Wonga
Complaint 166953 Details

I made a complaint to Wonga on the 03/07/2012 about them storing new bank details from a new card without my consent. This was done through there automated telephone service, there service states that no details will be stored, in my case not true, how many other people's details have been stored without their consent? I first sent in a e-mail and waited the eight weeks for this matter to be dealt with, to which I got no reply.

After this I phoned their late repayments number to get to speak to someone in person instead of a machine. I kept phoning them about my complaint, I have spent hours on the phone to them and I really mean hours, every time I have contacted them they have told me the matter is now benign escalated for a complaints manager to phone me back to deal with, also that their floor manager Robin was aware of this complaint. Every time I have contacted them I have had to explain my complaint in great detail, which told me they kept no details of my complaint apart from the fact I phoned to complain. After explaining myself to their customer advisers they told me that this was perfectly legal for them to do, which makes me wonder how many others they have done this too and managed to pass off, as this is not perfectly legal.

After eleven phone calls about this matter (over an hour each call) I eventually got a call back from one of their complaint managers, Brandon, I had to explain in great detail about my complaint to which even he tried to tell me what they had done was legal, after having to argue my point with him, he asked me to hold while he spoke to his technical department, When he came back he still tried to say there was no problem. I argued my point again. He asked if he could go and look into this matter of how card details been stored the way they had been, and said that it would take about twenty minutes and he would call me back, he did call me back after about twenty minutes to tell me the technical department had now closed for the day and that he could not resolve my matter, he said he could not deal with it and that he would pass it onto his manager to deal with.

After about four days I got inpatients and decided to contact them again, once again I had to explain my complaint, then get told that it was ok for them to store my details this way, then to ask for the matter to be escalated as I had already spoken to a complaints manager and that their floor manger Robin was aware of this complaint as well, after a few days no response so I called again, once again I had to go through the same bull to get the matter was escalated.

The next day I got a telephone call from Tarik Abdellah who told me he was a complaints manager, he did apologise for how long this matter has taken to get resolved and said he was willing to offer me double the level of compensation for this matter, £100 instead of £50, he tried to argue the his point but was not very convincing, he told me that this was a "technical issue" and made it very clear that it was only me that this happened to, he also offered me expenses for my telephone calls. I refused his offer and asked him to listen to the way that all the customer advisers advised me and also asked why it has taken nearly three months to respond to me. Even today 12/10/2012 I am still waiting for these answers. He said he would contact me the next day with my answers and that he would send me an e-mail with the points that we had discussed today, I did receive an e-mail confirming my details were stored with out my consent, and his offer of compensation, but no phone call followed.

Again after waiting nearly a week for these answers I tried contacting him by e-mail and by telephone as he gave me a direct contact for him, no answer, in my frustration I lied to him by saying that I had been in contact with local press and a solicitor, twenty minutes after the e-mail was sent I was contacted by one of his collogues telling me that he was out of the country on holiday and had been for a couple of weeks, which is why he has not been in contact with myself, (if this was so then he was on holiday when he contacted me), I was also told he was coming back into the country then heading away again abroad on business.

Another week or so passed so I e-mailed him again , with no response. Then out of the blue he e-mailed me that he was back and when would be a good time to contact me. I e-mailed back saying ASAP. I missed his call to my mobile and got a short answer machine message from him. I e-mailed him back asking him to contact me again as I wished to hear his response. I got inpatient and ended up calling him on his mobile the next day, no answer. Half an hour later he called asking who had called him on his mobile, when I told him who it was, he was clearly out of sorts. He insists they have done no wrong and still wont answer why it took them so long to deal with me, or why he will not listen to what all his advisers have told me, he offered me a final offer of £100 with an extra £25 to cover my cost of telephone calls. This was all he would speak to me about and said it was a very good offer.

I don't really care about the money anymore, but I cant believe a company that advertises so much about their customer relations can be like this, I have searched the Internet for this complaint and found hundreds of similar complaints about this.

I am willing to send all e-mails from and to Wonga.

If you can, any help would be welcome.