PEOPLE'S CHOICE? I'D RATHER HAVE HOBSON'S CHOICE! Has anyone else had this problem? (People's Choice)

Member Name: leeanne

Product:	People's Choice
Date:	09/10/01 (301 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheap quotes

Disadvantages: people's choice, people's choice

I don't usually write 2 reviews in a day, but I don't want anyone else to be as unfortunate with this company.

The problem didn't happen to me personally, but to my fiance's dad. His name is Tony.

Tony started with People's Choice Insurance Services back in March 2001. At the time he drove a Vauxhall Cavalier. He was quoted £369.00 for Third Party Fire And Theft, a deposit of £73.80, then 11 installments of £30.73 per month. That seemed fine.

Everything went fine for the first few months, then he changed his bank details and his car - that's when things started to go wrong!

Tony bought a Ford Mondeo and the installments went up to £45.16 per month for the remaining 8 payments. Because of the change of bank details, they were supposed to collect their money by direct debit, which was due on the 9th of every month, but they decided to try and take the £30.73 and the £45.16 in one payment without prior notice.

So guess what happened? Because Tony wasn't expecting this increased amount there was only a little more money than necessary to cover the £45.16. On the night the payment was due, he checked his bank by going to an ATM machine to get a mini statement and obviously he was in overdraft, and faced with a £30 charge.

So he went straight to his bank and quizzed the statement, and when he found out it was People's Choice trying to take too much money without prior notice, he cancelled the direct debit at the bank. Because the payment was transactions pending and not actually cleared, the bank was able to reclaim the money without Tony incurring the £30 charge as stated above.

He phoned up People's Choice to complain and a few days later a letter arrived stating that they would try and collect the money by direct debit within 10 days of the date at the top of the letter, but no money was ever taken. This happened in August. If this company is so incompetant as to fail to
complete this task, who is to believe the fact that they told him that they sent a letter which I will explain in a moment.

Last month (September) they tried on the 20th of the month to be exact, they tried to debit his account for £121.05. Excuse Me!When he phoned up to complain again, yes that's right AGAIN! He was told that it was his fault for not having enough money in his account.

Well the last letter received said the £75.89 would be taken within 10 days of the date of the letter but this never happened! So on the 9th of September no money was collected again,how odd! A company that doesn't want your money, great, absolutely great!

Tony had recently been made redundant when the company he worked for shut down,so when the money wasn't collected on the 9th he left it for a few days to see if the money was taken. But 10 days later still nothing, so he thought I've another bill to pay and I've got nearly £76.00 sitting doing nothing, why not take it and pay another bill like most people would.

But on the 20th Peoples Choice decided they wanted their money, not normal is it considering the due date is the 9th of every month? But this time the amount was for £121.05 as I said earlier. So like I said earlier he phoned up to find out what happened and the company said it was for payments due for the September payment and the previous £75.89, but Tony wasn't notified about this, so how could he possibily know they were going to debit his account on the 20th instead of the usual date of the 9th of every month.

People's Choice said they had sent a letter, or so their computer says, according to the person on the phone - but he never received this fabled letter. Like I said if this company is so incompetant not to do one small task, who can be sure this letter was sent? And please remember a lot of people blame the computer when in fact 99.9% of the time it's the prat that's operating the th
ing that causes the mistake, as computers only do what they are told!

Unfortunatly he was charged £60 for the returned direct debits, which incur a charge of £30 for every item returned and the company said it was his fault, when in fact it's their fault that they can't even collect the money when they say they will, if they had took the money on the 9th as agreed in their "letter" none of this would have happened!

Tony has written to Raw Deal - which is featured in The Sunday Post newspaper to try and get back the £60 charges that his bank applied, because of Peoples Choice's incompetance.

I hope no other person has the misfortune to deal with such a sh** company. If anybody else has had a problem with this company PLEASE speak up about it. It's companies like this we can do without!

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