This story has appalled everyone I have spoken to. My elderly
mother-in-law has been left out-of-pocket and humiliated by this
company. I hope it will be of interest to others
My mother-in-law is 80 years of age, currently lives alone with
help and has been diagnosed as suffering from dementia. Last summer,
somehow, she signed a fairly complicated contract with a franchise
of the cleaning company Selclene In return for a quarterly retaining
fee of £84.50 Mr E of Selclene will supply a cleaner from
his database, who cleans the house for a further hourly fee.
We do not know how she was persuaded to become involved with Selclene
as, obviously, she is unable to remember anything about it. As
is the nature of her illness, she became confused about the matter
and did not mention it to any one. It was not until a visiting
family member found the papers and discovered that after just
one visit, the cleaner had never returned. We looked at the contract
and discovered that she would be unable to manage it, due to her
dementia and could not have been able to understand it at the
time of signing it.
We therefore contacted Selclene, (all calls being handled by a
call centre at their head office, we are not allowed to speak
to Mr E directly or to Mr Gover, the Managing director. We explained
that she could not possibly manage or understand the contract
they had given her to sign, and requested that the money they
had taken from her be refunded, given the circumstances.
Selclene have refused to refund any of the money, since they believe
that as they have acted within the law, she is not entitled to
a refund. All they have offered is that she can still use the
services of one of their cleaners (who she will have to pay separately)
for the remainder of the time she has already paid for. Hardly
very useful, since Selclene know she cannot understand how the
system works!
At one point, we suggested that we may seek recompense from Mr
E through the small claims court. Selclene became very excited
and explained that we shouldn't do this since my mother-in-law
would find the process of a court appearance and enforced medical
"harrowing if not embarrassing"!
Selclene have also sent us letters informing us that we will have
to prove that they were aware of her mental condition at the time
she signed the contract. They maintain that she appeared fully
aware of the implications and workings of it. This is despite
the fact that she had been examined by a doctor prior to this
event, where she was unable to tell him what the day or month
was!
We are disgusted by the uncaring, ruthless and intimidatory responses
we have received from Selclene. Other organisations I have contacted
are similarly shocked by their attitude and I have had some very
helpful letters of support from some national and local organisations
and publications. Should we be able to retrieve the money from
Selclene we will certainly be donating it to an appropriate charity.
The current state of play is that Selclene, in their last letter,
still believe we have no legal grounds to appeal against them,
and that it is a "moral" matter. If it is just a moral
matter, should the company refund the money handed to them by
an elderly, frail, lady, suffering from dementia and unable to
understand the contract they gave her to sign?
This is now in the public eye and we invite you to give your comments.
A Right of Reply e-mail has also been issued to the Managing Director
of Selclene.
update on 24 January 2002
Please read Right of Reply column above for details.
