With my apologies for the delay in replying, here is why I'm not doing anything. My solicitor emailed the following:
"Dear Kevin
I hope that the weather is better in Spain than it is here because it has certainly been diabolical.
Referring to your query with Alison whilst I was on holiday, I apologise for only just coming back to you but I am only now getting on top of the backlog created by going away, to the point where it makes you wonder if it is worth going.
I assume that the company you are upset about is an English company. If it is a Spanish company then Spanish law will apply and I would not be in a position to advise. On the assumption it is an English company that was supposed to be sending money over, I still think that you have an uphill task if you try to pursue it. The reason I say that is, the amount involved, i.e. £1,000 mentioned to me, under English law would represent a small claim. The Courts have set a rule that anything under £5,000, no matter how complicated, is classed as a small claim. The assumption is, therefore, that members of the public can sort their own legal affairs out without recourse to lawyers. If you do have recourse to lawyers and a claim under £5,000, then even if you are successful, you are unlikely to get back anything other than your Court fee and a very small amount of fixed legal costs. The reality is, therefore, that if it costs £2,000 or £3,000 or more to pursue a claim, you are only likely to get back a few hundred pounds at the very best in terms of Court fee and costs. In practical terms, it makes pursuing small claims virtually a commercial waste of time. I personally think this has been done deliberately to try to discourage small claims because the reality is that quite often what are claims that are classed as small claims are quite legally complex and quite how a member of the public would be expected to deal with them beats me but, unfortunately, we don’t make the rules.
You would have to show that the company were negligent in not getting money to you on time. You mention small print and I assume that there is an agreement between you and the company to transmit the money. Often, there will be exemption clauses in the small print which exempt them from liability if there are breakdowns out of their control. This is quite standard practice. Without seeing any agreement between you, it is difficult to be precise but I have tried to set out the principles.
What you would need to do is to write them a formal letter before action, setting out what you are claiming and why and giving them a reasonable period of time to respond. If ultimately nothing comes of it, you would then be expected to issue a summons in the County Court claiming the £1,000. This is really where the cost aspect comes in because once you have issued a summons, you have embarked upon a course of action which it is not always possible to just simply pull out of.
If they choose to defend it and start to claim exemptions and small print, then obviously it is up to you to prove that legally they are in the wrong and, again, that is where the cost comes in. I will happily look at the agreement between you if you want but that has to be the starting point because if they are going to claim exemptions, then they will do it under that agreement. If it is unclear that they had the benefit of any exemptions or get out clauses, then the letter before action could be sent. I will leave it entirely up to you but I would certainly hesitate to advise you to throw what could be a considerable amount of legal costs at it in the sure and certain knowledge that even if you succeed, you are not going to get back anything like what it has cost you to make the claim.
I look forward to hearing from you."
I have, however, heard from the Information Commissioner's Office and they have asked me to complete a form for a "potential breach of the Data Protection Act." They are little more than a toothless watchdog, powerless to apprehend, never mind impose any fines! Money transfers are outside the control of the FSA, too, as you will have read above.
So - we lost our money, and [company name not quoted, in accordance with posting rules] got away with it - again.