In November 2015, when renovations began on my daughter Lucia’s Cospicua house, I thought it would be a good idea to have ARMS bills directly debited into my account, but only for the duration of renovations.
In fact, the Debit Mandate (DM) signed by my daughter and by myself (to have bills debited into my bank account) was of a “temporary” nature: starting on December 1, 2105 and ending on October 31, 2016.
During the period of validity of the DM, no bills were actually ever debited into my bank account so I settled them in cash or through a credit card. Then I forgot all about that Debit Mandate.
Then, all of a sudden, I noticed a strange debit into my account on June 5, 2017. I queried the matter with HSBC, who eventually explained that it was a Direct Debit from ARMS – explaining as well there had been another similar debit on April 3, 2017 (which I had not even noticed).
So, in June I queried the matter with ARMS Customer Care, by e-mail. I asked which ARMS account the debits covered. Over a week later, with apologies, I was given an answer. It was the Cospicua house ARMS account and I was told that there was a copy of the DM attached – which there wasn’t.
So, I wrote again – attaching a copy of the DM that I had in my computer – explaining that the DM in question was of “temporary” nature and that it should have automatically elapsed on its termination date, October 31, 2016.
I also requested them to stop debiting my bank account. It took another 10 days to receive an answer from ARMS.
ARMS, apologising for the delay, said: “Please find the relative form in order to cancel direct debit mandate on account as requested. Once filled in by the account holder please forward via e-mail with copy of ID card to process accordingly.”
Obviously I did not agree at all. Why should I be requested to print, fill, scan and send a cancellation form, when the entire matter shows nothing else than mishaps in the ARMS system?
So I refused to fill that form and demanded once more for my expired DM to be eliminated from the ARMS system, and requested it to be done with urgency.
I made the following points:
ARMS had never put the DM into effect when it was due and useful (for me) to do so – which is ARMS’ mistake.
However, ARMS put it into effect after the expiry of the temporary mandate, which is a double mistake.
If ARMS make mistakes, it cannot expect their customers to be disciplined.
I did not receive an answer. I wrote again on July 20 stating I would make the matter public if my request was not adhered to. And I chased ARMS again on July 27. Again, no answer whatsoever.
What type of customer care is this?