Thank you. Firstly, about 3 years ago, I had originally been arguing with the university about the amount they were charging me, but after 6 months of being sent back and forth between the same people I stopped pestering them. However, as soon as I received the letter from the university about the debts (last month), I contacted them by email and stated that I had been in communication previously with them about the debts being incorrect. The new amount they quoted was correct, however they stated that it had to be paid in full or a payment plan set up with the debt collection agency. Now, after 1 year (according to their records) they agreed with me over the amount, but did not contact me to tell me this. Then another year later I get a letter stating that I have to pay within 14 days or it goes to a DCA. To me, I was still disputing the amount with them. Also, their reply by email adressed me by a first name that isnt my first name. Now, the debt collection agency is literally threatening me, as I stated above, with court, debts, marks against my parents, etc. I asked them for evidence that the debt is mine and all they could provide is a copy of my university exam and coursework marks (isnt this in breach of the Data Protection Act?) and the emails that I sent to the university over the past month. Including their reply adressed to someone with a different firstname! Now, my problem is, I am in no position to pay any of the debt as I am currently unemployed and the DCA says that I must pay at least 10% of the debt per month. They phoned today and stated that they would give me until 4pm tomorrow to come up with a payment plan or it goes to court and they slap me with fees and interest. The way I see it is - 1. I was disputing the amount with the university 2. The university did not contact me to inform me that they agreed with my calculation of the fees and had lowered the amount by £1500 after 1.5 years 3. The university has sent me emails about this within the month and got my name wrong 4. I have lost out on completeing the MSc component of the course because of this 5. The DCA has provided nothing which proves I have agreed a debt to the university as evidence and I believe what they have should not have been given to the DCA 6. The debt collection agency has made threatening phone calls 7. The debt collection agency has set payment limits that I have no ability to pay What I need advice on is how to fight back at this point. If the debt had been calculated correctly in the first place, I would have paid it. If I had been contacted after they had decided to change the amount to the correct amount, I would have paid it. Now 3 years later, I have had 1 month to sort this out, when I am not in a position to pay. Can they really act in this manner?

Hate to bump, but could really do with some advice.

Well, I have sent off the "prove it" letter to the debt collection agency. Saturday, I received a letter from the DCA, showing a couple of emails I sent to the university asking for them to explain the letter they had sent me asking for payment of unpaid fees of £2600 (the emails show that i was disputing the amount of debt and one of the universities reply emails had me addressed by a name that isnt mine!) and a copy of my exam and coursework marks for the modules I studied (isnt that private information?). In addition a letter was enclosed from TNC stating that if I did not initiate payment proceedings then they would initiate court proceedings and they would claim interest plus court costs. Today I received a very threatening phone call from TNC collections stating - They had given me all the chances they would - They had been helpful - They had given me all the information I needed - They would only deal over the phone because mail was too slow (They sent out the last letter 2nd class then told me it was first, despite me looking at the 2nd stamp on the envelope as they said it) - If I didnt pay now or have a payment plan within 24 hours then they would be taking court action - They would be registering a debt and court action against my parents (where i live) address? What do i do now? As far as I was concerned the University was charging me £3800, and I had contacted them too say it was wrong. 2 years go past and I suddenly have the correct amount being billed to me and 2 weeks to pay? Am I the only one who thins this is unreasonable?

Thanks, I have replied to the university and to the DCA as you advised. Thanks for your help!

Sorry to be a pain, but in this letter I am stating that I know of no such debt to the university, is this ok for me to say as ive stated that I dont believe the debt to be correct, therefore I am aware of the debt. Sorry, I am a bit dense when it comes to legalese sometimes.

Thanks for both replies. The problem with the tuition fee is that it I am being charged for 4 additional semesters. The university had previously said that I was to repeat the second semester, then they said the full year, but when I enrolled for the resit year, I was told that I passed everything in the first semester (except 2 pieces of coursework for 2 of the first semester modules). N.B. I am paying 1 years full tuition for the first year (even though I became ill) and being asked to pay for a second full years tuition, though I believe it should only be one semester (plus the cost of 2 pieces of coursework). Therefore I was charged for a repeat year, instead of a repeat semester, plus 2 pieces of coursework. The problem I encountered was that I had a academic record saying that I was due to repeat "part/or all" of the year and doesnt specify which. The university records of this decision have me as having to repeat the entire year (I have not been shown these records, just told about them!) and yet my academic record clearly shows that I did 1 semester one year, then was ill, then finished the second semester the next year. My exam results and all the coursework (bar the 2 pieces mentioned) where carried over to the next year, I even have a certificate for one of the modules of the first semester, first year. In essence then, i am being told to pay for something that I did not do, nor had to do. At the time I said I would be happy to pay for the 2 extra modules, as long as I got to continue on with the MSc. The university said that I must settle all the debts before enrolling on the MSc component. Therefore, I did not get to complete the MSc component, after putting in all the effort to pass the PgD after being ill. Should/can I ask for all the universitys information on me under the Freedom of Information act. Also, I contacted the university (via email) and restated my position that the amount of the debt was wrong before their deadline to go to a collection agency had passed. Then the debt collection agency phoned me to try to get all the money. I informed them that the amount was wrong and that I was in communication with the university about that fact. The debt collection agency then stated that I would have to pay at least half of the debt then to stop further action, even if the debt is in dispute. I guess that this is not the correct way then from reading the posts on this forum? ;-) Should I contact the university and/or debt collection agency in a formal manner to state that the debt is in dispute if/when I receive a reply to the above letter in Harrassed Seniors post? Should I contact them to state that now? Or just wait for a reply from the debt collection agency? Finally, should I cease all phone and email communication with both parties, relying on just the mail, or can I continue via email also? Thanks again for the help.

Hi, I have recently been sent a letter from "TNC collections" about an outstanding university tuition debt. They phoned me several days before the letter arrived and I quite clearly stated that I wasnt interested in discussing it on the phone and that paying the outstanding amount (£2622.50) within a week or 2 was completely unfeasible, and that the amount of the debt was wrong (more about that later). In 2007/2008 I was enrolled on a PgD/MSc computer course. At christmas I became quite ill (some viral thing according to the doctor) that knocked me for a few months. Because of this I did not hand 2 pieces of coursework in for the first semester (2 seperate modules) and did not complete semester 2. In 2008/2009 I reenrolled on the course. At the time there was confusion with what I had to complete. However all the lecturers and the head of the course told me that I should submit the 2 pieces of coursework for the end of the first semester then sit all the modules in the second semester. The year went well and I eventually passed everything and could go on to the third semester (MSc component). When I went to reenrol for that I was classed as a debtor and not allowed to reenrol. no problem, off to the fees office to setout a payment plan. Now I find out that I am being charged for 2 full semesters in the resit year. Now I spend the next 4-6 months running back and forth between the shool office, fees office, head of course, until i finally get (via email) passed up the chain to the "only person who can help me" who states that i was enrolled for a full year and have to pay for it according to the records, and to change it I have to go back to the school office etc. Despite me pointing out that in the resit year I only sat examinations and classes for the 2nd semester and the only 1st semester thing i did was submit my coursework from the year before. "F*ck this" say I and give up. Hear nothing from the university until this month when I get a letter from the university (pay or go to a debt collection). I point out to them, again, that I believe the debt amount to be wrong and a week later I get the debt collection agency phoning me to say "Pay all now or go to court!". Then a letter from them stating "Pay within 7 days or go court and pay fees, interest and damage to credit record". Any suggestions on how I should respond from now on would be greatfully appreciated. Oh, thanks for bearing with the long story above!. Oh, and should this be put in the students thread.

I have searched all over but unfortunately cant find any proof of sending the details by registered post. I sell a lot of stuff online so go through about 20 registered post recepits a month, I probably chucked it ages ago. The only reason I remember it is that I did phone them up after it had arrived and when they said they didnt have it I was able to tell them it had arrived. I also offered to email a scanned copy, and told them the details needed to contact the original insurer and that the original insurer was willing to be contacted to confirm the details. The only thing I can see that might have confused them is that I purchased the Direct Line insurance in January when I bought a new car and cancelled the previous insurance in February when I sold my old car and then forwarded the details (I knew that I would lose a year NCB but I had a large enough one it didnt make much of a difference). Another thing is, arent they suppossed to send out new DD agreements for me to sign, because I didnt receive them, and therefore they cant have any copies of the agreement.

Hi, Sorry I didnt reply for a while. I have copies of the original agreements with the NCB but no copies of other increased payment notices. I have contacted Direct Line previously of many occaisions, by phone primarily, and never got anywhere, I have one copy of my original letter from my previous insurers left, with the details on it. I took several years to fight this because I was out of the country working most of the time, I can even remember standing in the boarding queue at Stansted fighting with their call centre at one point. On every occaision I contacted them I was told that they could only accept a NCD if I provided a letter from my previous insurers and it had to be an original. After the first 3 letters "never arrived" I told them I could fax it, email a scanned copy or tell them the details so they could contact the original insurers. They refused to do this and just repeated they needed a letter again. Of course this process I went thorugh took several months, but because I was out of the country it was 1 month, then away for 6 months, then check my mail, fight for another month, then away again, etc.

I believe in safe mode the graphics are done by the motherboard (it might have a crappy graphics chip on it). And yes, i have done a full re-install of the OS.

As I said earlier, the laptop boots up and starts to load windows, as soon as windows loads the display goes blank, as in it is not on. If I check the vid cards during boot I can see them start to work (i.e. fans spin and they heat up) but as soon as windows loads, they stop working (i.e. fans stop and cards cool down). And, yeah, its not set to external monitor only.

Thanks for the replies. I have tried every display setting in safe mode, but as soon as I reboot the graphics cards switch off and the display goes blank. Thats why I think its a problem with the vid cards, or maybe something with the SLI connectors. I really dont think its software related as I have tried all combinations of drivers and settings.

Hi, My laptop (Alienware m9700) display/graphics card has partially died. On boot I get the Bios flash and windows xp loading bar but as soon as windows loads the display goes dead, not blank, it just shuts off. On boot up the graphics cards (2xNvidia 256mbs in SLI) start, they generate heat and the fans start spinning, on windows startup they just stop. In safe mode the display works so I scrubbed the drivers and replaced them with the latest ones, and the same problem occurred. Then i reset the computer to its "out fo the box" settings and drivers, the same problem occurs. Opened her up and replaced the CPU and main graphics chip heat pads with proper paste as the pads had melted to where the chips where in direct contact with the heat sink. (The laptop is out of warranty so fiddling around wont void my warranty). Problem still occurs. Anyone have any ideas on what to do, as its out of warranty and I have exhausted my computer knowledge, and dont really have the money to get it repaired, laptop repair is very expensive! Only good thing to come oout of this is I resurrected my 8 yr old desktop and with some elbow grease and £50 worth of components I got it to run GTA4 (at low settings, but it still runs!). Thanks.

Hi, and thanks for advice in advance. In 2007 I purchased a new car and changed my insurer to Direct Line. I contacted my previous insurer and they sent out a notice stating my NCD, it was 5-6 years, something like that, and forwarded it to direct line. Direct Line a few months later said that they never received it, so I repeated the process and sent it registered mail. Once again, they never received it. At this point I leafve the country to work abroad and dont have the opportunity to resolve the matter. 6 months later I renew the policy, despite the problems and try again with the NCD, once again, they dont receive it, they say. After a few months of this, im off travelling the world again! Now I return and have the same problems all over again. Now Direect Line categorically refuse to accept my several years old NCD, despite being claim free for 2 years with them, in addition, and refuse to refund the money they increased my premium too, for me not having a NCD, which I did. Now, I have spoken to my bank manager, to trace the payments through my account and work out what I have been paying. My Bank Manager told me that as I had signed dirrect debit agreements for the original cost of the premium but had not signed agreements for the amunt direct line increased it too, Direct Line effectively illegally took the money out of my account and under the "Direct Debit Agreement" I can claim back the overcharges. However, he suggested I contact the insurance ombudsman before going this route, but he would be glad to help if that did not work. Does anyone have any ideas how I should continue in way that gets me my overcharges (about £1800) back, and does not lose me my previous 6 years NCD, nor the 2 years NCD with Direct Line. Thanks in advance.