Severe Problems with HFO Credit Services...Help Needed

[katpuss]

Hi guys,

 

This is my first post so please bear with me

 

After months of trying to find out where a certain debt was I finally received a letter from HFO Debt Collections. I phoned and left messages for the appropraite " account manager" to get back to me and never received reply.

 

We then got a letter from HFO threatening legal action and bailiffs. Again I phoned up and managed to be put through to the correct person. They agreed to accept £10 per month ( after an hour of arguing with them ) and they said they would send a standing order manadate out for us to fill in.

 

After a week or so, the mandate hadn't arrived so I called HFO up again only to be told because we hadn't sent the mandate to them they had cancelled the payment arrangement. They then hung up on me.

 

For the next 4-5 days they called constantly whilst we were both and work. They then phoned 3 times on a Sunday morning. We answered the 3rd call ( as we were awake ) and my partner proceeded to say that we could still pay the £10 per month. They agreed to this again so the account manager sent an email to us with a financial form to fill in plus a mandate for bank details. We did this and emailed it back to the account manager the very next day.

 

A week later we had't heard anything so we called up and left a message for our account manager as they were busy. Surprise, surprise, they didn't call back.

 

Anyway after another week had passed I called them back today only to be told that they hadn't received the email and therefore the £10 payment arrangement had been cancelled again!!!! I explained that I had them agreeing to this payment in the form of an official email from the account manager who I was speaking to. After 30 mins of arguing with him he advised us to send the email again, after which he would call me back. I proceeded to do this only to receive a call from his manager to say that I didn't need to send the email and that the £10 payment agreement would be honoured.

 

Our account manager then took over the call from his manager and informed us the payment agreement was still cancelled and that they wanted the payment to be paid over 6 months. This is a debt for £748 in total!

 

I explained that we couldn't do this as we have priority debts with council tax and rent arrears that had to come first plus the fact that we were £12,000 in debt with other creditors. I then had to go through all this information with him.

 

During the call I got quite upset and this so called "customer service adviser" laughed and told me to grow up and to take responsibility. After nearly 2 hours of phonecalls he finallu agreed to the £10 per month payment.

 

What annoys me is that throughout all this we were trying to pay and set up regular payments yet they had the nerve to send a letter to us saying that we were purposely avoiding the debt and had no intention of paying!!!!

 

Has anyone else had problems with HFO? How did you deal with it?

 

Thanks

Kath

[ladybird17]

I'm sure people have had problems with HFO. All I can say is golden rule you MUST follow is...

 

everything in writing. Phone calls cannot be proven, DCA's are notorious for this type of thing, and I hope you have now confirmed your agreement in writing, sent recorded delivery, with proof of posting.

[stan5131]

Katpuss, you seem to have a few problems with DCA's. HFO are a particularly nasty bunch and need to be dealt with.

 

Firstly, can you give a little background on how the debts originated. You really need to send SAR to the original creditors to have any charges deducted. Remember to enclose £10 fee and send by recorded delivery.

 

With regard to DCA's. You need to send a CCA request including a £1 postal order and also send by recorded.

 

HFO are known to add £150 to the debt for a 'broken promise', amongst other late/missed payment fees etc. The CCA requires them to send a breakdown of any charges imposed. Also, when you get the SAR back from the original creditors, you can see what you owed and if it has increased since being passed to HFO.

 

You need to send SAR and CCA to all your creditors.

 

With regards their phone calls. Do not let them speak to you in that manner. Stand your ground. Tell them to 'get lost' and put everything in writing. Who do they think they are!!!!