Help with Brighthouse arrears please

[sallyann2403]

hi i am new to this web site and i was just wondering if any one could help me regarding my brighthouse account ,i have been a customer for around 4 years and never been in arrears with them at all but i am now on the sick after hurtin my back (i have not paid for 3 weeks) i have been in touch with them but all i get is that i must pay the full amount outstanding plus fees or have my stuff repossesed (most of my stuff has less than 12 weeks owing ) i have even tried to have a rewrite on my account to clear the arrears but to no avail ,now i have been getting 30 calls a day on my mobile ,house phone and my friends phones often one after the other ,i did get in touch the other day stating i only get £180 a week now (i have a disabled son ) and all i got told was bring that amount in and they will sort something out !!!! how do they expect us to live ,i have now stopped answering all my phones and told friends to do the same if they ring ,i dont know what to do its making me ill with worry ,please help me

[Lefty]

Originally Posted by sallyann2403

hi i am new to this web site and i was just wondering if any one could help me regarding my brighthouse account ,i have been a customer for around 4 years and never been in arrears with them at all but i am now on the sick after hurtin my back (i have not paid for 3 weeks) i have been in touch with them but all i get is that i must pay the full amount outstanding plus fees or have my stuff repossesed (most of my stuff has less than 12 weeks owing ) i have even tried to have a rewrite on my account to clear the arrears but to no avail ,now i have been getting 30 calls a day on my mobile ,house phone and my friends phones often one after the other ,i did get in touch the other day stating i only get £180 a week now (i have a disabled son ) and all i got told was bring that amount in and they will sort something out !!!! how do they expect us to live ,i have now stopped answering all my phones and told friends to do the same if they ring ,i dont know what to do its making me ill with worry ,please help me

Hi Sally Anne

You certainly need a little help. Don't panic. I will ask a moderator to move this post into a thread of its own. That way any replies wont get confused with replies to other posts.

Cheers
Lefty

[rory32]

Post moved to a thread of its own

[Lefty]

Originally Posted by rory32

Post moved to a thread of its own

Thanks, Rory32 Appreicated!

Sally Anne

Firstly, welcome to CAG. And secondly, stop worrying...

BrightHouse cannot just stroll into your home and re-possess their goods. Unless you have actually consented to their removal, BrightHouse cannot legally remove (re-possess) them until they have:

a) Issued you with a default notice (in writing)
b) Given you an opportunity to put matters right (at least 7 days)
c) Applied for (and been granted) a court order

These issues will be explained in more detail in a moment, but it is important to remember that: AT NO TIME CAN ANY EMPLOYEE (OR AGENT) OF BRIGHTHOUSE FORCIBLY ENTER YOUR HOME.

If you have received a formal written default notice, and are unable to bring your account up to date in one go, you may like to consider writing a letter similar to this one:

(Send recorded delivery to head office, and copy to your local store)

Account(s) number(s) XXXXXXXXX

Dear Sirs

I have recently been experiencing some financial difficulties and, as a result, have fallen behind with my weekly payments to BrightHouse. This is most regrettable, so please accept my apologies

I am receipt of a default notice for £XXXX

I do not wish to return the goods voluntarily, and as I cannot afford to pay this amount in one instalment, I would like to offer the sum of £(reasonable amount) per week on top of my regular weekly payment of £XX to clear my arrears over the next XX weeks. This payment plan can start immediately.

I have made this proposal (and made an offer of payment) at my local store, but my payment was refused. I was told that BrightHouse will not/cannot accept “part payments”. This “policy” only places my account(s) further into arrears and invokes further penalty charges. I find this both immoral, unfair and in direct contravention to OFT guidelines regarding the collection of debt.

Naturally, I hope you will accept my offer (above) and allow me time to bring my account(s) up to date in both a fair and affordable way. Of course, by accepting my offer, and by me maintaining regular payments (on time) you agree NOT to apply any further “penalty” or “late payment” charges to my account(s).

Please confirm in writing your acceptance or refusal of my offer in order for me to make the necessary payment arrangements, or to prepare for my defence in the County Court as appropriate.

Kindest Regards

YOU


cc - BrightHouse local store
your local Trading Standards (this never hurts)


If you have paid more than one third of your agreement total, BrightHouse must seek a court order before they can re-posses their goods – which are now considered as “protected goods”. (Note - if, after one third of the agreement total has been paid and BrightHouse do re-posses their goods without a court order and without your permission, then Brighthouse are in breach of their agreement and you are entitled to claim back all payments made previously on it.)

Even if you have NOT paid more than one third of your agreement total, BrightHouse must still seek a court order (return order) to re-posses goods from your home - even then they cannot forcibly enter. They can, however, re-posses their goods if they are in a public place.

If BrightHouse do decide to apply for a re-possession order (or return order), you will be notified of the hearing date and you will have the opportunity to put your case forward in court. If you want to keep the goods (and continue with your agreement) you must show the court you can still afford the repayments, and you should make a reasonable offer to reduce your arrears. The court will make a judgement and, if acceptable, order BrightHouse to accept your offer.

BrightHouse are very keen to be seen as a responsible credit provider, and want to appear transparent and approachable by their customers. Your post has been forwarded to a very senior member of operational staff at BrightHouse head office and, I am sure, he will be very concerned at the way you have been treated recently.

Please follow the advice (above) and get back to us here if you need any further assistance.


Cheers
Lefty

[bigstuff91]

Hi SallyAnn im an Account Manager with Brighthouse now. You need to speak to the account rep in your local store and tell them you have had problems and you would like a rewrite, this will clear down your arrears and allow you to make you weekly payments as normal..now you will pay your account longer but only for the amount of weeks you have missed..in Brighthouse we call this a bridge as we move your arrears to the end of the account, basically you get a payment holiday! Dont get caught up in the jargon some Managers and Account reps use you will still legally have your protected goods status if you had paid at least 1/3 of the cash price from the original strart date of your agreement..NOT including any OSC and DLC or late reinstatemant charges you have paid in the past...Just because you paid £300 it doesnt mean £300 comes off your cash price! As a result of this your late charges will go and so will your arrears. You will NOT pay anymore than normal on your agreement. This isnt a difficult process for the store to complete you will need to go into the store and will be there for 10-30 mins depending on the account rep as they may need authorisation from an area manager ( which is granted 99.9% of the time ).

Ive been an employee for over 5 years and never had a problem with my customers. All your problems can be sorted easily.

Good Luck!

Big Stuff

PS let me know if you need any more help
.

[Lefty]

Originally Posted by bigstuff91

Hi SallyAnn im an Account Manager with Brighthouse now. You need to speak to the account rep in your local store and tell them you have had problems and you would like a rewrite, this will clear down your arrears and allow you to make you weekly payments as normal..now you will pay your account longer but only for the amount of weeks you have missed..in Brighthouse we call this a bridge as we move your arrears to the end of the account, basically you get a payment holiday! Dont get caught up in the jargon some Managers and Account reps use you will still legally have your protected goods status if you had paid at least 1/3 of the cash price from the original strart date of your agreement..NOT including any OSC and DLC or late reinstatemant charges you have paid in the past...Just because you paid £300 it doesnt mean £300 comes off your cash price! As a result of this your late charges will go and so will your arrears. You will NOT pay anymore than normal on your agreement. This isnt a difficult process for the store to complete you will need to go into the store and will be there for 10-30 mins depending on the account rep as they may need authorisation from an area manager ( which is granted 99.9% of the time ).

Ive been an employee for over 5 years and never had a problem with my customers. All your problems can be sorted easily.

Good Luck!

Big Stuff

PS let me know if you need any more help
.

Hi, and welcome to CAG.

I'm sure Sally-Anne would have appreciated your advice, but you're a bit late and she's probably had her goods repossessed by now. But never mind... I'm sure she'll be fine, and BrightHouse's open and transparent policies are still winning over the politicians!

...and talking of politicians, our old friend Frank Field has been in the news again today - heading the revolt against Gordon Brown and the 10p "poverty" tax...

...Last month he was endorsing his local BrightHouse store!

Campaigner for the poor my ass !!!!

Anyway...

An account re-write (re-set) or "bridge" as you call it puts an agreement back to its virgin state. Accrued "protected" rights are NOT taken into account and, furthermore, any goods originally supplied as "new" now become "used" - further reducing customer's statutory rights.

And goods become "protected" after 1/3 of the AGREEMENT total has been paid and NOT one 1/3 of the "cash price". OSC and DLC policies do not come into it. They are additional items and NOT part of the original Hire Purchase contract. Late payment charges are unfair, unlawful and unenforcable - they cannot be taken into account either. You really should have paid more attention in class!

With respect

Lefty

[bigstuff91]

Hi Lefty,

Thank you for your reply but unfortunately you are wrong here.
At Brighthouse when performing a credit rewrite at the stage where you rebuild the customers agreement the account rep can if set the PGS to 'yes' the agreement is linked directly from the previous one in the fact that on the agreement build you have to enter the previous agreement number and the previous amount paid. In a court of law the total amount paid on the agreement would be taken into account not just since the date of the rewrite, as the rewrite is just a rescheduling of payments. the company doesnt include the interest in this calculation. I would also like to point out that many of my customers and those of the stores i have worked in seem more than happy to have access to goods that would normally be beyond their reach how mny people out of work can get things like PS3 and Xbox 360 ( I cant afford one ). And lets not get started about the despicable people that decide from the out that they will pay only the minimum to get these goods delivered and then think they can just close the door and not pay for them. Civil matter or not any way you look at it its Theft not to pay for goods( try it out in Tesco ar Asda and see what happens )!

so to paraphrase "YOU REALLY SHOULD OF PAID MORE ATTENTION IN CLASS".

with respect!

Quick Quiz for you can you find out the APR for

Curry's
Littlewoods catalogue
Vouchers.com
Provident financial
Greenwood finance
Buy as you View
Perfect homes
My deal
Welcome finance

Little clue there all about the same with the odd exception!

[Lefty]

Originally Posted by bigstuff91

Hi Lefty,

Originally Posted by bigstuff91

Thank you for your reply but unfortunately you are wrong here.

Oh? What bit?

At Brighthouse when performing a credit rewrite at the stage where you rebuild the customers agreement the account rep can if set the PGS to 'yes' the agreement is linked directly from the previous one in the fact that on the agreement build you have to enter the previous agreement number and the previous amount paid. In a court of law the total amount paid on the agreement would be taken into account not just since the date of the rewrite, as the rewrite is just a rescheduling of payments. the company doesnt include the interest in this calculation.

Thanks for correcting me! So, what you're saying is the new agreement is exactly the same as the old agreement? In that case, why have a new agreement? Why not just accept the regular payment plus a reasonable amount towards arrears?

No doubt I am wrong about BrightHouse refusing part payments, too?

And surely I must be wrong about BrightHouse increasing a debt by making the following week's payment due if a customer is late paying?

No doubt you're going to justify your unlawful late payment penalty charges next with the usual company line of, "even though the customer is late paying, we do not invoke our right to charge interest. We charge a one off fee of £2.70 per agreement to reinstate the contract" ?

BrightHouse make £3.5 MILLION a year in late payment fees alone!

I would also like to point out that many of my customers and those of the stores i have worked in seem more than happy to have access to goods that would normally be beyond their reach.

Yes, predatory lending at its finest! Wait a minute, I thought BrightHouse was supposed to be a responsible corporate citizen? Are you telling me your company actively provides credit to people who cannot afford it?

how mny people out of work can get things like PS3 and Xbox 360 ( I cant afford one ).

You could always go to BrightHouse! They'll give credit to anyone! Watch out for the optional service cover, though, because it's a bit of a rip off! (but you probably know that!)

And lets not get started about the despicable people that decide from the out that they will pay only the minimum to get these goods delivered and then think they can just close the door and not pay for them. Civil matter or not any way you look at it its Theft not to pay for goods( try it out in Tesco ar Asda and see what happens )!

Absolutely! Please point me to anywhere on this forum where anyone at CAG has recommended or condoned illegal actions!

so to paraphrase "YOU REALLY SHOULD OF PAID MORE ATTENTION IN CLASS".

Yeah, I'm good at english too. It's "should HAVE (not OF) paid more attention in class!"

with respect!

Likewise!

Quick Quiz for you can you find out the APR for

Curry's
Littlewoods catalogue
Vouchers.com
Provident financial
Greenwood finance
Buy as you View
Perfect homes
My deal
Welcome finance

Little clue there all about the same with the odd exception!

Easy! They're all sub-prime vultures - just like BrightHouse! The only difference is THEY don't hide behind a bull**** "good corporate citizen" image, and everyone KNOWS their agenda!

Cheers
Lefty

[sweetnsexyenglish]

Originally Posted by bigstuff91

Hi Lefty,

Thank you for your reply but unfortunately you are wrong here.
At Brighthouse when performing a credit rewrite at the stage where you rebuild the customers agreement the account rep can if set the PGS to 'yes' the agreement is linked directly from the previous one in the fact that on the agreement build you have to enter the previous agreement number and the previous amount paid. In a court of law the total amount paid on the agreement would be taken into account not just since the date of the rewrite, as the rewrite is just a rescheduling of payments. the company doesnt include the interest in this calculation. I would also like to point out that many of my customers and those of the stores i have worked in seem more than happy to have access to goods that would normally be beyond their reach how mny people out of work can get things like PS3 and Xbox 360 ( I cant afford one ). And lets not get started about the despicable people that decide from the out that they will pay only the minimum to get these goods delivered and then think they can just close the door and not pay for them. Civil matter or not any way you look at it its Theft not to pay for goods( try it out in Tesco ar Asda and see what happens )!

so to paraphrase "YOU REALLY SHOULD OF PAID MORE ATTENTION IN CLASS".

with respect!

Quick Quiz for you can you find out the APR for

Curry's
Littlewoods catalogue
Vouchers.com
Provident financial
Greenwood finance
Buy as you View
Perfect homes
My deal
Welcome finance

Little clue there all about the same with the odd exception!

How can you justify telling someone with 12 weeks left to run to get a rewrite knowing full well it removes their 1/3 which means you can NOT repossess without a court order. It's people like yourself that make me sick, robbing customers of their rights in broad daylight without offering the con side to it....and I guess you know who is doing all the conning!! And your over priced goods that you take no responsibility for once paid off even though under warranty and your over priced 2 year cover which in fact you only get one year as the warranty covers the first. Only thing is I don't even get that either and my item was brought Sept 2007. And as for comparing yourself to tesco & asda....your company has been robbing customers blind since day dot, you just reinvented ya name but the game is still the same!! Asda & Tesco staff have better customer service manners... and the goods ain't likely to be second hand sold as new....don't even try as I have seen it with my own eyes, ex display model they failed to tell a customer about, big crack down the middle had she not spotted it before the delivery men left she'd have had a hard job proving she didn't do it and would never have had them admit they couldn't get the stock so gave her the one in the shop! And I am sure I can dig up the pictures of the replacement speaker they gave me packaged as new,

Tesco & Asda are also more affordable and deal with problems a whole heap better. While BH staff think they above the law...even though they wrote the contract they still breech it.

Looks like class in session an we taking brighthouses ass back to class!! You better take a seat mate

[sweetnsexyenglish]

This was supposed to be a brand new technics speaker which came bubble wrapped and boxed....From Brighthouse

[sweetnsexyenglish]

As you can see the packaging is on the floor and the pics are date n time stamped and if I'd a took a picture of my face to show the anger...the moderator would need to ban me

[labrat]

hi, just to note something

bigstuff, when i joined the business im currently employed with i was warned about posting on the internet as by stating i work for a certain company would make anythign i said a statemement by said company

not sure on the legal standing on that or weither its just buisiness paranoia, but would that mean that your statment above showing blatent disregard to your customers who describe as people quite happy to steal if they get the chance, actually the companys perspective or personal cos i think that needs to be straigtend out a little.

p.s. on the company i work for im afraid its not brighthouse i do have some morals and pride myself on actually helping customers even if it does sometimes mean "bending" (note not breaking) company guidelines

[Lefty]

Originally Posted by labrat

hi, just to note something

bigstuff, when i joined the business im currently employed with i was warned about posting on the internet as by stating i work for a certain company would make anythign i said a statemement by said company

not sure on the legal standing on that or weither its just buisiness paranoia, but would that mean that your statment above showing blatent disregard to your customers who describe as people quite happy to steal if they get the chance, actually the companys perspective or personal cos i think that needs to be straigtend out a little.

p.s. on the company i work for im afraid its not brighthouse i do have some morals and pride myself on actually helping customers even if it does sometimes mean "bending" (note not breaking) company guidelines

Damn good point, and very well made labrat!


Cheers
Lefty

[bigstuff91]

Give advice trying to help people and get abuse!

Hope Sally Ann isnt in any probl