Lowell for old vodafone 'debt'

[Big Drew]

Hi guys. If this is in the wrong place feel free to love it to the relevant place.

 

I've had 3 letters from Lowell saying I owe £253 from a previous Vodafone phone bill.

 

I know exactly what they're talking about.

 

Its a phone bill I cancelled payment on due to a dispute with vodafone roughly 3 years ago.

 

I've backtracked my payments to Vodafone for this contract and

it was a £15 a month contract which would have been for a maximum of 24 months.

I paid at least 12 months of it so where Lowell are getting £253 owed is unknown.

 

I've just received a 4th letter from Hamptons legal saying I need to contact them otherwise they will use court to send my account to a debt collector.

 

Where do I stand on this ?

 

Do I have to pay up ?

 

They're offering a 40% reduction if I contact them.

 

Surely if they're confident the money they claim I owe is accurate

and they're entitled to it they wouldn't be offering any sort of discount.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Bazooka Boo]

Don't panic in the slightest, Lowlifes love moby phone debts as they think they're easy money....

 

There is a very good Voda rep on here who will be able to sort this out for you.

 

Don't contact Lowlifes at all, and as for their Hamptons illegal letter, just file it with the rest of their puerile threat letters under ignore.

 

Let Lee from Voda deal with this, They have offered a discount because they probably paid a tenner for it, if that!

Have you checked your credit file to see what is on there?

 

If you had a 24 mth contract with Voda, and only paid 12 or so because of a dispute with them, then this is still their responsibility and to pass it onto these incompetent clowns

is pointless, but it will all be sorted.

[BankFodder]

What was the dispute with Vodafone about?

 

I'm afraid that it is never a good idea simply to start withholding payment when you get into dispute with a company especially mobile phone companies. They are like dinosaurs. Although they're meant to be in the communications business, they actually don't understand anything about communication.

 

Even though you may have good reason to complain about their service or about the telephone you have, they never listen and as soon as you feel that the only thing to do is to cancel or to withhold payment – all that happens is that they move you into procedure get the debt collectors blight your credit file and generally smash your life up.

 

The way to make yourself a real nuisance to people like Vodafone is to take them – head-on – and take them to court if necessary. Once you have proved your point then you can think about getting your money back

[Big Drew]

What was the dispute with Vodafone about?

 

I can't remember the exact ins and outs as it was like three years ago. There was a problem with the phone. They refused to sort it out. I refused to carry on the payments and cancelled my direct debit to them.

 

There's no doubt I owe Vodafone money, but the amount Lowell claim I owe is ridiculous.

 

I'm scared to ignore this letter. It says if I've not made contact within 14 days they will look at my credit report, find out who my employer is and use court and pass my account with them onto a debt collector.

Edited June 28, 2014 by Big Drew

[BankFodder]

I don't think that they will contact your employer. It has always been against the rules and now the new conc rules make it even more serious.

 

It's a pity you didn't sort out the phone problem 3 yrs ago. You were probably in a good position then to do something.

[citizenB]

Simply advise them that there is an unresolved dispute on the account and that you would like a breakdown of how they have arrived at this fictitious figure.

 

They will already have looked at your credit report and Vodaphone have probably already trashed your file anyway.

 

This threat of finding out your employer is probably a breach of any guidelines in force.

 

Asid from which, they cant use the court to send your account to a Debt collector..

 

They will either outsource the collection to another DCA thug or .. issue a court claim against you.

[dx100uk]

discount=- no real debt exists 9/10

 

dx

[oleg]

Drew I suspect you're paraphrasing some of Lowell's words rather creatively.

 

They're not careless enough to threaten to approach your employer.

 

Rather, to obtain an Attachment of Earnings.

Different kettle of fish.

 

I suspect they also did not say they would use the court to pass the account to a debt collector.

 

Could you please quote the exact phrase?

[Big Drew]

Thanks for the speedy replies guys.

 

Quote to the from the letter:

 

Unless you call us and together we agree a repayment amount we will undertake a detailed review of your account.

 

This entails us looking at your credit report to assess your financial commitments and then looking to obtain your employment details.

 

We will use this information to decide the next course of action which will be to use the court or to send your account to a debt collector who may visit you at your home.

 

That's exactly how that paragraph is on the letter.

Edited June 28, 2014 by Big Drew

[dx100uk]

iy otherwords a dirty mac doorstepper

 

never ever pay or talk to a DCA on the phone ot at your doorstep

 

that's a std threat-o-gram

 

seen it loads of times

[Bazooka Boo]

And this is of course the incompetent lowlifes we're talking about.

 

You have to ask yourself, why would a DCA threaten to employ and use another DCA??

 

Because they are deliberately exploiting your lack of knowledge & making you worry about nothing.

As CB says simply send them the debt in dispute letter, and get onto Voda direct, don't let them fob you off with the usual, 'nothing we can do it's with our inept DCA, deal with them'

 

It is Voda's responsibility to deal with your dispute, hopefully Lee will pick this up in the week.

[Big Drew]

After reading some similar situations I decided to email them.

 

Dear sir/madam

 

I ask that no further contact be made concerning the above account unless you can provide sufficient evidence as to my liability for the alleged debt in question.

 

This includes in particular, but is not limited to the following.

 

1. The original contract and any terms and conditions that applied to the account at the time the contract commenced and any subsequent variation for the duration of the account until the termination.

2. A complete breakdown of the alleged debt in question, including specific details of any fees/charges levied by any other agency in respect of this account and the breakdown of said fees/charges and what each relates to and what date said fees/charges were levied

3. Copies of any notice of assignment, default notices or enforcement notices that were sent with a copy of any proof of postage.

4. Termination notices.

5. All computer records pertaining to this account.

 

 

Any further contact made on your part without the above will not be acknowledged and will receive no response.

 

 

I received this reply today.

 

 

Thank you for your correspondence.

 

 

 

Before I can proceed and help you in full, please can you confirm the following for security purposes:

 

 

 

First line of your address, including postcode and your date of birth.

 

 

 

I hope this is ok and in the meantime I await to hear from you soon.

 

 

 

Kind regards,

 

 

 

Alice

 

Customer Services Lowell Group.

 

 

They have not provided any of the information I asked for. Surely the they don't need me to confirm my address or date of birth ? The reference number they have assigned me should be sufficient ?

[dx100uk]

well know they dontknow who you ar really

 

i'd be doing this by LETTER if at all IMHO.

 

have you contacted lee yet?

 

dx

[Big Drew]

I don't know who Lee is ? I decided to do it via email as it all gets saved as a conversation and will be easy to provide if need be.

[dx100uk]

sri I thought he was already aware

 

follow this please:

 

We thought it would be nice to introduce ourselves and to assure you all that our presence on CAG is with the very best of intentions.

vodafone UK has recently introduced a dedicated Web Relations Team which is keen to seek out customers who’re having difficulties with their accounts and feel that they have no other place to turn to than CAG and other consumer forums and blogs.

Naturally, it’s not possible for us to help directly with account specific queries on CAG and as such we would encourage those members who feel we can help them to contact us privately at [email protected] quoting ‘WRT135 – CAG Forum’ in the subject line.

When emailing us we would also ask that you either provide us with a link to your post or thread – if you’ve posted in another member’s thread please also provide your CAG username so that we can check what your query is.

Many thanks

 

Web Relations Team

Vodafone UK.

[Jen Vodafone Company Rep]

Hi Big Drew,

 

Lee's currently out of the office so I'm replying on his behalf.

 

If you can get in touch with us by following the instructions in the post above, we can look into this further.

 

Many thanks,

 

Jenny

Social Media Comms

Vodafone UK

[Big Drew]

Would this help in any way considering the matter in question is in regards to an account that was active roughly 3 years ago ?

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Would this help in any way considering the matter in question is in regards to an account that was active roughly 3 years ago ?

Yes it will help you.

BTW the phone contract is a service contract not a credit one so a default notice is not required.

[Jen Vodafone Company Rep]

Hi Big Drew,

 

Yes we can still look into this for you even if it’s from three years ago.

 

Once you’ve emailed, post back here with your email reference number (this will be sent in an automated reply) and I can check we’ve got it.

 

Thanks,

 

Jenny

[Big Drew]

Strange. I emailed yesterday and received no automated response ?

[Bazooka Boo]

Did you follow this guide?

 

follow this please:

 

We thought it would be nice to introduce ourselves and to assure you all that our presence on CAG is with the very best of intentions.

vodafone UK has recently introduced a dedicated Web Relations Team which is keen to seek out customers who’re having difficulties with their accounts and feel that they have no other place to turn to than CAG and other consumer forums and blogs.

Naturally, it’s not possible for us to help directly with account specific queries on CAG and as such we would encourage those members who feel we can help them to contact us privately at [email protected] quoting ‘WRT135 – CAG Forum’ in the subject line.

When emailing us we would also ask that you either provide us with a link to your post or thread – if you’ve posted in another member’s thread please also provide your CAG username so that we can check what your query is.

Many thanks

 

Web Relations Team

Vodafone UK.

[Big Drew]

Yes. I emailed Vodafone web relations. Quoted the wrt135 -cag forum in the subject line. I included a link to the thread as well.

[Bazooka Boo]

Ok no rush, they will get to you in good time...

[Lee Vodafone Company Rep]

Hi Big Drew,

 

My colleague Jenny replied to your email last week.

 

If you haven't received it, I'll get back to you again later today.

 

Kind regards,

 

Lee

 

Social Media Comms

 

Vodafone UK