This case is continuing. I would like to call on your help

Hello  again and thank you for your question. I will be very pleased to assist you. I'm a practising lawyer in England with over 15 years’ experience. Please be aware that although I will endeavour to reply to you promptly, I am also in full time private practice and so I may not be available to respond immediately and it may also take me a few minutes to prepare a reply. The site will notify you as soon as I respond. I look forward to working with you to answer your question fully.

how may I assist with this matter further please?

Do you have any further information in respect of the above please?

I'm following up on the above. Without some further information from you as above, I am limited in what I can say on the matter but in the hope it is helpful nonetheless, I will provide you with the following broad answer. If you are able to kindly provide me with the above further information or if you have any further questions generally, I will be delighted to expand on the following - please just reply back to me in this case:

Notwithstanding the above, in general terms if charges have been debited from your account by direct debit rather than via your debit card you can make a claim under the banking code's direct debit guarantee. this is a code of practice operated by the BACS payment scheme which banks subscribe to and enables you to make a claim against the bank for a refund of any direct debit which is charged incorrectly due to error or fraud. Your bank is responsible for administering the claim and it is begun by contacting the bank's customer services or fraud team to request a direct debit guarantee claim.

If you are not satisfied with the way in which the bank response to your request, you can raise a formal complaint which triggers an eight week timetable for the bank to respond to you. If you remain unsatisfied on the earlier of the bank's full response or eight weeks, whichever is the sooner, you can escalate the complaint to the financial ombudsman:

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/contact-us/complain-online

thank you. You mention that claims have been made under the direct debit guarantee but have not gone anywhere. Are you able to provide a little more detail on what that means precisely when you say they have not gone anywhere?

I see that direct debit claims forms have been completed. Have these been submitted and if so, what was the outcome?

Thank you - how long ago were they submitted?

Thank you. It seems to me the time is passed for informal correspondence on the point nor is it likely it seems to me that the end merchant is likely to voluntarily refund your friend - they do not have to as such and if they have not chosen to do so after so long, it seems unlikely that they will have a sudden change of heart at this point.

it seems to me that a more appropriate course of action at this point would be to raise a formal complaint with the bank which triggers a strict eight week timetable in which a response must be provided. If your friend remains unsatisfied on the earlier of therefore response or eight weeks, whichever is the sooner, the matter can be escalated to the Financial Ombudsman for independent determination which will be binding on the bank:

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/how-to-complain

I hope the above is of some assistance but if you have any further questions, please revert to me.

I'm glad the above answers all your questions for now. If you have any follow up questions please revert to me.

I would be very happy to assist with the above however. As you suggest I should be grateful if you would kindly consider raising this as a new question. if you would like me specifically to deal with it you can start the question "FOR JOSHUA ONLY" or similar. I am about to head off on the school run so if you wish me to deal with it tomorrow may be better at this point but colleagues will no doubt pick up your question if you do not make it specifically for me.

https://www.justanswer.co.uk/law/

Alternatively I can send you an offer to extend the question and answer time to enable us to examine this new area of questioning if you prefer. I am grateful in anticipation of your understanding.