Joanne said:

well whaddya know!
i am beginning to experience the same sort of rubbish, spending lots of time on the phone trying to claw back the payments they continue to lose and the late payment fees they keep adding!!
after losing my first internet banking payment i received a letter from the "HEAD OF CUSTOMER SERVICES" stating that they found my money and all is well and laying out different account details to pay my money into.
all well and grand, so i changed the account details and thought no more about it until the following month i received a statment illustrating a late payment fee which was removed from my account the day BEFORE the payment was due and no sign of the money i had again paid in in plenty of time! - confused??? me too.
when i phone customer services i cannot speak with this Adam Dalton "Head of Customer Services" because he works in .... wait for it.....

Posted on December 4, 2007 1:33 PM

Joanne said:

oops!
hit submit by mistake sorry.

but of course didn't he work in COLLECTIONS which has nothing to do with the people i phoned using the number at the bottom of his letter.
so now they are trying to say i've done something wrong and they cannot trace it their end because they have no record of the letter.
in short - my money has been lost, i'm afraid to pay anything off my current bill and i can't even use my credit card in the run up to Christmas because it gets refused in the shops.
really not a pleasant experience, i've spoken to so many people and each one says the last one didn't submit the query correctly and i'm wondering do they really expect the customer to phone every couple of days to listen to the same lies and deferrment and pass the buck and allegations of having made the error in the first place myself.
so i'm sorry but i had just got off the phone Andrew and began a search for some way of contacting this punter Adam Dalton in order to get to the bottom of this and also looking for a complaint form when i came across your blog and decided to add my rant.
but thank you for the tip on the freephone number that'll make a big difference now that i am going to have to phone them continually until they find my money.
thanks
joanne

Posted on December 4, 2007 1:40 PM

Eileen Graham said:

I have had the pleasure today of demand for November and Decembers payment, all because I paid 1 day early so it was still in the previous billing cycle. Now I have late fees etc.
They will do nothing and trust me I have called.

Posted on December 11, 2007 12:22 AM

Meredith said:

I just got off the phone with my favorite bill collector....GE Money. I was so frustrated and angry after the debacle that I thought "I cant be the only person having trouble with this organization"

I have gone through the same games with these people.

My last 3 payments were reversed and I was charged 30bucks each time as a late fee.

GE Money insists that I have entered my account number wrong on each payment.

I tried to make a 4th payment and had my husband put in my banking info.....same thing!! reversed payment and 30 dollar charge!!
I know we have entered the right info and they will not even look into the possibility that it could be a glitch on their end.
I spoke with a supervisor and tried to get him to let me make a payment by phone. He wanted to charge me an extra $15 phone fee!

I got into a huge fight with this guy. I am sooooooo sick of GE money. I am considering small claims court.

I have never had this much trouble paying a bill in my entire life.
I am so fed up with them.

Posted on December 13, 2007 1:07 AM

john boi said:

you people may want to learn how a credit card works and read your t's & c's of your credit contract. Of course if you make a payment in the previous billing cycle it wont count towards your next monthly payment. And if you do a bank transfer you may want to contact your bank to trace your missing paymnet, also if you spoke nicely to the collections officer insted of "screaming down the phone" you might get your pethetic fee's/interest reversed easier. O and as for your $15 dollar phone fee your full of it...

Posted on January 4, 2008 5:49 PM

Andrew Bowden said:

And we would like to thank the Chief Executive of GE Money for his contribution to this debate ;)

John Boi might want to try re-reading this post and some of its comments properly before insulting people, because only an utter muppet would believe that a consumer should be punished when a credit card company who have been instructed to take full payment fails to do so.

John might also wish to consult his T&Cs. Your card company has obligations to you too.

Posted on January 5, 2008 11:26 AM

Ian said:

GE Money have been nothing but trouble for my g/f too. She had a Debenhams store card and spent about £85 - she paid insurance on it in case she got injured/illness and when she broke her collar bone and couldn't work they wouldn't send her the claim forms (though keep saying that they're on the way) and added on charges until now I've had to pay £185 just to get them off our backs as they were threatening sending the repo man!

GE Money are a bad joke and I recommend people NOT to use them or store cards that are run by them (rip-off interest rates anyway).

Posted on January 8, 2008 2:04 PM

Rob said:

Although I am in NZ, I can assure you that GE Money is alive and well down here. In fact, they have all but monopolised the consumer credit industry here. Almost every shop that offers finance now does it via GE.
Their interest rates and penalties ensure that you are indebted to them for a long time.

Posted on January 14, 2008 3:28 AM

louise said:

I actually work in the collections dept and all i have to say that GE money is a reputable company that i admit has its flaws once accounts are in arrears due to the automated letters and dialler, however youd be surprised how many customers do not take note of the credit agreement they are signing!!!!

Posted on January 20, 2008 9:09 PM

Robert Halliday said:

I don't know who is really to blame for this GE Money or PayPal Credit Card. I have a PayPal card used very lightly so far, I was offered a 0% interest free period of 6months so made use of it to the tune of £2700 plus a charge of £50. Fine, thats tucked away for 6 months anyway. I got my next statement in with a charge of £82.50 which is 3% of the sum owed. I have a projection for the following month of £80.03 which is 3% of the balance. Some transfer balance at 0% Interest!
Regards All.
Bob Halliday.

Posted on February 19, 2008 9:53 AM

Laura Nicholson said:

GE sucks!
They charge customers for every single thing; late fees, collection fees, litigation fees, if you are trying to pay off your debt, you will never end. They will make sure you always have more to pay!!!

Posted on March 25, 2008 11:42 AM

Liz said:

I have just written a letter to Debenhams telling them to vote with their feet - GE have caused me no end of problems unecessary late payments and you CANNOT get any sense out of the people you talk to NIGHTMARE. There are NO benefits to customers by having a Debenhams store card if you just get loaded with cost late payments and interest. They suck!!!!!

Posted on March 27, 2008 12:43 PM

Anon said:

Abbey (Santander) have just bought the GE credit card business. Things will get from bad to worse for you lot!

Posted on March 27, 2008 2:23 PM

anon said:

I also work for GE - I work in management in the activations department. May I just say that we do try to deal with all of your issues proffesionally and promptly after all, most of us are customers ourselves and know how frustrating it can be if your issue is not dealt with to your satisfaction (dont get me started on the debacle I am having personally with N power) That said you would be amazed at how many customers ring through to the wrong department and demand that their problem is dealt with. As mentioned I work in activations which unfortunatley for us is a free phone number. The hint is in the title of the department - We work in ACTIVATING your new card - however customers will ring us as we are the free number demanding that we sort out their issue. Dont get me wrong - I wuld love to help you, however I am not trained in he issues that you are having therefore I am unable to help - I am then asked to transfer the call to the correct department - I explain that we cant do that - If I transfer you, it means that We are sitting in a call que trying to pass you to the right department - meaning our customers whom are trying to call up to the correct department and activate their card - can not get through - which in turn makes them angry. I will offer you the correct number - but no - you want to be transferred as you will not pay to make a call to deal with something you do not believe is your fault. I try to explain that even if I transfer you - once that has hapened you will be charged anyway - but that is besides the point. Some customers can not understand hat GE is a huge business - with lots of departments - We are not all trained in every department as we would not be able to keep up with all of the changes within all of the business and give factaul information - which is why we need to transfer you. Shouting at the advisor that answers the phone - will not help matters - please bare in mind that the advisor is a human being - has their own problems and issues and quite frankly does not get paid to have a customer threatening them or shouting at them down the phone. Next time you call up with an issue - listen to what the advisor is saying to you - and your issue will probably get solved much more quickly - In my experience most customers will rant and rave and only hear what hey want to hear. Also please remember that resolving an issue takes time - Ask for the name of the advisor whom has been dealing with your issue and ask for an extension number - therefore you have a point of contact - but do not feel as though you have to ring 20 times per day - if we say we are dealing with an issue then we are - but we also have another 100000 of customers that require our help also. I am very sorry that any of you have had a bad experience - however in most circumstances the problems can be resolved quickly and easily and if the error is our fault we make sure you incur no charges. However most of the isues Ihave dealt with have been at the fault of the customer eg they have not read their credit agreement - or switched off at the part when we are telling them T & C's over the phone - most people are happy to take the money but dont listen to the important stuff such as when payements should be made or what their interest rate is etc - then it becomes our fault. It has come to the point where my department is recording all calls so we are covering our back!

So sory for the rant - but just thought I would share what it is like to be on the other side.

Cheers

Posted on April 4, 2008 1:17 PM

anon said:

ps - Santander have not bought the GE finance business - We have exchanged - Not sure how you think things will get worse? we at GE do not know what the changes will bring yet - so not sure why you want to cause even more bad feeling towards a business it could mean that things will change for the better

Posted on April 4, 2008 1:21 PM

anon said:

"But hey, lets assume I had filled in the form wrong. Which was 2 months ago incidentally. If they did, why did they not phone me to tell me it was wrong? Why did they send through two statements proclaiming they’d take money out of an account which (according to them) didn’t exist? One simple phone call to me saying “Look, we think there’s an error on this direct debit mandate” and all would be fine. But no. Nothing. Presumably because they’re a nice bunch of con-artists who’d rather you didn’t realise that you were being charged interest and late fees, and would rather you just paid it instead"

Do you think GE assign 1 person to each account and check it every day just to make sure everything is perfect on your account? Sometimes issues do not flag up or come to a businesses attention - This is your own account and bank details and even you didnt notice untill much later -Letters are sent to you automatically - someone does not sit and type it up - you noticed the mistake - you called in and you had your fees waived - quit moaning!

Posted on April 4, 2008 1:29 PM

Andrew Bowden said:

"Do you think GE assign 1 person to each account and check it every day just to make sure everything is perfect on your account? Sometimes issues do not flag up or come to a businesses attention - This is your own account and bank details and even you didnt notice untill much later -Letters are sent to you automatically - someone does not sit and type it up - you noticed the mistake - you called in and you had your fees waived - quit moaning!"

Frankly, I expect good customer service. And if I send in a form and it has an error, or if something else goes wrong, then I expect to know about it. Whether that check is manual or automated, it doesn't matter. If the check deems there is an error, then the customer should be notified - it's perfectly doable, as Icesave proved to me today! A system will know the error exists.

Of course in my case with GE Money, someone claimed I made an error, and I wasn't notified of it.

That's no doubt because, as I mentioned in my original post, I made no such error, and there's proof of that! Yet a representative of GE Money swore blind that I had made that error. The error was with GE Money - and frankly, as a customer I don't expect to be lied to in an attempt to cover up a mistake made by GE Money. I don't expect to have to fight on the phone for nearly an hour in order to get my refund. That is bad customer service.

Good customer service is possible to do and if a company strives towards good customer service, then its customer service staff will generally be treated well by the customers. On more than one occasion I've phoned up a company expecting to have to fight for my result, and not had to - the process handled the issue perfectly, the staff were helpful and friendly.

Incidentally, I think it's very important to be to people on the phone. It can't be an easy job, and I don't want to be the person they go home and moan about. However in the case of my dealing with GE Money, the only way to get anywhere was actually to turn into a bastard. Trying to be calm and nice got me absolutely nowhere. Threatening official complaints to banking regulators did.

Posted on April 4, 2008 4:26 PM

anon said:

i work as a store manager for a company that have used ge money for 10 years. i have frequently had to call them on behalf of their customers as the misperception is that because they opened the card in our store it is us that's messed up their statements. occasionally i get through to someone first time but then you're put on hold for 5 mins whilst they transfer you and then lose you!! on calling back no-one knows anything about it and you explain all over again only to be told you need to speak to someone else.
two best examples of APPALLING customer service with ge are customer opened a card,after it arrived in the post he pre loaded his card with an extra £400 to take advantage of an upcoming sale in the store. in his eyes and mine he now had £750 (previous limit £350). a week later he attempted to use the card only for it to be declined. on calling ge and being transferred and on hold for approx 15 mins i explained ( to what can only be desribed as the woman from hell, rude would be complimentary to her), the customers problem. she refused to do anything and said the decline would not be reversed. i said that the customer had travelled a 60 mile round trip to make a large purchase and they were amazed that they had been declined. her answer was i travel that far every day for work love and then put the phone down on me. i then called a management complaints line which is for use as a last resort. eventually i was told that as the customer had no credit history to check they could not activate his account!!! why send him the card and the welcome pack then?why let him preload £400 onto his account? consequently i had to authorise 20% reduction discount for the customer so he could get the money off he had been entitled to if he had used his card. this was now at a cost to the store. i then offered to deliver an out of stock item to the customer. on arriving at their home and talking to them i see why they didn't have a credit history. Brand new property especially built for them, 5 bedrooms,all en-suite, brand new bmws each outside the triple garage. they didn't need credit, but as they said it became a matter of principle. they then had to wait for a week to 10 days for their £400 to be repaid into their bank account
the other biggy was that a customer who had opened a card and then deciding he wanted to cancel had major problems closing his account as he had not paid his bill. fair comment except he had purchased nothing. he received a letter of apology after 6 weeks of phone calls and letters to ge by both the customer and myself. a few days later he received a statement showing a £500 credit to his account. again he called, i called, he wrote, i called and when we eventually told ge he was going to spend the £500 they realised something was wrong. after investigating this it transpires that the £500 should have been credited to ANOTHER customers account as she was preloading her account for a large purchase!!! no doubt things will not improve as long as ge go for global domination of the store and credit card market.
i for one look forward to the day i can offer my customers the same level of customer service from ge that both i and my company and my customers expect from both myself and my staff.

Posted on April 13, 2008 6:54 PM

Karen45 said:

I have been having financial difficulties recently and even though I moved house 17 months ago and informed GE Money of this move on several occasions, they continued to send my mail to my previous address. Consequently I did not receive a letter informing me that they were seeking a County Court Judgement against me and that I had 14 days in which to reply. The letter was sitting at my previous address for days until the tenant decided to forward it to me! When I tried to explain this to their solicitors they said that this was irrelevant. I do not consider it to be irrelevant that they are sending sensitive and highly confidential mail to the wrong address do you? I have tried to settle my account offering an ex-gratia payment which I have sought a considerable amount of advise about and basically they do not want to know. They simply want to sue me! My dealings with them have never been pleasant so be careful especially if you move house or are experiencing financial difficulties.

Posted on April 16, 2008 2:25 PM

graham said:

just in the process of getting a mortgage from GE through a broker, and after reading the comments listed here, quite frankly i am shxxxxing myself. can anyone assure me/advise me what to do, do Ge have any good qualities?

Posted on April 21, 2008 5:36 PM

Porky12 said:

just in the process of getting a mortgage from GE through a broker, and after reading the comments listed here, quite frankly i am shxxxxing myself. can anyone assure me/advise me what to do, do Ge have any good qualities?

I would advise you to stay clear of GE, I have a loan with them and I did read things carefully but not carefully enough it seems.......I actually owe more to them after several years than I borrowed, can't afford to pay it all off at once so I can see me paying thousands in intrest before I get to finish. I was given credit by a company that use GE and was told how easy it is to pay off the debt quickly........wrong!!! tried several times to increase my payments but just got passed from pillar to post, in other words they need me to keep paying at the rate I am so as to cream as much money as possible, heaven forbid I pay off early and they loose money from a "valued" customer!!! stay away from that company, they do not deserve your custom

Posted on May 2, 2008 12:38 PM

graham said:

just been saved from the jaws of death !
the house didn't go through. i dont think i would have lived long enough...

Posted on May 8, 2008 11:25 AM

Chantel said:

Don't ever open a card backed by GE Money, unless you enjoy being lied to and charged unfairly!

I opened a Laura Asley card with them with a £1000 limit. They started my card with a charge of £931.26 and then, without me knowing that I charged a sofa for around £900. I never received a statement so I called to pay (I was 2 days late paying) and found out that I owed almost 2 grand! I had a late payment, extra account cover charges, and extra interest for what I charged which is fair, but also for what they started my card with! I ended up paying for extra, but didn't want any problems with being more late, etc.

I went the phone route, called Laura Ashley stores and customer service as GE tried to blame them and then spent the rest of my day and a few hours time on the phone again with GE Money. At the end of the debacle a supervisor told me I would receive a cheque for £62.20 in 7-10 days. I asked for his name and work id number, just in case.

I waited, no cheque, I called to try and find out and they said a cheque for £11 would be sent to me. I asked for another supervisor, waited and after eons was told it would be looked into and I would receive a "free callback" tomorrow, wooopeeee! By now I have only spent who knows what calling them! They are just so kind, aren't they!?

I got a call today, the woman wanted to know why I was angry about a £11 cheque being sent. I went through it all again, gave the details of the worker and asked if she could even see the notes, which she said she could. She informed me I was owed £22 and no more, lol! I said, "then it is okay for GE Money to lie to its customers?" and she said i"t wasn't a lie but the workers error". I said I was lied to as the cheque was not sent and a supervisor and worker both were wrong and she still said it wasn't a lie. I asked for her supervisor and one would have to call me back. I said it was not acceptable, I wanted this over and I wanted to end my card. She would not do anything and said no one was available.

I have cut my card, and will do with any other store cards I own from GE Money. A few extra points or certificates is not worth this nightmare and the money you will lose!

I am going to be complaining to Laura Ashley for using an appalling service like GE Money for their credit cards. I am going to send a letter to GE Money with my cut card, and I am curious if anyone would be interested in all of us getting together and starting a suit against them as this should not be allowed to continue. If you are interested please e-mail me at: gemon.lies@mail.com .

Posted on May 9, 2008 12:22 PM

Alvis Wright said:

DITTO - DITTO - DITTO- to all of you. I am about to write to GE money because although THEY had a problem accessing two payments by Direct Debit they did not see fit to notify me and when I contacted them by phone I could not convince the guy at the other end that no money had been taken from my account which I had checked constantly. He was convinced that payments had been received. Now like Bod my card was stopped and I had the embarrassment in Tesco's of paying by another means.

Posted on May 12, 2008 11:52 PM