Compensation from Philips for thousands - help!

[JC101]

Hi - this is an absolutely fantastic site - thanks all! I know similar situations have been discussed - but none seem to have the answer...

 

I had a parking ticket that escalated for one reason or another. Philips claimed they had visited my property twice, and dropped letters in - neither time anything was recieved, so the first I knew was when I phoned to find my debt had quadrupled, including the excessive fees we all know about. I sent the standard letter claiming fraud, demanding the truth and tracking information about the visits on the 25th September, by recorded delivery and email, giving them 7 days to get back to me.

 

I received an email back (after phoning to say dont post anything because of postal strikes) on the 27th October asking for £10 for the information relating to tracking - which I sent recorded the next day. I phoned today to find out the cheque had been misallocated to pay my debt - even though I had clearly written it was for the data. Nothing about the excessive fees still.

 

You can never get hold of anybody at Philips who can help - no customer service, nobody who actually deals with queries, you have to write and wait. Meanwhile, the hold Westminster Council had put on the account for 30 days has passed, and my debt has shot up again to over £500 - with no further visits! And no letter back!

 

I sent an email today advising if I receive nothing back in a further 7 days I will begin court proceedings against them for fraud and compensation - but I just dont know what to do. I can't get anywhere!! If they havent sent me anything back within the next 7 days should I really just go to court over it? Is there another letter to send? Should they be charging me £10 for information they hold? Nobody there has even managed to get me a copy of the letter that was meant to have been dropped in! I am sure they must be the most vile agency in Britain.

 

Really appreciate your help on this - sorry for being a little long winded.

 

Cheers,

 

Jude

[hallowitch]

the council contract Philip's to collect parking tickets and are responsible for all bailiffs actions including there charges therefore you should send the council a FORMAL letter of complaint

 

Philip's should not have charged you £10 for this information a screenshot of your account has nothing to do with access to personal data in the meaning of the Data Protection Act 1998. and account details should have been supplied when requested free of charge

[JC101]

Thanks - according to their letter the £10 was for administrative purposes! I genuinely believe their bailiff did not come anywhere near my house - which I why I want the exact information - did he ring (I have no bell!) or knock, what colour my door was etc..

 

What about taking them to court? Does that normally stop them in their tracks?

[hallowitch]

according to their letter the £10 was for administrative purposes

 

not suppose to charge that either not for account information they are required by law to supply this

 

What about taking them to court? Does that normally stop them in their tracks?

 

before you do this you MUST formal complain to the council and Philip's

 

and another thing if you received no letter (delivered by royal mail) before your 1st bailiff visit your fees would be nil

 

in other words they are supposed to send you a letter before a bailiffs visit to give you a chance to pay

 

IMPORTANT...If you need to make a Complaint to the Local Authority then read here.....

It must be remembered that a bailiff enforcing a debt for council tax, National Non Domestic Rates (NNDR) or an unpaid parking ticket is working as a agent for the local authority.

 

In this, the local authority cannot simply abdicate responsibility for the actions of their contractor as ultimately, it is the responsibility of the local authority to ensure that a levy is carried out in a lawful manner and that the fees charged by their agents are in accordance with statutory regulations.

 

Following a discussion with the Local Government Ombudsman's Office (LGO) they have advised that if you have a Compliant for the Council about their bailiff's then you MUST do the following:

 

.

 

You must ENSURE that you mark your letter to the local authority: FORMAL COMPLAINT.

 

Your letter should be addressed to the CHIEF EXECUTIVE and should be COPIED to the COMPLAINTS DEPARTMENT ( this will ensure that it is registered as a formal complaint).

 

If you are unsatisfied with your response from the local authority then you can take your complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman but they will want to see that you have gone through the councils COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE first and that you have allowed the local authority a maximum period of 12 weeks to respond.

 

The Local Government Ombudsman's office will need to satisy themselves that you have made it CLEAR to the Local Authority that you are making a FORMAL COMPLAINT.

[pink_eeyore]

Philips use digital pens so you should also ask for copies of the reports filed - they will be time and date stamped and should detail your front door etc.

 

These are what they use to prove visits took place.

 

You should definitely include a request for such reports in your formal complaint to both Philips and the Council.

 

The Westminster contract is extremely dodgy so ensure everything is done in writing - preferably email then there is no chance of it being lost in the post.

[tomtubby]

Hi - this is an absolutely fantastic site - thanks all! I know similar situations have been discussed - but none seem to have the answer...

 

I had a parking ticket that escalated for one reason or another. Philips claimed they had visited my property twice, and dropped letters in - neither time anything was recieved, so the first I knew was when I phoned to find my debt had quadrupled, including the excessive fees we all know about. I sent the standard letter claiming fraud, demanding the truth and tracking information about the visits on the 25th September, by recorded delivery and email, giving them 7 days to get back to me.

 

I received an email back (after phoning to say dont post anything because of postal strikes) on the 27th October asking for £10 for the information relating to tracking - which I sent recorded the next day. I phoned today to find out the cheque had been misallocated to pay my debt - even though I had clearly written it was for the data. Nothing about the excessive fees still.

 

You can never get hold of anybody at Philips who can help - no customer service, nobody who actually deals with queries, you have to write and wait. Meanwhile, the hold Westminster Council had put on the account for 30 days has passed, and my debt has shot up again to over £500 - with no further visits! And no letter back!

 

I sent an email today advising if I receive nothing back in a further 7 days I will begin court proceedings against them for fraud and compensation - but I just dont know what to do. I can't get anywhere!! If they havent sent me anything back within the next 7 days should I really just go to court over it? Is there another letter to send? Should they be charging me £10 for information they hold? Nobody there has even managed to get me a copy of the letter that was meant to have been dropped in! I am sure they must be the most vile agency in Britain.

 

Really appreciate your help on this - sorry for being a little long winded.

 

Cheers,

 

Jude

 

We have made so many complaints to Westminster on this very point as Philips are impossible to get through to.

 

Westminster confirmed yesterday to me that if you ring their number and then press star you will be connnected straight away. I have not as yet tried this but would be interested to know if it is correct.

 

Failing which, send a complaint to Westminster on the following e-mail address:

 

 

[email protected]

 

or telephone them on: 0207 641 1743

 

 

.

Edited May 13, 2010 by tomtubby

[kester44]

Hi Jude

 

I am having pretty much the same problem with Philips. It's all a con designed to wear you down and extort money from you.

 

Don't bother writing to Westminster Parking Services as the people you get through to aren't from Westminster Council. They are subcontractors from a company called Vertex who use the same delay and avoidance tactics as Philips.

 

If you want to complain to Philips below is their full address, direct phone number and name of the manager of operations

 

 

Philips Collection Services (baiiffs)

Operations manager: Vicky Savage

Faverdale industrial estate

Darlington Co Durham

DL3 0PH

 

Her direct email is [email protected]

 

Philips direct telephone: 01325 384 394

 

Make sure you cc any letter to Kevin Goad at Westminster Council. Send it to this address P.O. Box 240 Westminster City Hall, 64 Victoria Street London SW1E 6QP (NOT to the Warrington po box number that Vertex give out which is their office address and not Westminster Council)

 

When writing your letter of complaint, there are couple of websites that you should check out:

 

Office of Fair Trading - The OFT will tell you how Philips can and can't behave in their Debt Collection guidance. If enough people complain to the OFT then they can revoke Philips' licence.

 

London Motoring Action Group

London Motorists Action Group - Content

(The LMAG will tell you what they are actually allowed to charge)

 

Also call the National Debt line who are fantastic: 08088084000

 

Any problems let me know.

 

Kester44

Edited December 7, 2009 by kester44

[JC101]

Ok - so here goes the story in brief....unpaid parking ticket from July, Then...

 

- 3 months of letters to Philips to try and get information about the 'visits' they had assured me had taken place, which resulting in 200 per visit (I wrote demanding they justify the charge, and give me a breakdown via GPS of the time and date of visits)

- They had emailed me back with reported dates and times - none of which stacked up. Hence the formal request for information.

- No answer to any of them for 6 weeks, and then a letter saying 10 quid for information!

- Letter sent off recorded with cheque the next day. Called up 6 days letter to find it would take a further 10 days (!) to clear the cheque, information would then be sent. That was 14th Novemeber

- Nothing back at all from them. I called Wesminster parking every day for a week last week to complain - they assured me they were doing all they could. Of course, Philips couldnt tell me anything.

- I sent them a Formal Complaint, and advised I was going to be suing them for fraud within 7 days - cc'd their director, Westminster Council & Office of Fair Trading

- Suprise surprise, I received a letter back the next day. The letter had dates that didnt correspond to the original email I received from them, gave no breakdown of fees, said there was no GPS tracking available - but 'advised me that my door colour was brown'. It isn't. They said their fees are agreed with Wesminster, but are clearly illeagal according to all the information on this great site!

 

Question is - I would like to sue the b****ards for my time, the hassle, the stress to myself & my wife, and for fraud, deception etc... I reckon I should just file it myself, and ask for 3k or something like that in punitive compensation, plus hundreds of pounds in my wasted time. They have clearly lied and are trying to defraud me.

 

Does anybody have any advice? I'm happy to pay a comission of my 3k if somebody does help me get it! Am I wrong? Am I right? I mean, I now have proof they have lied to me for 3 months, and have mixed messages all over the place. Should I sue Westminster?

 

Thanks in advance..!

[hallowitch]

send a PM to tomtubby this woman know the ins and outs of a ducks xxxxxxx when it comes to bailiffs

she has a very good bailiffs advice on line web site that we cant mention on here because its a commercial site

 

but if you send her a PM she will respond to you

[JC101]

He has exceeded the number of saved messages he can have - it's bouncing back!

 

What to do?

[JC101]

THanks Kester - I've just posted the latest installement in this! Following another 6 weeks - I sent a formal complaint, told them I'm suing them - and next day I got a letter! The letter says they had no GPS, gives different and conflicting dates of the visits than an earlier email they sent me, and have the wrong colour quoted as my front door colour!! Didnt try justfying their fees, just said they are agred with Westminster. Fact that they are illegal doesnt seem to bother them.

 

I now need help in sueing these b***trds for thousands of pounds, in stress, hassle, time, compensation, fraud, deception and everything else!

 

All help appreciated!

[wonkeydonkey]

Hi Jude

 

Welcome to cag.

 

I think Philips are living in lala land with all the other enforcers of debt collection. A few questions first:

 

1. Is parking ticket now paid

2 Are you claiming unfair charges

3. Are you contesting the parking ticket

4. What was the original fine amount

5. What is it now

6. What letter did you send

a. A request for general info regarding fees etc

b. Subject Access Request under Data Protection Act

c. A screen Shot of your account.

 

wd

[JC101]

Hi - thanks. To answer the questions -

 

1) Amount of parking ticket is now paid, albeit via the bailiff (i've paid 135 for a ticket of 40)

2) Yes -I sent them a letter about those

3) I was contesting it - I am not now

4) Original fine was 185 -

5) It's over 500 now

6) I sent them a letter for a) & b) - waited a month for them to request 10 quid for the information, then was still waiting up to last week. Hence my formal complaint and notification of legal proceedings to which they sent the first reply back - with almost none of the information requested.

 

Point is - they've come back to me with information that is mixed, contradictory to their own previous information (dates of visits), and totally false (as in door colour) I and my wife have been stressed, I have spent hours on this - and I want to take them to the cleaners!

 

Westminster have been useless - I dont know if I should be taking them to court or Philips?

 

Thanks!

 

Jude

[JC101]

Guess what - Philips have caved! After speaking to somebody at Wesminster, they spoke to Philips and advised them they had the wrong door colour down, and they've cancelled all the charges.

 

Now - I take them to the cleaners. 3 month of hassle, stress, intimidation, time wasting, bullying and fraud & deception - I'm thinking £3k will cover it?

[pink_eeyore]

I would just pay the penalty and forget it - you would be wasting your time and money pursuing (just my opinion)

[JC101]

Why? If they have clearly lied, and I have this in writing now - what harm can it do?

[ploddertom]

You can try but IF you won I suspect you would only get nominal damages.

 

PT

[High Court Enforcer]

If you're going to sue make sure you have all the details and dont ask for ridiculous damages as the judge wont give you them.

[postggj]

Wait For Tomtubby To Reply

 

She Hangs Out In The Baliff Forums So Will See Your Post

[Nintendo Pü]

I wouldnt bother with the internal complaints procedure, its designed to wear you down with a volley of correspondence.

Tally up all your financial losses, disbursements and costs resulting from unlawful action by the bailiffs and file a claim at the small claims court on a Form N1.

Not sure why you paid £10 for a breakdown of fees, this is not accessing personal data as it is defined in the Data protection Act 1998, the bailiff could be running a money [problem].

If a bailiff wants a fee for a breakdown of charges, this can be interpreted the bailiff is unable to show his fees are reasonable costs and therefore the amount owed is nil and become recoverable on a Form N1. Cite the Judge Avent case in your particulars.

[JC101]

Thanks all. Philips have actually denied any wrongdoing - and are refusing to comment! It's Wesminster council who are the middle man, with Philips having nothing to do with it. I just cannot believe they have got away with it.

 

I'm going to file with the county court. I have probably spent over 15 hours over the past 3 months dealing with this, my wife is 5 months pregnant and is stressed beyond belief - I will be hopeful they just won't turn up and I'll get given whatever I ask for. Maybe the judge will teach them a lesson.

 

TomTubby - I'll wait for your invaluable advice first!

[pink_eeyore]

are you sure he is a certificated bailiff?

[Nintendo Pü]

I dont think a certitifate make any difference to debtors. Its to protect the authority when the bailiff handles public money.

 

Any litigation should be addressed to the council and the bailiff can optionally be named as a 2nd defendant.

[pink_eeyore]

He needs to be certificated for you to make a complaint at court

[lets fight bailiffs]

If he is working for the court then that is there problem if he has no certificate not the OP's they are duty bound to make sure that this is the case again nothing to do with the OP PU is correct.

 

In a case where the bailiff is working for a magistrate it can take six months for them to gain there certificate thus leaving them off any list however that is only magistrates Bailiffs.

 

LFB