HELP! Lowell Portfolio 1!!!

[Jimpeccable]

Arrived home today to find a letter from the above company claiming that I owe £457.49 and that the debt was bought from Vodafone.

 

Airtime debt - £266.98

Early Termination fee - £190.51

 

I had a phone about 4 years ago with Vodafone (that I cancelled 4 years ago) but since then I have heard nothing at all from them. This has come as a total surprise.

 

I phoned Lowell up and stated I knew nothing about this and in the process handed my phone number to them. I was threatened over the phone stating that not paying is affecting my credit rating! I'm scared I'm going to be harrassed about this through an endless tirade of phone calls and then this is going to affect my credit rating...

 

I told them I'm not paying a debt that comes as a complete surprise after 4 years.

 

What should I do as I literally have no idea about this, I have no idea who they are and as far as I knew the contract was cancelled with no hiccups.

 

I'm after any advice

Edited October 14, 2009 by Jimpeccable

[cerberusalert]

Send them http://www.consumerforums.com/resources/templates-library/86-debt-collectors/573-general-debt-letter-if-you-know-nothing-of-the-debt the onus is on them to prove a debt exists and that they have the right to collect.

[spitfire650]

Lowells are bottom-feeders in the debt collection world who waste a large quantity of paper each day writing inane threatening letters and certainly aren't worth losing any sleep over.

 

They buy impaired accounts that have been written off by the original creditor, normally for less than 10% of their face value and then try and collect the full amount on these whether they are enforceable or not (usually not) by sending a series of threatening letters under various different trading names including, Lowell Financial, Red Collections and Hamptons Legal. These are all the same organisation and despite the implication, Hamptons are not solicitors. They actually have no legally qualified employees working there at all.

 

Fortunately most of the staff they employ have the IQ of a root vegetable and are poorly trained. Most do not have even a basic understanding of the Consumer Credit Act. They rarely do anything more once they have exhausted their collection of standard threatening letters will then start offering you “never to be repeated” discounted settlement figures in reducing amounts. Once you get one of these letters you can assume they have thrown in the towel.

 

It is very unlikely that Lowells will have any documentation to support the claim against you should follow the wise advice above and make them prove the claim.

 

In the very rare cases where they do start court action, or issue a statutory demand, they will back off immediately if a defence is filed.

 

In short there is no need to pay these sponging parasites a penny. If the account is not already statute barred, it soon will be, at which point any reference to it will drop off the credit reference agency files.

 

Last but not least, NEVER have any discussion with them by telephone. The zombie call centre staff are trained to lie and cajole you into entering a payment arrangement at which point the six year statute of limitation clock resets to zero. Any communication should be in writing and start with the sentence “I do admit any liability to your organisation”. Also you should print your name at the end of any letter instead of signing this as there have been instances where disreputable companies like Lowell have scanned signatures and used these to their advantage.

 

You will find hundreds, if not thousands, of useful posts on this site about Lowell where they are despised by the members and will receive all the help you need getting them out of your life.

 

Good luck!

[Jimpeccable]

God bless you beautiful people...

 

I really do thank you guys. I've followed your advice and have just recieved this in response to my email... seems fairly generic which I can only deduct they get a lot of these!!!

 

We are currently looking into your enquiry and will respond to you as soon as possible. Please be assured we will try to answer and resolve your query at our earliest convenience.

 

Unfortunately I am unable to give you an exact date as to when this will be as our enquiries can take time, as we often have to retrieve information from the original client or external bodies.

 

What I can guarantee is that your enquiry is being dealt with and you have no need to e-mail again.

 

If you want to speak to someone in our Customer Service team then please do not hesitate to call on 0844 844 4722

[spitfire650]

What I can guarantee is that there is absolutely no need to pay these bottom-feeding parasites a single penny.

 

Remember Lowell Portfolio 1 have supplied you with nothing, and even if you did owe something to Vodafone they will have received a substantial credit from writing the balance off.

[Lee Vodafone Company Rep]

Hi jimpeccable,

 

As this issues relates to an account you had with us around four years ago I'd like to take a look at this for you.

 

Could you send the Web Relations Team an email by following the instructions in our pinned thread? http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/telecoms-mobile-fixed/213340-vodafone-webteam-customers-problems.html

 

Many thanks and look forward to hearing from you.

 

Lee

 

Web Relations Team

 

Vodafone UK