Cheddar Vs BCW

[cheddar]

Can anyone help me with this? When we moved into your property we had a card meter in the property and decided to keep it. Then one day we changed suppliers to Scottish Power who said that they wanted to change the card meter into a key meter.

They promptly did so and low and behold it wouldn't work. Had to spend an evening on the phone with no leccy to get someone out who said that the only thing he could do was to put in a standard meter and to ring SP in the am.

We duly did so and was told that we could have an appt to get it changed back and a appt would be sent out. This never happened and a couple of months later i rung back, concerned as the leccy wasn't getting paid, they said they would send a bill and sort it.

After this we changed supplier again and asked for BG to fit a card meter which they did then we were landing with a HUGE £400 bill from SP. Obviously they agreed it was wrong and said they'd send an amended. We just wanted to pay it but everytime we tried it wouldn't go through onto the account

So it ended up that we owed about £140ish but SP sent another letter saying they had reduced it to £127 as it was their fault in the 1st place. Well with xmas and me setting up as self employed I didn't pay it and now have BCW on my back.

Just rang them to offer £20 a month and was told no way they will take me to court (a load of bullpoo i know and i tild her lol) but then she said it would cost me £2 to pay by card!

What are they on? I am thinking of writing to SP/BCW to ask to write it off seeing as it was not of our making. Yes I know we used the leccy but at the end of the day I spent a fortune in phone calls, letters and time and travel (taking baby to my mums when no leccy) etc...

Any thoughts???

[DanP1973]

Why not total up your costs (phone bills, petrol, car running costs (@ 40p per mile)etc), your Mums costs (food, her leccy etc) and the send them a bill?

[Anon2601]

As a former employee of BCW and having worked in numerous collection agencies, I am only too aware of how their strategy works.

They probably will not take legal action on a debt of only £127. However, they will likely pass it over to their field agents who will visit you to recover the balance if you don't pay the balance or break arrangements with them.

They are not obliged to accept your offer of £20 per month on the account and are well within their rights to refuse an arragement at that amount. If that really is all you could afford, they would accept it if you could supply an income and expenditure statement which justified a disposable income of roughly £20 per month.

I don't recommend sending them a bill for your cost etc. as it would be a waste of not only your time but I can pretty much guarantee they will not take any notice of it whatsoever. The same applies to asking them to write it off. If you used the electricity, you should pay for it and the only reason BCW will write off an account is if it is paid in full, the debt was included in an insolvency or if their client advised them to do so after investigating a valid dispute.

I do not mean to sound harsh, but I am just warning you of what these debt collection agencies are like. They are very money/payment orientated. I have often found that if you co-operate and are reasonable to them, they will respond in a similar manner.

My advice is to make a decent offer of payment, even if they do not accept it as an arrangement, they must process any payment you make to them and it will be deducted from the balance. This will show you are at least making some effort to clear the balance. I have not worked at the company for just over year but at that time debit card payments were free as are standing orders and cheques.

[whats a mook?]

Originally Posted by Anon2601

I do not mean to sound harsh, but I am just warning you of what these debt collection agencies are like. They are very money/payment orientated. I have often found that if you co-operate and are reasonable to them, they will respond in a similar manner.

Thanks for posting and giving your opinion from the other side of the fence.

Are you saying even if they are behaving unreasonably, you should always fully co-operate?

[cheddar]

Originally Posted by Anon2601

they will likely pass it over to their field agents who will visit you to recover the balance if you don't pay the balance or break arrangements with them.

And how can a 'field agent' recover money from me? I would ring the police immediately if they didn't leave.

Originally Posted by Anon2601

If that really is all you could afford, they would accept it if you could supply an income and expenditure statement which justified a disposable income of roughly £20 per month.

Of course it is all I can afford, if I could afford to pay it off I wouldn't have the debt! I did a basic I&E over the phone and it came out with £10 excess per month but I said I would fine the extra £10 from somewhere (prob by taking on extra work as I have just set up as Self Employed). Other than doing this a DCA has no legal right/requirement to make someone fill in an I&E form, only a court can do this.

Originally Posted by Anon2601

I don't recommend sending them a bill for your cost etc. as it would be a waste of not only your time but I can pretty much guarantee they will not take any notice of it whatsoever. The same applies to asking them to write it off.

I agree me sending them (and i presume the poster of that comment meant SP and not BCW) a bill is pretty pointless to a DCA as they take very little notice of anything sent to them if it doesn't have a £ sign on it. As for writing things off, you do not know my personal circumstances and getting debts frozen/interest suspended/written off can and DOES happen.

Originally Posted by Anon2601

If you used the electricity, you should pay for it and the only reason BCW will write off an account is if it is paid in full.

I appriciate I used the leccy hence why I said that in my OP, however I do feel I have the right to claim some of it back from SP as the 10% they took off was a bit of an insult. And again debts do get written off for different reasons.

Originally Posted by Anon2601

I do not mean to sound harsh, but I am just warning you of what these debt collection agencies are like. They are very money/payment orientated. I have often found that if you co-operate and are reasonable to them, they will respond in a similar manner.

I don't need to be warned, I have dealt with them before for friends and at the moment for my sister. As for co-operation and being reasonable I have never once seen a DCA act in a reasonable manner.

I offer to pay (as do many people) and as it is not the full amount you get 2 fingers. Snotty attitudes, vacant threats, illegal acts (such as chasing debts with no valid CCA etc). You get rung up every hour at work or home, people waiting outside of work to harrass you...just have a read of these boards and you will see the experiences.

Originally Posted by Anon2601

My advice is to make a decent offer of payment, even if they do not accept it as an arrangement, they must process any payment you make to them and it will be deducted from the balance. This will show you are at least making some effort to clear the balance. I have not worked at the company for just over year but at that time debit card payments were free as are standing orders and cheques.

I HAVE made a decent offer of payment, I do not understand what would be deemed as decent to BCW other than the full amount, which tbh was just a bullying tactic used by the operator imho. And no they do charge £2 for a debit card payment. Thus fuelling a persons debt even more.

Now to clarify I do not think that everyone who works or worked for a DCA is evil. There have been times when I have seen DCAs act accordingly and obviously it is going to be unlikely to hear a tale on this board of how helpful a DCA has been.

However it is a nationally recognised problems that DCAs are acting unfairly, unlawfully and at times illegally. So me being told to be reasonable and to co-operatoe when trying to make a payment feels just like a litle bit of a kick in the teeth to be honest with you.

(Gets off soapbox)

[NailPost]

Has Scottish Power told you matter is in BCW's hands. If they haven't then BCW are acting illegally as the debt has not been assigned properly. Get onto SP and tell them what you think of their debt collectors actions. SP are responsible for their actions no matter what they might tell you and if they start bullpooing complain to the regulator.

Tell SP in no uncertain terms you will not deal with the monkeys at BCW and you will only deal with them. Remind them they caused the problem and send them the bill for inconvenience etc. If they start faffing about send them a letter before action which will give them 14 days to solve the problem or you will issue a county court claim. If they ignore it issue it and see what they do then!

[cheddar]

You know what I don't think that SP did...I remember getting 2/3 letters from SP one asking for the money but they had deducted 10% and another 2 asking for it then all I got was BCWs letter...hmm.

And when you say regulator which do you mean? OFwat? Energywatch? or OFT? Hehe doesn't really matter but tbh I was thinking of taking the action you have given, just wanted to see what everyone else thought.

Glad someone agrees with me

I'll get writing in a mo.

[cheddar]

Well i have drafted a letter of sorts so will get it in the post today to SP...

[cheddar]

Sorry to be so slow updating but about 10 days after i sent the letter i got a reply from SP. It stated that they didn't follow protocol by putting a debt on the new card meter and agreed with basically everything i said and the whole debt has been written off.

[zander]

Who did you write to at SP?

[zander]

I'm in a similar position and having involved energy watch, I've got detailed responses to SP and their monkeys bcw. Appreciate a name & address if someone can direct me? Thanks