quote - "They didn't use the name "Mackenzie Hall" have now adopted the rather more dynamic name of "J2 Solutions Ltd"." J2 solutions is part of the MH "group of companies" and is the tracing arm of the little empire. One of the directors of J2 is also a director of MH. Run from a boiler house in Blackburn J2's busy bees use the telephone directory, a pin and a large jigsaw map of the UK in futile attempts to track people down. The letter you received, had you responded to it, would have led to you been passed onto MHall, probably their call centre in Ayrshire where more busy bees try to bully you into paying money you don't owe and at rates which you cannot afford.

I was tired last night. Its just dawned on me that six weeks is 42 days - Mackenzie Hall want more time than is allowed by law to retrieve and send what you are entitled to receive. They shouldn't need a tenth of this time. For a start they are only acting as agents for Cabot so all they need send you are those details their client (Cabot) provided you. That is probably name, address and details of the debt. Mackenzie Hall are playing silly beggars.

What you've received is the letter you should have been sent when Crapbot bought the account from Barclaycard. You have challenged them to prove you owe this sum and they are allowed to chase you for it. They have failed and you shopuld now report them to the OFT. OFT wont actually do anything because its a single complaint against the company but if everyone who Crapbot mistreat were to complain the sheer weight of numbers might make the OFT ostriches believe something is amiss at Crapbot Towers and think about taking some action. You should now send a letter to Crapbot stating firmly they have failed to provide details of a debt you now believe to be statute barred and no further correspondence will be entered into.

48 hours! Mackenzie Hall don't deal with requests within 48 days let alone two days! Take what Mr Collins says with a pinch of salt and bear in mind a SARN request runs for 40 days from the date payment was received. I'd say the clock is ticking and the Information Commissioner is waiting for your complaint. You should in any event be contacting the IC with regardto Crapbot defaulting you on something which can only be defaulted on once. If Barclaycard have deleted their entry then so should Crapbot.

Catalogue companies rarely, if ever, can provide a signed agreement and without this they cannot take any legal action. Send those who are chasing you the standard S77/78 letter. If they cannot provide you with these details you have a perfect defence in any legal action they may take. I would wager a penny or two they won't! Regards fraud I would also write to these companies formally advising them you intend to report your suspicions to the local plod. Tell them you expect them to co-operate with any investigation. Ask them for confirmation that the matter is closed as far as you are concerned.

Lots of things wrong with this one. First off - there can't be two defaults. This debt was defaulted once and that would have been by the original creditor which appears to be Barclaycard. Cabot are in the wrong and the Information Commissioner should be informed immediately. You shoudl check back to see if Crapbot have complied. If they haven't make a fuss, a BIG fuss! Crapbot should have written and told you they had bought the debt. Youn mention an old address and they may have tried but my experience is that they don't always write and inform their "new clients". If they can't prove they did then the debt has not been assigned properly and you have a defence to any legal action they may take. You may also have a statute barred defence but you haven't given us any details about the age of this yet. Mackenzie Hall, where do we start. Don't call them from now on. You have found how rude and aggressive they can be. They will not take legal action. I don't think the staff know how. You have sent them the CCa letter and they are in default. You have sent them a SARN. They have cashed the fee so they must send you the details they hold on you. They have 40 days. If they don't the Information Commissioner should be told. Action should be taken. If not start making a fuss. Both Crapbot and MHall should also be reported to the OFT. They won't do anything but a flood of complaints might make them think these two companies aren't being run right. From next April the Finacial Services Ombudsman takes over and he may well want to know why nothing has been done. Kepp in touch by letting us know what's happening.

Panther said "I did notice the contact name at ECI is Scott Soutar who (unless there is another Scott Soutar) was the president of the CSA! However, that might go in my favour as an ex-president of CSA should know better and adhere strictly to guidlines. I will address my letter to him personaly." Its what I said in my post! I wouldn't bother writing to the CSA though. They are only a trade association which depends on the subs its members pay to survive. Complaints are usually found in favour of their members. With regard to the letters written by hagen telephone calls made after you've told the debt **** to stop should be reported to OFT and Trading Standards as well as the Information Commissioner - the **** are using data they are no longer allowed to use - and OfTel - the telephone regulator. The same letter to all four agencies should suffice.

ECI is run from somewhere in Surrey and the big cheese used to be the big cheese at the Credit Services Association (CSA). A condition of their membership is adherence to the OFT guidelines on debt collection. That's not much use in this case but after firing off a letter to these armholes informing them the debt is staute barred and unenforceable and demanding they leave you alone you can safely ignore them.

"do I just ignore them and if I do will bailiffs turn up on my doorstep,any advice is greatly appreciated,as I have no idea which way to turn." You should ignore the red postcard and certainly not call these scumbags. It is pretty likely Mackenzie Hall don't know for certain they have "traced you" using their super-dooper tracing techniques. Your call or letter will simply confirm that they have. Their next move, phone call or not, will be to send you a letter which suggests you owe money to their clients whoever that is. If and when that arrives send them the S77/78 letter along with a £1 postal order, recorded, and tell them, or their client, to prove the debt. Mackenzie Hall never, ever respond to letters. Their system appears totally incapable of dealing with the written word so it would seem likely that they cannot respond properly to your perfectly legal request. Any further letters they send should be filed but ignored until they, or their client, provides you with the correct documentation. Oh and by the way, as soon as they default (30 days) report them to the OFT, Trading Standards and the Information Commissioner.

Grabby restricted my account because they thought I had defaulted on a loan. This was put in place in 1996 and the restriction was on the issue of new cheque books but they never told me! The magic cheque presented a new book is authomatically sent. But a couple of years ago a new one didn't materialise, probably because the magic cheque wasn't written/cashed/whatever and I unsuccessfully tried to order one from the ATM. Turned out one payment wasn't made (their mistake) and they put a default on it. They tried to recover the default - plus interest and charges, £2,200 in total - but I was able to argue they were statute barred having never alerted me, asked me about it etc. They made whinging noises about taking it from my account anyway but didn't because they would have been on very shaky ground legally. Just to make sure I got a mate, who is a solicitor, to write a letter stating action would be taken unless the restriction was removed, a cheque book issued and a note sent to the three credit agencies that the default was wrong. My account was restored to "good standing" but I am currently in dispute with them again over charges. £170+interest for £13 overdrawn for one day!

Has anyone else had computer generated acknowledgements from Grabby in response to complaints about charges and what are the usual waits for proper replies - I wrote a month ago and have had nothing in response apart from meaningless leaflets and patronising notes.

At the end of January I paid in a cheque (£600+) at my local branch of the Grabby not realising that it was a) Friday and b) late afternoon. This, in Grabbyland, means a cheque doesn't start clearing until Monday and available on Thursday as opposed to the expected Wednesday which was the first of the month. As a result my account was overdrawn by £13 for one day! This sparked charges of £145 and £16 in interest. I contacted the branch when the first letters arrived but they were evasive and suggested I contact the call centre pointing to a phone on the wall.I called from home and found myself talking to India. I wrote expressing anger and disappointment and would expect the charges to be waived. No chance! The monthly statement shows the Grabby will deducted the charges and interest from the account in mid-March. I have told them if they are I will issue a formal demand for their return backed up with legal actionif they don't. Their response to date has been two computer-generated acknowledgement letters. The latest apologises for the delay and adds "our rersearch is taking longer than expected because we want to make sure a full investigation is done" What investigation! They are taking charges from my account and I don't want them to do that. Its a simple action. Is this the experience of others - that the Grabby faff about and then find themselves facing court action? This letter comes from Bradford but my letters are all addressed to Prescot Street, London. Where should I be sending my letters and, more importantly, where should I address the court claim forms?

Sadly the penalties mentioned don't apply to company returns, just the accounts. Just a day triggers a £100 penalty for the smallest firms, after three months it becomes £250. Legal action will follow and if a CCJ is obtained CH will send in the bailiffs. And before anyone says anything these are penalty charges and they are made known to companies before they registerso they know what they are letting themselves in for and cannot be refunded as being punitive etc.

The Grabby tried it on once too often! Last March I had the banking equivalent of a clear-out and obtained a list of direct debits and standing orders. Many of the dd's were out of date and not being called upon so I instructed the Grabby to formally close them. Then I told them to stop two standing orders transferring them instead to a direct debit from another account. The Grabby shut just one down and because I get statements only every quarter only found out in January that the SO was still being paid out. Calling up the call centre today I cancelled the SO without difficulty (after waiting around five minutes for someone to be free and jumping through their security hoops). Then I asked them for written confirmation the SO was indeed cancelled and not like the previous one. The call agent became stroppy and said the Grabby cannot issue letters at all. Why not, I responded, I've a collection of computer generated letters from you about charges. She said letters could not be issued from India where she was based. I asked to be transferred to an UK-based call centre. She told me to ring, and ring again until I got an UK-centre, described me as a troublesome customer and hung-up. What wonderful customer care! a MODERATED moved .please keep to original thread when updating this is for your benefit and the benefit of everyone who is following your claim

Thesad thing here is that even if they did pay the dd they would still send a letter informing your daughter they had done so - and then charge her about £30 for the payment and about £20 for the letter! Which bank is it?

At the end of january I found my account (I'm with the Grabby) was overdrawn by £21 in total and paid over a period of four days paid in cheques totalling £1200. These did not clear in time and the bank patronisingly wrote to me twice stating three direct debits had been affected but, as a special favour, they had paid these sums. Of course, the letters said, we'll have to charge you but we'll let you know two weeks before we take the money from your account. I don't know what these charges will be but they will be claimed back! I have already written to the Grabby to warn them what I intend to do The point of this thread however is this - in any other business a payment for a service is subject to an invoice being issued and then, if acceptable, is paid either via cheque, cash or other means. How do the banks justify telling someone they will take £130 from an account on such and such a day and then go ahead and do it even if it means creating an overdrawn situation which triggers further charges and interest. Surely there must be some way of preventing such heavy handed behaviour?