Merrywood Loans
Complaint 310407 Details

I’m writing to you to log a formal complaint in relation to the service and the misleading way Merrywood Loans as a company have taken money from my account.

As a working class person, I have recently fallen on difficult times financially and decided to look at the option of taking out a short term loan.
After doing some internet searches I stumbled onto their website and decided to try to apply for a short term loan.
At no point was I advised before the application that they were in fact a broker service and that they wouldn't be providing the loan that was advertised. Let alone being charged £69.95.
After filling in my details I was severely disappointed to be redirected to another loan company I had never heard of asking me to fill in another application.
At this point I gave up and decided not to bother with a loan and thought this was the end of it.

The first point of alarm for me came about a minute after attempting the application.
I received a barrage of text messages offering me loans.
I had purposely ticked the box which advised I did not want any marketing texts or e-mails and didn't expect to bombarded by these.
To this day I receive an average of 30-50 texts and e-mails per day from companies offering me loans.
I find this completely unacceptable considering I made a point of noting that I did not wish to receive any marketing texts or e-mails.

On my paydate on 18th February 2014 I went into a sudden panic when I realised £69.95 was missing from my bank account.
I went into my bank who looked at the name of the company and advised that this was taken by Merrywood Loans.
The lady at the bank advised me that this is something she has seen many times happening with this company and that I should call immediately.
I called and spoke to a lady who took my details for data protection.
I advised her that I was in a panic as £69.95 had come out of my account and this has caused a major problem as all my money is accounted for and this has caused me to become overdrawn.
The lady very very bluntly told me she would refund this and it would be in my account in 7 days. I questioned why this was taken in the first place and was met with a sigh folloew by "it can take up to 30 days" which suggested that she must hear the same thing on almost every call she receives. I left it at that and although I knew it was unacceptable that this was taken from my account, I could tell from the tone of the ladies voice that there would be no point in discussing this further.

Exactly 7 days later I checked my bank account and noticed that the money hadn't put into my account.
I immediately called Merrywood Loans and answered the required security questions.
On this occasion the lady didn't even ask me why I was calling and said only "We have up to 30 days to refund you if you read the terms and conditions".
I advised I was told that it would be in my account in 7 days to which the lady said "Yeah, you don't know what you're talking about do you?"
I was completely taken aback by this and asked her to repeat this.
She again said that I didn't know what I was talking about.
I asked if this was the way she spoke to all staff and she said she wasn't willing to discuss this any more.
I asked for her name and she just hung up on me.

I was so angry (and still am) that I was spoken to this way especially when I am overdrawn on my account which has now resulted in charges on my bank account and on another loan which I couldn't pay to this money been taken from my account.

I immediately called back and spoke to another lady.
I calmly explained what had happened on the previous call and she (with the exact same tone as the last lady) advised that she didn't know who I spoke to so she couldn't comment on this.
I asked her when the money would be in my account and she advised 7 working days.
I told her about my previous conversation and that I was told it would be 30 days and she said "Yes it can be".
She then advised me that she isn't willing to discuss this anymore and hung up on me immediately.

I am completely up in arms about this. I cannot believe that a regulated company can speak to someone like this, let alone treat someone like this.

I work for Royal Bank Of Scotland in the financial sector and have never ever heard of such bad customer service and ignorance surrounding a delicate situation like this.

I called back again 20 days after this came out of my account and when I asked the lady about my refund she said it is in the queue.
As soon as I said that I was told 7 days her tone changed and she hung up on me.

I can never get their names as they refuse to give these which means that they can speak to people how they like.

I was so taken back by the way i was treated and spoken to that I didn't want to call back and ask anymore questions as I knew I would be met with the same terrible attitude that I had received from the two previous advisers.

I intend to pursue this through FOS once my payment has been made back to me.