...for being truly pissed off with NEXT?

[stargirl1701]

I have a NEXT account and make my payments through 'faster payments' on telephone banking with the Bank of Scotland. Since January NEXT haven't received the payments made. The bank insist they were sent.

NEXT have given the impression they think I am lying about making the payments. I was asked to fax my statements which I did. They said they didn't receive them despite me getting a fax receipt.

I faxed them again on Friday, with the receipt from the original fax, and a supervisor assured me he had them and the account would be sorted out within 2-3 days.

I phoned again this afternoon to check what is going on. Nothing. No notes to say anything has been actioned. Apparently the admin team, who are dealing with it, finish work at 4 so I can't speak with them.

Meanwhile, despite the constant phoning and faxing from my end, the account has been passed to a debt collection agency and arrears recorded on my credit file. This is after a person in collections told me NEXT are having difficulty with 'faster payments'.

I feel like I'm getting the bums rush every time I phone and nothing happens. I'm 5 months pregnant and feeling like I could burst into tears with my frustration at the situation.

To make matters worse, we are applying for a housing tenancy and the agents use the same credit reference organisation as NEXT. We are so not getting this house. Sob!

Its obviously an error on their end,not yours. Get them to send a letter stating that your credit has been affected due to no fault of your own.

It's down to NEXT to prove that you owe them money; it's not down to you to prove that you don't. If you can face it get details of their complaints procedure from their website and write to their Head Office about your experience.

Sorry you're being put through this when you're pregnant. Next suck.

I have sent an email to the complaints department. I have sent a tweet to the NEXT account. I'm just getting nowhere. How can I find out who is the CEO of NEXT - and his email.

Simon Wolfson is currently CEO of Next.

Contact details.

Thank you! I have sent this email to Mr Wolfson. Fingers crossed!

Dear Mr Wolfson

Ref:

I am writing to complain about the way I have been treated by NEXT. I hope you can help me sort this out as no-one else seems to be able to. There are 3 missing payments on my account totalling £290. I have phoned on numerous occasions to try and sort this out to no avail. Indeed the impression given by many of your employees is that I am lying about having made payments - I have had to prove it on multiple occasions.

I pay my NEXT account through 'faster payments' on telephone banking. Since January NEXT have not been receiving the payments. I have been in touch with the Bank of Scotland and confirmed that they sent the payments. The account number (02462087), sort code (40-27-15) and reference (xxxxx) for NEXT are all correct. The payments were made on xx, xx and xx.

I have spoken to numerous people in Collections to try to sort this out. I was asked to confirm the details with the bank. Done. I was asked to get the details of the payments - dates and times. Done. I was asked to fax my bank statements. Done. Then Collections tell me the fax did not arrive despite me receiving a fax receipt. I was asked to fax the bank statements again (I included the receipt from the first fax). Done.

At this point I was told NEXT are having difficulty with 'faster payments'. Can I suggest you should've been in touch with customers who use this method to inform them? Can I suggest you should've been in touch with my bank to warn them not to allow 'faster payments' to yourselves?

I was then called by a supervisor named Ashley on Friday 27/4/12 who confirmed the fax had arrived. He told me the account would be sorted out within 2-3 days. I foolishly believed him.

I called again today (1/5/12) to check on the status of the account. I was told there were no new notes on my file and NOTHING had been done. I am furious with the customer service I have received. This situation is beyond a joke.

I am supposed to be applying for a private housing tenancy tomorrow (2/5/12) and the letting agent uses Experian - just like NEXT. Your errors are going to cost me a house if the credit application fails because you have entered incorrect data on my file.

In addition, I am 5 months pregnant and the stress of dealing with this situation is not good for me or the baby. I am upset and frustrated that you cannot seem to sort this out.

I want someone senior in NEXT to contact myself or my husband tomorrow to sort this out once and for all. I want my account restored and my credit file correctly updated by end of business tomorrow (2/5/12). I want a letter emailed to me detailing the errors you have entered on my credit file (admitting your culpability) so I can show the letting agent that it is your errors that are damaging my credit file - by lunchtime tomorrow. In addition, I want the contact details of the Financial Ombudsman Service so I can complain about your customer service and financial competence.

My contact number is xxxxx. I am a teacher so only available before 9am, between 10.40am-11.00am, 12.30pm-1.25pm or after 3.15pm. I will be even more incandescent with rage if I have to call you, AGAIN. I expect to hear from you between10.40am-11.00am to confirm you have received this email and to confirm you will be sorting it out. You can call again during the day to confirm it is sorted out.

My husband can be contacted on xxxxx. He is available all day. I authorise you to discuss all matters regarding this account with him.

Financial Ombudsman. But I think you have to exhaust Next's own complaints procedures without success before you can bring them in, so a wee edit might be due? It's also a little emotional in tone, fair enough as you're angry, but you might want to read it over again and reduce the rage a touch.

Ah, you already sent it. Ah well, it'll wake him up when he reads it!

It's been ongoing since January. I think 4 months of reasonable contact is enough. I am so angry they can't just sort it out. I can't tell you how many times I've phoned and been fobbed off.

I've had no end of problems paying money into my DC's account with the Halifax since my bank introduced faster payments. I bet Next's account is with Halifax! I read up on it online and loads of people have had problems with Halifax accounts.

I closed my Next account, was fed up with the whole thing.

I've had problems with Next too, although not to the same extent as you. Once it is resolved in your favour, my advice is to ask them for compensation (if it hasn't already been offered). They were pretty generous with us. If you ever want to order anything from them again, that is

That's strange- my faster payments from Ltsb have always got to my Next account within a day.

Seona that will be because, IIRC, Halifax and LloydsTSB are part of the same company and have connected payment systems.

(I know a little bit about it from previous work and from what the Halifax staff told me.)

This is very interesting as I've been having problems with Next too -but my payments all go through PayPlan as I've got a debt management plan with them.

I got a rather threatening letter last week claiming Next have received no payments for several months, despite my payments clearly showing up on my PayPlan statement (correct account number etc).

It's reassuring to see it's not just me - though I appreciate that's not of much use to you OP

Having worked in a bank just double checking BOS have sent it to correct sort code ac no and ref no .
Sounds like no-one at Next is really doing anything just going thro' motions...

Bank of Scotland is part of the same company too though so it should work for them too.

Did you use your 8 character customer number on the payment? Did you use capital letters at the start as using lower case letters can sometimes cause problems (worked for an internet banking customer care team)

P.s. 402715 is HSBC and unrelated to the other banks mentioned.

Thanks Seona, bang goes that theory then!

Is that your real bank details? I would ask for that info to be deleted if they are - just in case it could be used somehow

Oh and I hope you get sorted!!

the bank details quoted are for Next

Does your February Next statement show that the money you paid in January has been credited against your Next account. I don't understand why, if you have been having problems with 'faster payments' since January, you carried on using them.

Oh okay - doh !! I feel stupid!!

I've been paying using faster payments for all of 2011 with no problems. It's just been since Jan that things have gone haywire. One of the people I spoke to on Friday said there had been lots of problems since January with faster payments. Something to do with the reference numbers.