Robinson Way refusing to stop correspondence

[drew170]

Hello, I'm a new user and hope that someone can maybe offer me some advice on how to deal with Robinson Way.

 

I'll try to keep this as brief as possible. My wife and I bought a small farm in 1999. There was a property on the land, but we decided to stay in our home and rent the farmhouse out. Anyway the tenancy ended in January 2004 and we decided not to put new tenants in, because we eventually wanted to live there ourselves, but the slump in the housing market held us back from selling our main home.

 

Tragically in July 2011 my wife passed away. So left with 3 young children under 5, I managed to sell our home quickly and move with them into the farmhouse.

 

For the past 3 months I have been inundated with letters from Robinson Way looking for and demanding money from someone who doesn't live here. I have sent all the initial letters back to them unopened, but they have continued to send them. So I finally opened a couple to see exactly who they were from and what the heck it was about.

 

I believe they may be for my previous tenants wife in her maiden name. I really can't be certain though as it is 8 years since they lived here and I'm guessing it's her maiden name. There is no first name on the letters only an initial. So it may not even be them!

 

Anyway, I emailed them and told them this was nothing to do with me and I have no idea who it is they are looking for and that no one has lived in this house for 8 years. There also has been no mail other than the usual mail shots in all those years.

 

They have replied really rudely telling me that they got the information from the electoral roll and that they would continue to send letters and if necessary debt collectors would call.

 

I must admit a red mist descended on me and I emailed them back asking them which electoral roll they had checked because I have checked myself and also checked the census and no one of that name is registered as living here. I also angrily told them they could send as many debt collectors as they liked, because they wouldn't be getting a cent from anyone in this household, because 3 of the people who live here are children under the legal age to get credit and the other is a man, they are looking for a female.

 

I realise getting angry probably isn't the right way to go, but I couldn't believe how unbeliveably rude these people are.

 

Has anyone any suggestions on how I get rid of them without resulting in me flying to Salford and being arrested for assault .

 

Thank you so much for reading my ranting ramble, hopefully I expalined myself properly

 

Drew

[Crocdoc]

Being polite to debt collectors will not work, they don't know the meaning of the word. Send a detailed letter by recorded delivery, keep a copy and if this fails lodge a complaint with the OFT.

[ims21]

Thread moved to Debt Collection forum

[padja]

you could go to your local trading standards and ask them to investigate this matter, I'm not sure but there may be a letter in the library on this site, to deal with this. I would personally just bin them and ignore them.

[PGH7447]

Simples, collect all their threat-o-grams and forward them onto trading standards - failing that just throw the lot in the bin and send all future rubbish back to them as not at this address

[citizenB]

Drew, I think this is going to be one of those times where you are going to have to send an Official Complaint - Special Delivery - to their Head office, marked for the attention of the Chief Executive.

 

Something along the lines of..

 

 

Dear Sir or Madam

 

OFFICIAL COMPLAINT - PLEASE DO NOT IGNORE THIS LETTER

 

I have been receiving letters addressed to (NAME).

 

Initially I was returning them marked quite clearly - "Return to Sender"

 

This seemed to spur your computer/robotic staff into increasing the amount of correspondence.

 

I then contacted your company by email,explaining that this property has been empty for 8 years and that no one of the name you appear to be pursuing lives at this address.

 

This seemed to anger your computer/ robotic staff and the tone of the response leaves a lot to be desired.

 

I am advising you this one last time - There is no one living at this address with the name you are pursuing.

 

I am a widower with 3 young children and this constant barrage of communication is nothing short of harrassment.

 

I now insist that you pull the plug on your computer or remove the weapon of choice from your robotic staff and cease sending these letters to my home.

 

You have 10 days to respond to this letter, advising that you acknowledge your error and that you will remove this address from your mailing. I also feel that an appropriate compensation should be forthcoming - £500.00 sounds a nice sum for the stress you have subjected me to.

 

Should you not heed this warning, I will be taking further action without any recourse to you.

 

Yours faithfully..

 

PRINT OR SIGN YOUR NAME DIGITALLY.

 

If you dont receive a satisfactory response within the 10 days then I would take your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman or better still seek an injuction via the courts.

 

HTH

[unclebulgaria67]

I agree with Citizen B, as I have had this same problem. But I would send the letter to their Compliance Manager/Director and not the CEO. My experience is that the compliance manager takes their legal responsibilities in regard to Data Protection and other laws more seriously. I have sent letters to CEO's including companies like Lowells and they have been ignored or just passed to collections.

[citizenB]

Thanks UncleBulgaria.. I seem to recall someone else mentioning that the Number 2 or 3 are usually the better people to contact

[drew170]

Thanks a lot everyone for your speedy replies and good advice. I was so angry at Robinson Way I couldn't even think straight. If my wife were still here, I know she'd have known exactly what to do to put a stop to it, so that just made me more angry!

 

I will definitely sit down tonight CitizenB and compose a letter to them and I'll take UncleBulgarias advice and send it to their Compliance manager. Hopefully I can at least get taken off their mailing list. I know it's not my debt and therefore not a huge "deal", but it really has begun to drive me mad the constant letters and now the "threat" of debt collectors coming to my house looking for someone else. Again not a huge deal, but I can't help thinking, why should I have to deal with this?

 

Anyway thank you all again, you have cleared my head about this and I now know what to do. I'll let you all know what, if anythings happens

 

Drew

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

May suggest co addressing the complaint to The Compliance Manager and Data Controller,

the two bodies who are supposed to ensure that things are done properly.

[NailPost]

And if they don't comply start making complaints to those who regulate these two - the Information Commissioner and the OFT

[citizenB]

Thanks a lot everyone for your speedy replies and good advice. I was so angry at Robinson Way I couldn't even think straight. If my wife were still here, I know she'd have known exactly what to do to put a stop to it, so that just made me more angry!

 

I will definitely sit down tonight CitizenB and compose a letter to them and I'll take UncleBulgarias advice and send it to their Compliance manager. Hopefully I can at least get taken off their mailing list. I know it's not my debt and therefore not a huge "deal", but it really has begun to drive me mad the constant letters and now the "threat" of debt collectors coming to my house looking for someone else. Again not a huge deal, but I can't help thinking, why should I have to deal with this?

 

Anyway thank you all again, you have cleared my head about this and I now know what to do. I'll let you all know what, if anythings happens

 

Drew

 

It is frustrating that they just dig in and dont stop. So they must be stopped. Please keep us updated with the progress of this