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Hi all, Hoping for a bit of advice here, I'm relative consumer savvy but working on behalf of my mother in law. Mother in law took out an esporta 12 month membership last year and 6 months into it she was diagnosed with relatively serious cancer. A couple of months after her diagnosis she rang the club to ask her what to do if she wanted to cancel. They told her under the circumstances that she should wait until her 12 months was up (cheeky S*ds!) after 12 months of her contract and two visits to hospital and all her payments up to date like an honest citizen, she rang again and was told that as long as she wrote to them and paid £70 they would break the contract. Which she did. Although being a 72 year old pensioner and living in a different era, she hand wrote her letter and delivered it by hand (because that's what they did in her day bless her!) 3 months on and not a dicky bird, she's received letters from ARC and having not owed a penny in her life she phoned the blood sucking DCA's who have terrified her now into thinking that Solicitors will be onto her if she doesn't pay £130 to make them go away. She's asked me to deal with this, I've phoned for Esporta and not got any response (but will persist profusely!) I've also written to ARC stating that I am acting on her behalf and the debt is in dispute blah blah. The question is, if I don't get Esporta to back off is there a chance that this DCA could pass the debt on and keep it rumbling? I'm happy to fight it on behalf of my very ill 72 year old mother in law who has cancer (how rotten can they get lying to her about cancelling her membership and then setting the DCA on her?!) She's beside herself with worry which in her condition is not a good thing. Should I perhaps consider offering the DCA a full and final of perhaps £75 as long as the sign it off as dead and then just fib to my mother in law that its all sorted and didn't cost anything? Its a toss up between the moral highground and an older lady's health!

It was at a south Eastern Railway Station so I guess Central Parking systems just manage the fines. Is that any help? I'm guessing it's not council operated at all

Hi all, I recently got a ticket for parking in a Season Ticket holders only car park before 9.30 am. At the time when I got to the car park I had parked in one area, saw the signs and parked at the other end of the car park thinking I was safe, apparently the non-season ticket holders car park was down the road and completely seperate! It could have been me being flustered first thing in the morning, and I don't want to go all out and take photos etc, does anyone have a general "nope, not paying, just take me to court and be done with it or go away" letter that I can fire off to them? Many thanks in advance. x

Excellent - pleased to have helped! I think out of the lot of them, Next tend to be the good guys once you talk to the right people

Definitely. I had a similar problem with next a while back when they processed an order that never turned up. 6 weeks down the line in the dispute they switched off my account and sent it to a debt collector. I sent a very strongly worded e-mail to the following address [email protected] 2 days later I had a person on the case. Within a week my account was re-instated and the default removed. Give it a try, explain all the circumstances and see what they say. They were in the end very good with me

I'd write to them recorded delivery and tell them that the debt is formally in dispute now and you refuse to make any payment until they provide you with the info you requested. Also quote that you are aware that is against OFT regulations for a debt collector to chase a debt that is in dispute. Any attempt to collect on their part will be reported to the OFT as a breach of the debt collection guidelines. Will either shut them up or ensure they send the relevant info through.

Got my agreement yesterday from Cap one to pay me £500 on an old card. Checked my current card balance today and it's gone £3 over the limit and surprise, surprise there is a £20 fee on there. Phoned to complain and got the standard response him: "well madam, I can see from the screen that you always make payments on time and therefore I am willing to reduce this charge to £10 for you" Me: £10? No! That charge is illegal and I'm not paying it" him: "Well madam, I am going to have to ask you for a payment of £23 to bring your account back into it's balance, how would you like to pay" me: £23!!!!!! Your company owes me £500!!! Don't you go asking me for money sunshine!!!! Don't you dare speak to me like a debt collector" him: Are you saying you are not going to pay then madam Me: Hmmmmmmm Take a guess!! Here we go again then. Luckily it's only £10 I've got to get them to knock off this time! And no, it is the principle!!!!

Just checked my balance on the new card. I've gone £2 over my limit and they've slapped on a £20 charge. Here we go again!

Ignore me, I've found an e-mail address, e-mailed the contact on my letter and they've agreed to full settlement and voiding the balance on the default. Yay! Can the mods please change my title as I don't know how to do it! Cheque will be with me in ten days and 5% will be donated to the site straight away. Many thanks to all for your help

Hi Thanks for this, I wasn't disputing the default at all, just the fact that I had knocked down my original cash claim with them to ensure that they knocked off the rogue balance. I e-mailed the contact earlier today (I just guessed the e-mail address) and they've come back to me and admitted the error so they will be coughing up

Hi All, I hope you can help me. I placed this thread under the original bank thread but it's got a bit complicated now. BAsically I had a balance agreed in F&F with Cap one last year then commenced action against them this year. I had a balance of £316 written off as part of the settlement. When I commenced my claim I had £700 odd quid owing, Cap one refused to recognise that £316 of this should have been written off their end and said they were still pursuing me for it so I wrote to them with the written proof from the debt collector and reduced the amount of my claim so that I wasn't confusing the issue with amounts that weren't owed to me. I now have a settlement letter as my MCOL is going through, they still won't budge on this owing figure!! I have given them proof that it's written off by their representative, and said I'm not pursueing it. They are having none of it and insist on reducing my payment to me by this amount. I have said I am reporting them to the OFT and IC as they will not clear the balance on my default, they are ignoring me totally on this issue. I cannot get a fax number or tel number for them so that I can point out their error, do I therefore write to them and risk delaying my claim? Original thread is here http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/capital-one/10826-my-cap-one-battle.html#post200813 Any help would be most appreciated.

Please?

Hi, I got my response from Cap one on Friday night offering to cough up the whole lot (I had filed my MCOL so this is their response) however, they are offering to refund the £521 minus £316 that they say is still outstanding on the account!! Now as I had a letter of full and final settlement which I had copied to them, I reduced my claim from the original £600 odd to take into account the balance which they refuse to recognise as being paid. I have already threatened to report them to the OFT and the IC for not recognising a cleared balance, do I fax them today explaining this yet again (it was clear in my previous correspondance of what I was doing and how I was calculating it but this letter has come from Hayley Marriott and not Robert Udy who I had previously corresponded with. If I can point out the bleedin obvious to them today I can get this cleared up once and for all and make my donation to this site! Please help. Do I just threaten to proceed with judgement or just talk to them. Or do I have to do the whole thing again and go back to the original figure?

Interesting - I put my money claim in on or around that date too, they wrote to me saying they intend to defend and I've heard nothing since. Huge congrats on your result!!