Got yet another call from Roxburghe this afternoon, some guy so i told him very politley to quit calling as i am getting sick of them harassing me and then i hung up, i gotta give them points for persistance lol

You know i only just realised that... how the heck did they get my phone number? i never gave it to them and i was supposed to be unlisted, think it's time to call Virgin Media and see if they have listed my number!! btw, thanks for the replies Mike.

Yeah i figured as much, Throughout the whole affair (about 6 months or so) i have not made any contact with them so all they have is a picture of my car taken by some minimum wage employee with a digital camera. They have no idea who the driver was and i suspect they want to talk to me to try and trick me into admitting either i was the driver or telling them who was actualy driving my car? Still i have no intention of telling them anything, if they want to extort money from me then let them work to do so and if i get a day in court i am presuming that they would have to prove who was driving the car and that if i was asked that i could simply refuse to answer without hurting myself? They do after all hold the burden of proof don't they??

Hi again, just recieved another phone call but this time it was a lady from "Roxburghe" calling, i asked was i legaly required to speak to her and when she realised what i was getting at she said "no, ok goodbye" and hung up. wth is going on, 2 phone calls in the space of a week?? starting to feel harassed

Hi, as stated in the title i got a letter from CMS saying i parked at the car park for Pizza hut & cinema's but didn't use these business's so i had to pay.... blah blah blah I was already well read on these cowboys (Thanks CAG) so i knew to just ignor them and make confetti with said letters, which i did, including the letter from a so called debt collection agency. But last week i got a phone call from a lady who said she was with Graham Whites Solicitors and asked for me by name, i asked what it was in relation to because i suspected it might be this and didn't want to give her any information. She said she wanted to confirm my identity and coudln't tell me what it was about unless i did so, she did however say that i hadn't replied to their letter and thats why she was calling but without my details she wouldn't confirm what the matter was about. I said to her "listen, you called me... i didn't call you, i am not giving you any information as i have no idea who you are and i am concerned about being conned." i told her to send me a letter. Today i got that letter, it says that they are acting on behalf of "Roxburghe (UK) LTD" who are acting on behalf of CMS UK LTD and that they are asking for the amount of £188.00 to settle a PARKING CHARGE NOTICE. It also says that due to the absence of payment or a valid appeal they have been instructed to recover the amount stated. Funnily though at the bottom of the letter it say to contact Roxburghe upon reciept of the letter, does this mean that is my one letter from Graham Whites and their part has now been played?? I was very confident in my actions of simply ignoring these letters but receiving a phone call from them has effectively thrown me a curve ball and my wife who suffers with depression & O.C.D. has become very panicked by it, i keep trying to reassure her but she has become very scared about the whole thing. Everything i have read points to the whole thing being a bunch of **** but i have yet to come across anyone else who says they have been contacted by a phone call from a so called Solicitor? My instincts and every fibre of my common sense says IGNOR, IGNOR, IGNOR but for the sake of my wifes sanity and her being able to sleep at night i decided to post and ask for your opinions on this, It is tearing me up to see my wife reduced to tears over this bull**** so i can think of nothing else other than to seek advice from the CAG. Thank you, Mike.

Spoke to my bank this afternoon who told me they can (and have done) claim back the overpayments. Hopefully nothing will go wrong... thanks.

Thanks for your prompt reply, will keep you updated.

Hi, before i go contacting Santanders complaints dept, i thought i would post my problem here so i don't go off half cocked and make an ass of myself 5 months ago we bought a new TV from Comet, the finance was from Santander and the monthly repayments are £28.00 pcm. The first 3 instalments where paid with no problems but last months payment for some reason was £40.84? When i called up i was put through to an Indian call centre and the lady i spoke with investigated and told me there had been a technical issue on there end and that it would be promptly corrected and that my next instalment would be back to £28.00 again. When i asked her about the amount overpaid she told me that it would be knocked off my final instalment in the plan 4 years down the road! when i asked for it to be returned to me she told me this was not possible. I reluctantly accepted this, nearly 2 weeks after this i got a statement from them which stated that my next instalment would be for £40.84, i immediately rang them (India again) and was told that the problem had still not been corrected but the chap i talked with assured me that the next instalment would only be £28.00 and that he would get this sorted out for me. Guess what? Yup today Santander took £40.84 from my bank account, again! I rang India (AGAIN) and was told that this was a Technical problem (AGAIN) which has now been resolved and that my next instalment would be correct. I asked him "what about the money you owe me?" and he said it would come off my final repayment! When i said that this was unacceptable he kindly passed me to his manager... The manager informed me that it was impossible to refund the £25.68 they had wrongly taken and that there shouldn't be a problem as it would be knocked off my final repayment (4 years down the line), i asked that if i underpayed by £25.00 could it simply be added to my final payment instead of paying it right away lol ... i think you can guess his answer He did say he had credited my account with a £15.00 good will payment, i told him thank you but i would rather just have him either return my £25.68 or knock it off my next monthly instalment. I was told this was not possible to do and he offered me a further £5.00 credit for goodwill? I didnt understand why he just couldn't adjust my next instalment but he could give me goodwill payments and he couldn't understand why i was unhappy because my money would be returned to me 4 years from now? I am intending to contact a complaints dept for Santander in the UK but wanted to make sure that i am acting within my rights to insist my money be returned, i am unsure ifit's better to contact Santander in the UK or to contact my bank (Lloyds T.S.B.) who twice allowed an overpayment, I wasn't aware a creditor could change the amounts taken from a DD account without notice? Thanks for reading

Just made a donation to the CAG but just as i clicked the button in paypal i realised i had not put my username in the "tell us who you are" box lol no worries, i guess i am anonymous *EDIT* my names (Mike Speakman) on my receipt email from pay pal so i guess you will also get that info too.

I guess they are what i like to refer as "parting shots", one last opportunity for them to try and throw some weight around (weight i now know they don't have thanks to the CAG) They can reserve the right all they like just in case they find the missing "CCA" as me and my wife both know it doesn't exist Our income support is paid on Thurs so i will gratefully make a small donation by way of a thank you to the CAG and it's Caggers. You guys have saved us so much worry and stress, thank you

RESULT!!! We received a letter from "Shop Direct Finance Company LTD" today, they have informed us that they will NOT be enforcing the Account (£1123.30) and that we can consider this letter as their "final response" lol They do however say that our records in their internal files will show that the account remains unsatisfied and that this information will be shared with credit reference agencies? I was under the impression that they would not be able to hold this information let alone share it with credit reference agencies? I may have miss interpreted the letter though, you can read it for yourselves: Shop Direct letter, page 1 Shop Direct letter, page 2 I have to admit, After all the bullsh*t that they put us through on the phones before we found the C.A.G i was kind of expecting more of a fight, i am somewhat relieved as it has been like a dark cloud looming on our horizon for a while now You guys are brilliant

Got a Letter from NDR today, it was a statement and another letter the same as the quoted one above telling us that we had broken our agreement and NDR where going to add another £12 charge to our bill. Probably an automated letter, it wasn't signed at all. It did however make me want to phone them up and give them an earfull about paying attention to the status of their customers accounts.... but i resisted the urge lol

Will do Scott, thanks for the quick reply Mike.

Got a reply this morning but it wasn't from NDR or Empire Stores? This time it was from "Shop Direct Finance company LTD." what are they playing at... are they passing us about ?lol Anyway... it wasn't quite the response i was expecting, it seems that there attitude has changed to a friendlier one. We where expecting all manner of threats, I guess they realise now that we have been made aware of our rights and the letter of the law here is the letter we got today: Letter from Shop Direct Finance LTD so what is the next course of action? Obviously we have no intention of taking them up on the offer of using their complaints procedure Mike.

Sent the letter today by special delivery (next day delivery) to NDR at the same address as the CCA request went to. i guess it's time for the proverbial poop to hit the fan now isn't it lol Does anyone have any idea of what type of response we might expect? I know they are not going to just accept it despite it seeming apparent that the letter of the law says they can't enforce the debt, I would be lying if i said we where not feeling very nervous and anxious about the whole thing now, We can't seem to shake the feeling that we are doing something wrong and will end up in trouble I know that's daft, i guess we are just to flipping soft when it comes down to it

will do, still unsure wether to send it to Empire who replied to my CCA request or to NDR who i sent the CCA request to? I know they are both run by the same people but i don't want to give them any reason at all to stall or cause us any more grief.

Going to send this letter to NDR, can someone just read it through and confirm i have done the right letter please? Just a quick question before i send this letter. initialy our CCA request went to NDR but the response letter we got was from a "Mr Mark Warburton" from Empire Stores Admin Support Team. Do i reply to Mr Warburton at Empires Stores or continue to direct my letters to NDR at the same address the CCA request was sent to? are they trying to stall/delay/confuse matters by backing and fro'ing between Empire & NDR? thanks Mike.

Hi again, My wife (Pam) just received a response to our CCA request from Empire Stores (it was sent to NDR but Empire phoned us and replied to the request, are they now trying to appear reasonable?). As expected they are unable to locate an executed CCA and have sent out a blank one. here are links to the scanned letter and T&C they sent out. Empire stores initial response to our CCA request. Atatched blank CCA atatched.T&C.jpg I know roughly what our next course of action is but i am not sure which letter to send them? I must say though that this whole thing has so far been taking a real toll on my wife (Not just us disputing the agreement but all the dealings and phone calls with NDR who managed to make us feel like ****), she suffers with depression and OCD and so far has been panicking in case she had signed something or as she said "what if they send out Bailfs" lol I keep telling her things are ok and we are acting within the letter of the law but having Empire respond exactly how you guys have said they would and also the fact that now she knows for sure she has never signed an agreement has gone a long way to reassuring her and calming her down over the whole matter, i must say the phone call from Empire yesterday realy shook her up. So even though this is only just starting up i wanted to let you all know how thankful we both are to all the people past, present & future who give help and advice to those of us in need. Mike.

Just recieved a Phone call from Empire Stores, the lady was asking for my wife but i said "Can i ask you that all communication from this time on is done in writing as requested in my wife's letter to you, thank you. Bye!" then hung up the phone. i Just used the royal mails website to track the letter we sent them (the CCA request) and it was delivered on the 6th of May. Couple of days ago we recieved letters informing us that our payment was overdue and they where going to add a 2nd £12 charge because we have broken the terms of our "agreement" Think it's the standard bumf they send out for late payments so i disregarded it and filed it away with all the other mail we are collecting from NDR & Empire.

there was no signature on the letter, it was typed on the PC along with the rest of the letter and we are ready for any phone calls. I am expecting more underhanded tactics, tbh thats the reason we are doing this in the first place. Just gotta hang in there and not be intimidated Thanks, Mike.

Sent the letter on Friday, they should have received it today so i am counting the 12 +2 days. Will post up whatever reply they choose to send me

Hi again, I recently posted about our situation in another chaps thread because he was dealing with the same company (NDR), I decided i need to start my own thread. http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/debt-collection-industry/194799-kays-ace-ambrose-wilson.html#post2109724 We had a running catalogue account with our brother in law in my wifes name at Empire Stores. She had been in it via her brother in law who was the agent for aprox 10 - 13 years. In 2008 our catalogue agent packed it all in and sent of the bills to the catalogue because Empire had been bought by Littlewoods and he didn't like their new rules for catalogue agents. We have never had catalogue books for bought items as we trusted our own family member (the agent) so we had no records of what and how much. we got a letter from Empire in May 2008 telling us about the agent quiting and informing us how much we owed. *see below* Empire Letter, May2008 After receiving this letter i was surprised that there where no details regarding our accounts (my understanding is that each item bought has it's own account) so i phoned Empire (with my wifes permission to speak for her) to ask for this information, this was when i was told they didn't have that information. This revelation was to me very worrying, surely the catalogue company should have this information, after all if they don't know what goods i have purchased and how much i have paid of each account how on earth can they operate legitimatly? Not long after the phone conversation i recieved another letter. *see below* Empire Letter, June 2008 No further information on this matter was ever given, all they gave me was a total sum, which they aparently have no way of showing how they arrived at this figure? When paying via the Agent we where not due to start paying for some of the items we had gotten till later in the year (clearance offers, buy now pay october etc etc), we always worked it so that as one account was paid in full a new account was due to start, this way we kept the monthly payments down. Because of the manner in which Empire was now billing us all that careful planning was out of the window and we where faced with larger monthly repayments, the inevitable happened and we fell behind a bit (£158.38). We contacted Empire to work something out because because we couldn't maintain the £150 pcm payments (my wife is on DLA & income support, i am her full time carer and only receive carers allowance). The lady we spoke with was realy nice and told us to make a £10 good will gesture payment for the time being until they work out a new payment plan we could afford, which is what we did with much relief. imagine our surprise when the following month, instead of a new payment plan we received a letter from NDR for the Empire Stores bill !! *see below* NDR letter October 2008 After many heated discussions over a few months with NDR we finally got a payment plan from them for £135 pcm, it wasn't realy much help at all We had become so dismayed that we tried for a bank loan to pay off NDR but where refused, we just wanted to be rid of them and so settled on this figure and resigned ourselves to be shafted by NDR! A couple of weeks back i was toying with trying the CCA letter on NDR as i know we have not signed anything ever for Empire but the whole thing is realy taking it's toll on my wife who suffers from severe depression and OCD, she was making herself ill with worry at the thought of taking NDR on so i decided to just pay up each month. Our last payment was 2 days late paying because we had to wait for our money to go into the bank before we paid (we only have a debit card), we got a letter from NDR on the 4th of April and it was telling us that they are charging us £12 for paying 2 days late! *see below* NDR letter April 2009 Today while re reading the relevant letters i noticed something that realy was the last straw, they where using the Consumer Credit Act to justify charging us a late payment charge and it was the final straw. We have been paying and since this all started we have paid almost £1400. I think enough is enough and i should send them a CCA request letter and with hold this payment that is due now. what do you guys think? If someone could please advise us on this issue it would go a long way to convincing my wife to stand up to these bullies, she wanted me to phone them today but i have to admit the prospect of speaking to thier collection dept had me feeling quite ill as in the past they have always been obtuse and left me feeling like ****. thanks, Mike.

thanks

I have just spent an hour or two reading through and saving copies of all the different letters regarding Debt collection agencies and i have also been reading the relevant parts of the "Consumer Credit Act 1974" we have been having issues with this Empire Stores catalogue debt ever since the agent quit being an agent for them and they contacted us directly, it has been one long nightmare but after spending time on this site reading i now feel that i have been given the tools to stand firm and take control of a horrible situation. My unending thanks to those who provide help to poor debtors like me on this forum and especialy to those who have provided the template letters with which i will launch my campaign against those dodgy buggers at NDR Thank you! Just one more question though, my account was originally with Empire Stores Catalogue who for no reason at all passed the account to NDR (who i think are part of the same corporation that owns Empire). Am i right in thinking that my request for the executed CCA for my account should go to NDR? Regards, Mike.

Thanks for the advice, i will definatly act upon it and i will post an update... but this time i will start my own thread instead of hijacking yours.. Sorry about that, it was only meant to be a quick question but as i wrote i remembered more and more about it Rep added