Meteor

MisterCadbury

I am looking for some advice on how best to proceed after the following incident.
I am a meteor Bill pay customer and have been for the last few years. My bill has always been around 30e and has always been paid on time. I was recently in England for 5 days and despite having roaming set up, my bill total for that month came to 266e. When I rang Meteor assuming this was some mistake they said it wasn't that apparently I had rung a number that was charging me over 2e month. I explained that it was a furniture delivery company and that I didn't think it was possible they would charge 2e a minute. I attempted to dispute the charges but to no avail so I said I would pay it but that I could not afford to pay it all at once. They said I could set up a payment plan with Meteor Credit Control. Which I did, paying approx 18e a week until the bill was cleared.

This is the issue however. For the last 5 weeks I have been paying the 18e over the phone on the same day every week. Yesterday when I proceeded to make the payment it all went fine. The girl on the phone told me I had made the payment and how much was left to pay. When I checked my debit card account balance that evening I saw she actually debited my account by 198e not 18e. I rang today to explain the situation and they acknowledged a mistake was made on their part but that nothing could be done about it as I had owed them that anyway. I explained that I had NOT authorized my account be debited by that much so as such it was a theft. They said there was nothing they could do about it.

I am not sure how best to proceed. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

allthedoyles

The first thing I would do , is go to a Meteor shop and meet face-to-face .

Also would contact the Communications Regulator :

http://www.comreg.ie/about_us/about_us.472.html

GarIT

Your bank are legally required to take the money back once you tell them the payment wasn't authorised. Just go and do that, it should be simple enough.

lala88

Theft?

MisterCadbury

lala88 wrote: »

Theft?

Yes , "Theft is the taking of another person's property i.e money without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it"

I am going to try and sort it again today over the phone. If not I will try the shop but I imagine they will just tell me contact customer services.

As for going to the bank, I didn't realize they would do that. If so that would be perfect.

Cheers

hdowney

I don't think the staff in the shop will be very helpful. The ones in the shop I used always told me I had to deal with customer services whenever I had problems and the like. Hope you get it sorted. That was a very underhand thing of them to do. Yes you owe them the amount, but you were paying off with an AGREED payment plan, so it was theft pure and simple in my eyes

emeldc

I'm not sure that the bank will reverse the transaction too quickly, you could be spinning them a yarn for all they know. They'll need to make their own inquiries and that wont happen today or tomorrow.
I'd go with contacting comreg and while you're at it ask them to get a proper explanation on the original €2 per minute call. Doesn't sound right.

Fred Swanson

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emeldc

Fred Swanson wrote: »

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OP paid over the phone not DD.

Fred Swanson

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MisterCadbury

Fred Swanson wrote: »

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Why would I go straight to the card issuers? I mean if I walk into the bank and say Meteor overcharged me do you really think they will refund me straight away and go after Meteor? Be fantastic if they did.

RangeR

MisterCadbury wrote: »

Why would I go straight to the card issuers? I mean if I walk into the bank and say Meteor overcharged me do you really think they will refund me straight away and go after Meteor? Be fantastic if they did.

It really depends on your presentation.If you are assertive enough and use the proper terminology , they will move.

dudara

Don't go to the shop - they really have nothing to do with Credit & Collections, and will only get on the phone to the people in that department.

Two things here
(1) Look into the original charge of €2/minute. That seems excessive, unless it was a premium number.
(2) How did you pay? Was it via a credit card? If it was, contact your card issue and say that you authorised a payment of €18, not €198.

MisterCadbury

So just to update people.

I contacted them asking for a supervisor to ring me with regards to this issue. I was told I would be contacted within 24 hours. No phone call after 24 hours, so I rang them, and told I would receive a call back withing 48 hours of the initial call not 24 hours. So I then rang after 48 hours to be told that the supervisor dealing with my case was out sick for the last few days and that she would ring me in a few days. I said that was not good enough. They customer service representative said that he would ask his supervisor on duty now,so he put me on hold for 15 minutes and then hung up. Rang back and explained the whole story again only to be told when they say 48 hours, they mean 2 working days after the request was made.

I rang COMREG and they said the initial 2e a minute charges sounded suspect to begin with but that the unauthorized withdrawal of money from my account was illegal.

RangeR

OP,

Can you log in to your Meteor account on MyMeteor and check what those €2 charges are?

From here, if you are getting nowhere with Meteor, you need to initiate formal complaint procedures.

Write a letter [do not email] mentioning the words FORMAL COMPLAINT in your opening sentence.
Describe the facts of the case, don't get emotional.
Inform them that they have 10 business days to respond or you will have to lodge a formal complaint with ComReg.

Also, contact your bank again. no scrap that. Ring ring your Bank Group Complaints department [you already got nowhere with your bank]. Inform them that an unathorised amount was removed from your account and they have 24 hours to restore that amount. Failure to comply will require you to make a formal complaint to the offices of the Financial Ombudsman [Financial Regulator].

Be clear. This is your account. No one has the right to remove any money from your account without your knowledge and consent.

Time

MisterCadbury wrote: »

So just to update people.

I contacted them asking for a supervisor to ring me with regards to this issue. I was told I would be contacted within 24 hours. No phone call after 24 hours, so I rang them, and told I would receive a call back withing 48 hours of the initial call not 24 hours. So I then rang after 48 hours to be told that the supervisor dealing with my case was out sick for the last few days and that she would ring me in a few days. I said that was not good enough. They customer service representative said that he would ask his supervisor on duty now,so he put me on hold for 15 minutes and then hung up. Rang back and explained the whole story again only to be told when they say 48 hours, they mean 2 working days after the request was made.

I rang COMREG and they said the initial 2e a minute charges sounded suspect to begin with but that the unauthorized withdrawal of money from my account was illegal.

Ring this number (01) 678 8888 and insist on speaking to the complaints team, explain that €180 has been taken without consent and that several days have passed without resolution and that you need the money refunded ASAP and that waiting is no longer acceptable. They should sort you out in 1 call

lala88

MisterCadbury wrote: »

Yes , "Theft is the taking of another person's property i.e money without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it"

I am going to try and sort it again today over the phone. If not I will try the shop but I imagine they will just tell me contact customer services.

As for going to the bank, I didn't realize they would do that. If so that would be perfect.

Cheers

I assume you'll be going to the guards then? Seeing as how you've been robbed...

Fred Swanson

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lala88

Fred Swanson wrote: »

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And why would they not be?

Fred Swanson

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lala88

Fred Swanson wrote: »

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Of course, nothing to do with the fact that he would have no right to go to them and would be laughed at for doing so

Fred Swanson

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lala88

Fred Swanson wrote: »

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Did Meteor do it purposely?

Because more often then not they aren't. Its people like you and foggy_lad who claim every company is even when its clearly not the case.

Do you do anything other then go around trying to find companies being ''dishonest''? Its funny how we see no sign of you when costumers are being dishonest, whys that?

emeldc

I think the op's mistake was agreeing to pay a disputed amount in the first place. He agreed to make regular payments, they took it in a lump, it's not theft, it might be breach of agreement
I think the OP would look like a right spanner if he went to the Garda with this.

Fred Swanson

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MisterCadbury

lala88 wrote: »

I assume you'll be going to the guards then? Seeing as how you've been robbed...

How is it not robbery?

Meteor made a mistake , they have acknowledged that. So the company has admitted to taking the money without my permission. All I am asking is for them to rectify the mistake they made.

As for disputing the original charges, being on the phone for over 3 hours with them, I got no where. I was finally informed by their investigation team that I had rung a VOT. A virtual online telephone number. So after receiving this explanation,Meteor informed me I had to pay.


LaLa , I do not understand why you are commenting? You have offered no advice just sarcasm. Maybe be best if you sat this one out and go build a jigsaw for yourself.

lala88

MisterCadbury wrote: »

How is it not robbery?

Meteor made a mistake , they have acknowledged that. So the company has admitted to taking the money without my permission. All I am asking is for them to rectify the mistake they made.

As for disputing the original charges, being on the phone for over 3 hours with them, I got no where. I was finally informed by their investigation team that I had rung a VOT. A virtual online telephone number. So after receiving this explanation,Meteor informed me I had to pay.


LaLa , I do not understand why you are commenting? You have offered no advice just sarcasm. Maybe be best if you sat this one out and go build a jigsaw for yourself.

Your the one whos saying its theft not me? Or did you forget that?

lala88

Fred Swanson wrote: »

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yawn change the record why do you. you didnt answer why question why are you no where to be seen when a costumer is proved to be in the wrong? Why are you not outraged by that?

hdowney

lala88 wrote: »

yawn change the record why do you. you didnt answer why question why are you no where to be seen when a costumer is proved to be in the wrong? Why are you not outraged by that?

Perhaps you should go and troll somewhere else, like under a bridge waiting for the Billy Goats Gruff! I mean seriously all your comments come out exactly just like trolling.

Also what COSTUMER is ever in the wrong???? The word is CUSTOMER, and yes sometimes customers are in the wrong, but in this instance it is Meteor who are in the wrong.

dudara

lala88 banned for one month. I warned you before about naming particular posters, yet you've done it again.

dudara

RangeR

OP, do you have an update? How are you getting on?

MisterCadbury

They did eventually ring me back on Saturday afternoon. Supervisor said that it was an error on the part of one of their staff. However they said they could not refund me the money. As a gesture of goodwill she said they would give me 25e off my next bill. I said that simply is not good enough and that I was going to write a written complaint. According to COMREG if they don't respond within ten working days COMREG are going to look into it.

RangeR

Jayses, that's bad form on their part. I'd bring em to the cleaners.

circular flexing

MisterCadbury wrote: »

They did eventually ring me back on Saturday afternoon. Supervisor said that it was an error on the part of one of their staff. However they said they could not refund me the money. As a gesture of goodwill she said they would give me 25e off my next bill. I said that simply is not good enough and that I was going to write a written complaint. According to COMREG if they don't respond within ten working days COMREG are going to look into it.

I don't understand why you didn't dispute the charge with your card issuer.

paconnors

That's Bull of course they can do a refund through credit card, they are hoping you will drop it, get straight to the bank do a charge back, remember the ball is in your park they record all their calls, its their mistake for over charging your card.