Hi folks - first post,

as I'm somewhat annoyed/concerned that an issue I thought had been dealt with has reared it's ugly head today.

Long story short,

I used a parcel booking service to pay to ship a cardboard bike box overseas in October '16.

This was all fine in terms of goods arriving,

until I received an e-mail 11 days later stating my parcel had been measured by the courier as bigger than the stated dimensions and therefore I had underpaid by approx £50 for the volumetric weight.

The service I paid for cost £30 so as you can imagine I was less than impressed!

I was so convinced it was attempted fraud I reported them to Action Fraud and cancelled my bank card, as the small print of their T&Cs state they will attempt to recover the amount they consider outstanding after a short period.

Their justification for the additional charge was nonsense after I disputed the additional cost, and even their own website disagrees with the way they attempted to justify it.

I also liaised with the parcel carrier directly, but aside from intervening to try and get the booking service to see sense it just went round in circles.

I asked for information that was never supplied, but eventually sent them the pictures of the parcel which I'd taken prior to shipping, with a tape measure in shot, in early December which they wanted to use to generate a refund to them from the courier before they would wipe out the invoice.

All went quiet until early Jan when another copy of the invoice arrived by e-mail, which I quickly responded to.

At this point I was told the opportunity to appeal with the courier was past and to pay up.

I queried whether the photos I'd sent had been passed to the courier but received no response.

I chased this again a few weeks later asking if no news was good news and if my previous e-mail had been received - again, no response.

I assumed until today they'd either got the courier to refund and hadn't bothered to communicate with me, or they'd just lost interest. My last comms to them was end of Jan '17.

Today, by e-mail, I received the following from an e-mail account called Admin Judges which I've anonymised a bit:

Dear Mr ,

 

Our Client:

Our Ref:

Outstanding Balance: sub £50

Additional Costs Incurred: almost £10

Late Payment Compensation: £40.00

TOTAL NOW DUE: under £100

 

We refer to the above matter and write to inform you that we have now been instructed by [parcel booking service] regarding the above outstanding balance due to them.

 

As the above balance has not been paid within our Clients payment terms and conditions additional costs have now been incurred as detailed above and you are now liable to pay these costs.

 

We appreciate that failure to repay this balance may be an oversight on your part and we would therefore be grateful to receive your full payment within the next 7 days to avoid any further action being taken against you.

 

Please note that all payments and queries must now be addressed to Judges Demand and our full contact details can be found at the foot of this letter.

 

Payments can be made via credit / debit card, cheque payable to Judges Demand or direct in to our account on the following details:

 

Barclays Bank

Acc Name: Judges Demand

Sort Code: 20-50-36

Acc No: 43228215

Ref:

 

We look forward to hearing from you in due course.

 

Mr Neil Hesketh

Collections Department

Judge's Demand

Tel: 0151 329 2138

Email:

Web:

Judge’s Demand Ltd trading as Judge’s Demand, 111 Woodside Business Park, Birkenhead CH41 1EP

I presume that rather than acting for the company concerned they have simply bought some packaged debt and are chancing their arm at minimal cost to themselves and see what they get back.

I've had no letter in the post, but I imagine the costs and threats will escalate over time?

I can afford to pay it - that's not the issue - but I begrudge the slimy way they've attempted to get extra money out of me - seems a common tactic for the firm concerned.

Sorry for the long post and thank you to those that have read this far - what advice from well informed regulars on how best to deal?

Many thanks

Debt Collector....ignore them.

Andy

I thought they'd died years ago.

https://cse.google.co.uk/cse?cx=partner-pub-8889411648654839:6449422593&ie=UTF-8&q=Judge%27s+Demand&sa=Search+CAG#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=Judge's%20Demand&gsc.page=1

extremely safe to ignore any silly letters from DCA's like this bunch

they are not

as no DCA ever can be A BAILIFF.

totally ignore

dx

Is there any way they can hurt my credit rating by escalating over time, or will they presumably have to go through a court process before it ever gets near that result?

If they can't even be asked to write to me and pay for postage I figured it was pretty speculative, but will be looking at a new mortgage at some point this year so could do without any aggro on that front!

If they take the matter to court and they win and you then fail to pay up in time they can screw things up for you.

However, they have no right to go to court and would lose any claim as having no locus standi so that scenario will never occur. for this reason they send out silly letters hoping you might fall for it.

Some more delightful comms from this bunch:

 

We are disappointed to note that you have failed to respond to our letter dated xx June 2017

 

We now require full payment to reach us on or before 5pm on xx July 2017 or satisfactory proposals for settlement, failing which, County Court Proceedings may be commenced against you without further reference or warning which will result in you being liable for additional costs.

 

You will also appreciate that should this course of action be necessary a County Court Judgement may be registered against you and this will severely affect your ability to obtain credit in the future.

 

If you have any further queries regarding this amount please do not hesitate to contact me.

 

 

Yours faithfully,

 

 

Collections Department

Judges Demand

 

 

Kind Regards

Admin Team

Judge's Demand Ltd

 

Tel : 0151 329 2138

 

Some more delightful comms from this bunch:

I'm sure it hasn't escaped your attention that all the things they mention "may" happen. Not that they will, or that Judges Demand can actually do those things. Just the vague "may" happen. Or "may not".