Mackenzie Hall. Do any of you know of them?

[gherkin69]

In addition to filing a complaint with the trading standards department of your local council send a copy to Joe Donnelly, Principal Officer - Trading Standards

 

East Ayrshire Council 14 London Road Kilmarnock KA3 7AF [email protected] Apparently they are collating complaints and passing them onto the Office of Fair Trading

Fantastic!!! I am so going to fire off a letter of complaint!

My partner received a debt collection notification from them for a debt he did not owe.

I called Mackenzie Hall, and they were blatantly rude and vile to me. Completely unprofessional.

Up until recently I have been working as an office manager for debt collection agency*, and know they were taking the 'merde'. If a member of my staff spoke like that, they'd be through the door straight away.

I recently sent them a request under the DPA - which they have not obliged, nor have they acknowledged my letter of complaint.

I'm going to check when it was sent, and will be informing the Information Commissioner in due course. Wish me luck!

Some important notes:

· A debt collection agency can be instructed to chase after a debt by their clients, however if they are unable to provide you with either a invoice/statement/credit agreement - then they can not chase you legally for the debt. Nor should you be expected to pay for this under the DPA, as this is copy invoicing to facilitate payment and to prove the debt is yours.

· An agency can not make provocative and un-necessary calls (i.e. more than 1 call every 3 or so days) as this is harassment.

· Late collection fees are NOT legally enforceable (unless specifically stated in the terms and conditions or such like which you must be aware of). So do not pay these.

· If the wording of a debt collection agency letter to you is inappropriate, and far too strong, you can report it to your local Trading Standards, who have been known to tell them to re-write their standard computerised letters.

· Some agencies employ 'Super Traces' for approximately £200. These agents, and are known to call/visit neighbors, ex-employers, NOK etc to try and find out where you are. Sometimes, pretending to be a long lost relative/want to get in touch with you as Aunty Mary has died and want to attend the funeral etc. Amongst other guises.

· If the agency does not record their calls, then they will certainly be entering notes into their debt collection system. This information should be available under the DPA.

· Agencies often allow their staff to use pseudonyms, for the safety and security of their staff (hence why you'll often find Mr Baker/Mr Watson etc).

· If you owe money to the client of the agency, ask them if they would be willing to offer a discount for prompt payment. You'd be surprised how much they might offer (not unknown for up to 50%)!

· If you are suffering difficulties on your payment, then immediately write to them, stating this with and income and expenditure report and a proposal of how much you'd be able to pay and ask for interest to be frozen. I have had customers paying £1 a month on a debt of £7,000. They might ask for a periodic review, but eventually it's not worth it for them to collect it, and might offer you a huge discount if you can pay a small lump sum as a full and final settlement. Or even luckier to you, might just write it off...

· Even if you emigrate and owe money to creditors, some agencies have a working partnership with overseas agencies who may trace and collect the debt on their behalf (usually on a 15-30% commission rate).

*I hope you found the above helpful. Please don't send me any hate messages for having worked with the 'enemy'! I promise to post some more helpful info soon.