Rosa Merwick kept the words from the chat because she did not want to misunderstand them. She had asked Brightmere's assistant, Nell, about an existing payment plan. The answer appeared to say she could pause it. When she later sought confirmation, she says the conversation became considerably less straightforward.
'I wasn't asking for the debt to disappear,' she said. 'I wanted to know what would happen to the arrangement. If the company puts an answer in its own chat, you expect someone else at the company to recognise it.' She has asked Brightmere to confirm her position in writing.
The Consumer Desk has heard from another customer, Duncan Pell, who describes receiving a similar message while using the app. He says he has continued trying to obtain a clear explanation. Neither customer has supplied evidence of a final account decision, and their experiences do not establish how widely the messages were sent.
Brightmere said it was reviewing incorrect information given in some conversations about payment plans. A spokesperson said the relevant digital responses had been restricted and more questions were being passed to advisers. The company did not give an affected-customer total or a final account of how the error arose.
Nell was introduced on webchat and in the Brightmere app last October. The supplier presents it as a route for common questions, including balances and payment dates, with access to a person when an issue needs investigation. The disputed messages concern an existing arrangement for paying an account, rather than general information about where to find help.
That distinction matters to the customers who have contacted this publication. Merwick says she read the answer as something she could act on, not a suggestion that she should ask another department. Pell says he is worried that a later reminder could treat him as having broken an arrangement he thought had changed.
Asked whether customers would be disadvantaged if they relied on the messages, Brightmere said it was checking the affected conversations and would contact customers directly. The spokesperson encouraged anyone uncertain about a payment arrangement to speak to an adviser rather than assume that a chat message had completed an account change.
Merwick says that instruction leaves her waiting for the same confirmation she wanted at the start. 'I can keep a copy of what I was told,' she said. 'What I can't do is decide which answer Brightmere is going to accept.' She is keeping the chat alongside her account correspondence while the review continues.