e-cigs what a mess ,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[grandads_shed]

about a month ago i decided to try these e-cigs,
found a company online ecigsbrand ,, turning into a night mare ,,
first i ordered a starter pack and extra 5 prefilled tips.


then it all started ,, i was getting upto 5 txt on my mobile for things like "you can claim if you had an accident " etc

then found out my credit of £10 had vanished ,, looks like the people sending me junk txt are making me pay for them, so i changed my phone number ,, sorted,

well today i recieved a email from ecigsbrand saying that my order has been posted ,, hmmm i think to my self ,, what order ?? i had every thing that i bought from them,
turns out they had put me down as buying the trial kit, and they send me 10 prefilled tips a month ,, at the cost of just over £70 ,,

i phoned them and told them that i did not want them and i never placed a order for them ,,
all they kept trying to do was sell me even more tips, and a spare rechargable battery ,,
unfortionally i can not stop the payments through my building society as the payments are being taken on my debit card ,, WTF ?? why cant i stop a company taking money out of my account ??

i have also sent a email to ecigsbrand but im not holding my breath on a reply ,,

so where do all this leave me ?? open a new building society account ,, then once i have that and i know that all my payments are going into the new account, and that the direct debits are coming out of it ,, i can then close the old account,

 

[Robotstar5]

Too late now, but I can recommend VIP used them a few times with no problems and supermarkets/petrol stations carry them if you're stuck.

 

[madkayaker]

E-cigs are about to get regulated so I bet lots disappear


And let's not forget once regulated the government tax them

 

[PTvor]

Have you tried the local trading standards officer?

 

[madkayaker]

Or police as its fraud

 

[Robotstar5]

E-cigs are about to get regulated so I bet lots disappear


And let's not forget once regulated the government tax them

I'd better stock up now then!

 

[Paul.]

Ring your card provider tell them what has happened and get the card blocked, they will then issue a new card with a different number, your direct debits will not be affected,
Do it straight away though, (most have 24 hour helplines for this kind of event) then any payments taken after you notify them will then be refunded.
I don't now who you are with but Nationwide were particularly helpful when my son had almost the same problem, that was with an online movie company that refused to release him as a customer,

 

[pedrobedro]

What are you doing with one of those things, get back on the real cigarettes. Nobody likes a quitter On my account I can cancel any direct debit online at the click of a button ( the cancel direct debit button ) don't they all work like that and if this hasn't put you off smoking what will it take ? Keep at it and hope you get it sorted quickly and painlessly.

 

[Paul.]

Card payments are different to direct debits, direct debits are processed via the bank or building society. regular card transactions are via visa, delta, electron etc and are known as a recurring transaction, and can be almost impossible to stop without intervention from the card issuer.

 

[drivewasher]

Best thing to do is tell your bank youv'e lost your debit card. They will send you another one with a different issue number so any reccuring transactions on yer old card can't be got.

IIRC the bank wont stop or reissue a card because of a reccuring payment, they tell you to contact the payee to stop it. Thats what happened with me so the day after I rang the bank I er lost my card, I'm soooo dopey!

 

[Paul.]

A couple of articles re stopping card payments

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/...menace-How-avoid-continuous-payment-trap.html

And this one,
http://www.choose.net/money/guide/faqs/recurring-payments-cancel-rights.html

 

[cumbriasteve]

I had a similar issue with AOL, the bank initially told me they could do nothing and I had to contact AOL to stop the payments.

I went to the CAB and was informed by law the bank had to block any further payments if those were my instructions.

Back to the bank I went and informed them of CAB's advice and they simply did what I requested in the first place, in fact it was fairly obvious the bank knew they had this legal obligation, all I can imagine is it involves paperwork and time they were trying to avoid.

 

[rtbcomp]

unfortionally i can not stop the payments through my building society as the payments are being taken on my debit card ,, WTF ?? why cant i stop a company taking money out of my account ??


You can. Cumbriasteve has the right idea.

There's been a bit on BBC Radio4 Moneybox about this. For some reason the card companies/banks don't like stopping these payments.

I rang my bank to stop one, the guy on the phone said "OK, no problem" then I got a letter saying they couldn't stop it. Fortunately the beneficiary has played ball.

 

[Dave Sherwood]

if you telephone your bank they can put a block on any further payments to this company from your debit card.

 

[ajlelectronics]

It's funny how sometimes the banks have to be reminded. Same with DD. Some will tell you that you can't stop them. Bankers eh?

 

[Julian_P]

. Bankers eh?

Banksters more like. And in the case of Nat West (my bank) we (as tax payers) own 80% of their corporate arses - a fact I've reminded them of once or twice this year

Julian

 

[Wedg1e]

It's funny how sometimes the banks have to be reminded. Same with DD. Some will tell you that you can't stop them. Bankers eh?

When I worked at Yorkshire Bank, DDs were still a relatively new concept and you COULDN'T stop them, that was the whole point: to ensure that the payee got what they were owed.
If you wanted a regular payment you COULD stop/ alter, it was (and still is) called a Standing Order.
Of course nowadays even banks have to acknowledge that they serve the customer, not the other way around

 

[rtbcomp]

I thought the whole ethos behind direct debits was the "direct debit promise" in that you could stop them and even get your money back on demand without referring to the beneficiary.

I can cancel DDs online if I want to.

 

[ajlelectronics]

Correct. It doesn't stop the "bankers" from telling you otherwise though. Same with chargebacks etc. They try to make it so difficult and claim that their hands are tied.

 

[grandads_shed]

well phoned them back again today ,, interesting convo if i may say ,,

it started of at £73 for just 10 tips/vaporizers .. in the end they reduced the price to only £19.99 for the 10,

on their web site the cost is £50.99 for 10,

im now waiting to see if they realy have refunded me the £53 that they say they have ,,,, any idea how long it should take for the money to show up in my building society account ??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_0xT7-5wAM