Read This! - Daily Express Aug 5th 2009

[N.P]

Howdy all,

 

Just wondering if anyone else has read this in todays paper?

 

Seems even MP`s are getting static from DCA`s.

 

Daily Express | Columnists :: Debt Collecting agents who drive people mad

 

 

 

N.P

[mr.ton]

Here it is to save clicking on the link

 

 

DEBT COLLECTING AGENTS WHO DRIVE PEOPLE MAD

 

 

 

Hassle from debt collection agencies proves impossible to stop

 

 

Wednesday August 5,2009

 

By Ann Widdecombe

 

 

TWO years ago this paper reported the case of Mrs Brazier, a 61-year-old pensioner found dead in a pond after years of hassle from debt collection agencies which bombarded her address in pursuit of a sum owed by somebody who did not live there.

 

All her efforts to convince the various companies that the man was not living there, including a call from the Citizens Advice Bureau, failed. One would have thought that the hideous publicity of the inquest and the excellent debate in Parliament might have shamed debt collection agencies into better practices but they are still plaguing 61-year-old pensioners for alleged debts belonging to third parties because they are plaguing me.

 

The saga began when X, who is unconnected with my family but known to it, began to live in my Devon house to look after it during my absence. The law requires a temporary occupant to be on the electoral roll. In May I accidentally opened a letter from a debt collection agency addressed to X. I don’t know if he owed the money or not but I terminated his residency on the spot realising my address must now be compromised.

 

The subsequent hassle has indeed proved impossible to stop. Just as Mrs Brazier could not convince her particular companies that the person they were pursuing no longer lived there, nor can I.

 

I rang the agency to give them a forwarding address. Letters from other agencies arrived. I did the same but still letters came. So I began writing instead, returning the mail. I set out the circumstances of X’s being on the electoral roll, stated that he was no longer living at the house and helpfully supplied a forwarding address.

 

Beneath my signature I wrote The Rt hon Ann Widdecombe MP which made it pretty simple to verify. Lowell Financial wrote to X three weeks later, at my address, to say that mail had been returned to them but they suspected it was just an effort to avoid contact and that they believed he still lived there.

 

 

SEARCH COLUMNISTS for:

 

Furious, I rang the company, speaking to a man who sounded switched on and alert to the impending public relations disaster. He said that people often pretended to have gone away. Yes, I agreed, but it wasn’t X who wrote. I did. He assured me that all further correspondence with my address would cease. Watch this space.

 

Another feature of Mrs Brazier’s case was the multiplicity of companies pursuing the debt. Nothing has changed there either. One debt, first pursued by Lewis Debt Recovery, was passed to Wescot Credit Services Ltd who commenced the whole procedure over again.

 

I phoned Lewis Debt Recovery to ask why they had passed on duff information. They denied receiving my letter (in the Brazier case a company denied the CAB call) but admitted to having a record of the telephone calls. They said it was the client who passed the information on. The client was Metropolitan Collection Services, HSBC Bank.

 

I could not trace any address for Metropolitan Collection Services until I visited internet sites, where desperate mortals were also trying to obtain their details, and found an answer.

 

When I rang I met a brick wall. It was Wescot’s problem not theirs. I protested that a client must be responsible for information given to debt collection agencies. The employee simply said: “I can’t advise you Ma’am” which to me seems to be debt collector speak for: “We don’t give a damn, Ma’am.”

 

Poor Mrs Brazier never did get rid of them but I shall, having enough weapons in my armoury. What worries me is that my saga is probably the tip of an iceberg which is driving innocent people mad.

[pookeymonkey]

Nice to see an MP on the receiving end!!

 

We may just have found a very unlikely ally.

 

Perhaps some letters to Miss Widdecombe sharing experiences, and asking what her party intends to do about it, especially if they are in power in the near future.

 

Banning DCAs is a guaranteed vote winner!!!

 

Pookey

[lickthewallfatboy]

wake up call at last!!

[PGH7447]

go go Ann, now this is someone you dont want to P*ss off

[N.P]

Do you think she`s a CAG member?

[mr.ton]

Contact Details At Westminster

London House of Commons

London

SW1A 0AA

Telephone020 7219 5091

Contact Details In The Constituency

 

 

Maidstone Edward Winstanley

Conservative Association of Maidstone and The Weald

3 Albion Place

Maidstone

Kent ME14 5DY

Telephone 01622 769898Fax01622 686606

 

I got all of this off her website...

[cerberusalert]

Nice to see an MP on the receiving end!!

Wescott/Lowells had better dig deep & watch the incoming.

[mr.ton]

Sorry folks..the contact info wont paste properley

[N.P]

Wouldn`t it be funny if they Photoshop`d a CCA to have her signature on it?

[sillygirl1]

Wonder if I write to her then she might help with the STILL ongoing CAP1 saga. I will post extracts of their letter on a new thread.

[Pinky69]

Bingo - an own goal by Wescot and Lowell. I have emailed Ann Widdecombe and told her that what she has experienced is only the tip of a very murky iceberg.

 

[email protected]

[lilly white]

Ann Widdecombe

 

 

 

This is an open invitation to get on board we are always looking for people to help

 

The best regards

 

Lilly white..

 

Please I do not speak on behalf of cag

Edited August 5, 2009 by lilly white
forgot to put not

[sillygirl1]

Ms Widdecombe has been duly emailed, wonder what she will do? I work in central London so might get an invite to see her... the latest letter is a joke!

[mr.ton]

I cant think of a better CAG spokesperson than Ann quite frankly

[angry cat]

I have a lot of time for Miss Widecombe;

a lady that does not mince her words!

 

AC

[lickthewallfatboy]

just about the only politician I have any respect for

[mr.ton]

The house were i lived in up until the age of 10, she was filming a documentery for TV & actually stood right outside the house speaking to the camera :eek:

[cerberusalert]

In May I accidentally opened a letter from a debt collection agency addressed to X.

Interfering with mail is a criminal offence that can lead to a fine or up to two years in prison.

 

In May I accidentally opened a letter from a debt collection agency addressed to X. I don’t know if he owed the money or not but I terminated his residency on the spot realising my address must now be compromised.

I note that she never thought to enquire as to whether the debt was X's or not. After all we all know how DCAs like to go phishing. Edited August 5, 2009 by cerberusalert

[angry cat]

I note that she never thought to enquire as to whether the debt was X's or not. After all we all know how DCAs like to go phishing.

 

Yes, but I am always the optimist and that was two years ago.

 

As the famous man said/sang:

The Times they are a' changing...

 

No harm in sending the lady an email, is there?

 

AC

[mr.ton]

I thought it was illegal to open someone elses mail

[Bazooka Boo]

Another nail in the DCA's coffin lid's, they have definitley bitten off more than they can chew with Ann Widdecombe, PMSL:D:D:D

[Bazooka Boo]

I thought it was illegal to open someone elses mail

 

When it comes to DCA's, you can make up your own rules and Laws, just like they do....

[Fred Bassett]

Oh this is the best story I've heard this year. She'll be like a dog with a bone. She's one of the very few independent-minded MPs we've got left and has a great deal of respect all over the House of Ill Repute. I'm looking forward to this.

 

Fred

[mr.ton]

We need as many Caggers as possible to contact her directly with the contact details of the various DCA's....just helping her out thats all