Thanks everyone, I am drafting my letter now, trying to decide how to word it, finding that right tone :-)

This is appalling. I'm so sorry this happened to you, I would have had a meltdown, honestly.

So, I'm not from the UK, which means that I have no idea what you might be entitled to or if what they did is even legal (wouldn't be legal here, trust me). However, having watched my mom for many years (a very sweet looking woman who does not take any bs from snooty people and has scared the living daylights out of more arrogant people in customer service than anyone I know), I would say you absolutely should demand some form of compensation.
I can only guess here but common sense leads me to think that you gave the SA the permission to debit your account ONCE. Not twice and certainly not three times. So whatever happened after they debited your account was obviously not done on purpose but certainly by someone who didn't know what they were doing. I'm sorry if I sound harsh but I have worked with a PDQ machine for years and yes, they can drive you nuts (especially when your boss is cheap and buys a machine that's broke all the time) but nobody who's worked there with me has ever had anything like this happen.

Again, I don't know if the system in the UK is so different that this can happen more easily but when you're handling sums like these .... I mean jeez. Better be safe than sorry and contact the customer to check in with them before you try it THREE times.

I digress, sorry. Anyway, Mulberry is not handling this professionally at all. If this was "only" a matter of stress, I'd say you could possibly write it off as bad luck but you're out of money because of this since you had to take out a loan. Suggesting to waive your postage as an apology is a little ridiculous.

I really hope the ladies are right and this Rebecca girl can help you, that would be the best solution of course. *crosses fingers*
If not, I wouldn't budge. A discount should really be the least you get. In my opinion of course. Mulberry might disagree.

Sorry for the rant but rude people in retail drive me up the wall. If I managed to be nice to all customers at all times (not easy ... not easy ...) then so can anyone, especially when they work for a high-end brand.

Ok, here is the firdt draft of my letter, please excuse any typos and feel free to tear it to shreds and make any suggestions :) Thanks again, you guys have really helped me get this written!


Dear Rebecca,
I am writing to you on the recommendation of friend who contacted you when having problems with Blisters on her Alexa. She assured me that you would take note of my complaint.

I am very sad to say that this week I have had an awful experience with Mulberry, after five years of enjoying my Mulberry purchases this has left me feeling let down by a brand I am loyal to and that I previously assumed placed a high value on all it’s customers.

On Tuesday 12th June I placed a telephone order with the Shepton Mallet Outlet store for two Oversized Alexas – one in Pink Champagne Metallic and the other in Trippy Tiger print. I supplied the Sales Assistant with all the correct information with regards to my card and address details. A little while later I received a phone call saying that due my address containing a flat number, house name and street number the sensitive PDQ machine could not process my payment, she mentioned that she had tried a couple of times and that they would try again tomorrow.

The morning of Wednesday 13th of June I checked my online banking to find my balance the same as expected but my available balance down by twice the value of my order, leaving me an accessible balance of next to nothing. I contacted my bank at 10am to discuss this and was told that mulberry attempted three transactions (one was declined by my bank) and by doing so had requested three lots of the money from my account. When this happens with a debit card the requested money is placed into "witholding" and the account owner can not access it for 5-10 working days.

To make this very long story a bit shorter, What then ensued was a whole day of myself making endless phone calls, faxes, emails, even a trip to my bank branch and generally running around doing all I could to resolve this. My bank informed me that Mulberry's merchant bank could simply send a fax (I had written it out for them and emailed it across to Mulberry Shepton Mallet, the bank simply had to fax it) to my bank stating they had no intention to pursue the funds and the money would be instantly released back into my account but they were not willing to do this. The result of this was that I have had to take a loan to pay for my monthly travel into London and my phone bill, both of which had to be paid today as well as some extra for my general living expenses until my money is released.

The Sales Assistant at Shepton Mallet (called Alice) who dealt with this initially was really nice and apologised and admitted it was their fault and that I have been left in a terrible situation but the most she could do was to offer to hold the bags till Saturday and waive my postage. Considering the money will not even be back in my account by then I consider this a woefully inadequate gesture.

The Morning of Thursday 14th June I called Mulberry head office to lodge a complaint. After a brief conversation about what happened and The customer service representative, Thea, reassured me she would look into it but did not seem overly concerned as she assumed that the money in withholding would be released to me in a day or two. I assured her that each of the 6 times I spoke to my bank on the Wednesday they said it would take a minimum of 5 working days. The general tone was that Mulberry would not take responsibility and that it would be fine as I would be returned my money eventually. I consider this mentality to be simply unacceptable. I have had further email contact asking for some details but as of me sending this email, nothing has been resolved.

I am so disappointed that not only has this situation been allowed to happen but also for someone from your head office to deny Mulberry’s responsibility . I am totally disheartened that no mention has been made of the fact that Mulberry’s error has caused me to be left with no money to meet my financial commitments and living expenses, necessitating in me taking a loan and causing me a terrible amount of stress and worry as a result. Not to mention the fact that I wasted an entire working day trying to resolve the error made.

The entire experience has left me with a very damaged image of the Mulberry Brand and I am afraid that the brief two line apologies I have previously received will not satisfy me in this case due to the scale of the trouble caused by Mulberry’s error. I am looking for a meaningful and substantial gesture of goodwill in order to offset the difficulties your company has caused me over the last few days.

I look forward to hearing your response,

EEk! whaddya think? x

I might not be understanding this properly, but a version of this has happened to me too, in both Australia and the UK (not with Mulberry).

As I understand it, the issue is that you're making the purchase with a debit card, not a credit one. When a debit card is used, the funds are effectively held in escrow - neither you nor the merchant have access to them. Whilst it isn't really Mulberry's fault that this is the practice used by your bank (it's not your banks, either - it's derived from anti-money-laundering legislation), they're sure not being helpful with the solution.

I'd get a lawyer friend to write them a stern letter demanding compensation of a measured amount.

If you choose to send the letter above, make sure you detail what you want as a result. ie. By way of compensation for the emotional duress, time taken from my employment and financial loss I would like...

I agree with madamestuff, if you can, get a lawyer friend to help you out because they're a lot less likely to try and jerk you around (they might not but who knows) once you throw in a few legal terms.
And yes, I would also specify what you're expecting in terms of compensation. Because I doubt they will offer you much out of the goodness of their heart.

I get it now, I was utterly confused as to how that could have happened but that's because here you can't use debit cards over the phone. If a store (or anyone else) wants to debit your account, they need you to give them written permission (for online purchases etc.) or you need to actually be there in person to use the card. Sometimes I'm really glad our banking system is that regulated. If someones debits your account in error, you can simply take it back. Phew.
I think this was 100% Mulberry's fault and I would make that very clear. They're of course not responsible for this system but the SA was simply careless in my opinion.

I really hope this will be resolved!

Originally Posted by button_Princess

Ok, here is the firdt draft of my letter, please excuse any typos and feel free to tear it to shreds and make any suggestions :) Thanks again, you guys have really helped me get this written! Dear Rebecca, I am writing to you on the recommendation of friend who contacted you when having problems with Blisters on her Alexa. She assured me that you would take note of my complaint. I am very sad to say that this week I have had an awful experience with Mulberry, after five years of enjoying my Mulberry purchases this has left me feeling let down by a brand I am loyal to and that I previously assumed placed a high value on all it’s customers. On Tuesday 12th June I placed a telephone order with the Shepton Mallet Outlet store for two Oversized Alexas – one in Pink Champagne Metallic and the other in Trippy Tiger print. I supplied the Sales Assistant with all the correct information with regards to my card and address details. A little while later I received a phone call saying that due my address containing a flat number, house name and street number the sensitive PDQ machine could not process my payment, she mentioned that she had tried a couple of times and that they would try again tomorrow. The morning of Wednesday 13th of June I checked my online banking to find my balance the same as expected but my available balance down by twice the value of my order, leaving me an accessible balance of next to nothing. I contacted my bank at 10am to discuss this and was told that mulberry attempted three transactions (one was declined by my bank) and by doing so had requested three lots of the money from my account. When this happens with a debit card the requested money is placed into "witholding" and the account owner can not access it for 5-10 working days. To make this very long story a bit shorter, What then ensued was a whole day of myself making endless phone calls, faxes, emails, even a trip to my bank branch and generally running around doing all I could to resolve this. My bank informed me that Mulberry's merchant bank could simply send a fax (I had written it out for them and emailed it across to Mulberry Shepton Mallet, the bank simply had to fax it) to my bank stating they had no intention to pursue the funds and the money would be instantly released back into my account but they were not willing to do this. The result of this was that I have had to take a loan to pay for my monthly travel into London and my phone bill, both of which had to be paid today as well as some extra for my general living expenses until my money is released. The Sales Assistant at Shepton Mallet (called Alice) who dealt with this initially was really nice and apologised and admitted it was their fault and that I have been left in a terrible situation but the most she could do was to offer to hold the bags till Saturday and waive my postage. Considering the money will not even be back in my account by then I consider this a woefully inadequate gesture. The Morning of Thursday 14th June I called Mulberry head office to lodge a complaint. After a brief conversation about what happened and The customer service representative, Thea, reassured me she would look into it but did not seem overly concerned as she assumed that the money in withholding would be released to me in a day or two. I assured her that each of the 6 times I spoke to my bank on the Wednesday they said it would take a minimum of 5 working days. The general tone was that Mulberry would not take responsibility and that it would be fine as I would be returned my money eventually. I consider this mentality to be simply unacceptable. I have had further email contact asking for some details but as of me sending this email, nothing has been resolved. I am so disappointed that not only has this situation been allowed to happen but also for someone from your head office to deny Mulberry’s responsibility . I am totally disheartened that no mention has been made of the fact that Mulberry’s error has caused me to be left with no money to meet my financial commitments and living expenses, necessitating in me taking a loan and causing me a terrible amount of stress and worry as a result. Not to mention the fact that I wasted an entire working day trying to resolve the error made. The entire experience has left me with a very damaged image of the Mulberry Brand and I am afraid that the brief two line apologies I have previously received will not satisfy me in this case due to the scale of the trouble caused by Mulberry’s error. I am looking for a meaningful and substantial gesture of goodwill in order to offset the difficulties your company has caused me over the last few days. I look forward to hearing your response, EEk! whaddya think? x

Hi BP, great letter, really good...two things I'd like to mention

1. I haven't actually approached Rebecca myself yet as I have been waiting to see how the blister would wear (bearing in mind we are talking about animal hide and sometimes contains some blemishes) but I will be contacting her as it is now starting to crack, so....you may want to adjust the start of the letter.

2. I agree with the other two ladies, but I'm not sure the solicitor letter should be the first approach, I think this letter should be, after all you may get this resolved with Rebecca, at least give her a chance. I do agree that you need to steadfastly have in your mind what sort of resolution you would be happy with.

Good luck :-)

Hi BP, I think your letter is great. It's not rude or aggressive and clearly states the huge issues you have experiences at mulberry's expense. I also agree with the other ladies that you should indicate what you expect by way of compensation, is it gives them something to start negotiation with. Sincerely hope they deal with this promptly for you

Ok, I gave it a rewrite and a proof read this morning and made it a little bit less "tired and emotional" haha, thats what you get for sitting up till midnight writing a letter and trying to catch up on work!

I've left it up to them to put a value on my difficulties as I honestly have no idea what to ask for nor feel comfortable taking a wild stab in the dark, if they come back with something silly then I will seek further help from someone with more legal knowledge than I do and let things take a more formal edge. I don't really want to go in all guns blazing but will if I feel they try to fob me off again, this truly is a situation of their own making.

Thanks again for all your help Ladies, I will let you know how it goes! x

Originally Posted by button_Princess

Ok, here is the firdt draft of my letter, please excuse any typos and feel free to tear it to shreds and make any suggestions :) Thanks again, you guys have really helped me get this written! Dear Rebecca, I am writing to you on the recommendation of friend who contacted you when having problems with Blisters on her Alexa. She assured me that you would take note of my complaint. I am very sad to say that this week I have had an awful experience with Mulberry, after five years of enjoying my Mulberry purchases this has left me feeling let down by a brand I am loyal to and that I previously assumed placed a high value on all it’s customers. On Tuesday 12th June I placed a telephone order with the Shepton Mallet Outlet store for two Oversized Alexas – one in Pink Champagne Metallic and the other in Trippy Tiger print. I supplied the Sales Assistant with all the correct information with regards to my card and address details. A little while later I received a phone call saying that due my address containing a flat number, house name and street number the sensitive PDQ machine could not process my payment, she mentioned that she had tried a couple of times and that they would try again tomorrow. The morning of Wednesday 13th of June I checked my online banking to find my balance the same as expected but my available balance down by twice the value of my order, leaving me an accessible balance of next to nothing. I contacted my bank at 10am to discuss this and was told that mulberry attempted three transactions (one was declined by my bank) and by doing so had requested three lots of the money from my account. When this happens with a debit card the requested money is placed into "witholding" and the account owner can not access it for 5-10 working days. To make this very long story a bit shorter, What then ensued was a whole day of myself making endless phone calls, faxes, emails, even a trip to my bank branch and generally running around doing all I could to resolve this. My bank informed me that Mulberry's merchant bank could simply send a fax (I had written it out for them and emailed it across to Mulberry Shepton Mallet, the bank simply had to fax it) to my bank stating they had no intention to pursue the funds and the money would be instantly released back into my account but they were not willing to do this. The result of this was that I have had to take a loan to pay for my monthly travel into London and my phone bill, both of which had to be paid today as well as some extra for my general living expenses until my money is released. The Sales Assistant at Shepton Mallet (called Alice) who dealt with this initially was really nice and apologised and admitted it was their fault and that I have been left in a terrible situation but the most she could do was to offer to hold the bags till Saturday and waive my postage. Considering the money will not even be back in my account by then I consider this a woefully inadequate gesture. The Morning of Thursday 14th June I called Mulberry head office to lodge a complaint. After a brief conversation about what happened and The customer service representative, Thea, reassured me she would look into it but did not seem overly concerned as she assumed that the money in withholding would be released to me in a day or two. I assured her that each of the 6 times I spoke to my bank on the Wednesday they said it would take a minimum of 5 working days. The general tone was that Mulberry would not take responsibility and that it would be fine as I would be returned my money eventually. I consider this mentality to be simply unacceptable. I have had further email contact asking for some details but as of me sending this email, nothing has been resolved. I am so disappointed that not only has this situation been allowed to happen but also for someone from your head office to deny Mulberry’s responsibility . I am totally disheartened that no mention has been made of the fact that Mulberry’s error has caused me to be left with no money to meet my financial commitments and living expenses, necessitating in me taking a loan and causing me a terrible amount of stress and worry as a result. Not to mention the fact that I wasted an entire working day trying to resolve the error made. The entire experience has left me with a very damaged image of the Mulberry Brand and I am afraid that the brief two line apologies I have previously received will not satisfy me in this case due to the scale of the trouble caused by Mulberry’s error. I am looking for a meaningful and substantial gesture of goodwill in order to offset the difficulties your company has caused me over the last few days. I look forward to hearing your response, EEk! whaddya think? x

How awful for you ive not experienced this myself but my delivery from Bicester nearly got lost because of the address Becky missed of the b. Thanks to the ups guy i received it. They need to get this address stuff sorted as it does cause major problems with delivery and c/c's. I would be livid as well. I hope it all goes well for u. They should compensate u with something maybe u shuld also say that u will take solicitors action in the next letter if they dont co -operate. That may wake them up a bit.

I really hope they do the decent thing and compensate you for all the hassle and extra costs.

I don't ever pay for anything with a Debit Card, I always use a Credit Card so apart from anything else you get a bit of insurance if anything goes wrong or the parcel goes missing/gets damaged in transit etc.

LV always do a trial transaction first for £1 to make sure they are not going to be refused which did happen to me the first time. I had to contact the Credit Card and go through to the fraud dept to confer it was actually me doing the transaction.They say they get a lot of fraud with designer companies so feel it better to check. Now all I do is if I am going to make a purchase of a reasonable amount, I call the card first to let them know.

I know it doesn't help you on this instance but it's something you may want to consider before your next one. As long as you pay the CC bill straight off.

You never agreed that Alice could try more than once to take payment. Mulberry is entirely at fault. Compensation should be offered. If this happened to me then I would not let it rest until satisfactory compensation for their error had been offered. It matters not whether Mulberry have your money. They still made the mistake and now need to compensate for it. I have paid via debit card over the phone (too dangerous for me to use the credit card...most of the time) and I have never had this happen.

I just want to wish you good luck. What a horrible position to be put. Hopefully by you bringing it to their attention they will take note and it will be avoided in the future. Doesn't help you at present tho, so i would think compo is a definate

Good luck, hun, hope they sort it out very soon.

I had the same thing but a much smaller amount - it was with Tesco when I was buying fuel (which is a fair good sum for a full tank!). Something happened on their system and the transaction didn't go through the first time, so they tried again and it was fine. When I checked my online banking, the transaction was there but the available balance was also less by the amount of the transaction. It took a few days before the deducted amount was added back on my available balance. I was lucky that it was an amount that I could wait and see if it sorted itself out but it reaffirmed why I should always use my credit card (but clear it every month!).

Originally Posted by button_Princess

Ok, here is the firdt draft of my letter, please excuse any typos and feel free to tear it to shreds and make any suggestions :) Thanks again, you guys have really helped me get this written! Dear Rebecca, I am writing to you on the recommendation of friend who contacted you when having problems with Blisters on her Alexa. She assured me that you would take note of my complaint. I am very sad to say that this week I have had an awful experience with Mulberry, after five years of enjoying my Mulberry purchases this has left me feeling let down by a brand I am loyal to and that I previously assumed placed a high value on all it’s customers. On Tuesday 12th June I placed a telephone order with the Shepton Mallet Outlet store for two Oversized Alexas – one in Pink Champagne Metallic and the other in Trippy Tiger print. I supplied the Sales Assistant with all the correct information with regards to my card and address details. A little while later I received a phone call saying that due my address containing a flat number, house name and street number the sensitive PDQ machine could not process my payment, she mentioned that she had tried a couple of times and that they would try again tomorrow. The morning of Wednesday 13th of June I checked my online banking to find my balance the same as expected but my available balance down by twice the value of my order, leaving me an accessible balance of next to nothing. I contacted my bank at 10am to discuss this and was told that mulberry attempted three transactions (one was declined by my bank) and by doing so had requested three lots of the money from my account. When this happens with a debit card the requested money is placed into "witholding" and the account owner can not access it for 5-10 working days. To make this very long story a bit shorter, What then ensued was a whole day of myself making endless phone calls, faxes, emails, even a trip to my bank branch and generally running around doing all I could to resolve this. My bank informed me that Mulberry's merchant bank could simply send a fax (I had written it out for them and emailed it across to Mulberry Shepton Mallet, the bank simply had to fax it) to my bank stating they had no intention to pursue the funds and the money would be instantly released back into my account but they were not willing to do this. The result of this was that I have had to take a loan to pay for my monthly travel into London and my phone bill, both of which had to be paid today as well as some extra for my general living expenses until my money is released. The Sales Assistant at Shepton Mallet (called Alice) who dealt with this initially was really nice and apologised and admitted it was their fault and that I have been left in a terrible situation but the most she could do was to offer to hold the bags till Saturday and waive my postage. Considering the money will not even be back in my account by then I consider this a woefully inadequate gesture. The Morning of Thursday 14th June I called Mulberry head office to lodge a complaint. After a brief conversation about what happened and The customer service representative, Thea, reassured me she would look into it but did not seem overly concerned as she assumed that the money in withholding would be released to me in a day or two. I assured her that each of the 6 times I spoke to my bank on the Wednesday they said it would take a minimum of 5 working days. The general tone was that Mulberry would not take responsibility and that it would be fine as I would be returned my money eventually. I consider this mentality to be simply unacceptable. I have had further email contact asking for some details but as of me sending this email, nothing has been resolved. I am so disappointed that not only has this situation been allowed to happen but also for someone from your head office to deny Mulberry’s responsibility . I am totally disheartened that no mention has been made of the fact that Mulberry’s error has caused me to be left with no money to meet my financial commitments and living expenses, necessitating in me taking a loan and causing me a terrible amount of stress and worry as a result. Not to mention the fact that I wasted an entire working day trying to resolve the error made. The entire experience has left me with a very damaged image of the Mulberry Brand and I am afraid that the brief two line apologies I have previously received will not satisfy me in this case due to the scale of the trouble caused by Mulberry’s error. I am looking for a meaningful and substantial gesture of goodwill in order to offset the difficulties your company has caused me over the last few days. I look forward to hearing your response, EEk! whaddya think? x

Button_Princess - you've pitched that perfectly - but I agree with madamestuff - be clear and straightforward with the sort of recompense/outcome you want - think that by being upfront your letter may hold more clout!....best of luck and we are all rooting for you