Can someone explain the techguys whatever happens club please?

so they charged £4.49, and then deducted £4.49, they do this all the time, they offer the insurance free for the first month to try and get you to sign up. all you have to do is cancel it. problem solved

That's true but it's not the point, is it?
My missus feels gutted because it's not her money and feels affronted because she feels she's been duped and that the woman she bought it for might feel a bit annoyed about it (she really prides herself on her honesty).
She is fuming and I pity whoever cops it tomorrow.


it can be cancelled by telling your bank. Do it asap; if she banks online or by phone, it's instant.

Yes, I know it's easy to cancel, but the woman is currently in hospital, so it's not that straightforward.
 
It's especially hard to remember to cancel it after a month if they neglected to mention they had managed to sign you up for it without you realising...
 
It's especially hard to remember to cancel it after a month if they neglected to mention they had managed to sign you up for it without you realising...

Yes, I'm pretty sure they're supposed to explain clearly that you're signing for a DD and your rights to cancel etc.

No wonder they've got such a bad rep when that's how they perform.
 
Yes, I know it's easy to cancel, but the woman is currently in hospital, so it's not that straightforward.

Why doesn't your wife just claim to be the woman who the TV is for. Whether instore or over the phone? Its not like in this case you are actually do anything bad.
 
Something's just occurred to me.
My missus signed it in her own name, so surely the DD can't be valid anyway, can it? :confused:
 
Why doesn't your wife just claim to be the woman who the TV is for. Whether instore or over the phone? Its not like in this case you are actually do anything bad.

My missus is going to see her on Monday, so no doubt they'll sort it between them.
 
Am I right in thinking that under FSA rules, any form of insurance has a 14-day cooling-off period before payment can be taken?

Unless this is somehow not classed as insurance?
 
Conspiracy proven :D

Sneaky Barstewards....


When you take out the Direct Debit you have to sign a document. Also due to the fact that it is a direct debit they will ask for your bank account details, I.E sort code and account number.

I do not understand how anyone could be duped in all the procedures listed earlier; one can only think the above procedures were not adhered to.
 
When you take out the Direct Debit you have to sign a document. Also due to the fact that it is a direct debit they will ask for your bank account details, I.E sort code and account number.

I do not understand how anyone could be duped in all the procedures listed earlier; one can only think the above procedures were not adhered to.

This quite simply didn't happen, as it wasn't explained properly.
If it was, the missus would have asked why they wanted those details, as I'm constantly telling her not to hand them out anywhere, unless she's specifically sure as to why they are needed (I've had two seperate cards hacked in the last few months which is why I'm a bit paranoid).

They have obviously just taken them off the card :thumbsdow

But yes, she signed a document (not in the cardholder's name, as I said).
It didn't help that we'd booked a last minute holiday, so were in the middle of packing for the next morning's flight, when the missus had to rush out to get this telly.

I very much doubt this is Currys' way of working and suspect it's more to do with the bonus the salesman gets.

But that plus and minus thing on the receipt doesn't help.

Am I right in thinking that under FSA rules, any form of insurance has a 14-day cooling-off period before payment can be taken?

That's academic, as it's now over a month (27/03/11).
 
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This is Curry's way of working. They train in hard-selling of insurance, credit and addons, with no actual product training. Store managers encourage the 'free for the first month' sale because it counts towards their targets even if the customer cancels within a short period of time.

It's fair enough giving a customer a free period of the whateverhappens. But signing someone up on direct debit without their permission is completely wrong.
 
So how many of these did they breach

The Supply of Extended Warranties on Domestic Electrical Goods Order 2005 is enforced by the Office of Fair Trading. It says that electrical retailers must:

•Advertise the price of a warranty next to the electrical goods, in store. Some information about extended warranties must also be available on websites and in their printed advertising material.
•Tell you that you have rights to buy a warranty elsewhere (for example, from a manufacturer or an insurance company), and that the electrical appliance you are buying may already be covered by your household contents insurance policy.
•Give you a written price for a warranty if you ask for one, which retailers must honour if you go back to buy it within 30 days of buying the product it covers.
•Give you information about your consumer rights and your rights to cancel the warranty.
•Give you details of the warranty, including whether the warranty is protected if the company providing it goes bust, and whether the warranty ends if you claim on it.
•Give you the right to cancel a warranty. If you cancel within 45 days of taking out the warranty, and you have not made a claim on it, you must be given a full refund. If you've made a claim or it is beyond 45 days, you must be given a pro-rata (partial) refund.

My guess is that if they give you a free trial which gives you the opportunity to cancel and it automatically continues if you don't they can avoid the above in the first instance.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
Chances are they said you can have a months free trial and if you dont feel you need it after, you dont have to pay for it, but omitted the part about having to cancel it yourself to stop it becoming a recurring charge.

Also, it might not be set up as a Direct Debit, it might be set up as a Recurring Payment Authorisation, that means they can just take payment from the card used to buy the TV each month, regardless of whether it is a Credit Card or Debit Card, the payment comes from the card, not the bank account number and sort code. As your missus used someone elses card to make the payment, the signature on the receipt makes no difference as she has already been assumed to have the right to use this card to make purchases/transactions as she used it to buy the television.

I could be wrong on this, but you should ask Currys when you do speak to them if they were taking it as a DD payment under the Direct Debit Guarantee setup, or was it just to be a recurring card payment.

I'd just like to say that for once, I've had a positive Currys experience. Went in to mooch around at the local mega-hyper-universe-size Currys store near the cinema while I waited for the film time, and remembered I needed to get some speaker cable to put up some speakers. Saw they had some chunky Monster copper cable which is what I'm looking for, but not at the price monster want for it.....thankfully, the guy who served me obviously knows how pricey this stuff is for what it is (£6/m) and did me 9m for the price of 6...hehe. Saves me paying for a train ticket to a Richer Sounds or Sevenoaks to get it :)
 
Yeah, Currys did you a real good deal on that speaker cable :rolleyes:

they did me a price that was fair for it, instead of costing £54 for 9 metres, it cost me £36....which is what I would have paid for cable this chunky if I'd gone to any specialist hifi store, which I would also have had to pay about £6 for a travelcard to get to.......

and please dont put words in to my mouth, I never mentioned it being a good deal, I said I had a positive currys experience, in other words encountering an employee who offered to sort me out without me even asking for it......
 
Be aware that you just can't cancel a DD in isolation and think it is over. All you are removing is the payment method, not the contractrual obligation to pay. If you leave the contract in place Currys will be legal entitled to chase your wife's friend for payment.

You need to cancel the contract with Currys.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
Be aware that you just can't cancel a DD in isolation and think it is over. All you are removing is the payment method, not the contractrual obligation to pay. If you leave the contract in place Currys will be legal entitled to chase your wife's friend for payment.

You need to cancel the contract with Currys.

Cheers,

Nigel

i cancelled the DD on mine after contacting the bank and explaining that i spent 3 days phoning techguys (used every number even the complaints no.) but everytime, no matter what time of day, i got a constant ringing with the odd we are busy message yet no one answered. never actually got through to anyone and yet the calls came to over £15. company is a bloody joke.

plus in the policy you are not tied down to a yearly contractual agreement etc, its a monthly thing which can be cancelled whenever you like, so by cancelling the DD you are ending the policy and no future payments are owed
 
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Regardless of how easy it may be to cancel, the way it has been added seems to be very underhand. I'd be back in the shop to rip the manager a new one if they ever thought they could treat me like that.
 
so by cancelling the DD you are ending the policy and no future payments are owed

No you are not. You can tell the bank all you want, but the contract is with you and Currys. Cancelling the DD is just stopping payment, not cancelling the contract.

Not saying they would bother, but Currys could pursue you for the money each month.

If they aren't answering the phone then just send a letter recorded and then then cancel the DD - they can't do a thing then.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
No you are not. You can tell the bank all you want, but the contract is with you and Currys. Cancelling the DD is just stopping payment, not cancelling the contract.

Not saying they would bother, but Currys could pursue you for the money each month.

If they aren't answering the phone then just send a letter recorded and then then cancel the DD - they can't do a thing then.

Cheers,

Nigel

have you done it, well i have cancelled a DD with techguys, says in small print that failure to pay will result in termination of policy.

and they didnt chase me for future payments, all they did was send me a letter asking if i wanted to renew the policy (higher cost than previous)
 
so by cancelling the DD you are ending the policy and no future payments are owed

This is completely wrong.

All you are doing by cancelling the DD is cancelling the payment method and not the contract itself.

If you just cancel the DD and not the contract, then Currrys will be perfectly entitled to come after her for another payment method for the "contracted" service and it could also affect her credit rating.

Never, ever just cancel a DD and think that's the end of it.
 
have you done it, well i have cancelled a DD with techguys, says in small print that failure to pay will result in termination of policy.

and they didnt chase me for future payments, all they did was send me a letter asking if i wanted to renew the policy (higher cost than previous)

I did say that Currys may not bother chasing. And if the contract explicitly says that failure to cancel is a termination of the contract then that is a different matter.

But that isn't usually the case - you should always inform the provider, otherwise they could chase you for the subsequent payments or register you as a bad debt which may affect your credit rating.

Cheers,

Nigel
 

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