Bad Choice or No choice (Choice)

Member Name: Fallyn

Product:	Choice
Date:	17/12/07 (12 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Occasional fast delivery, offers internet ordering

Disadvantages: Very substandard customer service, rude staff and underhanded behaviour

I first signed up for a Choice catalogue account in 2001, after being harrassed in the High Street by a sales person. (No surprise there.)

I was 18 at the time and had only just moved into my own house. Being somewhat paranoid about getting into 'bad debt' I thought that when the catalogue came through I would not use it, and instead simply chuck it away.

However, when the catalogue came through I though that both the prices and payment terms of items offered were very reasonable, and so ordered a couple of essential items (such as a jacket etc) which I knew I could afford at the time.

After experiencing very good customer service, quick delivery and problem free returns for some time, having ordered for both myself and friends etc, I became confident in using this company... but I was soon to be dissapointed.

Around 1 and a half years after first using the Choice account, I was made unemployed through no fault of my own. At this point I panicked about paying off the existing balance on the account (approx £250.00), and was relieved to know that as I had taken their 'Account Cover' product, my payments should be covered if I simply put in a claim.

I was wrong.
After initially filing the claim, I was given the run aroung by the company for some 3 - 4 months, during which time I was simply unable to make the minimum payments required, however I was assured that I should pay what I could and that when the claim went through these payments would be 'backdated' and paid by the insurance.

After being 'messed about' by the claims dept for some 3 - 4 months, asked for more information, told that letters etc had not been recieved by them (Although I knew they had as they were sent recorded delivery), I was astounded to recieve a letter from the company stating that my claim could not be paid as it was now outwith the timescale for making a claim!!!

Apparently, the fact that the original claim date was some 3 - 4 months earlier counted for nothing, and the company works by the date that the claim information is collected and finallised. As such, I was informed that no claim would be paid, although they admitted I was fully entitled to it, and that it would have been paid if I had 'hurried up' and 'claimed within the claim period'.

I was informed, therefore, that I would be responsible for making all payments myself, and that all of the payment arrears (which I was told would be paid by the company) were now my responsibility.

I was obviousely outraged at this treatment, as it was obvious that the company had messed me about for this time in order to state that the claim could not be paid as it was now 'too late'.

After more months of worry and threatening letters etc I managed to pay off the outstanding balance in full, and decided that I would cancel the account and never deal with the company again.

The only reason which I still have the account is that, although I did not order anything from the company for some 3 years after this incident, I never actually got round to cancelling the account.

Upon moving into a new house in 2004, and having been informed by Choice in not so many words that 'all was forgiven' (which I found very insulting), I decided that the only way that I could acquire some essentials (e.g. furniture) was to order them from Choice (who had now for some reason raised my credit limit to around £3000.00. Presumably because I had paid of all my previous arrears and kept the account.

Between this time and 2006, I experienced no further problems with the company, and actually forgot about my previous bad experiences in 2001 / 2002.

I had placed various orders between 2004 - 2006 with no problems at all, and had managed to build up a good credit rating with the company and a credit limit of around £4000.00

In June/ July 2006, however, the company Choice was taken over by another company (Littlewoods I think it is).

From day one it was as if I was dealing with a different company altogther. The customer service was terrible, many terms and conditions were changed with no notice, prices were massively raised, and the range of products cut to virtually nothing.

I also found that my monthly statement payments seemed to fluctuate wildly, at one point totalling around £150.00 minimum payment per month on a balance of only £500.00!!!

Whenever I phoned up about these or any other strange occurances on my account, I was simply told in a very rude manner, and a tone of voice which suggested that I was an idiot that "this was happening because of the account changing to the new account".

Now, I don't know about you but to me that is not an explanation. Generally, I have an excellent credit rating, I am very careful with money, I know exactly when all my bills are due and exactly how much they should be etc. So upon going over all of my previous statements and the terms over which I had ordered the items that made up the balance I could find no reason whatsoever for these fluctuationg and massively high minimum statement payments, other than the fact that this is what the 'new' company felt like charging, and they were obviousely counting on the fact that customers would not feel confident to disagree or argue etc over the phone (or more likely that customers would not be in possession fo all their old statements etc)

Once again, I vowed that after this balance was paid off I would never order anything from the company again. But, as fate would have it, I soon found myself in a situation where my tumble drier reached the end of it's life, and Choice was the only option for me to attain a new one.

Having experienced no problems with this purchase, I subsequently ordered another few items for both myself and others, over the following year. (2006 - 2007).

Up until recently, I had no problems with these items. All the minimum payment amounts and statement balances appeared to be correct (I was now checking every statement and online details), and on any occasion which I had to contact the company all queires were promptly sorted out.

I was suspicious however to find that many aspects of the website had now also been changed after the company changed hands and all aspects where the customer was able to 'check up' on their own account had now been removed. Very dodgy.

The problems started again in October 2007. I had ordered a fridge freezer for a customer thr previous December on buy now pay later. The item was due to be added to the account in October 2007, but I found that when it was added, the company had ameded the payment terms of the item from 52 weeks to 20 weeks!

This in effect meant that the mimumum payment for this item alone was around £60.00!!! Obviousely there was no way that either myself or the customer were going to agree to pay this, and it took some weeks of phone negotiation (during which I had to pay the higher amount out of my own pocket), before the company finally gave in and said that although they could not change the payment terms to 52 weeks, they would change them to 104 weeks!

Although this meant that we would now have to pay around an extra £200.00 interest on the item, I felt that I had no option but to agree.

More recently, I have encountered some ridiculousely bad customer service via phone, regarding returns and promotional offers, and have also found that the company is deliberately attempting to stop customers from using certain promotional codes to attain discounts, buy now pay later deals etc.

The company have also ,on more than one occasion, added goods to my account that i did not order, added goods to my account at a much higher price than when i ordered said items, and also added 3 microwaves and 2 office chairs to my account when I only ordered 1 microwave and one office chair.

When I phoned to have these matters sorted out, the reaction of the staff was as if I'd demanded that they tell me the meaning of life!

In conclusion, I'm sorry for rambling on, but I would say that the only reason that I still use this company is that I feel that I am now left with a bad choice (using Choice) or no choice (as it would take me lots of time and useless small orders to build up the same credit limit with another company.) Despite all the chances I have given Choice, they have never failed to let me down, and I have actively encouraged people NOT to take a choice account after my experiences with the company, particularly since the company changed hands in 2006.

Summary: Cons outweigh pros when dealing with Choice.. steer clear if possible