Really Annoyed At Marks and Spencer**updated**

[florida sun]

Hi Guys

Just thought I would let you know about how I have spent most of my morning.

I have a Marks and Spencer chargecard and as I only work 5 mins walk away from my local store in Cardiff Town Centre I always pay my monthly repayments in the store through the till and get a reciept.

Anyway on the 6th March I went and paid £40.00 in my local store as I do every month, this morning I recieved a letter from Marks and Spencer to say that no payment has been recieved and that they have put a stop on my card and added a admin fee of £15 to my account. Gutted as I had wanted to use the card this afternoon.

I of course immedeatly find the reciept and telephone the number on the letter only to get through to the call centre in India. They ask me to photocopy the reciept and send it into the head office in Chester which I of course agree to do. I explain that I really did want to use my card this afternoon and could I take the reciept into the Cardif store so that they can verify the payment and access my card. The answer "No" they cant. They tell me that these things happen occasionally and "get this" even when I send off the reciept it is very unlikly that they will refund the £15 costs.

Im amazed at this, the error is obviously with them, yet they are charging me for their mistake and I cant use my card.

After some very very harsh words from me, I phone my local store and speak to a very nice lady who looks into it and promises to phone me back, which she did, it appears that although I have the reciept,which contains the complete transaction, including store number, till number, date and time of transaction, the actual slip you have to sign at the store which then gets transferred to Chester, who inturn credit my account has gone missing.

I now have to go to the store tomorrow with my reciept and they will try their best to try and convince Chester to take the hold of my card and refund my £15.

I am gobsmacked that in this day and age that my payment which was processed through Marks and Spencers till can not be found even though thankfully I have the reciept with the full transaction on. I dread to think what would happen if I had thrown away this small green reciept as I have done many times in the past. I will let you know how I get on tomorrow.

Thanks for listening, just needed to rant a bit

 

[mrs-mac]

That is the height of poor customer service and from a company that is only just making a recovery in the market l know what l would do, apply for a credit card with someone else and tell M&S in a very nice way of course to keep their cc

 

[squitty]

Wow Sue, no wonder you are annoyed, that is just stupid.

You have your reciept that should be that. It's not your fault at all.

Good Luck for tomorrow.

 

[carolfoy]

wow Sue, that's disgusting, I thought M&S were supposed to pride themselves on customer service? My lovely friend Elaine had a problem with them with a handbag she bought and charged to a newly opened storecard. she thought she'd charged it and paid for it by debit in one transaction. a few weeks later she moved to New Zealand and on her return 6 months later found out she owed them about £300!!!
She was pig sick 'cos she could have bought a really nice bag for that and not a £40 M&S one!!!
I hope you get it sorted but I'd agree with mrs-mac - tell them to go swing!

 

[KayleeUK]

Hope all is fixed tomorrow Sue

 

[Merylj]

Sadly I think customer service has gone down in M&S in recent years! Just as well that you kept the receipt - did you pay by cash?
I have an M&S card but the interest seemed so high I only use it now to buy currency.
Good luck.

 

[wils]

It is disgusting that you should be made to feel in the wrong. I agree - If they aren't over helpful tomorrow I'd tell them where they could put their card too

I remember having a row with them once over some shoes that had died after a couple of wears which I was trying to return. The woman had quite a go at me telling me that they were designed just for going to dinner in and not heavy wear - I seem to remember telling her that if that was the case then there should have been a note to that effect on the label and the display.

You can also tell them how many people have read this thread!

Good Luck

 

[florida sun]

Sadly I think customer service has gone down in M&S in recent years! Just as well that you kept the receipt - did you pay by cash?
I have an M&S card but the interest seemed so high I only use it now to buy currency.
Good luck.

Hi there

Yes I did pay in cash.

Thanks for your replies guys the more I read the letter the more annoyed im getting as it also says that they have put a non payment mark with the credit reference agency as well, will I be able to have this removed?? I cant believe this, I have had a card with them for over 10 years and have never defaulted on a payment.

 

[mandymouse]

Oh dear, I'm surprised at this kind of thing happening at M & S, I hope you get it sorted soon

 

[wilma-bride]

You should be able to ask tehm to get it removed. If I were you, Sue, even if they sort it for you tomorrow, I would still write a letter to them, enclosing a copy of the receipt and the letter and ask them to endure that the mistake is rectified and the £15 non-payment charge credited back to your account. Make sure you tell them you want the non-payment mark removed from your credit record as well.

I actually think that M&S customer service has deteriorated in recent years. It always used to be the case that they were pretty good about returns but I remember going through a real debacle with them when trying to swap a pair of shoes a few months back (for some reason, I ended up with 2 different size shoes ) They insisted they'd been worn, even though, as one was a size 6 and one was a size 8, it was fairly obvious that I wouldn't have been able to wear them.

I hope you manage to get it sorted out

 

[wils]

I would ask for confirmation of this being removed when you meet with them. If not tell them you will be consulting the CAB

 

[alisonbestford]

Debenhams did a similar thing to me some years ago.

I received my statement with two transactions, from a store I'd never visited, many miles away, dated for a morning after I'd finished a night shift and was in bed

I managed to get the receipts from customer services with a TOTALLY DIFFERENT name and signature to mine!!

The whole thing ended up dragging on for weeks, with interest being charged since I refused to pay, until, in desperation, I got help from the Action Desk in our local paper!

Customer service? Terrible

 

[Englands Disney Gang]

Hi Sue

Thats terrible service!!!...I would want the £15.00 back and extra as a goodwill gesture (maybe a gift voucher!!) or I would threaten to scream from the roof tops!!

GO SUE!!!

 

[mushumadness]

hiya

you can get the mark on your file removed but marks and spencer will have to tell the reference agency there mistake i deal with people who have got marks against the credit reference for things they have never had, its awfull and it can take ages to remove. but keep at it, as the maks can effect any future credit

 

[Miffy2003]

as it also says that they have put a non payment mark with the credit reference agency as well, will I be able to have this removed??:

The main credit reference agencies in the UK (Equifax, Experian) hold a mammoth amount of credit information from every source you can imagine. Including, but not limited to, anyone with a credit agreement (credit card, loan, mortgage, chargecard, mobile contract etc) has a file at the credit reference agencies with each and every transaction they conduct goes onto that file.

You get a "score" for every payment you make or don't make each month (or each week or however you pay back your loan)

Each time you make payment as agreed (does not have to be payment in full, just minimum payment) you get a score of 0. If you are late you get a score of 1. If you default entirely that score might be 2. (I am over simpifying the system here but just to give you a general idea)

So an individual would have a "scorecard" based on their present and past credit performance such as the following:

Mortgage 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (perfect)
Car Loan 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (perfect)
Credit Card 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (perfect)
Another Credit Card 0 0 0 0 0 0 (perfect)
Charge card 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 (one payment made late, this would not raise a flag or concern at all)

Plus there may be many many other entries for past credit agreements too.

The point of this very long (and dull!) explanation is that one score that is not a 0 would not cause a problem, absolutely not, as they look at your entire performance and the "scorecard" that is reached at the end would only be negatively impacted if you multiple "late" and "default" entries.

That said, I think it is appalling that they have behaved like this and they need to get their house in order. I had problems with M&S chargecard about a year ago and I made a real fuss and think ended up with some M&S vouchers by way of apology.

 

[Cyrano]

Sue hope you manage to get this sorted. Although if you can't go back in to M & S you can join me as I refuse to shop in this store

 

[Minniespal]

Hope you get it sorted Sue

 

[PigSoldier]

I hope everything works out Sue!!

I'm having difficulties with M & S too at the moment, after applying for a job with them and spending a day at an assessment centre, they lost all my paperwork! I've spent the last month chasing this up, and got a very snotty phone call yesterday telling me I had it all wrong, and they phoned me a month ago telling me I was unsuccessful, which is a complete pack of lies!! Argh!!

 

[jockey]

Sue - I do hope you get sorted, it's a disgrace this has happened. The very least they can do is give you back the £15 fee.

 

[Ware Bears]

Oh dear, I'm surprised at this kind of thing happening at M & S

I'm not. Last summer I had to complain about a pair of girl's sandals which broke on the second time they were worn. I was told they weren't suitable for anything other than sitting in......er excuse me......we are talking about children here??? Anyhow, I took it up with Trading Standards who were really really helpful. They said that even though M&S were theoretically in the wrong it wasn't a strong enough case for them to take up but that if it was any consolation to me they were having no end of complaints about them these days, apparently it was unheard of once. I think what annoyed me more than the fact the sandals broke was the lack of customer service, that was what M&S always prided themselves on.

But in all fairness to them, my currency that I ordered from them just before Christmas was stolen from the postie and they reissued it to me straight away without waiting for all the official paperwork to be returned.

Good luck Sue, just keep at them, this is their error so in the end they will have to back down.