From: Daytona 
Newsgroups: uk.finance uk.legal
Subject: Re: Provident Personal Credit
Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 14:49:50 +0100

JF  wrote:

>The company
>settled a week before the hearing and went bust before they
>could collect the unwanted printer.

rotfl!

>Since then I have always dealt with queries with banks, water
>companies, mobile phones etc by letter and have *always* won
>disputes. 

For insignificant items, I use helplines for convenience but in the
event of any problem switch immediately to writing whether by fax or
post. The mistake most people seem to make is not to make a complaint
when it's clear that the process has gone wrong.

The whole issue is one of control, these customer service departments
do an excellent job of controlling people without the common sense to
understand their rights and preventing any embarrassing mistakes
slipping out into the legal field. An increasing problem is one of
trade associations using the same tactics.

A pet hate, that reduces control, is the increasing use of webpage
email forms. Much like a phone conversation, it's too easy for the
company to 'lose' unwelcome communication. I don't use them.

Daytona