Need some advice on account payment issue

[KoKaRoT]

Hi guys,

Please can someone shed some light on a situation I am having with the accounts department at storage king

I have a container at storage king which has been there for over a year since Jan 2019 and setup a debit order to work out the payments.
Come December 2019 to the present day, the debit order had stopped (without my knowledge).

2 weeks ago Storage king phoned me to inform me about the payment issue as the last one was in November, I am obviously very surprised by this and go check online with FNB. Truth be told what they said was correct and I am puzzled to what or why this has happened, which I am following up with FNB to investigate. Because it was not my instruction.

But in the meantime Storage king has been charging me R500 p/m and 5% per annum interest on "late fees".
My argument with them is if the account had an issue already in December why does it take 4 months later to notify me?
No flag was raised prior and communicated.



But who's negligence is this?
And what legal weight do I carry if I am to try fight?

Thank you

 

[biena]

But who's negligence is this?
And what legal weight do I carry if I am to try fight?

Thank you

Yours
None

You signed a contract and it is your responsibility to pay it, you cannot delegate that responsibility away. Screwup from bank still your bill, screwup from sending invoice from business refer to contract still your problem.

 

[TheMightyQuinn]

But who's negligence is this?
And what legal weight do I carry if I am to try fight?

Thank you

Yours

None

 

[KoKaRoT]

But Biena it was being paid. hence a debit order was in place.

Quoted from FNB "This would be an error on the side of Storage King as no debit order was stopped on your account for them. The debit order was not submitted on your account "

 

[biena]

But Biena it was being paid. hence a debit order was in place.

Quoted from FNB "This would be an error on the side of Storage King as no debit order was stopped on your account for them. The debit order was not submitted on your account "

If that is true then use your bank statement and show that it went off your account. Debit order is not equal to actual money being transfered it is just an instruction that can fail, still your responsibility to follow it up.

Learn from this, check your bank statements each and every month. Check that expected payments were made, check that there is no unknown amounts going off, no strange deductions. then check that you are still within your budget.

 

[KoKaRoT]

But cool guess its still my fault.

Maybe I should drive to their office and press the button for them to initiate the payment.

 

[KoKaRoT]

Thanks for the feedback, appreciate it guys

 

[RonSwanson]

Thanks for the feedback, appreciate it guys

Had a similar issue with a bank a few years ago, I signed a debit order to service a loan, they ignored it. A few years later they woke up and charged me all sorts of interest and penalties. My argument was that if they had ignored the debit order, it was their mistake. They were given my instruction and authority to debit my account, which they failed to do. I threatened to take it to the ombud. We finally settled on reinstating the loan with original charges and interest rate as originally agreed.

I agree that it is a shared responsibility, however I would be inclined to disagree that all of the fault is with the client. Perhaps if it was a stop-order, yes. Debit orders are different, if the company had the written instruction as well as the authority to debit the account, but did not do so, then charging interest is completely out of wack.

 

[berrypi]

this is interesting... so when they debit you multiple times, - by mistake... the do not give you back interest etc? if its goes for the 1, it goes for the other.... I would give them grief. You gave them instruction (get written copies of that instruction) they cannot charge additional late fees - This is contract you have entered into and therefore all parties must abide. not a "oh we forgot to do it.. pay up and extra"

 

[Venomous]

Was the amount clearly stipulated in the contract and are they a registered credit provider?

Did they run the debit order and there were not enough funds or was the debit order not attempted. (you can see that on your bank account, or ask your bank)

 

[tawdry]

Had something like this happen to me but I had a stop order and it was auto cancelled after 7 months which i was not told would happen and 4 months later I see I am behind been playing catchup for the last 6 months.

I am going to disagree with the majority view here and say this is either the banks or the kings fault.A debit order is a fire and forget IMO only if you have insufficient funds in your account should this be your fault.
I will agree that it is a best practice to check your account statement each month to be safe.