

Yes they are allowed to continue renewing it every year, it's called CPA.

 

The fact that you were duped into taking out this useless cover in the first place speaks volumes.

 

If it was taken by DD, then you could try asking the bank to refund you the money under the DD Guarantee.

 

Which may be the easiest and simplest solution, if the bank won't refund you, then a very strongly worded letter to D&G demanding they refund you all of the money, less for the first year they conned you into paying, failure of which, the only course of action would be to take them to the small claims court and get your money back that way.

 

The clown you spoke to on the phone did nothing but lie to you, hence why you never discuss this on the phone with them, get your paper trail of evidence started, keep a diary of events, and start their complaints procedure, you'll find that these lot are indeed regulated, I'm pretty sure the FSA would be interested to hear of your complaint too.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/feb/28/domestic-and-general-washing-machine-repair-warranty

 

A very useless warranty IMO, nothing more than a con, you don't ever need these extra warranties, UNLESS they specifically cover something that your statutory rights don't, and your Stat rights last for 6 years!

http://www.domgen.com/termsconditions.html

[Bazooka Boo]

DD Guarantee

 

Beat me to it!

[Andyorch]

" They claim to have been sending me renewal notices each year which I have not received - I moved property so cannot verify this."

 

Did you notify them of a change of address ?

 

Do you regularly check your bank statements?

 

Regards

 

Andy

[ericsbrother]

in truth, not their problem. Stop the DD and request a refund but there is no legal obligation to give you one.