1&1 accounts department

[familychoice]

Had a message through a couple of weeks ago saying my card details were out of date, so I updated them. This morning I received a letter saying they 'had not heard back from me' and that the bill was still unpaid, so they were going to freeze my account. The original email said that I should not reply, just update the details so just called them to see what the problem is.

There isn't one, the woman on the phone said I had no outstanding invoices.

This is Dell all over again, they'll be sending the bailiffs in next.

[SAMMo_0]

It's brilliant when that happens. We kept getting TV licence bills for £0.00 for a few months. The threats got to the stage of summons to court before they realised £0.00 wasn't any money. Wow, thanks automated system, how friendly.


I got phoned up by Santander (my bank) last week asking to speak to Mr. James Miller. I wasn't James Miller, so they asked if Mr. James Miller could come to the phone as there were issues with my account.

I said I wasn't Mr. James Miller. They asked to speak to Mr. James Miller before they could make any changes.

I'M NOT JAMES MILLER.

I'm sorry sir, we need to speak to Mr. Jame Miller before we make any updates.

YOU'VE MADE A MISTAKE, I'M NOT JAMES MILLER.

Could you please ask Mr. James Miller to come to the phone?

THERE IS NO JAMES MILLER.

We need to verify that before we update your account. Could Mr. James Miller please come to the phone?

>20 goto 10;

[robwhizz]

THERE IS NO JAMES MILLER.

You should have said you'd get him, pretend to put him on the line and then mess with their brains.


It reminds me of the time I tried to top up the credit on my wife's PAYG (orange). I registered the phone in her name and it was my switch card on file that I wanted to use.
They said they had to speak to my Mrs Whizz and I couldn't top up anything. I said that I was her husband and registered the account and if you check the card you'll find that it's mine too.
She said she couldn't speak with me, only my wife.
I said that was very silly. I didn't want any details, just wanted to make a payment with MY card.
She said no.
So, I then told her that actually I was Mrs Whizz.
She said 'erm' a few times and I told her again that I was Mrs Whizz.
She said, 'OK, how much would you like to top up'


Just before Christmas I accidentally overpaid a supplier that we don't use much now. Each month I get a statement showing we are in credit, but the finance department keep stamping 'Account Overdue', and writing notes to please pay balance.
I keep leaving it. Looking forward to the phone call asking for money or the letter suspending the account.

[familychoice]

I love the way the accounts/sales people on the phone are so haughty about it. She was very cross with me saying there were no outstanding payments in my account, and when I mentioned the letter I'd received from them this morning she made me feel like I was making it all up just to deliberately waste her time. I think I even ending up apologising for querying their mistake, an apology she graciously accepted before hanging up on me.

Worst salesperson of the year award though goes to the bloke at Dell that I spoke to a couple of months back when buying this PC. Possibly the rudest, most arrogant nasty piece of work I've ever experienced outside of an internet forum. He was so horrible I actually got the giggles. Fortunately for him I'd already made my mind up about buying the PC and was prepared to put up with the usual sales/accounts fiasco from them as it was such a good spec for the money.

Dell lol

[sarahA]

We're currently getting threats from HMRC to the company saying we've not submitted any returns (despite paying last year's corporation tax and having a receipt for it). Basically HMRC supplied our accountants with one account number and us with another, so the returns were submitted by the accountants and not on record for our account number. This has been going on since September (although it was kept hidden from my until recently as I was about to pop with the baby).

What gets me is, we'll no doubt get charged by the accountant for their time spent fixing the issue with HMRC (and quite rightly so to be fair), despite it not being our fault whatsoever

[familychoice]

What gets me is, we'll no doubt get charged by the accountant for their time spent fixing the issue with HMRC (and quite rightly so to be fair), despite it not being our fault whatsoever

Could you reclaim the costs, considering it's HMRC's mistake?

[robwhizz]

Could you reclaim the costs, considering it's HMRC's mistake?

LOL! Did you not know? The Revenue doesn't make mistakes. Ever.

A few years ago the revenue decided that it's was far too costly to collect tax from companies and individuals sub-contracting in the construction industry. They hatched a cunning plan. Basically, any company who uses a subcontractor to do work that falls under the scheme (pretty much anything, even stuff you wouldn't consider building or construction work), has to calculate the subcontractor's tax, submit their calculations and pay the revenue directly. We become glorified tax collectors and we don't get paid for it.
What falls under the scheme is vague and all-encompassing. You get very little help but if you get it wrong, you are liable.
I had a period of time where I didn't use a sub-contractor. I forgot to submit a nill return - even though it doesn't really matter what you submit as long as it's correct at the end of the year, you are allowed to make adjustments etc., I got a £100 fine.
You HAVE to make the submissions online. When the website was down one month - it was unscheduled with an apology on the main gov site, I made the submission as soon as the site was back up AND it was for a nil return. I got a £100 fine for late submission. I argued the toss but they didn't care. The fine still stood.

That was the gospel according to HMRC.

[sarahA]

What gets me is, we'll no doubt get charged by the accountant for their time spent fixing the issue with HMRC (and quite rightly so to be fair), despite it not being our fault whatsoever

Could you reclaim the costs, considering it's HMRC's mistake?

I don't know. Am keeping out of it all to be honest as I've got enough on my plate. Will see what the accountant charges at the end of our tax year (oh... that's today!) and see what they say. They may not charge, possibly our monthly payment covers stuff like this.

[familychoice]

LOL! Did you not know? The Revenue doesn't make mistakes. Ever.

Oh I get that, like the letter we had acknowledging they'd cocked up but was actually telling us off as if it was our fault. Still doesn't mean you shouldn't go after them though if you're out of pocket as a result.

They may not charge, possibly our monthly payment covers stuff like this.

Fingers crossed. Our accountant has been pretty good at absorbing costs due to the odd revenue cock up.

[Whatever]

Could you reclaim the costs, considering it's HMRC's mistake?

LOL! Did you not know? The Revenue doesn't make mistakes. Ever.

A few years ago the revenue decided that it's was far too costly to collect tax from companies and individuals sub-contracting in the construction industry. They hatched a cunning plan. Basically, any company who uses a subcontractor to do work that falls under the scheme (pretty much anything, even stuff you wouldn't consider building or construction work), has to calculate the subcontractor's tax, submit their calculations and pay the revenue directly. We become glorified tax collectors and we don't get paid for it.
What falls under the scheme is vague and all-encompassing. You get very little help but if you get it wrong, you are liable.
I had a period of time where I didn't use a sub-contractor. I forgot to submit a nill return - even though it doesn't really matter what you submit as long as it's correct at the end of the year, you are allowed to make adjustments etc., I got a £100 fine.
You HAVE to make the submissions online. When the website was down one month - it was unscheduled with an apology on the main gov site, I made the submission as soon as the site was back up AND it was for a nil return. I got a £100 fine for late submission. I argued the toss but they didn't care. The fine still stood.

That was the gospel according to HMRC.

I had bills totalling £1300 for CIS fines and argued they were wrong and they wrote the whole amount off to my surprise!

They've even just written to me saying I overpaid and they want to pay it back, so long as I can prove the mistake which caused it. About £2500.

They've also just done he same to someone else I know offering to pay back £4000.

I liek them at the moment...

[Ben]

1&1 payment system is awful. Doesn't update much, and the information is dodgy.

[robwhizz]

I had bills totalling £1300 for CIS fines and argued they were wrong and they wrote the whole amount off to my surprise!

They've even just written to me saying I overpaid and they want to pay it back, so long as I can prove the mistake which caused it. About £2500.

They've also just done he same to someone else I know offering to pay back £4000.

I liek them at the moment...

Bloody hell. That's amazing!

I wonder if it's because they've suffered in the cuts and jobs have gone, so they have less resources to fight with companies now.

Or perhaps they just actually listen to people now?

[Mike@TheWhippinpost]

I wonder if it's because they've suffered in the cuts and jobs have gone, so they have less resources to fight with companies now.

Brace yourselves for they intend to increase late payment fines up to a maximum of £1300.

[Mr Anderson]

We've now had a notice from HMRC that we don't owe them anything from the penalty they were applying as it was their fault we were issued with 2 numbers. However they haven't confirmed that the other number will be deleted from our account, and so we can't be sure that there won't be any further issues with it.

In their favour, when I've overpaid them in the past they were quick to repay it - about 10 days from asking for my payments to be reviewed to me receiving £1100 in my bank account (when a former employer failed to process my PAYE properly).

[Whatever]

The lady dealing with my case is even working Saturdays to make sure I get my money back!