I received a voicemail message today on a mobile phone that I just use for data. Only two close family members know its number. It has a sim on a monthly rolling contract. My Equifax CRA file, via ClearScore, has an entry showing TalkTalk and the last 2 digits of the account number, but no details of the phone number. The call was from 03445560216: "This is a private call from Cabot Financial. If you are available now, please press 1" ...pause for a few seconds... "This call was placed by Cabot Financial. We can be contacted on 03450700112." Equidebt wrote to me over six years ago, soon offering 80% off. When they went out of business, Cabot took over. Last year, they wrote that they, Cabot, a debt collector, were passing my account to Ruthbridge, a debt collector. Serious stuff. Ruthbridge offered 70% off. Meanies. If I didn't take them up on this magnificent offer, they might, they wrote, return the account to Cabot, who might 'look at alternative activity'. Do they mean skullduggery? Does anyone here have experience of this sort of thing, debt collectors getting hold of phone numbers unlawfully? Or is it just some kind of scattergun approach where they don't actually know who they're phoning? I'm not really bothered, more curious. I just haven't got around to sending them the Limitation Act letter, which I used a couple of years ago on another matter to stop Robinson Way. Which was nice.

To cut a long story short, my partner has some Council Tax arrears which went to Court, were passed to the wonderful Rossendales and now the Bailiff has been out today - the reason? She's in the midst of a DRO application which is half way through processing - but Rossendales don't care. We are well aware that he has no right of entry (only peacefully which he won't get) - so he knocked on the door and got nowhere. A letter pushed through the door with an extra £235 added and his lovely mobile number. Not to be outdone by this chap, she texted him and he left her two voicemails, one saying he won't deal with via text and to call him (my advice is not to call only text as there would be evidence of any slip ups on their behalf). Just got the second messaged and have transcribed it: What's this non-cooperation malarky? The National Debtline who my partner is with have told us we don't have to speak to him at all - but he's claiming refusal to answer your phone is non-cooperation?? Has he slipped up here or just giving out verbal diarrhoea and trying to get the wind up her. If he's slipped up I'll make sure Rossendales are taken to account for such actions - I do think it's just him bullying. One final question - if he continues to ring, numerous times per day, could that be classed as harassment? Many thanks!

Hi there I recently had to call o2 about my phone contract which was left unresolved so they called me back but my phone went on to voicemail obviously the operator hadn’t realised this as he said “pum pum wich is slang for vagina then lafed , i swear down you look like a somalian bitch i would f**K it “ I may point out I am from Kenya and have been an o2 customer for over 10 years I have recorded the voicemail and I have it safe O2 have since called me back and offered to pay off my new phone contract Any ideas were I should go with this as i am not happy at all

Hi all, I’m new to the forum and could use a little advise if anyone can help… Last year virgin media put their voicemail service on my phone line without informing me, I only discovered the service was active after 3 months of it being on my line. A lot of events have occurred during my fight over this and I’m wanting to know how much compensation I should be requesting, please have a read of the complaint and advise if you can… many thanks In april last year I was laid off from work without notice and got behind with bills, vm had restricted my services and when I spoke to them about my outstanding bill they suggested a repayment package, this would retain some of my services and give me a little longer to clear the balance. I spoke with the collections team, made the first payment in july and everything seemed fine. A little later I started to wonder why I’d had no messages of my desktop answering machine but put it down to job applications being unsuccessful. However in early September my girlfriend had vm installed at her house and after telling me about the voicemail service she got the penny dropped. I called my house number and after only 5 rings I was met by virgin medias answering service asking me to leave a message. This meant this voicemail service had been answering my calls without my knowledge for as long as it had been active as my desktop answering machine only picks up after 8 rings. I called vm immediately and the chap I spoke to confirmed this voicemail service had been put on my line in july when I started the repayment package. However he went on to question why it had been put on my line as I was on incoming calls only I wouldn’t have been able to access it. It took three calls to this chap over three days before he finally threw the towel in trying to access it and removed it from my line, thus loosing any messages that had been left on it. I then had to cold call nearly every job application I had sent out the past few months to find out if anyone had left messages for me. I found I’d missed three interviews and more worrying I found a recruitment company had left three messages for me in august as they had a 12 week contract for me starting the following week, as I didn’t respond to their messages they gave the placement to someone else. To try and cut the story short…. I lodged a complaint with vm, had to chase it up several times and after getting nowhere I wrote to the executives office. Got a call back from a chap there who told me he had proof I’d been advised of the voicemail service but he’d credit my account with £20 as a good will gesture. I told him I had not been advised about the voicemail service and that I had only found out it had been put on my line in September, and that the £20 was a joke as I now knew I’d lost out on a job that would have paid over £5000, plus three interviews that I knew of. I escalated the complaint to cisas, and in their defence, vm provided a print out of the account notes entered on the day I made the first payment. The operator had put ‘customer has been advised of the terms and conditions of the agreement and a letter sent out’. I replied to ciasa saying I had not been advised of the voicemail service, the notes do not show that I’d been advised of the voicemail service and nowhere in the t&c’s is there any mention of the voicemail service, further more I had never received a letter and vm did not supply a copy of this alleged letter in their defence, plus they had not provided account notes for the three calls that took place when I discovered the voicemails service in september. Cisas sided with vm, saying that he account notes clearly show that I was advised of the service and that vm are basically free to do what they like. I emailed cisas and asked them to review this decision as it was clearly evident that the adjudicator had not reviewed the vast amount of evidence I had sent her but whilst they admitted that there were discrepancies in how the adjudicator had investigated my complaint I was advised they don’t do appeals. I rejected the decision to give myself time to think things over, then on the advice of a friend I issued vm with a subject access request and asked for copies or transcripts of the calls that took place when I set the agreement up, the week when I discovered the service was on my line, all notes entered on my account for the three month period including times my account notes had been accessed, and a copy of this letter that was supposed to have been sent out to me. Thanks to the joys of the data protection act, three weeks and £10 later I received a nice large envelope from vm. I now have from virgin media’s data protection & privacy department; a letter advising that they can not find a copy or any details of this alleged letter that was supposed to advise me of the voicemails service, a transcript of the call when I set the agreement up that shows that the voicemail service was NOT even mentioned, account entries showing that I spoke to vm on all the occasions that I advised cisas of and not just the one occasion vm claimed in their defence, and full transcripts of two calls that took place on the week I discovered the voicemail service. These conversations document the attempts we made to try and access the voicemail service after discovering it, and the comments made by the operator questioning why it had been put on my line as I wouldn’t have been able to access it. Armed with this evidence I emailed the chap at the executives office and requested he confirm receipt of my email, reassess my complaint and come back to me with a settlement offer. He didn’t reply to my email despite my email provider confirming it had been delivered. I then called his office 3 days later and was advised he was on holiday till the Monday but they would ensure it was brought to his attention first thing. By the Tuesday morning I had still not received a confirmation so I called his office and asked to speak to him but was advised he was on another call so I left a message with my name, my contact number and asked for him to be advised of the urgency to acknowledge my email. By the Friday I still hadn’t received a reply or confirmation so I issued vm with a letter before claim asking they pay a compensation sum that reflects the wages I had lost as their service had without my knowledge or consent, intercepted messages offering me paid work and interviews. I received a grovelling reply to my letter within three days and am waiting on a call back from their head of complaints early next week. Given that the interception of my calls with out my knowledge has cost me a 12 week contract that would have paid £5280 before deductions, at least three other job interviews that I’m aware of plus the issue of employers not entertaining any future applications as I didn’t respond to their replies, the £10 cost of my subject access request and cost of recorded delivery postage on all letters, plus the general stress & inconvenience of having to fight vm to discover the truth…. Any ideas on what a suitable settlement figure would be? Many thanks for taking the time to read this.

Has anyone else has issues with Orange sales reps saying that voicemail is included in Sim only deals and then they bill you 35p per minute for voicemail? I needed a sim for a line I use just to collect messages. I called Orange and they told me that while the 7.50 per month option didn't include voicemail, the £10.50 option did. 3 months later I realise that Orange have billed me 35p per minute for all voicemails. Have spent 45 minutes on phone with them to try to resolve -- they try to put me through to the sales rep invloved but he never answers all calls me back... 6 days has passed since he was supposed to call me back. Complete waste of my time. Very poor customer service + Orange sim only deal is also being mis-sold.