MrTWS

K&Co – Late Payment Fees Platinum Rewards

K&Co (formerly Kays Catalogue), the online and catalogue shopping brand brought to you by Great Universal, Empire Stores & Kays, have what they term a Reward Scheme. But imagine your shock when you find out that because you have not ordered something in a while from your account, that the rewards you may have earned are suddenly wiped off. This recently happened to a 74 year old pensioner who claims he had not received any letters to say this would happen. Now he has lost nearly £100 (money he had earned on their rewards scheme). Find out more about K&Co and why also this retired gentleman has been charged 33 late payment fees since 2008 (totalling £396.00).Robert, a retired gentleman, whose late wife June has had the catalogue since it was called Great Universal, GUS and all the former names before K&Co became the brand identity in home shopping, has lost nearly £100 in his reward scheme, and also has had 33 late payment fees of £12 each time (£396.oo in total) debited from his K&Co account.

This has happened because like most pensioners he receives a state benefit which is paid every 4 weeks. It so happens that his retirement payment is made the same week when K&Co expect to receive their payment on his account. Even though he says he had asked them back in 2008 to adjust the payment date, they refused to do this, and even after a recent phone call, they again said they were unable to change their payment request date.

However, that has not stopped them from charging him 33 times since July 2008 a late payment fee each time of £12. When he has made his monthly payment (for example his statement dated 19th December 2011 asks for £51.84 due by 8th January 2012) shows his previous payment having been received, but because it was late, they show a £12 charge too.

On the same statement (19th December 2011) it shows this gentleman as having Exclusive Platinum Rewards -
Goods £98.64 or Cash £78.89
But nowhere on that statement does it say or suggest that if he fails to order any goods by the end of December 2011, that he will lose all the rewards that he has accrued over the last year or so. K&Co (like most catalogue providers) have a highlight box on the front of the statements usually. On this statement issued on the 19th December 2011, the highlight box merely talks about last dates for guaranteed Christmas delivery. It was only when he telephoned K&Co today (26th January 2012) that he was told that the cut off period for the rewards had been 31st December 2o11.

His statement that he has just received in 2012 dated 14th January, now only shows £4.80, and does not state if this is goods or cash, which he assumes it will be goods.

Because his last order placed was on 11th December 2010 (which was actually a high priced item) and he had not ordered since that time, but instead responsibly paid his monthly payment, he has in his own words “had his money stolen from him”. The saddest  part of this saga is that he had also intended to order a new cooker today at £529.00, and would have used his rewards to either make a payment, or use towards the value of the cooker.

On the 9th January 2012, he made a payment of £60 in cash from his statement issued in December 2011. On his statement dated 14th January 2012, it shows the cash payment being received by K&Co on 10th January 2012, but also another late payment fee of £12 plus a £1 payment fee for using PayPoint!

When he spoke with customer services on 26th January 2012 he was told by their representative Shelley that there was nothing she could do about refunding the rewards taken, or even alter the payment date for the account. He was told he could write to K&Co but to expect it to take anything up to 4 weeks to get a response, which hardly was surprising since it took more than 10 minutes to get through on the phone, and navigate the automated system there.

The address for written communication to K&Co he was given was:
Sandringham House, Sandringham Avenue, CHELMSFORD, CM92 1LJ

Would someone from K&Co care to respond?

Links that you may like to visit:
K&Co Rewards – The small print