Hi my 1st post on here i was hoping somebody can help me i have had 3 letters from civil recovery solutions.

I was caught walking out of b and q after swapping parts from a damaged box to a good box i thought that one part was missing so i took it from the damaged box and put it in the good one.

After being stopped it turned out that the part was in the good box but i had not seen it. No police were called and i was made to sign a store ban for 1 month.

I had received a letter from civil recovery solutions for £95.15 which i ignored and another reminding me that the early settlement fee was about to expire

. I am now on my 3rd letter for £118.94 and it is headed letter before refferal.

I am now quite worried i have ignored this letter as well but they gave me 28 days which is due to expire next week

I am also worried as im going abroad for a few weeks and if it does go to court i wont be in the country and loose by default.

This was a mistake on my part i have never been in trouble with the law and im now loosing sleep and its all i think of but i cant afford to pay the fine plus i dont want to pay out of principal.

Has anyone ever been taken to court from civil recovery solutions or B&Q or are they just trying to scare me into paying.

I hope someone can help me with this please i have read many threads on these companies but most are quite out of date and never come back to say whether they heard anything more or ended up in court.

Thanks in advance.

You totally ignore them

They can do nothing

They are not bailiffs

And have zero legal powers

Dx

I have seen that you have said that in other posts and i was aiming for ignoring them. Has anyone ever been taken to court after the oxford case. I know it would be b&q who would take me to the civil court and not CRS. I was also a bit worried beacuse they have got me on cctv swapping the parts over. Thank you.

Nope

Ignore

Will do thanks!

Hi and welcome from me.

Civil Recovery Solutions is a minnow compared to the likes of RLP and DWF and looking at the company accounts, they are in a bit of a mess with fairly high debts.

It is quite correct to ignore them however, if you still have the letters, can you post them here after hiding all personal information, referencee numbers, bar codes and QR codes

As we very rarely see much of this company, I have never seen one of their letters.

One other thing. CRS cannot do anything to you-ever! Only B&Q can do so but they don't bother as it would cost them far more than they could ever get back.

Hi thank you for your input i still very stressed over the matter as ive never been in this position before. I have attached all three letters to this post.

I would also like to add that i spoke to citizens advice and they said if it goes to court i would be liable for the cost if they win which i was worried about.

I also tried contacting b and q and was told that they would get a manager to contact me at his discretion.

They never contacted me so i emailed again and have been ignored.

It seems b and q have no intention of sorting it with me it seems that CRS are tyring to extract a large sum of money form me which i dont think they a really entitled to.

Thanks.

UKCRS letters.pdf

load of ole twaddle MB

stop ringing people and stop going to useless places like CAB

they havent a clue in todays world

they used to be good but went down rapidly of late.

B&Q have never donw court

and any money you pay these civil recovery fleecers will go direct into their pocket for a nice holiday and to fund scary letters to loads of others

B&Q don't see a penny of it

Absolutely agree with DX here. Ignore them. They have as much power over you as I have (That'll be none)

Remember, CRS can't touch you. ONLY B&Q can but they don't bother

The CAB are covering their backsides. A few years back, they published a document called 'Uncivil Recovery'

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/Global/Migrated_Documents/corporate/uncivil-recovery.pdf

What does that say about what they were saying in 2010 and what they are saying now.

Read the letters you have received and see if you can find anywhere that says 'WE WILL' or 'OUR CLIENT'. They may just follow with the word 'consider'

The letters are pure threat-o-grams to scare you into paying. Those without the required knowledge would likely pay. You now have the knowledge so stop all contact and ignore the silly missives from CRS-and any pet debt collector they may set upon you.

When you read between the lines, you can smell the desperation in their letters, totally clueless and very very immature ignoring the clowns is the only thing to do.

I was re reading them earlier and i see what you all mean its all if's but's and maybe's i shall just wait and see.

It all seems like a pretty much standard letter that they send to everybody but just changing the clients name. It also makes sense how the security man kept going over how important it was to pay early which is also a sign of desperation.

I would be lying if i said it wasnt on my mind but i think thats what they want from people to be scared and pay up. B and q have suffered no loss and their security guards would have been there regardless so how can they build up the cheek to ask for £118.94 and be rewarded a discount of i pay early.

If i was issued a fine from police etc it would be however much and thats that they dont offer a settlement fee do they.

Thanks for everybodys input it has helped me make my mind up once and for all i am happy to stand my ground and keep ignoring them!

These security firms dont help b and q anyway because now they have done this to me i will never step foot into a b and q again so they have lost future custom there which would have brought in a lot more than £100 there are plenty more diy shops around.

Thanks.

If it is anything like another large multiple retailer, a proportion (small) of any settlement of civil recovery goes into the store's security budget and is used as a measure of whether additional guarding is necessary. Clearly there is a vested interest in advising early payment as it potentially means more overtime or resources for guards

I see that. I just think that it is the wrong way to go about things to be honest. I do think there should be security by all means but a misunderstanding should not really result in a large bill. I just think that many private security are just trying it on and praying on the weak to pay up.

Completely agree - and hence why people should take heed of the advice given here as there really is no need to pay

the stores actually PAY to join these schemes so they wont see a penny of whatever you pay if you cough up.

The security co used by the stores arent the store so you are dealing with 2 third parties who have no say in anything. if you wnet back and their security told to to get out you would be entitield to circumvent them by other methods if you wish.

I had a big row with B&Q 4 years ago when I bought some tap fittings. They were of the wrong thread so i took them back to exchange or refund. they didnt have the correct thread so I asked for my money back. They refused a refund because I would not give my name and address (I had the receipt) I was then accused of trying to defraud them by an assistant manager and they got security to escort me off the premises.

I went home phoned B&Q HO and told them what I thought, they said they would speak to the store and I should retun for my refund. i didn thsi and got no further than the desk before I got the same treatment. i told the assistant manager and security chap what had happened in the interim and they said they didnt care. So, back home again and back on the phone. went back again and still got grief.

LBA to B&Q, they made noises and offered a voucher through the post to compensate, i refused and sued. they then paid up before a hearing and when I went into the store the assistant manager and security had been removed from post. The security team never returned to that store.

Good news is never news.

security are not B&Q

the store made no loss so even they cant claim anything, let alone these people. They have no LOCUS ( ie they dont have any interest in the matter) so cant take you to court

I see it seems there a quite a few horror stories when it comes to b and q if you bought the product and it was incorrect you should be entiltled to a refund. I dont understand why they would not give you one. Im not a fan of the civil recovery scheme i would much rather have dealt with police as i know where i stand it would been an acutal fine or a warning as it was a mistake i couldnt imagine they would go to the effort with court where these are threatening with civil court. Thanks for everybodys input it is starting to ease my mind that its not just me.

Technically you are only entitled to a refund if the item is faulty or not as described etc, not if you change your mind or buy the wrong item by mistake.

Most stores have a returns policy of their own though.

Sorry for going off topic a bit.

It is all about who has authority to do things and the real point is that these people have no authority or right to do anything at all. My long winded story was to give an example of who actually makes decisions and what happens when outside contractors overstep the mark.

Well just an update really its over two weeks now from the cut off for paying the 3rd letter and not heard anything yet so hopefully they have given in. We will see what happens in the next few weeks.

As I have said previously, CRS are a fairly unknown company so they may only have a three letter process but I would expect more. I doubt they will get a debt collector involved as there aren't many 'pay on result' companies around so you may be right. Sit tight.