Dear Mr Varley & Mr Jenkins,

Please find below my musical protest with regards to a complaint against both of your companies.

Last month I issued a Barclay’s cheque to pay my Barclaycard Credit Card monthly bill.  For whatever reason, the incorrect amount was withdrawn from my account, and as a result, I received a charge on my Barclaycard account.

I called Barclaycard immediately and spoke to a Manager (who’s name & extension number I have) and gave them the cheque number, advising what the correct amount of money should have been withdrawn from account.  He kindly agreed to put a freeze on my account, until the matter could be investigated.  He then explained that as Barclaycard had no relationship with Barclays (hmmm?), he did not have visibility of the amount written on my cheque, and that I would have to take up the matter with my bank.  He said that if I could provide a copy of the cheque, and the incorrect amount of money was withdrawn from my account, the charges would be refunded.  I thought that this was very reasonable, and advised that until I could provide the cheque, I would pay the outstanding amount on the next month’s statement.

Having resolved the Barclaycard end, I then called Barclays Bank.  I spoke to a lovely young lady (who’s name again I have written down) and she said that she would arrange for a copy of the cheque to be sent to me in approximately 7 days time (this was on 16th November).  I explained the situation, and she kindly added notes to my account so anyone else looking at my account would see the current status.

Believing every thing to be in hand, I issued a cheque for the following month’s payment, including the extra money to cover the shortfall from last month.  I held fire, hoping that the copy of the cheque would arrive, so that I could also include it for the attention of the Manager who I had spoken to.  But, unfortunately the cheque did not arrive in time, so I had to send my new cheque straight away, to avoid being given a late payment charge.

On the 19th November, just before I had sent my cheque, I had received a standard letter from Barclaycard advising that I owed “x” amount from last month’s bill.  However, the letter assured me “If you have already spoken to us regarding this matter, disregard the letter and maintain your account in line with your statements”.  As I had spoken to both Barclaycard and Barclays to explain the situation, and also been assured that my account was frozen, I ignored the letter.