wescot regarding an 2 year old BT phone bill

[mwf1982]

hi guys

 

just now ive just received a letter from wescot.Reguarding an 2 year old BT phone bill. I refused to pay my bt phone bill and broadband with them has the phoneline and broadband wasnt working properly.people could ring me and the phone wouldnt ring at my end.broadband was cutting out all the time upto 8 times aday.I phone Bt reguarding the matter loads of times.and there just reported the fault and said it will be fixed in 72 hours by sending some kind of signals down through my phone line. but no change the fault just kept contueing so i didnt pay the bill and let them disconnect me from bt.

 

Anywhere last year in march 2010

 

my neighbour pulled me up and said to me are you mr ------- and i said yes.my neigbour said a company keeps ring for you on my house phone called wescot and asking for you and asking if i am still living at my fixed address.She told me that she told them i still live there and that wescot are sending me a letter reguarding the matter so said ok thanks to my neighbour.

 

The next day

I got a letter from wescot credit services reguarding the debt for the phone bill £330.54p.so i offered them a £1 a month and there expected it.At th time i thought just pat this £1 a month to them and it will get them off my back.

 

Anyway to put things short i got bored of paying this £1 a month to them so i stopped paying it 6 months ago .and today i receive a letter from them 1st time since stop paying them saying

 

 

Our records show that you have failed to maintain the agreed repayment plan .the last payment received on your account was £1 on the 17/08/2010 and as a result the repayment plan is £5.00 in arrears.

 

you have already acknowledged liability for this debt by agreeing this repayment plan,therefore you must take immediate action to clear these arrears.

 

please do not ignore this letter to do so could result you in either us or our client taking action to recover the debt,which may include:

 

1 legal action against you through the courts.

 

2 referring your debt to a door step collections agency to carry out collections at your home.

 

 

 

 

do you think i should just start paying wescot again?

 

 

any advice would be great or help on this matter would be great...

[unclebulgaria67]

Well you need to do now what you should have done 2 years ago. Enter into a formal complaint with BT using their complaints process and take it to the relevant ombudsman if you need to. This will take many many months to go through and in the meantime Wescot will have to stop all collection activity per OFT guidelines.

 

If you strike lucky with BT or if necessary the Ombudsman, you will get the bill reduced or written off.

 

So get a letter off to BT by recorded delivery headed complaint, with envelope also noted as complaint, with a letter setting out the full details of the complaint and that you have corresponded with them about this before. Send Wescot a copy of the letter to BT by recorded delivery, with a covering note telling them that they should stop all collection activity per OFT guidelines, while the matter is subject to dispute with BT.

[DonkeyB]

Wescot’s contacting your neighbours is an absolute no-no. Feckin’ outrageous, letting your neighbours know you may owe money! That’s a complaint to the OFT, and I would suggest cause for damages.

[Bazooka Boo]

Ooh they don't half love abusing peoples rights don't they!

 

OFT&TS via http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/contact

 

Local MP http://www.writetothem.com/

 

BBC Watchdog.....http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/gotastory/

[mwf1982]

Wescot’s contacting your neighbours is an absolute no-no. Feckin’ outrageous, letting your neighbours know you may owe money! That’s a complaint to the OFT, and I would suggest cause for damages.

Do you think i should just keep up with the payment plan with wescot.

[PGH7447]

NO - they have messed up as stated above, they are NOT allowed to contact a neighbour or anybody to discuss your personal affairs, write to these morons and DEMAND their complaints procedure and take them to the cleaners, as proof get your neighbour to make a statement of when they called and what they said

[Capvermell]

I received a call yesterday from these Wescot scumbags using the CLI of 01482 483251 and they had also called twice over the previous two weeks while I was away.

 

They were asking about a neighbouring flat only a few doors away and whether a neighbour still lived there

but first they asked if they were speaking to the occupier of my address to which I said why did they want to know that.

 

The person they were asking about has not lived here for years but the dangers of these kinds of calls to neighbours, especially in error, are obvious.

These seem to me to amount to harrassment.

 

I called back on their 0800 number listed at saynoto0870.com but no doubt they will keep at it because the TPS is weak and useless

and the Information Commissioner almost never prosecutes anyone for misuses of the telephone that are technically against the law.

 

i will file a complaint about them at the TPS and also at the Consumer Direct websites as prosecutions for phone abuse

only ever happen against organisations where thousands of indvidual complaints are logged.

[sbox65]

Sounds to me like you need TrueCall, I believe you can purchase the device via the guys here?? Its fab trust me, it politely tells people you dont want to speak to where to go.

[Capvermell]

Sounds to me like you need TrueCall, I believe you can purchase the device via the guys here?? Its fab trust me, it politely tells people you dont want to speak to where to go.

 

Truecall is no use at all against manned calls by call centres as they just need to press the button saying they actually want to speak to the person they are calling when the message plays from Truecall. Also as huge numbers of calls from business are from number unavailable it is completely unrealistic to just not answer all calls that show as Unavailable. Anonymous Call Rejection is similarly useless for the same reason, especially given that it is a chargeable service.

 

I just want people like Wescot to comply with the law and not make calls that they are not legally entitled to make.

 

I would assume that you must be on some kind of commission with TrueCall to post these messages.

[dpick]

Truecall is no use at all against manned calls by call centres as they just need to press the button saying they actually want to speak to the person they are calling when the message plays from Truecall. Also as huge numbers of calls from business are from number unavailable it is completely unrealistic to just not answer all calls that show as Unavailable.

 

If a business want to call you and get rejected due to number unavauilable then if they want your business the will ring without withholding there number.

Anonymous Call Rejection is similarly useless for the same reason, especially given that it is a chargeable service.

Use truecall and you dont have to pay a monthly fee.

I just want people like Wescot to comply with the law and not make calls that they are not legally entitled to make.

 

If you recoord the call with truecall you then have proof they are calling againt oft regs.

I would assume that you must be on some kind of commission with TrueCall to post these messages.

 

Me I am not on commision to anyone but still promote truecall it was a godsend to me when I had problems.

 

dpick

[assisted blonde]

Not sure what you think Westcot have done that is so terrible, they only asked if you still lived somwhere and said they would write to you, they dont seem to have discussed your finances with anyone, it is their job to find people. Also I agree with a previous post you should have entered into a proper debate/discussion with BT 2 years ago not just witheld your payment but by making an offer to pay as far a I can see you have aknowledged the debt as being yours and just stopping payment because you were bored with it is very silly. To be fair your post seems to give the impression that you are just trying to get out of a debt that you owe, you need to get this sorted properly.

[debbbbsy]

Not sure what you think Westcot have done that is so terrible, they only asked if you still lived somwhere and said they would write to you, they dont seem to have discussed your finances with anyone, it is their job to find people. Also I agree with a previous post you should have entered into a proper debate/discussion with BT 2 years ago not just witheld your payment but by making an offer to pay as far a I can see you have aknowledged the debt as being yours and just stopping payment because you were bored with it is very silly. To be fair your post seems to give the impression that you are just trying to get out of a debt that you owe, you need to get this sorted properly.

 

Wrong.

 

Wescott have no right ringing neighbours.

 

I received a call at my home asking about my neighbour, they gave me her name and her address and asked me to confirm if these details were correct, I asked who they were and they confirmed the company name. I informed them that I knew Westcot were a debt collection agency and they had in fact informed me that a neighbour had a debt with them. I told them that they had breached data protection laws and if this person did live at that address they could sue them. I refused to confirm. They hung up.

 

Regardless of whether you owe the money or not, and it is not our place to judge people, how would you like it if people phoned up your neighbours to try and get information about you.

 

Debbie

[sbox65]

I would just like to point out that I am not on any commission, I only mentioned TrueCall as in the past I had problems and the ability to record what they said was a result - Scotcall dropped themselves in it that way!

[debbbbsy]

hi sbox,

 

I agree, if you have the ability to record conversations it can really help. Many DCA's are quite rude and say the most obsurd things over the phone, things they wouldn't want to put in writing.

[Stressedandfedup]

That company has seriously breached the data protection act!!! Sue them!!!