contesting old 3 debt

[MATF]

Hi, hope u can help

 

I signed a contract with 3 in 2004 for a mobile.

The phone was a nightmare it didn't work (turning itself off) and had no coverage...my text messages would take about a week to be sent and I would receive text messages about a week after they were sent from my friends.

 

I was also mis-sold the product. When I bought it I specifically asked for wap where I could access the bbc website. As it was, the phone did not have wap but just access to its own website. In the first month it was replaced 3 times due to it being broken. I kept asking for a new phone and they said that it was the handsets fault, not 3's. On the 4th time it was 2 days after the first month and they refused to exchange it. The next day I went into the store with my father and we pretended to be new customers and asked about the phone (including questions about wap and coverage) and again they tried to mis-sell us the phone. We asked to speak to the manager and confronted him about this. He apologised and said he would make sure that the staff would not do this again. We HANDED BACK the handset and cancelled the contract. I received a letter from 3 about 3 months later and I sent them a letter explaining what had happened. The next thing I knew (about 2 years ago) was when I applied for a mortgage I was told about the black mark on my account (it didn't effect me getting a mortgage). However now 5 years after I have now received a letter from a debt collecting agency and have received a phone call from them(i told them I want to go to court about this )

 

 

Anyway what are my rights and what will the Debt agency do.....should I write them a letter giving my intention to contest the debt. Will they go to court or simply go to bailiffs and not give me the chance to contest it.

 

thanks for any useful info

[sam614]

hi.

welcome to cag.

 

you say 5 years?

 

how close can you pin point the last time that you payed anything to this debt,or admitted in writting to this debt?anywhere near 6 years.

 

could be statute barred or very close to it .

if not you could start with.

 

http://www.consumerforums.com/resources/templates-library/86-debt-collectors/573-general-debt-letter-if-you-know-nothing-of-the-debt

 

send recorded print name don't sign.

 

firstly refuse to answer security questions if they call again.

stay off the phone,they will lie threw their teeth to get a payment.

 

they are all pretty much the same usual empty threats;)

 

action wise

 

depends on the alledged amount and which **** dca is having a try,and what response they get from you,another reason to stay off the phone to these cretins,if they think they can bully,scare or convince you that they can do half the crap they claim they will not stop.

 

SAM

[buzby]

OK - a lot of questions, and here are the answers as best I can recall them.

 

Firstly - missold or misbought? For starters, wou may have wanted 'WAP', but 3UK never used it. Why? WAP was a kludge created to give 'internet like' connectivity by compressing the content prior to transmission to make best ise of the GSM bandwidth. 3 didn't offer WAP, because the didn't need to. 3 used UMTS (not GSM) so had oodles of bandwidth and didntt need to compress data in the same way the other competing networks had to - so, complaining about them not offering a technology that was inferior to what they actually provided, would be rather pointless.

 

Next, coverage issues - agreed, this was patchy in the early days, although they required considerably more base stations and infill sites that the other networks, it took them a while to get as good as they have now. Because of this, you would have had 14 days in which to tell them the service wasn't good enough for your purposes, and terminate the contract. Becasue you didn;t the contract was confirmed and you were subsequently bound by them.

 

Handset faults are covered by SOGA (Sale of Goods Act) so arguents about it not being fit for purpose this late in the day won't do much. At the time, and for info you cannot arbitrarily walk away from a contract simply by returning the handset and walking away. If they agreed to cancel, fine - but not unless, and the requirements that you pay what you agreed to still apply.

 

You've now found out that they've marked your credit file - which is what they do. (You gavew them permission to do this when you agreed the contract terms). Thew good news is you have no fear of bailiffs - you won't be taken to court, however the debt has been sold on to a recovery agency who whll do their best to make you pay up what you owe under that contract. If you don;t pay up, they'll sell it on to someone else until the debt becomes uncollectable and 'statute barred'. In the meantime, your credit file will show the default as an unpaid debt and this will remain for 6 years. It is also worth remembering that even IF you pay it, the data will still remain as a default, simply showing that the bill is not 'settled' - but the mark remains, so it could be argued there is no incentive to pay and should simply ride out the hassle.

 

You could try to contest the debt, but would be pretty pointless as they would simply confirm the debt exists and you owe it, so really a short respite to no avail. Based on what you said, the money is owed to the network, but if you ride it out until the 6 years are up, you'll be free and clear once more. However, I wouldn;t take out a contract with ANY network - it's just not worth it!