Argos Card No-No (Argos Card)

Member Name: thedsm

Product:	Argos Card
Date:	07/03/03 (2501 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: Rude, Complacent, Incompetent

Argos rather like to paint themselves as a user friendly, customer focussed company. If that were true I would still buy things from them. I learnt the hard way just how much they care about their customers.

At the beginning of April 2002 I had the misfortune to fall down the stairs at my local station and bust up my ankle rather badly. This meant that I was off work for four weeks, and, as I work on contract, I didn?t get paid.

At the time I had an Argos card which required monthly payments. I had missed one payment to them which was due only a few days after my accident ? so I think I could be forgiven for the oversight! However, Argos immediately referred the matter to the General Credit Company. This masquerades as an independent debt collection agency ? although a little research reveals that they (like Argos) are owned by Great Universal Stores.

I received a demand for payment from General Credit to which I replied straight away explaining the situation I was in and assuring them that I was not trying to get out of the debt. I also sent a copy to Argos Card Services asking them whether I could make a claim under the card?s insurance scheme. No reply from General Credit, beyond a threatening phone call, although Argos did send me a claim form.

On 26th April I sent Argos Card Services an interim payment of £100 which they paid in.

The next thing I got was another threatening letter from General Credit from which it was quite obvious that they had completely ignored my earlier letter and the payment I had made. Once again they threatened court action. Again I replied explaining the situation and that the account was also subject to an insurance claim. No reply!

On the 11th of May I received a ?Notice of Court Action? from General Credit, at which point I wrote to the Chief Executive of Argos, yet again explaining the situation. No reply ? although I did get several more threatening phone calls from General Cre
dit.

On the 21st of May ? having been ignored for nearly two months ? I borrowed sufficient money to pay the debt off completely and paid it in.

On the 11th of June the insurers informed me that they had paid the claim which meant that my account was now in credit. I wrote again to the Chief Executive and pointed out that I wanted what was mine. No reply. I also sent a copy to Sir Victor Blank (Chairman of GUS) ? No reply.

On the 15th June Argos Card Services wrote to me to tell me that there was a credit on my account and would I like a cheque!

On the 12th of July (having told them a month previously to close the account) Argos wrote to me telling me that I deserved an increased credit limit! I declined! They wrote with the same offer on the 12th of August. Again ? I declined!

Finally in September they seemed to get the message and closed the account. But in that same letter they had the monumental cheek to ask me for my opinion of their ?service?. Needless to say I told them very concisely what I thought of them.

I cannot speak too lowly of this company. Being harassed and threatened with court action was bad enough ? being ignored by almost everyone (including senior management, who ought to know better) was just too much. To me they just seem complacent and greedy. I would not recommend them and it will be a long, long time before I set foot in one of their shops again ? if ever!

As a post-script, I was absolutely delighted recently to see them fined £17.3 million for price fixing!

Summary: