Full and final offer taking forever

[Paul.61]

Sadly and regrettably I am with Payplan, what a useless shower they are!

Back in March I popped on here for advice regarding my F&F settlement offer and submitted my letter. This was rejected because I had said i would reduce my offer by my monthly payment amount for each month the process went on, Payplan said this was not allowed. My re jigged letter was submitted at the end of April.

Initially everything was ok, the equity release process went smoothly although I was due for this review anyway and it was just coincidence it coincided with my F&F offer. Then everything went down hill fast. I heard nothing at all (that is not unusual, I have never spoken with my case officer despite numerous requests over the years for her to call me and 99% of my messages to her go unanswered).

After 6 weeks I had heard nothing so I sent a message and the reply stated that my full and final offer had been sanctioned on May 18th and the process can take up to 3 months. I heard nothing until I noticed a banner on my payplanplus account saying my F&F cannot go ahead because documents are missing, I had no phone call, no email, nothing. It turns out they wanted 3 recent payslips on top of the 3 I gave them at the start of the process.

More requests for updates went ignored then on August 20th I see another message on my payplanplus home page again saying info is missing and my F&F cannot go ahead, please contact your case officer. My case officer by now is just totally ignoring me and I had to drag the information from her colleague over the phone. The info missing turns out to be clarification as to whether I pay my council tax over ten or twelve months, information they already have. An absolute joke.

I email every week and just get fobbed off with we are waiting for an update. This process started at the end of April and it is now nearing the end of September, fully 5 months.

Can I please ask for any advice on how to proceed?

I read on here somewhere to just email IP people to speed things up, is this right? I think mine is Neil Harrison at Harrisons Insolvency, does that sound right?

Can I walk away from Payplan and instruct another firm to take on my IVA and my full and final offer? Or stay with payplan but instruct another firm to deal with the F&F?

I really am at my wits end and sick to the back teeth of payplan and their couldn't give a toss attitude, I have had bad service and poor advice from just about day one. I have no inclination to bother trying to contact them again.

Sorry for the long rant.

[DaphneDebt]

Hi Paul,

Sorry you're experiencing such a poor service from Payplan.

I'm not sure about the process but believe you can file a complaint against the IP. I've read that this often speeds up the f&f.

I'm sure if you trawl through some of the posts on this thread; information on how to do this will be available.

Good luck, I too am in the process of f&f with Payplan so watching this thread with interest.

[Foggy]

I am afraid that you are stuck with Payplan and you can involve no other firm / body to act on your behalf. The reply they gave you regarding reducing the offer by the amount of interim payments was, quite frankly, fresh from the rear end of a male bovine ! They are, basically, lying and prevaricating. Trying to cover up their inadequacies.

You need to make a formal complaint, the old fashioned way ... in writing by recorded delivery, addressed directly to your Supervisor (named in your proposal as such).

A current search shows three IP's at Payplan, two of whom are using a Harrisons email address: Messrs Payne, Smith and Webster-Marland.

If the formal complaint gets you no-where you can then escalate this to their regulators, the IPA, via the Government Gateway at:

https://www.gov.uk/complain-about-insol ... actitioner

My search for Mr Harrison drew a blank.

[Paul.61]

Hi Daphne,out of interest, how far are you in to your F&F offer and how have Payplan acted so far? I would be interested to see if I am just jinxed!

Cheers for the reply Foggy.

The lady that dealt with my equity release at the very outset signed her letters 'on behalf of the joint supervisors'. This lady was excellent from start to finish and is the only person, that in nearly 5 years of dealing with Payplan, that has actually done what I asked or she promised to do. She phoned when she said she would and responded to my every query promptly and professionally. There is not one other person at Payplan that I have had the misfortune to come in to contact with that gets anywhere near her for professionalism.

I am thinking of firing off a quick email to her in the morning explaining my concerns and see what she says, at least I know I will get a prompt reply. If I have no joy then I can go down the written complaint procedure route, at worst I will only lose another 24 hours.

Would you agree with doing this?

Thank you,
Paul

[Foggy]

Worth a try, Paul, if she is still there. Payplan have undergone a few changes recently, with restructuring and job losses being reported. I was with an, at the time, unhelpful firm and my life was, literally, saved by the intervention of an incredibly helpful member of staff who fought my corner for me, so, yes, do try.

You are not being singled out here. There have been many similar sagas with Payplan of late, with delaying tactics, misinformation and them just doing things their way (to their advantage) and flying in the face of industry practice.

[DaphneDebt]

Hi Paul,

I'm afraid I can't offer much advice. I'm in the relatively early stages of making my f&f offer. I'm currently awaiting my proposal write up. I've been told that the whole process including hearing/conclusion date takes 3months (really hope this isn't a lie).

I have to say I've found Payplan ok up to this point, but they now seem to be dragging their heels in producing this document compared to other organisations.

It's frustrating when the end is in sight, I just want to know if this ordeal is over or not. I wish I'd known about making a f&f offer at the beginning as I would have gone down that route to begin with.

Hey ho, things could have been so much worse!

[Lisa Thomas]

Follow your IP firms complaint procedure. send everything by registered post and keep copies.

Then if not dealt with complain here:

https://www.gov.uk/complain-about-insol ... actitioner

...and btw it is up to you what offer you put to creditors and it is not only common but recommended that any lump sum is reduced accordingly by your contributions whilst you are waiting for the creditors decision to be made...

This ensures, if accepted, you only pay the lump sum agreed and not extra contributions which could well start to stack up if your IP drags their feet, which it seems yours is doing.

[Paul.61]

Follow your IP firms complaint procedure. send everything by registered post and keep copies.

Then if not dealt with complain here:

https://www.gov.uk/complain-about-insol ... actitioner

...and btw it is up to you what offer you put to creditors and it is not only common but recommended that any lump sum is reduced accordingly by your contributions whilst you are waiting for the creditors decision to be made...

This ensures, if accepted, you only pay the lump sum agreed and not extra contributions which could well start to stack up if your IP drags their feet, which it seems yours is doing.

Thank you for your reply, Lisa.

I have emailed my 'reliable' contact and she said all she can do is chase up my case officer and speak to her team leader. This was Tuesday morning and I am not holding out much hope as my case officer has not replied to me since June 10th.

I'll give it another 24 hours then proceed with a complaint to my IP firm.

Thanks for the advice, appreciated as ever.

[Lisa Thomas]

Best of luck - hint at a complaint in your emails.

[Paul.61]

Just a quick update...

Despite numerous emails and phone calls to my case officer and having not had one reply from her since June 10th, on Thursday Sept 28th I received a message. Ok, only saying 'please contact customer support' which did annoy me a bit, but at least something was happening and I presumed the message was prompted following my email to my 'contact' complaining about the service.

I called expecting to be told news about the variation meeting, but on checking my file, the lady said there was outstanding documentation required for it to proceed.

I went mad, and asked what could possibly be missing after nearly six months. The first item she mentioned I had sent in 3 months ago, she double checked and said oh yes we do have that. The second was a copy of my council tax bill, again I had sent this in 4 months ago and once again she checked and agreed Payplan did have it. By now I was fuming, I said go on surprise me, what is next and sure enough, it was another document sent in months previously. At this point she realised something was very much wrong and put me on hold while she spoke with the variation team.

She came on full of apologies, said they do have everything required and I would receive an emailed copy of the proposal later that day and a hard copy through the post in 3 working days for me to check, sign and return. At last I felt like I had got somewhere.

Fast forward 3 working days to this morning and nothing. No email, no letter, just typical Payplan silence.

I called this morning and very calmly ran through all their failings, lies and false promises and that this was the end of the line and said at the end of this call I will commence complaint proceedings and put the phone down.

Within ten minutes I received a call from them saying the variation meeting was now arranged for Nov 7th at 10am. Within a further 10 minutes, the proposal had been emailed to me with the promise the hard copy will be posted today.

Five months and one week to get to this point and I am still another month off the actual meeting. Total shambles of a company and I cannot tell you how tempted I am to name and shame my so called case officer.

Sorry to let another rant off on here

[Foggy]

Rant away Paul -- it helps cool the blood ! At least (or "At LAST" ) something is happening. Reports were that they have reduced staff numbers quite a bit recently and, although this is no excuse, my guess is that there are unaccounted for documents in various "vacant" in trays all over the place, as well as cuntless unread emails in locked email accounts.

[Paul.61]

Wow!

I received the hard copy of my proposal in the post this morning.

On reading through everything, I have noticed one thing. In my earlier posts I explained that they made me re submit my offer letter, removing the paragraph where I said the offer would reduce by the amount of interim payments. Well, someone somewhere must have had a rethink because it is in the proposal. They have said this relates to my regular payment and not any extra from overtime etc. I can live with that.

So it is fingers crossed for Nov 7th. I will post here how I get on.

Thanks once again for the advice guys!

[Foggy]

Wow!

I received the hard copy of my proposal in the post this morning.

On reading through everything, I have noticed one thing. In my earlier posts I explained that they made me re submit my offer letter, removing the paragraph where I said the offer would reduce by the amount of interim payments. Well, someone somewhere must have had a rethink because it is in the proposal. They have said this relates to my regular payment and not any extra from overtime etc. I can live with that.

So it is fingers crossed for Nov 7th. I will post here how I get on.

Thanks once again for the advice guys!

Glad they saw sense -- it was unacceptable for them to refuse your wording. Their point regarding overtime and extra income is a valid one though. Of course, if they worked to the agreed timescales, this would not have been an issue in the grand scheme of things.

[Faye 123]

Good luck Paul!!

My meeting with PayPlan is tomorrow at 10am. Reading your messages it seems they are very slow with everyone and only prioritise those who complain. Thank god for this forum and the advice.

[Lisa Thomas]

How did it go?