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£24,000 later, suddenly Champ's not needed
A Chorley couple are nearly £25,000 better off - but insist that it's got nothing to do with the Consumer Champion ...
James and Joan Clarke, from Clayton-le-Woods, contacted the Champ because they'd been waiting since May for a 24,000 endowment payment from Norwich Union.
The pair, who have been Norwich Union customers for 25 years, were told the money would be transferred to their Legal and General mortgage account in May but nothing had happened.
They then tried to resolve the issue by phoning the Norwich Union customer service centre numerous times, only to be told the money could not be tracked down.
In addition, the couple wrote a letter to the company's customer complaints department but they merely received a general response in June.
The couple were at the end of their tether when they contacted the Consumer Champion.
Mrs Clarke, 60, told the Champ: "I spoke to several people and the problem is that you never get to speak to the same person twice."
It seemed like a simple misunderstanding so the Guardian contacted Norwich Union on June 17 and received an email back from the company.
A few days later the problem was identified as an account mix-up and it was put right.
A spokesman for Norwich Union said: "Norwich Union contacted Legal and General to confirm that our bank had traced the monies leaving and confirmed it had not been returned.
"Legal and General have since confirmed that the money has been applied to the customer's mortgage account and is redeemed.
"We apologise for the delay in this and can confirm that this amount has been backdated to June 3 and the policyholder has not incurred any charges as a result."
On hearing the news Mrs Clarke was initially very pleased and said: "It's just such a relief to finally have the money in our account after all this time - it has been an absolute nightmare."
But when we asked to take to take her photograph she insisted the good news had nothing to do with the Champ and she'd sorted out the problem herself.
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Weather for Chorley
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 12 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: East
