Debt letter sent to employer-help

[lee79]

Hi, I was wondering where I stood on this.

I was called into the office yesterday as a letter from Mackenzie Hall had been sent to my employer who had opened it.

The letter contained quite a lot of information such as original lender, reference, outstanding debt and who they were.

I called them this morning obviously fuming and they said that they had done nothing wrong as the person where I work should not have opened it! However, it did not have any notices on the envelope such as private and confidential.

Also, they have both my home address and email and I have been in contact with them regularly and I even got a letter from them that same morning, correctly addressed.

Can someone please explain where I stand as this was quite an embarrassing event.

Thanks in advance,

Lee

[unclebulgaria67]

You should report this to Alan Stewart at East Aryshire Trading Standards. This is against the rules of the OFT. You could also consult a solicitor with a view to taking them to court, as I believe this is a breach of human rights as well as data protection. If this debt is nothing to do with the business you work for, they are not allowed to contact your work address, as by doing so they have caused reputational damage. Think about.it. If your boss was thinking about giving you additional responsbility for say budgeting, they might have a rethink, due to this letter.

 

Trading standards contact details. http://www.east-ayrshire.gov.uk/item_detail.asp?UIN=1492

[rebel11]

Hi Lee

 

Uncle is quite right, don't let them get away with it. They know exactly what they were doing.

 

These are the OFT Guidelines:-

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/content.php?416-The-OFT-Debt-collection-guidance

 

You should also lodge a complaint with the ICO:-

 

http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints.aspx

[victoria_siempre]

Hi lee

 

Are they still acting on behalf of the OC? If so, try this to the OC.

 

"

You have telephoned me at work in a manner that appears to breach Office of Fair Trading and other regulatory bodies’ guidelines. I have verbally requested that you cease this breach; I reiterate that now. Your telephone calls have the effect of psychological harassment and act in a way that is likely to be publically embarrassing to me. Your telephone calls may jeopardise my continued employment and result in significant financial loss.

Should you choose to continue to breach regulatory guidelines and UK and EU law by telephoning me at work I will report your activities to the Office of Fair Trading and the Financial Ombudsmen Service and other relevant agencies.

I have made an initial report today to Consumer Direct regarding your activities (Ref no: WMxxx) who have advised me to request a reply from you within fourteen working days prior to contacting them again to escalate this complaint.

Meanwhile I should be grateful if you would send me a copy of your complaints procedure."

 

Complain via Consumer Direct and they will give a you a reference number.

 

This has worked 3 times for me with 3 accounts in formal dispute.

 

best wishes

 

vic

We look forward to hearing from you in writing.

[dadofholly]

This is disgraceful and i have had to lighten the language i would like to have used.

 

They have Knowingly and deliberatley breached OFT guidlines with the sole intent of causing you alarm or distress.

 

Harrassment plain and simple.

 

Their line about the business not opening the letter addressed to you is pure b*&%^*X. If it also had the buinesses name on it - and it was delivered to the business premises - the businesses would naturaly expect it to be business correspondence and therefore be entitled to open it - next they will be saying a PA can't open the mail of their boss.

 

I would complain to the trading standards office as you have been advised - the OFT - and possibly the information commisisoner as this could be misuse of your personal data.

 

I would also consider making a claim against them as suggested by UncleB above - and investigating this to see wether a criminal act has taken place.

 

Have you had much correspondence with them prior to this event?

[lee79]

Thanks for the replies, I will look into them in more detail after work (can't wait).

 

Someone mentioned complains proceedure. I've complained to them in the past as they were ignoring emails and letters. They claimed that they had not received them, despite cashing a cheque that was inside one of these letters. So, I think they like to cover things up a little.

 

The woman I spoke to claimed it was a mistake, is this acceptable? Also, bearing in mind all letters to date and including that morning reached me with no problems so someone must have changed the fields over to make my employers address the primary one and then back again??

 

Again, thanks everyone for the help.

[dx100uk]

Hi, I was wondering where I stood on this.

I was called into the office yesterday as a letter from Mackenzie Hall had been sent to my employer who had opened it.

The letter contained quite a lot of information such as original lender, reference, outstanding debt and who they were.

I called them this morning obviously fuming and they said that they had done nothing wrong as the person where I work should not have opened it! However, it did not have any notices on the envelope such as private and confidential.

Also, they have both my home address and email and I have been in contact with them regularly and I even got a letter from them that same morning, correctly addressed.

Can someone please explain where I stand as this was quite an embarrassing event.

Thanks in advance,

Lee

 

barring what has already been said about how outrageous this is

 

im concerned you appear to be 'regularly' in contact with this DCA.

 

mucky hall are one of the worst fleecers we have here and it would p'haps help you overall, if you outlined what this debt etc is all about.

 

i'm only saying this as you are obv new here and we all know what tricks mucky hall pull when they have a cash-cow in their pocket that is paying them money, and knows no different.

 

dx

siteteam

[dadofholly]

The woman I spoke to claimed it was a mistake, is this acceptable? Also, bearing in mind all letters to date and including that morning reached me with no problems so someone must have changed the fields over to make my employers address the primary one and then back again?

 

You are correct in saying what they would have to do for this to be a mistake - obviously nonsense.

 

They would have had to deliberatley look up your employers details to enter them - and address the letter.

 

It's Harrassment - not an admin error.

 

Who is the original creditor - how long ago was the loan/card taken out - and when was it that you last made a payment?

Edited November 13, 2010 by dadofholly

[coledog]

It sounds like it is time that you stood up to Mucki Hall. Do not phone them or give them your bank details, give us more information about this debt and we will tell you the best way of tackling it.

 

The fact that they are harassing someone who is trying to pay them tells you that you do not want to be dealing with these ****.

[NailPost]

Start the ball rolling against MHall by reporting the cretins to those mentioned already - trading standards, oft and the info Commissioner. Check your credit files and if you find MHall have been writing naughty things on there then that would you give you more leverage against them as if they can't prove you owe them (or their clients) money they shouldn't be writing on your credit files. That would be defamation and would lead to more complaints being made against them.

[RW Fugitive]

Disgusting behaviour from Muck Hall!!!

 

It's my companies policy to open all external mail before sending it on to the recipient, so if it happened it to me i'd be mortified

 

as it's already been said, report them!!

[diskmandave]

Nearly all employers will tell you that anything delivered to them in the post is their property and

they have the right to open it even if someone else's name is on it whether or not it is marked 'private'.

 

It is however a Criminal Offence pursuant to Section 84 of the Postal Services Act 2000 to open,

interfere with, or delay a mail packet addressed to someone else.

[slyspy]

my employer will open all mail not marked 'private and confidential'

 

it absolutely will not open those.

[dadofholly]

Nearly all employers will tell you that anything delivered to them in the post is their property and

they have the right to open it even if someone else's name is on it whether or not it is marked 'private'.

 

It is however a Criminal Offence pursuant to Section 84 of the Postal Services Act 2000 to open,

interfere with, or delay a mail packet addressed to someone else.

 

There are a couple of issues here. - first it was not marked Private & Confidential

Second - There is no reason for them to have written to her via her employer full stop.

 

It is common practice for many companies to open all mail prior to distributing it to relevant individuals or departments - they would naturaly believe it to be buiness post.

 

As regards the potential criminal eliment suggested - the company could argue that the post was addressed to them - which in fact it was - despite "also" being in the name of one of their employees.

Edited November 14, 2010 by dadofholly

[lee79]

Basically this debt came as a result of my employer taking me off of weekly pay on onto monthly pay with no notice and also shortly after reducing my hours from 22+ to 8. As a result I made the mistake of contacting a payday loan company. The rest I'm sure is a well told story.

 

Just had a look through the OFT link kindly supplied and the I assume the guidline they refused to follow is the one where

 

" acting in a way likely to be publicly embarrassing to the debtor either

 

deliberately or through lack of care, for example, by not putting

 

correspondence in a sealed envelope and putting it through a letterbox,

 

thereby running the risk that it could be read by third parties."

[rebel11]

Hi Lee,

 

It should also state in the Guidelines that they can't contact you at work.

[NailPost]

And although the OFT guidelines are just that, guidelines, and have no weight in law the compliance with them are part and parcel of Mackenzie Hall's consumer credit licence which the OFT granted them a renewal in April 2009 after a lengthy consideration period. When the renewal was finally granted it was not without conditions and a very public slap for the firm. Every complaint made against this company to the OFT should include this detail and the question should be asked if this company and its senior officers are fit to hold a licence.

[babybear39]

Exhaust MH formal complaints preocedure, eight weeks duration. Then report them to TS, the OFT (for breach of OFT guidlines, The CPUTR 2008), the CSA who are their trade body and most importantly the ICO as this is clearly a severe breach of the DPA which carries rather large fines and/or imprisonment. Remind them of the case of Furguson V British Gas Trading as well

Edited November 15, 2010 by babybear39

[lee79]

I've just received an email in response to my complaint.

 

They claim it was a system error (isn't it always?) that just happened to coincide with the sending of the letter.

 

He also wrote some stuff that had no point whatever, I think he was quoting from the original lenders t&c's because it went on about them being able to give my details to 3rd parties in connection with recovering the debt.

[DonkeyB]

Was that sent as a final response?

 

Is so, then OFT/TS time; it won’t happen, but...

 

...if it was a system error then similar letters should have gone out. If this was a one off, then it was not a system error. System errors – don’t happen – human input does. But they probably won’t investigate.

 

They continue to do things like this simply because they can get away with it. And they know they can.

[dadofholly]

Do the OFT and TS have their own internal complaints procedures?

 

could we not begin to complain about those who are supposed to be dealing with this - and begin to ask questions of them?

[unclebulgaria67]

System error = they have your employers details noted against the debt..... Why?

 

How did they obtain this information? As far I am aware this information would not appear on a credit record with the credit reference agencies. This must have been contained on the documents you completed for the original creditor ? What if you had changed employment since then and you had no knowledge of the letter being sent. Highly embarassing if people you used to work with, were all aware of this.

 

This was a deliberate attempt to harass you by a member of their staff. There can be no other explanation.

[DonkeyB]

The OFT will not deal with individual complaints, but logs them against a company; TS can take action but is for the most part ineffective in such cases. They will usually try and refer you to the OFT.

[DonkeyB]

I would suggest you escalate the complaint in line with their (no doubt published, as required by CSA guidelines) complaints procedure.

[lee79]

My wife used to work for BT and system error is just another way to say "yes we are at fault and someone is getting a good telling off (perhaps not in MH world) but we're not going to let you know"

 

After re-reading the email he is trying to say that my work address was given to them as relevant information in collecting the debt. Which I don't think it is as they are not supposed to contact the employer, therefore it is not relevant.

 

I assume it's the final response to me as he said the account was on hold awaiting omplaint information.