In the UK we have something called the "small claims court". The maximum compensation you can claim at the small claims court is £5000, but the important thing is: even if you lose, the company you're suing can't claim their legal fees back. All you can lose is your court fee (somewhere from £35 to £150 depending on the claim amount).
The idea of the small claims court is that you don't use a lawyer, so there are no complicated forms to fill in, and if it goes to court you just present your evidence in front of a magistrate in plain English with no legal mumbo jumbo.
Starting a case in the small claims is usually a splendid way to force your way past the army of bots and AI customer service shields, and get your complaint seen by a real person. It usually gets things resolved very quickly. But not always... here's a good story:
Last year I was overcharged £6 by Opodo on the credit card surcharge for a flight booking. I spent two hours going round in circles with their Facebook Messenger automated customer service bot. There were no other contact methods given. So I took them to court, claiming:
Claim: £6.23
My time interacting with chat bot (2hr 22min) @ £100/hr: £236.67
My time preparing claim (1hr) @ £100/hr: £100.00
Court fee: £35
Total: £377.90
... which I think is extremely reasonable of me. They didn't file a defense, so I won the case by default. Even after winning the case, I still had no method of contacting them, and no payment was forthcoming, so I went to the next step which is to file for a warrant.
This cost an extra £95 but it included a bailiff visiting their office, who would be able to take goods to the value of my claim. Bring it on, I say! So I apply for my warrant and wait.
Nothing happens for 6 weeks (this is in the depths of the first lockdown so I wasn't surprised by the radio silence).
Then I get a call from a very helpful chap who tells me he's the bailiff. He says I probably shouldn't hold my breath waiting for this money because the registered office is just a plaque on the fall with no staff or office... and he has FIFTEEN warrants outstanding for Opodo.
The next step would be a warrant against Opodo's bank which would allow me to freeze their account... but there was no easy way to do this and would probably require a lot of paperwork. So I gave up. My belief in the UK criminal justice system shattered.
Then about a month later I got an email from Opodo:
"We are contacting you from Opodo after receiving the Judgement for Claimant. In order to proceed with your refund of £377,90, ..."
... and within a couple of weeks they had paid me in full! I'd highly recommend the small claims court - it takes literally five minutes to file a claim here... check out: https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/
The idea of the small claims court is that you don't use a lawyer, so there are no complicated forms to fill in, and if it goes to court you just present your evidence in front of a magistrate in plain English with no legal mumbo jumbo.
Starting a case in the small claims is usually a splendid way to force your way past the army of bots and AI customer service shields, and get your complaint seen by a real person. It usually gets things resolved very quickly. But not always... here's a good story:
Last year I was overcharged £6 by Opodo on the credit card surcharge for a flight booking. I spent two hours going round in circles with their Facebook Messenger automated customer service bot. There were no other contact methods given. So I took them to court, claiming:
Claim: £6.23
My time interacting with chat bot (2hr 22min) @ £100/hr: £236.67
My time preparing claim (1hr) @ £100/hr: £100.00
Court fee: £35
Total: £377.90
... which I think is extremely reasonable of me. They didn't file a defense, so I won the case by default. Even after winning the case, I still had no method of contacting them, and no payment was forthcoming, so I went to the next step which is to file for a warrant.
This cost an extra £95 but it included a bailiff visiting their office, who would be able to take goods to the value of my claim. Bring it on, I say! So I apply for my warrant and wait.
Nothing happens for 6 weeks (this is in the depths of the first lockdown so I wasn't surprised by the radio silence).
Then I get a call from a very helpful chap who tells me he's the bailiff. He says I probably shouldn't hold my breath waiting for this money because the registered office is just a plaque on the fall with no staff or office... and he has FIFTEEN warrants outstanding for Opodo.
The next step would be a warrant against Opodo's bank which would allow me to freeze their account... but there was no easy way to do this and would probably require a lot of paperwork. So I gave up. My belief in the UK criminal justice system shattered.
Then about a month later I got an email from Opodo:
"We are contacting you from Opodo after receiving the Judgement for Claimant. In order to proceed with your refund of £377,90, ..."
... and within a couple of weeks they had paid me in full! I'd highly recommend the small claims court - it takes literally five minutes to file a claim here... check out: https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/