Needing advice

[Fallofflawrence]

Hmm.

I'm at least gonna leave it for now.

But honestly, I'm too much of a scaredy cat and will probably end up paying.

Might go and ask my CAB for advice, it'd be nice to speak to someone in person.

[Grotesque]

But honestly, I'm too much of a scaredy cat and will probably end up paying.

 

 

Nice to make things worse for other people eh lol

[Fallofflawrence]

Yeah I know.

I understand that they must love people like me :/

[Grotesque]

Sorry mate not having a go.

 

But it's because people give em money for nothing that makes it worth their while to carry on. You know, a bit like feeding sharks

[Fallofflawrence]

I didn't think you were, I understand exactly what you are saying.

They just have a very good way of wording their letters to scare people like me!

[ScarletPimpernel]

They just have a very good way of wording their letters to scare people like me!

 

 

 

Are you still scared, even in the face of overwhelming evidence that nothing willl happen apart from RLP sending some letters, which are, after all, just words printed on a page?

 

As others have pointed out, paying firms like RLP does nothing whatsoever for you, and lends a legitimacy to their activities that isn't deserved. They only stay in business because people are scared into paying them, including many vulnerable people.

 

However, only you can decide what to do. By all means go to CAB - but do read their report in the stickies here - and come here as often as you need for support and advice.

 

Paying these wretches may seem like the easy way - but why not try to hang on to your money. You might be surprised at how empowering it is to beat these undeserving creatures!

 

 

If you think that giving some money away will make you feel better, give it to a charity.

[Grotesque]

like me, i'll invest it wisely for you

[ScarletPimpernel]

I can sell you some magic beans*

 

 

 

 

 

*This is made up, just like RLP's invoices.

[Fallofflawrence]

RLP doesn't have any standing when it comes to credit rating either, does it?

Don't want it to bite me in the ass in 10years time

[renegadeimp]

There is no debt, so they cant touch your credit rating unless they go to court and win. And they dont do court.

[Sidewinder]

All good advice - you can be confident that many many people have been where you are and have been equally frightened, but also bear in mind that not one of the hundreds who have taken advice from here and elsewhere - the advice that we give is common to other self-help sites - has come back to tell us that the store have issues proceedings against them. That means no police involvement down the line, no court claim and no mention whatsoever on your credit file.

 

This should tell you a great deal about RLP and their business model. We know that they are relying on guilt, shame or worry to make people believe that paying up will solve the problem, and RLP most certainly know this to be the case, but the fact is that they make a good deal of money out of this. If it were me I would want to protect what, on the face of it, is a very lucrative little scheme, and be under no illusion that this is exactly what RLP will do. The next letter will tell you that you are obliged to engage in 'pre action protocols' which are required under the civil procedure rules in order to reduce the prospect of court action. They will also tell you that the fact that you are not engaging with them or showing remorse will be taken into account by the court, and (since they like playing detective and matching up the circumstances of cases mentioned on forums like this, that you have 'admitted guilt' on a nasty internet forum and that you are risking serious damage by taking notice of armchair lawyers with no legal training who really ought to be out there working rather than sitting behind a computer screen. The poor deluded woman behind RLP has even gone so far as to claim that we are under criminal investigation for attacking RLP, and got a fancy firm of lawyers to threaten legal action if we did not take down information which she did't like. Strangely, we have never heard from the police, nor did we ever hear any more from the lawyers.

 

So, whilst a thick skin might be needed,

 

1. You will receive a series of letters using increasing pressure and pseudo-legalese jargon

2. You will be warned that as you have not responded the case is being transferred to a debt collector specialising in 'undisputed claims'

3. The debt collector will write and tell you to pay up

 

At any point you may either ignore altogether, or write a letter simply stating that you do not accept any liability to their company or any company that they claim to represent - nothing more

 

4. RLP will write to tell you that since you obviously have no shame or intention of contributing to this year's staff bonus they will be recommending to their client that proceedings are issued for the full amount of costs that your actions incurred

5. You will hear nothing further

 

Why? Because it would cost the retailer far more than they stood to recover, as your actions actually cost them very little. They could only ever claim the costs that were directly incurred as a result of what you did. The staff who apprehended you were on duty and would need to be paid in any case and it can never be proven or even reasonably estimated whether the store lost anything further through security staff being diverted whist they processed you. The last retailer that RLP managed to persuade to issue a court claim was made to look (along with RLP) extremely silly in court as one by one their claims were knocked back by the Judge. Not many will be brave enough to try again, and in fact the 'recent cases' section of RLP's website is now more than a tad out of date!