Blair Oliver and Scott/Bank of Scotland ** Compensation awarded by FOS **

[reallymadwoman]

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to the site (I have registered and had a good read) and just wanted to check a few things.

I have 4 accounts with Bank of Scotland via Blair, Oliver and Scott, otherwise known in this house as Barmy Orrible and Stupid, and have had repeated problems with harassment, not replying to correspondence and all the other bullying tactics that have been discussed elsewhere. I'm currently pursuing a second complaint via the FOS - I won the first one. Despite the fact that there is an ongoing complaint, I am making the agreed payments and Citizen's Advice have intervened, I am still getting about 5 letters a week demanding that I phone them - which they have been repeatedly told I cannot do due to disability. I finally got really p***ed off this morning and reported them to trading standards.

I hadn't previously considered disputing the debts, although no doubt there are horrendous charges especially on the two credit cards, because I consider that I do owe the money. However as I have no hope of ever going back to work and it will take about 300 years to clear at the current rate, all I now want is for them to go away and leave me alone. I've even had to change my (unlisted - how did they get it?) phone number.

From what I've read I think I need to CCA them, but as barmy orrible and stupid are the same company as Bank of Scotland, who do I write to?

Also, because of my circumstances I have asked for the debts to be written off, but of course they never reply. On the off chance that they have the documentation and actually send it to me in time, any suggestions on this point? Or any other ways of making them go away? At the rate we're going in another couple of years the compensation from the ombudsman will have cleared the debts anyway.

Many thanks to anyone who has the time to respond.

[reallymadwoman]

Thanks for the help.

 

And for everyone else on this site, I think you are all amazingly helpful and reading the various threads has dragged me back up from the bottom of the black hole again. Thanks - it's really nice to know I'm not alone and all this harassment is not personal.

[reallymadwoman]

CCA requests are delivered, and the clock is ticking! I might be enjoying this.

[reallymadwoman]

According to track and trace my letters were delivered, but the proof of delivery is not available - lost or damaged. Is this likely to cause a problem later on, and if so is it worth sending the letters again?

[reallymadwoman]

I've been tracking stuff on-line. Letters showed as delivered a couple of days ago, but until today it has just said the electronic proof of delivery was not available. When I checked online this morning, it had changed to 'not available' which according to the website means lost or damaged. I sent all 4 letters in one envelope with a postal order for £4. Would a print out of the page saying delivered, plus my receipt from the post office be sufficient proof?

Incidentally I've just checked another letter I sent at the same time and that is also showing that proof of delivery is not available.

[reallymadwoman]

Thanks for the help. I think I'll just assume the letters have been delivered for now. If any one knows how to find out if a postal order has been cashed, I would like to know just for some added insurance.

I suppose it's always possible that Blair Oliver and Scott will acknowledge the letters. Unlikely, but possible.

[reallymadwoman]

Thanks again.

Funnily enough I found this site when I got sufficiently 'mad' with their constant letters (about 5 a week despite the accounts already being in the subject of complaints to FOS and the agreed payments being up to date) to do a web search on Blair, Oliver and Scott - and guess what it came up with.

I'm happy to let the FOS dodder on with the complaint although I don't for one second think it will get me anywhere whilst I take my revenge in other ways. The clock is ticking until I cancel all your DDs, BOS!

I got two more 'phone immediately' letters this morning. I was tempted to file them in the bin but thought I'd better keep them just in case. I'm not answering though.

[reallymadwoman]

Hi Jaxads,

Agree entirely. Last weekend more missives from BOS effectively wrecked my day. This week they've gone on the pile with a dismissive shrug, and I've almost been tempted to give them my phone number again after having to change it to stop them ringing every day just for the pleasure of winding them up a bit.

Like reduk, I'm certain they won't reply to the CCA - one helpful young lady in their office informed me that post is rarely even looked at, they don't have time, but I'm also certain their demands will continue to arrive, no doubt doubling in number once I stop payments at which point I can really start to have fun. I love this site!

[reallymadwoman]

Hi reduk,

Many thanks for the 'reputation' thing - though I have no idea what it means. Can you clarify or point me in the right direction?

[reallymadwoman]

I took the advice from another thread (no idea which one now, I've read so many) and put 'Payment Enclosed' on the outside of the envelope to encourage them to sign for it, and maybe even open it! It's not my fault if they interpret it as a potential payment off debts, is it?

Glad I did now as cashing the postal orders may be the only evidence I get that they did actually receive the letters other than Royal Mail saying they were delivered.

Incidentally, if you get someone from Citizen's Advice to ring on your behalf they miraculously 'find' your letters (even if three days later) but then the next time you ring yourself, they've disappeared again as has any record of calls from CAB. In fact the excuses that Blair, Oliver and Scott and Halifax/Bank of Scotland give to the FOS would imply that Royal Mail never deliver anything to their offices, and also fail to deliver their many responses to any complaints. Strange that. If I was a cynic I might think they were telling porkies.

[reallymadwoman]

I have also read elsewhere that Blair, Oliver and Scott are in fact Bank of Scotland - same registered office etc - so I find it particularly worrying that they should behave in this way. We've more or less come to expect it of the independent DCAs, but the big banks? Just think if one of them were to lose their credit licence!

I'm sure I've mentioned before that I am on my second FOS complaint against them for effectively the same thing - ignoring correspondence, breaches of the OFT guidance and breaches of the Banking Code. Winning the first one has quite obviously not made one iota of difference, and the only reason I have carried on pursuing the second complaint is because I can, whereas others treated in the same way may not have the resources (and stamina) to do it. It's almost as if I owe it to all the other poor souls out there being bullied by these people, and if no one complains we can't expect anything to change. How many complaints do you think it will take before the FOS starts getting seriously interested?

I haven't yet found out how to check if the postal orders have been cashed, and probably won't have time to make the necessary phone calls for a few days as I have an extremely busy week, but will post the info on here when I can, unless someone else can tell me in the meantime?

[reallymadwoman]

Hi all,

I've received another *four* letters from Barmy Orrible and Stupid this morning. I know I could ignore them as I'm waiting for the response to my CCA request (first deadline is 20th July). but the whole point of me doing this was to stop them harassing me - any possible reduction in the amount due would just be a bonus.

Is there anything I can do to stop them writing to me in the meantime? I wondered about sending another letter, to be signed for of course, pointing out that whilst the accounts are in dispute they shouldn't be chasing payment. I also wondered about just letting them dig themselves in to an even bigger hole.

Opinion anyone?

[reallymadwoman]

Sorry for the slight delay - my partner returned from working abroad yesterday so I was slightly distracted!

I have filed the BOS letters in the usual pile, and I think if I go up in the loft I will have about 300 of them all together spaced over the last 18 months.

Having calmed down again (I particularly hate the call immediately telemessages that just give a first name and phone number) I am absolutely just letting them dig themselves into an ever deepening hole. Their time is up at the end of next week and I am intending to let them carry on for at least a week or two after that before I send them the harassment letter which of course they won't read in time to avoid committing an offence, if they read it at all. And once they have committed an offence, it's court proceedings if necessary to get the defaults removed from my credit history. Bye bye BOS!

[reallymadwoman]

The 12 + 2 days are up today. I have every confidence that copies of all the agreements will be delivered this morning and everything will be in order.

On the other hand, as soon as the postman has been and gone I'm certain I will be cancelling all the standing orders. I was a bit peeved at the timing to start with (payments went out three days ago) but now see this as a definite advantage as the lack of payments won't alert them until it's far too late to avoid committing an offence.

Funnily enough I've only had one letter from them this week - a most disappointing performance when I was expecting the usual flood. How will I insulate the loft properly at this rate?

[reallymadwoman]

Hi Kennyparkroad,

Can you PM me which Trading Standards is dealing with your complaint. I've already complained once to my local trading standards, but they don't seem to be doing anything. When I complain again (when I get the next pay now or else letter from Barmy Orrible and Stupid) it might help to say 'XXX Trading standards are already dealing with a similar complaint'.

To clarify, Barmy Orrible and Stupid have been told repeatedly by me in writing, friends, family and carers over the phone, and Citizen's Advice that because of disability I cannot make or receive phone calls but they persisted in calling about 5 times a day for months on end despite having an agreement in place for payments which were being made on time. After they were very agressive to my daughter (quite obviously a child) and then demanded personal information from a paid carer, I finally changed my phone number so the calls stopped, but the letters started, all of them demanding that I phone immediately. Until recently I responded to every one in writing, but I might as well have saved the cost of postage because they either mysteriously disappeared in the post or they were misfiled, ignored, disregarded or used as loo paper so far as I can tell. About 18 months ago the FOS awarded me compensation for their failure to deal with correspondence, and a second complaint on the same grounds is with them now. They have made my life absolute hell, and I want revenge.

Incidentally, the nice postman hasn't delivered a thing from BOS so the standing orders are now cancelled. I expect they'll notice in about 28 days and then the real fun will start.

[reallymadwoman]

I've already tried writing to HBOS, and got exactly the same response - none! I've complained about them to FOS too.

My plan now is to do nothing whilst they dig themselves into a deeper hole by continuing to send their computer generated nonsense and then take court action if necessary as soon as the thirty days is up.

[reallymadwoman]

The behaviour of most of these DCAs, including the in house ones like Blair Oliver and Scott, is outrageous and they've been getting away with it because not enough of the general public know their rights to stop them. Unfortunately my experiences to date also lead me to believe that the Financial Ombudsman service is a waste of space and trading standards are not much better so far as dealing with complaints about the big banks is concerned. I may be wrong and I did eventually get some compensation through the FOS last time, but the current complaint has now been going on for 5 months and the attitude seems to be that Bank of Scotland are huge so how could they do anything wrong? I've given up with the FOS.

I still haven't had another letter from BOS though, very strange behaviour. If I'd realised that not paying them would have this effect, I'd have tried it months ago!

[reallymadwoman]

Hi all,

Still nothing from Blair etc this week. It's very unkind of them to stop my fun!

Also still nothing from Trading Standards since 'your complaint has been received' four weeks ago. Perhaps they're snowed under with complaints about Blair etc!

In approx 21 days, assuming I've still not had my copy agreements, they and anyone else I can think of will be getting another complaint.

I did have a letter from FOS about 2 weeks ago saying they were still investigating but in the meantime would write to BOS and Blair etc to ask them to leave me alone. Perhaps they did, and that's why everything has gone so quiet.

[reallymadwoman]

Small update.

Still nothing from BOS, including threatening letters, with 14 days to go before they commit an offence.

Another letter from FOS 'continuing to investigate and will write again in 4 weeks'

Nothing from Trading Standards.

[reallymadwoman]

First chance I've had to read all the way through your thread, and I now know exactly what to do next - fantastic!

 

Everything I'd read before seemed to suggest that even once the 30 days is up it's best to let sleeping dogs lie, but I know that sooner or later I'll be inundated with letters and probably phone calls again once they track down my new (unlisted) number by whatever devious means they obtained the old one. Your thread has given me hope that I might in the not too distant future be able to forget Blair Oliver and Scott ever existed and remove some huge blots from my credit file, and also reassured me that, despite my misgivings about not repaying the money they say I owe, they are in the wrong not me.

 

I can't wait for Monday 20th August when I can safely send the next letter. As it's for four accounts, would that mean they got four fines for the criminal offences? Let me see - they say I owe £xxxx total, four fines = £10,000. I suppose even Blair Oliver and Scott can do the maths and work out what's in their best interests!

[reallymadwoman]

A thought just ocurred to me. I'm pretty sure that one of these loans (the biggest) was taken out over the internet and I never signed anything. Are the rules different for credit accounts arranged over the internet?

[reallymadwoman]

It's probably irrelevant anyway as we all know how likely I am to get any sort of response from Blair, Oliver and Scott!

I'd guess that the CCA request is still valid as there has to be some sort of credit agreement with all the prescribed terms, but probably not the signatures, which does of course mean that they could just fill in the relevant amounts on any old agreement.

Maybe I'll get stroppy on one of the smaller accounts first, just to see what happens. And there's always the possibility of claiming back all the charges if all else fails.

[reallymadwoman]

I'm not very good at interpreting legal stuff, but I believe the effect of the regulations is that, other than being able to supply stuff via email, all the other provisions still apply, including the need for a signature from me at some point.

 

If anyone interprets this stuff differently, please let me know.

 

Also, I must have given them my email address when I applied, but it's changed several times since so could they say they emailed everything to the original address and if I hadn't told them of a change, it's my fault?

[reallymadwoman]

I would still like a reply on the email address question if anybody has one.

 

Other than that, these (would like to write something really rude but am too polite and don't want my post deleted) are now 7 days from committing an offence. I can't wait to start the ball rolling. I know I could just sit back and let them get on with it, but after all the hassle they've given me I want them off my back for good.

 

Getting rid of the defaults on my credit file would be useful too as I'm about to start up in my own business and I would really like a proper business bank account rather than just a basic one even though I don't need to borrow any money so don't need an overdraft or credit card. Actually, I want all the free help that's supposed to go with the account!

[reallymadwoman]

Has anyone, ever, had any sort of sensible response from Blair, Oliver and Scott? By sensible I definitely don't mean a computer generated 'letter' that in no way answers whatever they are replying to.

 

The reason I ask is that I've just been going through my correspondence (which is of course all very neatly filed in bags, boxes, pile under the phone etc) and putting it in a proper file with my letters to them in date order, and I've never received a single letter from them in four years that could in any way be construed as a sensible reply, and I've given them plenty of opportunity.

 

I still have the box in the loft to go through as I will have to call in a very large favour to get my son to find it (it's in the brown cardboard box marked 'letters' or 'post' or something, or I might have forgotten to mark it at all, and there are at least 30 brown cardboard boxes up there) but I would guess I've written to them about 30 times and they haven't replied to letters, complaints or anything else.

 

Do they even exist other than as a letterhead? They don't even answer the phone with 'Blair, Oliver and Scott'. Am I engaged in a battle with something that only exists in a parallel universe?

 

Of course the whole point of the exercise is collecting evidence for when I hit them with everything I can think of on Monday. Did no one ever tell them that upsetting women is a really bad idea? I'm beginning to think of myself as a terrier. I might be smaller than you, but I never, ever let go.