Telephone Harassment Letters Not Respected.

[Help48xxx]

HFC Bank gave me an early morning call. 0738am to be precise. And they called yesterday.

 

I sent them the letter about telephone harrassment, and things did go quiet for a couple of weeks, but now they have started again. Mind you, I don't speak to them; all my calls go to answering machine before I decide which one to answer I just log them all in my HFC File.

 

xx

[Augmented13th]

HFC Bank gave me an early morning call. 0738am to be precise. And they called yesterday.

 

I have never had a call that early ... about 6 or 7 minutes to 8 has been the earliest ... I thought that DCA's were not suppose to start their collecting activity until 8am - or is that just duff info I have picked up?

[Allwood]

This is **** that you are dealing with they have no respect for people that owns them money they do not care how or when they harass you all that they see in front of them is pound signs, not a person at the other end of the phone.

 

Report them.

[Help48xxx]

I think the problem is that the first, and only time I answered a call from HFC, I ended up cutting the call off as the 'nice lady' was getting belligerent...I don't do belligerent...especially on MY 'phone and in my time!

 

My telephone provider have a service to bar calls, so I'll just input some numbers after each time they call and the number won't be allowed to call me again...genius! I do like the idea of telling them I'll charge them for each call made though...again, pure genius!

 

xx

[ftolad]

I'm currently one of the lucky ones as I'm not getting many calls at the moment, but after installing a line card into my home PBX, I can record calls on both my VOIP and my landline number.

 

I'm thinking of recording a message along these lines, which will be played to any caller added to a blacklist:

 

Hello, and thank you for calling. If you are hearing this message for the first time, then congratulations on becoming a member of an exclusive but increasingly popular club.

 

This is not a live service, and calls from your company have been blacklisted.

 

Despite repeated requests for your company to conact me in writing only, your representatives have continued to call my telephone number. Please note that I find these actions to be in contravention to the Administration of Justice Act 1970, the Protection from Harassment Act 1998 and the Communications Act 2003. Your call has been logged, and may be given in evidence.

 

If you continue to call this number, I will find it necessary to report your company's actions to OFCOM, OTELO, Trading Standards, the OFT, the FOS and possible legal action to seek an injuction plus compensation and costs.

 

This call will now terminate. Goodbye.

They call back, and it just plays the message again and again.

[Guest forgottenone]

This is ****

 

Utterly correct and ... and how better to treat '****' no differently than any other criminal out there. If they don't want to stop abusing you using the phone ... do not comply with your perfectly reasonable, legal request(s) to stop ... then they should expect to reap the consequences.

[Guest forgottenone]

Oh, add to that. See see so many reports of abusive phone callers in the papers regularly ... hoax calls ... harassment ensured to damage the victim or place them in fear for their lives, well being ... hoping too much but one day may we be seeing the actions of a DCA, creditor being shown up in the press in this way? I hope it does!

[ftolad]

Just a further point to my last post above, I referred to OTELO, the Office of the Telecommunications Ombudsman.

 

It appears that OTELO will investigate complaints from customers of any member companies signmed up to their service... I would imagine that very few would, but you never know.

 

Member companies can be found at the following link:

 

Office of the Telecommunications Ombudsman - Membership

 

They work in a similar way to the FOS, and make judgements after investigating both sides of the complaint. I would suggest that complaints should initially be raised with OFCOM first before getting help from OTELO, as their mandate is clearly defined in the Communications Act 2003.

 

[Niteman33]

I have sent letter of harrasement and that future comunications should be by letter a couple of days ago and today i recieved a phone call from HFO who the problem is with with them ringing me to tell me the letter has been recieved!!!! Now had two more missed calls from them they are really p***ing me off

[Sparkles100]

Sent 3 letters to halifax regarding harassement. Thay have replied stating that they are really sorry for any inconvenience and have stopped all calls for the next 4 weeks.

 

I have received 3-5 calls per day since then.

[MilkTrayMan]

If peeps have sent off the Telephone Harassment Template Letter, they MUST be prepared to ALSO make complaints to the relevant authorities that they mentioned that they were going to, to the DCA...

...

[NitrousOxide]

Abbey National

[banker_rhymes_with]

Hello NO2!

 

Abbey National

 

If it's an Abbey Credit Card, then it could be MBNA behind the Harassment, as they have handled Abbey's Cards for some time.

 

Although I gather that may be changing!

 

This may not apply to you, but could well apply to others...if so, I'm just making sure a good portion of the blame goes where it belongs...Chester Towers, again!

 

Cheers,

BRW

[mrmarmite]

I hate to say it, but tis ok to send the letters and for majority if not all will ignore it, I lost count how many times barclaycard phoned, soooooooooooooooooooo I warned them 3 times, 2 by recorded and 1 by special. it still got ignored so I took em to court, end result I got some dosh and poor barclays got a CCJ.

 

until more people do this it will never stop until it starts costing them.

[mrmarmite]

just remember tho, log all calls and missed calls DON'T COUNT

[NitrousOxide]

Hello NO2!

 

 

 

If it's an Abbey Credit Card, then it could be MBNA behind the Harassment, as they have handled Abbey's Cards for some time.

 

Although I gather that may be changing!

 

This may not apply to you, but could well apply to others...if so, I'm just making sure a good portion of the blame goes where it belongs...Chester Towers, again!

 

Cheers,

BRW

You are actually very correct

[Help48xxx]

Strangely the calls from HFC banker(s) have stopped. Now of course this could be due to the fact that they have staffing issues, or they have got fed-up with my rather dreary answerphone message that is almost patronising. Anyway, for whatever reason they have stopped. So now I am almost willing them to ring again as I had accumulated quite a hefty case against them for the relevant authorities to sink their teeth into. Drat!

 

xx

[Innsmouth]

HFO Services.

 

I requested to be contacted in writing only in my CCA request letter, and also included the 'telephone harrasment' letter in the same envelope. They acknowledged receiving these.

 

I received a call from them last week, and informed them again that they are not to call me.

 

The next day I received a call from them but the caller asked me my name and then hung up.

 

This weekend just gone, I was woken at 8am Saturday morning with a call from HFO and again hung up on.

 

I'm about to bump my 'case thread' asking for advice on who best to contact about this as I would like to take it as far as I can in order to land HFO in as much s**t as possible!

[kcasey]

I'm currently in a dispute with Sky Card regarding telephone harassment.

They seem to think it's fine to contact someone 3 or 4 times daily, they have now been sent a reply to their initial reply. I answered one of their calls from the Milton Keynes Collections Centre, and the Customer Service Advisor was very rude, when I told him my rights, and to remove my number he responded by saying that he wasn't removing the number because I owe them money. I will not be spoken to the way he spoke to me, so I have since left them in no doubt that if they do not stop, this will be taken further.

 

Regards

Kieran

[Guest forgottenone]

Barclaycard

Capital One/Debitas

 

I would add more, but I've blocked so many now.

[willtheywontthey]

Capital One refuse to stop caling. I've resorted to changing my mobile number now as I was overseas for 4 weeks and couldn;t cope with them phoning nor with financial cost of their incoming calls!

 

They received official harassment letter months ago (2007) and I complained to FOS. Found out a couple of days ago the FOS have now given me an adjudicator who will look into my complaint. Have not got much hope to be honest as what I've read so far about FOS is that they support company's who say they only want to phone 'once' to speak to us... regardless if they phone several times attempting to do this!!

 

Will update on FOS result but would appreciate anya dvice on what to write as extra to FOS who have asked for an update (since my complaint in 2007!)

[maggie]

Hi all,

I have asked this question in the PPI section,but as yet ,no-one has replied.

To cut a long story short,Dell computers wrongly applied PPI to our account.They were debiting our account each month for payment,but they suddenly stopped in January this year.We have no idea why,We have not cancelled the dd,but then they wrongly passed our account to a dca,who have sent threatening letters,and we have received phone calls from them.The FOS are involved in this now,and Dell have made an offer of £120.00 for the PPI,but we have also requested that we should receive compensation for the account being wrongfully passed to a dca,harassment caused,distress,and a default being placed on our credit file through Dells own incompetence.

How much compensation will we be in a position to ask for through all this,or any idea of how much a judge would award.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[andrew1]

take a read of this maggie with regards defaults RICHARD DURKIN v. DGS RETAIL LIMITED+HFC BANK PLC, 26 March 2008, Sheriff J K Tierney It was in Scotland but okay in E & W courts too..

[maggie]

Hi Andrew1,

So very pleased to hear from you.

A question ,if I may.

I have replied to the fos ,stating that I want to receive some sort of compensation for the account wrongly being passed to a dca,and for the harassment etc; caused.

Should I send a second e-mail reply to the person that is handling this case,qouting the judgement above?

Maggiex

[mfpa]

...Dell have made an offer of £120.00 for the PPI,but we have also requested that we should receive compensation for the account being wrongfully passed to a dca,harassment caused,distress,and a default being placed on our credit file through Dells own incompetence.

How much compensation will we be in a position to ask for through all this,or any idea of how much a judge would award.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

Before thinking about courts and judges, have you considered:-

 

 

• Did the money they took result in bank charges, debit interest, or a reduced sum of credit interest?
  

 

• Did you have to spend much time and money dealing with this? If you were going to court you may be able to claim for that as well as any sum for distress and harassment. And don't forget loss of earnings, if demonstrable.
  
• Compensation is not automatic - you have to convince the court you were harassed - eg provide details of their antics, such as times/dates/frequency/tone of letters and calls. The use of a DCA and the Default do not attract any compensation but harassment and distress could.
  
• Can you demonstrate any loss due to the default on your credit files?
  

 

• Did the paperwork Dell gave you when you bought say you were paying for PPI? If so, a Judge might wonder why didn't you challenge them when you read it. If not, the Judge may ask why you didn't kick up when the direct debits were more than agreed.
  

 

• Does the £120.00 include any element of compensation, or is it simply a refund? The FOS may conceivably order them to pay you more (if you have made a case that justifies it within their remit).
  

Whatever you do, make sure any default is removed from your files at the CRAs, not just marked as settled.