Thank you very much for the support- I feel much more empowered now to continue fighting it. As you have suggested, I will continue writing letters directly to the company in the hope that they will listen and reply directly. Regards, Emma.

Thank you for the advice Colin. The problem with this company though is that they don't deal with repayments at all themselves, it was passed straight over to the collections agency without me being able to talk to them. I wrote back to the company directly and they passed it over to the agency again. It's a difficult situation but I will take this into account. I don't believe I owe them the money but in the end it seems more hassle to not pay it due to the size of the company and I would rather avoid going to court. Regards, Verity.

Hi, I am in a similar position. I left the company about 6 months ago and had a letter a few weeks after I left from a debt collection agency claiming I owed approx £100. I wrote back with a lot of evidence to show that I didn't owe the money (bank statements, payslips, letters) because I was in fact not being paid in the right week for the full duration of working there so the dates of payment didn't tally up with the dates worked. I have since had a reply basically ignoring all of the effort I went to to prove that I don't owe them money and stating that I owe them the same amount, minus 5p!!! I am very angry at the debt being dealt with by a third party and have not had any reply from the company themselves except to say "They are sorry to hear of my complaint and that I will be contacted directly in due course by the collections agency..." I am now compiling another letter with more evidence of my complaint. Also, if my contract states that "The company reserves the right to deduct overpayment of salary from monies owing" then this doesn't mean that they have the right to reclaim money does it if I no longer work there? It has now become as much a matter of principal not to pay the money because of the way they have dealt with the situation as it is about the very fact that I don't believe I owe them anything. Has anyone experience similar? Will I be taken to court for this amount? Any advice would be really appreciated. Many thanks, Emma.