Ex employer wants my money!

[tnoemis]

Don’t know if anyone can help me on this but I used to work for a small telecoms company from March 2004 and was made redundant in September 2005. Leaving on a very sour note after I had to fight tooth and nail to get my money they owed me and at the end of it still didn’t get everything I was owed and was under paid by about £250 and not eligible for redundancy pay. Not long after I started they set up my home phone line to allow my phone calls to go through their network instead of BT and they didn’t charge me for the calls (very nice you might think). I didn’t ask them to do this and didn’t sign any contract giving them permission to do this. A few months ago a got a bill from them for over £360 for phone calls made using their supplier. They tried to say it was a service that was conditional to my employment but didn’t disconnect it after I left and didn’t ask me to sign a contract saying that I would be billed after my employment ended or even state that I would be charged for it. I have actually never signed a single contract with them.
Well to cut a long story short, they're sending the collections agency after me after me kindly telling them they can go screw themselves. I didn't request this service and it is their responsibility to either disconnect the service or if I wanted to be billed by them they should have got me to sign some sort of agreement saying I was happy for them to bill me. I asked them to supply a contract saying that I agreed them to supply the "service" and they have not responded.
What is my best course of action? Write to the debt collections agency requesting a CCA to see if they can come up with proof that I agreed for this?

Many thanks,

Sim

[crusty git]

If there is no contract in existence then your ex employer is guilty of "slamming" your telephone account, that is taking it away from your existing supplier without your knowledge. Report it to OFCOM.

Has your ex employer sent you bills to cover the amount that they are claiming?

As regards the DCA simply dispute the account and asthe account seems to be a credit acccount serve them with a cca. This will mean that if they are unable to produce a copy of the original agreement it is unenforable

J

[oojakapipi]

Did you sign an Employment Contract? Do you have a copy of the Employment Contract, Statement of Main Terms of Employment and Employee Handbook?

[oojakapipi]

By the way, if you don't have the above you are entitled to copies.

I have worked in employment in the past and though I can't advise on the legal aspect of contracts of employment, I can confidantly say that you can request a copy of your employment file, which should include all of the above.

Some employers will put 'benefits' e.g. your access to telecoms in the contract of employment, or they will get you to sign an additional agreement for the 'benefits' when you sign the employment contract. However, I'm sure if you signed an extra contract when signing the employment contract you would remember. If it was in the employment contract they would have to write the contract to include the fact that should termination of employment take place the 'benefit' would revert to a service payable by yourself (don't quote me on that - it depend on what you signed).

Don't be scared by the fact that you left on a bad note, you are fully entitled to copies of your employment file, and hopefully that will sort it all out itself.

[tnoemis]

Dont think they could send me much. I didnt sign a single contract with them lol.
Probably not worth worrying about either. All I've had is one phone call from Lowell Financial in the last week and thats it. They probably found out that I hadnt signed any contracts with abycom and refused to buy the debt lol.

Thanks for your help and advice guys!

[oojakapipi]

How nice of them to repay the debt they had to you! Perhaps they realised their error in underpaying you and decided to make payment through a telecom service!