Thread: Rossendales now comes with added Clue

Hello all,

I happened upon this site completely by chance, and have spent a instructive few days reading through some of the threads. I am, in equal measure, shocked by the depths of some collection agencies, and impressed by the resolve of Joe Public to hold them to account. Bravo, all of you. I am in the legal profession, although I do not practice consumer credit law. (Standard Disclaimer: I am not your lawyer, and nothing I say here constitutes legal advice.) Having read some of the threads here I thought you might enjoy this tale of a very brief exchange, first with UKPC, then with rossendales. I gather that both companies are looked upon with deep affection in these parts.

In December of 2008, I received something that looked like a penalty charge notification but, on closer inspection, wasn't. It was an invoice from some people called UKPC. Of course, it wasn't dressed up to look like an invoice, but an invoice it was nonetheless. Apparently my car had been parked illegally somewhere in High Wycombe. This confused me greatly. I'm sure that High Wycombe is a wonderful place, but I've never been there (and on the day in question, my car was in the secure car park of a courthouse some 200 miles away). Upon careful inspection of the photographic "evidence" I observed that the registration of the offending car was not even remotely similar to the registration of my car (although the car looked to be the same model). Bearing in mind that, at this point, I had no idea who UKPC were, being the helpful sort of chap that I am, I wrote to UKPC to point out their error. I was expecting to hear no more from them except, perhaps, a short note thanking me for my assistance. (In my profession, one guards one's optimism carefully.)

So you can imagine my surprise upon receiving a further invoice-disguised-as-statutory-notice three weeks later, informing me that I was to be fined double for my insouciance. I was outraged but, since I was due to go on holiday to America that very evening, I resolved to respond appropriately upon my return.

Enter rossendales. Three weeks later I returned home and, before I had even unpacked my Duty Free, I noticed a strange letter in the mountain of paper behind the door. 'Who on earth are "rossendales Collect"?' I ask myself. I am soon answered. After carefully peeling myself off the ceiling and uttering several unjudicial words, I settle at my computer to write a reply. (Note that, at this point, my Duty Free remains unpacked. I am that annoyed.) As I say, my working knowledge of consumer law is not much greater than the average consumer. Having read through some of these forums I am impressed by the templates provided by Bernie_the_Bolt here. If I were offering advice (which I am not), I would advise that these templates are excellent pieces of work that would be hard to improve upon.

Where was I? Ah yes, Rossendales. I replied to their nastygram with a strongly-worded letter. I expected, at the very least, an apology. Did I get it? Did I buggery. Two weeks passed (we're now in mid-January), and I received a further letter, this one skirting the definition of harrassment (as defined by the Protection From Harassment Act (1997)). By this point I had unpacked (and imbibed much of) my Duty Free. I wrote a rather long letter in reply, in which I quoted vast swathes of legislation and case-law. (Had I found this forum earlier, I would have simply used Bernie_the_Bolt's template - it is much more straightforward and covers all the necessary points.) I confess that the letter was over-long, but I may have been under the lingering influence of the Duty Free. Anyway, the denouement. A week later, I received the following letter from Rossendales:

Dear Mr Dredd,
I acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 20th January 2009. I confirm that your account with us has now been closed, and the matter referred back to UKPC Ltd with your correspondence attached. I apologise for any inconvenience which you may have been caused, and assure you that you will not receive further contact regarding this matter from ourselves.

I think I should probably frame that letter. We are now at the beginning of March and thusfar I have not heard a peep from either UKPC or Rossendales

It would be inappropriate for even a very junior member of the judiciary to publicly wish that their male members wither, so I won't. I post an account of this incident to give hope to those people who are being unjustly harassed by these bottom-feeders. They are bullies. They can be beaten.

As you've discovered, this is a mail [problem] and you can never reason with these people. You complain once and they ignore. In fact their eyes light up at the fact someone has responded - someone who responds might pay up. Even if it's not their car, a worried old lady (for example) could well cave in and so they just carry on sending those letters.

I assume your letter eventually reached someone with an IQ above 50 at rossendales, who contacted UKPC. I think they've realised they're wasting their time at this stage, so will probably buy the original driver's details from the DVLA and harrass them.

Ironically, if you would have ignored they would have gone away anyway and you wouldn't have wasted your time writing letters or emails BUT now they'll probably pursue the other, 'right' chap.

Hopefully he won't pay.

Nice post Dredd. Review the Consumer Regs 2008 and I believe you will find most sections breached plus strict liability criminal offenses under the same legislation. Just about every set of PPC paper I have seen seen falls foul in the same way.