Parcelforce won’t refund my lost Xmas presents

ON DECEMBER 7, I sent a parcel of Christmas presents to my granddaughter, paying Parcelforce £12.98 for the 48-hour service. The tracking service said it had been delivered on December 9 at 5pm, but it wasn’t.

A long conversation with Parcelforce got me nowhere and a letter dated December 1 8 was i gnored. On December 28, I wrote directly to Parcelforce’s managing director Gary Simpson but I have not had a reply.

P. G., Flintshire.

What has it come to when a letter to the office of the managing director of Parcelforce — part of Royal Mail — doesn’t even elicit the courtesy of a response?

this is one occasion when being lost in the post is no excuse — they are the post! and please don’t tell me Royal Mail employees now only respond to emails.

It seems your package was delivered to a post office by a Parcelforce driver who has since left the business — hence the amount of time it took to carry out the investigation. It wasn’t clear which post office it was delivered to, but having searched two possible ones, the items have not turned up.

Parcelforce has now settled your claim for £70 for the contents and a refund of the postage. It has also added £10 goodwill to cover the cost of your phone calls, plus a tiny bit on top. But none of this makes up for the disappointment of Christmas presents that failed to arrive on time.

however, Parcelforce has now been in contact with you to apologise for the inconvenience.

a spokesman says: ‘ We value our customers greatly and regret that on this occasion Mr G. did not get the great customer service we always aim to deliver to all our customers.’

So what happened to your letter to the managing director’s office? It seems it was received but incorrectly filed which is why you didn’t get a reply. Let’s face it, these mistakes can happen to all of us.

I HAD a lot of problems with Vodafone so decided to cancel my contract and pay a £124 early exit fee. That was on October 5, 2014.

When I asked to pay the fee I was told there was no one in the office who could take the money. I was told a bill would be sent to me.

After numerous emails, phone calls and letters, I have had no reply and no bill. As we had cancelled the direct debit, we couldn’t pay online. We couldn’t pay by phone because the account number was no longer recognised.

Now Vodafone says it is putting the matter in the hands of debt collectors, who incidentally have no details about us at all.

W. I., Hants.

Good old Vodafone. Even when you want to pay a bill it puts up barriers to prevent you doing so.

the problem is that when you cancelled your direct debit, it couldn’t take the termination fee that would have been added to your November bill.

It’s always worth leaving a direct debit open for a few months so any refund due can be made or take a final payment. If it gets it wrong, the direct debit guarantee puts the onus on your bank to sort it out. a Vodafone spokesperson says: ‘We’re sorry this happened as it’s clear that Mr I made every effort to pay his bill.

‘there is nothing owing on his account now, and we’ll make sure there is no adverse information on his credit file.’

Vodafone has refunded you £65 by way of apology.

EDF replaced my meter in December 2011, t hen began sending me inaccurate estimated bills. Though I reported this, it claimed the new meter wasn’t operating until June 2013.

At this stage, I was sent a bill crediting me with £3,748.87 made up of cancelled charges, a VAT rebate, goodwill gestures and a government rebate.

To this day, EDF is reluctant to say when and how it applied the code for accurate billing. Also, does HMRC receive the returned VAT that the computer program records has been returned to a customer’s account?

To top it all, I’ve been summoned to appear at a magistrates’ court by EDF but no hearing is listed.

R. N., Bromley, Gtr London. YouR letter suggests you’ve had a rough time with EdF. But you omitted one important point: ombudsman Services has already reviewed your complaint — and you refused its decision.

It ordered, among other things, a written apology, confirmation that a £30 goodwill payment had been made, any erroneous Vat charges removed and an accurate bill issued upon receipt of up-to-date meter readings. EdF has fulfilled these obligations but you are refusing to pay money you owe.

EdF was initially at fault because it did not update the details on its computer system when it installed a meter at your property. however, it then applied the back billing code which meant you were only charged for 12 months’ energy usage up to June 5, 2013.

this led to the £3,748.87 cancelled charges and rebates.

as for the Vat — £172 was refunded to you, so there is nothing for EdF to pay hMRC.

EdF has written to you on several occasions requesting payment. Pre-warrant visits were made and letters hand-delivered.

as the bill still remained unpaid, EdF applied for a Rights of Entry warrant and a debt-related charge of £60 was added to your account. It admits the hearing did not go ahead, so that £ 60 has been removed. You should contact EdF and discuss a repayment plan.

Can I remind readers that I will not intervene on a case that is with an ombudsman or that has been decided by an ombudsman in favour of a company.

I will only look at an ombudsman complaint if the ombudsman has found in your favour and the firm has not abided by the ruling.