Old Union Reception - random charging

[Malcolm]

Hi,

I've got an e-mail from the Old Union Reception asking me to stump up £74.99 by Friday, for "unpaid" New Hall subs.

Thing is, we were told that this money would be included in our fees paid up front, and we were never asked to pay up. Until now, that is - I'm being charged for it. Some, but not all, New Hall residents have been asked to cough up.

There's rumour going around that somebody screwed up, and randomers everywhere are getting random charges for stuff they don't recognise. Anybody else receiving such payment requests?

[bramble]

I got an email asking me for £30. I have no idea what this is for! I sent them a fairly snotty email back saying that i refused to pay until they would deign telling me what i was paying for. I havent heard anything back...

[hr]

We're threading hope like fire
Down through the desperate blood
Down through the trailing wire
Into the leafless wood

[chat noir]

yeah, I had to pay a similar fee for sallies social stuff recently because of a similar email. I went over there and asked them about it, but once they said what it was I paid. I don't think sallies said anything about it being included.

[hr]

Seduce my mind and you can have my body. Find my soul and I am yours forever. Work like you don't need the money, dance like no one is watching, always deliver more than you promise, and love like you have never been hurt before.

-Sean Christopher Dean

[JP Patches]

Yes, a few days ago I received a similar email from Old Union Reception, except it demanded a larger sum and gave no explanation of what the fees were for. I have a direct debit mandate set up for tuition and residence fees, and there has been no notification from the bank of any problems. I told them as much and have not heard back. I was in the midst of exams at the time and haven't decided whether or not to pursue the matter any further now that I'm done. It sounds like it may have been a glitch in the system.

[bramble]

Im not in hall....im actually curious to know what mine is for...

[hr]

We're threading hope like fire
Down through the desperate blood
Down through the trailing wire
Into the leafless wood

[queen of scots]

I got an email to pay extension fees I do actually owe this....but I'm still pissed off, because the extension fee when I started my PhD was something like £70-£80 and then in three years it's gone up to £215. That's a huge percentage increase and I feel ripped off.

[hr]

Life is like a beautiful melody, only the lyrics are messed up.

http://standrews.facebook.com/profile.php?id=37100070

[physicist]

I got one claiming I owe £3,085 (tutition fees). This is very surprising since my grant covers all tutition, and is paid for directly by the University. They still have not replied to say that they have sorted it out (or not).

[munchingfoo]

Do you think they were hacked? That'd be funny. Well, funnier than if they weren't hacked and someone really just majorly fucked up.

[hr]

I'd like to change the world but they won't give me the source code.

[tinker]

I got an email asking for £149 which is such an odd amount of money to ask for, so I told them they had to tell me what it was for first!!

[romantic]

Quoting physicist from 09:27, 19th Jan 2006
I got one claiming I owe £3,085 (tutition fees). This is very surprising since my grant covers all tutition, and is paid for directly by the University. They still have not replied to say that they have sorted it out (or not).

They have a history of doing this. That happened to me in the 1st year of my PhD. Your
research council (EPSRC? PPARC?) pay it directly to the university. Email your postgrad secretary (Mary Rodger?) and she will sort it out by phoneing them and calling them idiots.

[flarewearer]

They "misplaced" around £30 000 of NERC grant money for a whole year for my project supervisor once. Did the whole "oh, we never got the cheque" act apparently, even though NERC had sent the money out. Im sure they were earning a nice fat wad of interest on that.

[hr]

image:www.magnificentoctopus.com/x/elgar.png

[munchingfoo]

The funny thing Andy, I would almost call it acceptable if they were actually doing it to make themselves more money but it is quite obviously just utter incompetence. And they think increasing redidence fees to above the rate of the maximum student loan is going to solve that?

It really astounds me.

[hr]

I'd like to change the world but they won't give me the source code.

[physicist]

Quoting romantic from 11:00, 19th Jan 2006

Quoting physicist from 09:27, 19th Jan 2006
I got one claiming I owe £3,085 (tutition fees). This is very surprising since my grant covers all tutition, and is paid for directly by the University. They still have not replied to say that they have sorted it out (or not).

They have a history of doing this. That happened to me in the 1st year of my PhD. Your
research council (EPSRC? PPARC?) pay it directly to the university. Email your postgrad secretary (Mary Rodger?) and she will sort it out by phoneing them and calling them idiots.

I've contacted O.U.Recep. and the departmental secretaries. I am funded by the University (or my department) as the primary sponsor, and not through any Research Council or other external body. Strangly enough, they found no reference for my fees for last year when I asked.

[queen of scots]

The entire university administration is crap. I was funded by AHRB for my PhD and every year the registry was meant to sign a form to confirm I was still a student - one year they forgot to post it - meaning I was without a grant for a month. In the end I had to go into the office myself, ask them to find my form, and take it to be posted myself. I wrote a letter of complaint, and they responded by saying that they had indeed posted it! So they are liars, as well as incompetent.

[hr]

Life is like a beautiful melody, only the lyrics are messed up.

http://standrews.facebook.com/profile.php?id=37100070

[trouble]

I had an email demanding £696 and 48 pence.With no given reason. I freaked out and nearly had a heart attack...and when I went to the god damned cash office to shout at them, I was told that they sent an email like that to 1400 students, only about 100 of whom actually owed anything

Also a while back, they had two direct debits coming off one of my accounts, when I wasnt supposed to have any!

watch your backs people.those pen-pushers at 79 North Street are incompetent fools.

[hr]

"Just stay with me, safe and ignorant,
Safe from pain and truth and choice and other poison devils,
See, they don't give a fuck about you, like I do." (APC- pet)

[Fawksie]

I went at the start of the year to let them know that my late tuition fee grant had come through, and to ask them to remove the direct debit that had been set up in the meantime. "Oh, we can't do that, you never paid your first instalment." "Yes I did, I sent you a cheque for both tuition fees and accomodation." "We don't have any record of a cheque being received, let me have a look." "No, there's no sign of it in that record either." "Would you like me to check if it cleared?" "Erm.. oh hold on, there it is!"

[flarewearer]

Quoting munchingfoo from 11:28, 19th Jan 2006
The funny thing Andy, I would almost call it acceptable if they were actually doing it to make themselves more money but it is quite obviously just utter incompetence.

HEll it isn't, it wasn't their money in the first place, but the grant had to be paid to a university, rather than directly to the individual. They had no right to withold it, its not their money, its someone elses grant that they have been awarded off of their own hard work and graft.

[hr]

image:www.magnificentoctopus.com/x/elgar.png

[flarewearer]

Quoting queen of scots from 11:39, 19th Jan 2006
The entire university administration is crap. I was funded by AHRB for my PhD

It was deliciously ironic when the AHRB moved from a board to a Council status, thereby becoming the AHRC, who just happen to be a large American charity better known as the "Association for Helping Retarded Children".

[hr]

image:www.magnificentoctopus.com/x/elgar.png

[Thackary]

Last year, the council was asking for council tax, but as I was classed as a student, I was exempt.
I asked the Registry Office to tell the council this, and they requested I fill in a form.

I filled in the form, handed it back to them and they told me they'd deal with it.

Two days later, Registry posted the form back to me telling me they "couldn't process [my] request because they didn't have my address".

When I pointed out to them that they had POSTED it to MY ADDRESS, I got the reply "Oh that'll be Mary* who's done that".

Thing is - they weren't surprised by such a ridiculous mistake. Grr!

*Mary might not have been her name - I can't remember.

[exnihilo]

Quoting flarewearer from 11:18, 19th Jan 2006
They "misplaced" around £30 000 of NERC grant money for a whole year for my project supervisor once. Did the whole "oh, we never got the cheque" act apparently, even though NERC had sent the money out. Im sure they were earning a nice fat wad of interest on that.

It was possibly sent to the wrong place. When I was Rector's Assessor I routinely opened letters for the Rector which were in fact large cheques for research projects from funding bodies/institutions who didn't realise that the Rector is not the Principal.