Their man at the door didn't...

Nothing heard since their letter of Feb 25th. They are over their 8 weeks now. Follow-up email sent, giving max of 7 calendar days to contact me or I will refer the matter to the FOS without further notice. Amazing that they could make two house calls in the space of 2 weeks, yet cannot follow up a complaint in 4 times that !

Had a letter from my MP, on plain headed paper as they're 'off duty' at present, to say she has contacted Concentrix and HMRC on my behalf to see what's happening.

In light of the article in the Independent - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/people-in-need-at-risk-of-losing-tax-credits-after-being-wrongly-accused-of-cheating-10060745.htm - I contacted my MP to let her know we had had our tax credits taken away thanks to the intervention of Concentrix. She has replied to say she will make enquiries on our behalf so I've been doing a bit of digging to find out where the claim is at present, who is dealing with it and so on. I can now pass that to her office. It seems that any sort of appeal will have to go to Concentrix, which seems wrong to me. HMRC have washed their hands of the whole thing have they ? Concentrix say they have not yet had my letter of March 17th, sent first class. I make no wonder, they give an address of a PO Box in Lancing, which should really be Worthing according to the Post Office database, and then have to have it all sent over to Belfast ! I wonder who is paying for the second hop - oh, of course, the tax payer ! What they have done today, and not what I asked them to do, is to start the mandatory reconsideration process. I pointed out that that is useless without the letter and supporting evidence I sent. The supervisor I spoke to had no idea of procedures, he just wanted to get me off the phone. Of course, they will reach the same decision and will have wasted another 28 days in doing so. I'll then have to lodge an appeal against that decision, pointing out just why it was invalid. I'm livid. All of this information is now being sent to MP. I don't know if they are still 'working' now that an election has been called. All this means is that we're not getting anywhere at all.

Get them reclaimed ! Do they not say what the charge was for? Normally they would mark them as 'over limit' or 'late payment', I would especially want to know what the £108 fee relates to if it were my account. Have a read of the CAG Wiki on this topic so you know what you are doing from now on,... http://www.consumerwiki.co.uk/index.php/FAQ. I used the spreadsheet here (click between the arrows) >http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=34013&d=1330899822 Tot it all up, print a copy off, send it to SD with a request that they repay the charges. They'll refuse, the Wiki tells you what to do when they do. Also read other people's threads about how they've claimed and what they did, it all helps as you may end up taking them to court to get YOUR money back.

The CAB have a good guide at: http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/wales/consumer_w/consumer_taking_action_e/consumer_legal_actions_e/consumer_going_to_court_e/consumer_taking_court_action_e/step_three_filling_in_the_claim_form.htm You are the claimant, just your details in that box. They are the defendant, so their details in the next box. Make sure it is the head office (legal) address: Shop Direct Ltd, Skyways House, Speke Rd, Speke, Liverpool, Merseyside L70 1AB I would not put 'unlawful charges'. I really don't want to word the claim for you but it should be something along the lines of 'the defendant applied charges to the account which I believe were unfair (because)... " and mention the 2006 statement by the OFT on what constituted fair charges. I've done several of these now and every one is different so I can't even suggest a basic template. I've also added "A letter before action was sent on Xxx 00 2015, the defendant failed to respond to this."" on a couple, where it applies Value: Mine have been on the lines of "£000.00 of charges plus £000.00 interest in restitution at 00.0%, the rate they applied at the time these charges were made. (As at 00/00/15, increasing by 0.0000% per day until settled)." If you're not asking for a set interest rate in restitution then just put the value of the charges. Just how the 8% is worked out I do not know as I've not had a claim without a set rate.

You need to go through the information, statements or summary, whatever they have sent. You are looking to see what you bought and when, what payments you made but most importantly what charges have been added. You need to make a list of date, what the charge was and the amount. This could be for late payment, being over your limit or whatever. If there are no such charges then you can't ask for them back, but if there are you enter into a dispute with Shop Direct and Lowell have to stand down until that is resolved. No need to give us the list, yet, but say if there are any charges and you'll be guided from there towards reclaiming them, with interest.

It's usually advised to claim by post as you cannot fit all the wording of the POC onto the online form. To be fair, it wasn't Shop Direct who messed up, it was the court. Long story but something went wrong and SD eventually got a set aside, despite settling based on the default court order. The limits are the same for online and postal claims, regardless of the method. You would still have to call the court to check before you could claim judgment by default, and I doubt the same circumstances would apply.

We've now gone over her payslips and looked very carefully at the number of hours and found that one of the payslips submitted was incorrect. She is asking her employer to clarify and we'll send the correct information in. It was not only her holiday pay they got wrong. What annoys me is that the Concentrix/HMRC people have just taken the wtc away, threatened a penalty and want repayment of what we've had already - without any reference to us at all. All the payslips prior were OK, it's just the one where the hours were wrong. I telephoned Concentrix and the bloke I spoke to was the most obstructive I've ever had the misfortune to make contact with in any call centre. Even the guys who claim 'you are infecting our Internets' have more tact. I ended up putting the phone down before I swore ! A letter of complaint is on it's way to HMRC as soon as we have the clarification from her employer. I will also query why Concentrix asked about my self-employment, when I'm not working full stop and have not done so since becoming disabled.

Far too much for a LBA. You've already said everything in the previous letter, no need to repeat it all. Just refer back to it and point out that they were given the opportunity to deal with this without going to court. All it needs is: Dear Sir/Madam Letter before Action I am very disappointed that you have failed to give a satisfactory response to my request dated 20/02/2015. I will allow a further 14 days for you to reconsider then I shall begin a claim against you in the courts without further notice. Yours Sincerely Signed Don't miss out the words Letter Before Action, that's important. Include any reference numbers too, give them all the help they need to identify you so they can't dismiss it as 'account not found'.

She is employed, they were asking about my self-employment. I am not, I'm on ESA and DLA through disability. I've not worked since 2011 and left self-employment in 2005. We found it odd that they asked for evidence of my self-employment. She was not aware her hours had dropped below 30 a week, from what we can see they have miscalculated through taking her 4 weekly pay slips as being monthly. Even so, one of the days was holiday where she only got half a day's pay as it was. No warning, they just took the money away at a time when we really needed it and threaten a penalty as well. Still waiting for their letter of explanation.

I am not working due to disability, I get ESA and DLA plus a small pension. My wife works but only gets a low wage. For the last few years we've claimed Working Tax Credits (WTC) and sent HMRC all the required info, we've not held anything back or tried to hide anything. They do the maths and send us an award letter. As far as we're aware we've done all that's asked of us yet they have sent us overpayment letters every year. Anyway, we recently got a letter from Concentrix, on behalf of HMRC, asking us for pay slips, evidence of my self-employment (?) and so on. We sent them off, with a cover letter to complain about being told to send originals by post - we used special delivery and will never see that extra cost back! HMRC have told us they are stopping our WTC as they cannot determine that my wife works 30 hours. She is a home carer and changed company towards the end of last year. The sad nature of this line of work is that people go into hospital, or even die without any notice, which means the carer then loses out as the company they work for will not pay them for visits they don't do any more. It can take a while for them to gain a new client, or shuffle calls about, to give that carer more work. We had not realised what the backlash of this would be. It is not my wife's fault that her hours were sometimes cut back. You can't really blame the people she was caring for either. It is possible that some weeks she worked less than 30 hours without realising, but it was not deliberate. Obviously she's lost money through doing less hours, which made the WTC even more vital towards being able to pay the bills. Concentrix said they would send a fuller explanation and we would be able to ask for mandatory reconsideration, that was 3rd February, 4 weeks ago. We've heard nothing more from them. HMRC sent a letter to inform us the credits had stopped and they were claiming an overpayment. Concentrix also say they may be giving us a penalty charge. Can it get any worse ! Obviously we will appeal the decision as we feel it's not our fault. My wife may have to get a letter from her employer to explain any weeks she worked less than 30 hours. It is confusing anyway as she is paid in 4 week periods, not monthly. We are unsure if Concentrix have mis-calculated her pay and hours anyway. For example: a recent payslip shows she worked so many hours but also had a day off for which she was only given half a day holiday pay as she didn't have enough days available. Because of this her assumed hours averaged 29.75 over the 4 weeks. Has anyone else had this sort of action taken ? Is there anything we can do ?

That credit agreement is signed ? The side that agrees to the CCA stuff is printed, with a tickbox. I'm not sure of the legality of that. Not that it bears relevance to your claim. You are saying that their charges were unfair and therefore you require that they pay them back, with interest. Unless they are prepared to go to court and show just how much it cost them per transaction to administer your account they will eventually try to settle. It just takes some patience and grit. Stick with the plan and it should work out eventually.

I'd stick to the timetable, but refer to their final offer letter and offer them a final chance to consider their options. They'll probably not even reply. Let the days roll by after the LBA and then start the court claim. Be careful not to add anything that they could use against you though. As long as you're sure of the interest rate you are claiming then add it as interest in restitution, otherrwise your claim would be for the total amount of charges and let the court add the interest, which would then be 8% if the claim succeeds. About Lowell. As SD have now sent a final response your dispute with them has been dismissed and Lowell could start getting stroppy. I'd ignore them myself and concentrate on the court claim. IF they send further letters that say they WILL take you to court, and somehow I doubt it for the amount claimed, you could just ask if they want to be included in your court action Still a long way to go to getting your money back.

I fully expect them to fob me off and will then have to escalate it to the FOS. I'm rather pleased that I thought to report the first visit to trading standards as it meant I had documented the visit and just what happened. When he came the second time I was ready for him.

A few weeks ago a bloke knocked holy hell out of my front door. Wondering what the matter was I went and answered. He started ranting on about something, I only caught part of it. Then I saw his jacket, the word Scotcall caught my eye and I saw red. I told him to go away and shut the door. I am registered disabled with COPD, a condition made worse when exposed to cold air, so there was no way I was going to stand at the door arguing the toss with him. It was a very cold day. I have clear 'no cold caller' signs on the door, including one issued by the Police which reads "No appointment? Don't bother knocking'. He banged on the door again, I just ignored him. after a while he went to his car then came back a few minutes later and shoved an envelope through the door. Knowing that it was nothing to do with me I put it straight into the recycling box, unopened. As we are a no cold calling area, and the signs on the door are quite are clear, I notified the local police neighbourhood team and trading standards. A couple of weeks later and he was back, banging on the door again. I was ready for him,. I had prepared a nice little note and had the copy by the door. I thrust it at him and told him clearly to off. He shoved the note back through the door. Ignorance like that annoys me so I opened the door again, told him to get off the premises or the Police would be called. He started to argue and said he was at liberty to call as often as he liked, I corrected him and shouted quite loudly at him, mainly to alert my neighbours of a potential problem. He backed away on to the street and carried on trying to tell me he had the right - I stopped him, pointed out that he had no rights at all, He knew that I was not the person he wanted to see so he was clearly wasting my time. I said that I was not a messaging service and that I would not discuss another person's financial matters even if they lived there. After he had left I was quite shaken and was in a bit of a state, to put it mildly. My inhalers were not bringing my breathing back to normal and my chest was tight. I suffered a lot of pain through the rest of the day and eventually got a taxi to A&E. They prodded and poked about and gave me pain relief. I had an EGC and x-ray, was sent up to a ward and left to rest a while. A doctor saw me at about 6am, I got no sleep at all that night. The main doctor saw me about 10am and by then the pain had gone, possibly due to the drip and being put on morphine. I was discharged and sent home at lunchtime. Thanks to the unwelcome caller I was unable to do very much for several days. I don't work, I'm not able to, but simple things like making a sandwich or a drink were difficult. I was still very uptight about his visit. I contacted trading standards again. They sent a complaint to Scotcall, I know it's all the same company. I've since had a letter to acknowledge the complaint and I've sent the person who wrote that an email with my side of the story, so there is no doubt about who called and what happened. I managed to get the car registration number last time, so was able to pass that on to TS and the Police. The letter mentions someone who may or may not live here who I am not responsible for. Regardless of if they were here or not, it was me he saw, me he hassled and me he put in hospital through causing me to be so stressed. This has been mentioned to Scotcall. I await their reply. I've repeated that i am not a messaging service and have no reason to speak to their agent at all. I consider his actions to be harassment. He's not been back since. If he does I will be calling 999 straight away as he will be causing a breach of the peace just by being there. He's been told, very clearly, to stay away. Had I been any fitter I would have happily marched him back to his car and shoved him in it. I will not stand for little Hitler's like him barking orders at me as he tried to. I know what Scotcall are about and they now know what little regard I have for them and their agent. I do not bow to threats and intimidation. I'll let you know if I hear any more. If anyone else gets a call from and agent Scotcall or Resolvecall, shut the door on them. If they hang around, call the Police.

I called the mediation service today. 4 weeks after I received my copy of the order and Bos/Hx/Ll or whatever they're called this week have not yet been in touch to agree to using mediation. I had to pay £170 to the court today, the hearing fee. I was given to understand that if both parties agreed to mediation and came to an agreement then the hearing would not be required. But, if the defendant refuses to agree to negotiate, or fails to enter into mediation at all, then isn't that an abuse of process ? They were invited to go via mediation before, whilst the case was still with Salford, but were so late making contact that they missed it and the case had already been moved to my local court. I find it odd that 4 weeks after they were sent an order by a judge they've not been in touch with the mediation service. I have visions of the paralegal team in Hove ...

Apart from leaving your name on it... You've told them, the dispute is with the OC, they don't need to know anything. You've done enough, they are aware. If they start getting silly then you have a big bat to hit them with now It is none of their business what the dispute is, tell 'em nowt

For the SAR - if there's some doubt about who you are and where you live, that usually helps - to Shop Direct that is, not Lowell And, as they are the ones making a fuss about tour previous addresses, they still only have 40 days from your original request, not from when you send the extra info.

And there it is in their letter: First para. "...the legal process you COULD follow..." - Ooh, scary ! They COULD send you a bunch of flowers just as easily, and the likelihood of them doing so is about the same. All designed to intimidate you and make you think the worst. See post #44 above, send them a short letter - if only to cover yourself, they can't say they were not told then.

Really? No MAY or COULD ?, usually something to say they are passing your case to their litigation team - all waffle. They use threats and intimidation to get people to call them and make offers of payment, that's how they work. As Oleg says, please let us know just what they have said, word for word. As already said, ignore them. If you really must, send a short letter to Lowell along the lines of "This account is in serious dispute with Shop Direct and I am awaiting information from them with regard to forthcoming court action against them. If you continue to harass me I will report you to the FOS." No need to add anything else, other than the reference number. As for the SAR taking longer - Shop Direct still have only 40 days in which to comply, if they've asked you for more info then that does not change the time allowed unless the delay was your fault.

Standard Lowell letter, computer generated. You've written to them, they've not yet done anything on their system to stop the auto-generation of dross. Ignore... ;-) If you don't hear back from Lowell with a proper response to your letter within a reasonable time period it may be worthwhile sending a second letter, refer to the first, point out their ignorance, remind them that the matter is in dispute with the original creditor and that they are annoying you with their automated letters... Keep copies of your letters, and a record of when you've sent them. If Lowell get stroppy let us know here. Despite what they say, don't phone them...

I've never been 100% sure but always took it, because it benefited me, to be 14 calendar days - 14 working days seems a strange (but not odd ) number.

It's usually 14 days from when you posted, plus 2 to allow for delivery. These companies should use 14 days from the day of receipt but tend to ignore deadlines and reply when they feel like it, 'within 8 weeks' or whatever.

To wrap this one up. Lowell sent a letter telling us how to pay, but not confirming that it was F&F as we had asked them so we wrote again to spell that out. They wrote back and detailed it for us. Wife paid, we've since had another letter from lowell to confirm the debt is settled and her credit file will be updated to show this. She's not bothered about her credit score as we're not seeking credit anyway. As far as we're concerned the matter is settled.