LCS DCA and small E-ON elec bill, fees have doubled the debt -big principle!

[Hannay100]

Around 3 years ago I stopped renting a small lockup+office for temporary storage following retirement, taking care of all utility Co. bills in the process - or so I had thought.

 

I recently had a letter from LCS, Leeds, chasing a final elec bill from then. 

 

I replied that nothing had been left outstanding, and I would be taking it up with e-on direct.

 

e-on subsequently provided a replacement bill for me to compare with my papers from then, and it appears that the bill was a legitimate final-bill on termination of supply - I had simply overlooked to ask for a final bill from them, had taken care of others properly but not e-on on an oversight.

 

I had a redirect in place with Royal Mail, however never received an e-on bill or reminders before it finished after 12 months.

 

The bill amount was £41 and a few pennies, LCS is after £79 which presumably includes £38 admin charge.

 

I have complained to e-on who have advised that as the case is now with LCS I have to deal with/pay them not e-on, and that it includes a fee to them for dealing.

 

I have written to LCS rejecting a 93% increase and requesting they waive it.

 

I have no trouble paying a genuinely overlooked bill, and even an odd fiver maybe for writing some letters and making a few calls to find me after this time. But £38 on £41?!

 

 

So then ...

 

 

It is actually a piddling little bill but a massive principle!

 

Ordinarily I'd just settle and avoid wasting time chasing things around, but this admin-charge excuse for loading all sorts bills etc really sticks in my throat! 

 

Hasn't there been some formal movement/expose recently (with Banks doing the same thing I seem to think?) that dumped a ton of rocks on the inflationary use of so-called admin charges like £25 for an automatically-generated Bank letter for example? 

 

So, is anyone able to point me toward any rulings etc arising from what I am sure I remember as a big slap on the wrist for financial institutions and some others, over their heavy-handed and unreasonable inflating of admin charges?

 

Also, I have done a search on LCS here first before posting this, and there are a few appearances but nothing from which to judge whether they conduct themselves pretty sensibly, or are yet another of the total cowboys out there ...  is anyone familiar with them?

 

I'll probably just pay the original-bill amount because they are entitled to that, and leave them to whistle for anything more, but alongside that I'd like some knowledge of any useful industry-legislation or policy guidelines or even new codes of practise/standards for when they then start to make veiled threats.

 

If anyone can help along those lines I'd be appreciative, thanks.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 9, 2019 by Hannay100

[dx100uk]

you are under no legal obligation to pay any unlawful penalty fess.

LCS are total cowboys and have always been so.

they are a powerless dca and NOT BAILIFFS.

nothing they can do to you.

 

 

 

 

[Hannay100]

Thank you for that awareness dx100uk, I will act - or not-act  - accordingly.

 

Much appreciated.

[ericsbrother]

send a cheque to eon with the reference number etc and if they return it then you owe nothing as they will have failed to mitigate the debt.

If it is a business contrcat it may well be that they can add fees to the bill wich they couldnt with a domestic tariff but as you will ahve paid off the bill then the third party dca cant sue you for their fee because you have no contract with them and there has been no legal assignment of the debt.

they are relying on you paying up, that is all but sometimes stupidity intervenes and they become stubborn.

[ericsbrother]

anothr thought, if you have the original bill then use the payment slip and pay it at your bank in cash, they cant simply return the money then.

[Hannay100]

Thank you ericsbrother, useful thoughts and options! 

 

Since coming back to find your additions I have in fact followed similarish paths - I went to e-on's payment portal to pay the legitimate bill direct - with which I have no argument.

 

The process wouldn't complete and a window opened offering an apology and asking that I call the customer support number and someone would take my payment.

 

The Agent online was surprised at first that she couldn't put the payment through, but then reviewed the details and advised that my user account from that property/time was no longer active (Duh!), that the recent copy bill was sent simply to validate LCS's claim/involvement, that the bill was therefore not *live* nor linked to any active/accessible customer-account on her system, and that my dealings - whatever I intended to do - would have to be with LCS.

 

So I advised e-on that I was happy to settle what had been shown to be a legitimate bill, and that I would make payment of precisely just the bill-amount to the nominated LCS account as required to do, via a PayPoint using cash - which I did shortly after.

 

I have notified LCS that they are holding e-on's money and that e-on is aware, also that their fee-for-acting is wholly unacceptable and no further payment to them will be made.

 

I expect they will rattle their cage for a bit, but fundamentally they have nowhere to take anything ... unless you or anyone know otherwise???

 

Thanks again for the further advice/recommendations, apologies for missing them until just now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 13, 2019 by Hannay100

[ericsbrother]

di you record the call?

If you had then you could have not paid them at all as they refused the payment and that is covered by the term "mitigating a debt"

 

[Hannay100]

No I didn't record the call, however that's an interesting line of thinking that I will tuck safely away in case a similar situation arises elsewhere at any time ... thanks.