Red Debt Collection (Lowells) & 3 mobile

JayS08 · 21 September 2008 at 5:45PM

*bump*
Here I am again. '3' have finally got back to me after 2 weeks. Unsurprisingly, what I'd expected to be a nice A4 envelope filled with some customer details about me and/or copies of bills and payments turned out to be another apologetic letter, insisting that everything -- including the SAR -- is now Lowell/RED's business.

rog2 wrote: »

I would send the SAR to '3', enclosing the £10 Statutory Fee. It does NOT matter that they have 'passed' the alleged debt to Lowell/RED, they must STILL send you copies of EVERYTHING that they hold about you.

http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/data_protection/practical_application/subject_access_-_guide_for_data_subjects.pdf

You also need to inform RED/Lowell that you have disputed the debt with the original creditor, and remind them that it is contrary to OFT Debt Collection Guidelines - http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/consumer_credit/oft664.pdf - for them to be pursuing a 'debt' which is in dispute.

Funniest thing is they sent me a remittance advice for my postal order of £10.01p (!!!!!!?? where does the penny come from?!).

So I'm deliberating as to whether hit '3' with an SAR again (frankly I'm losing patience over this now) or send an SAR to Lowell/RED. I do want a copy of my entire payment history including dates so I can prove to them that the £27.58 have been paid.

Any suggestions?

Many thanks in advance,
Jay

GeorgeUK · 21 September 2008 at 5:56PM

3 Have a legal obligation to provide you with all information they hold on you under the Data Protection Act (Possibly depending on what you asked for in the SAR letter).

If Lowell have your details then by all means, send them a SAR too.

JayS08 · 22 September 2008 at 12:52PM

Hi George,

Thanks for your reply. I'll do just that and send Lowell the same SAR I sent to '3'. I have just a bad feeling that Lowell don't hold records of my payment history and instead just have a list of monies they believe is owed, which is no good to me if I am to prove that I paid the disputed bill in question.

Frankly, I find the idea that a company with whom I entered a contract with sensitive data (my details, payment history etc.) can so easily flog this information to somebody else and then feel not to have any more obligation towards the original '2nd party' (i.e., me).

Also, I don't understand why they would remit my postal order PLUS ONE PENNY. I wouldn't be surprised if they'll come back in 10 years asking for £20 for the interest the 1p has accrued

. Would you worry about the penny? Are they taking the mickey or is it good practice?

Thanks,
Jay

GeorgeUK · 22 September 2008 at 3:23PM

If 3 were originally billing you then they should have records of your payments. If they have thrown them away then this is their problem - they need to prove you owe the debt - you don't need to prove anything.

An alternative may be to contact your bank to see if there was a final payment to 3, but that again is wasting more of your time (and may require another SAR). When writing to Lowell, inform them that you have had your SAR returned from 3 as they do not hold any of you account information. State that you dispute the amount owed as you have paid the account in full and require proof that it has not been paid.

It appears that 3 possibly only hold account information for 1 year but basically that is their problem - not yours.

drummerUK · 22 September 2008 at 11:03PM

I too have had the same debt letters hounding me for £155 for 5 years, however i ended my contract early and sent back the phone (which broke twice) and the sim card, due to the terrible service, which i wrote in a letter and asked not to be contacted again.So their still trying to charge me for the rest of the contract fees. Also i was 16 when they issued me this contract over the phone, is that legal?
I cant get finance because of this, I have seen my credit file and this is on there. I hate 3g, can i clean my credit file of them? I have found the template for the "prvoe it" letter and I am sending it tommorow, we will see what that brings!:mad:
I rang them the other day and told them i simply wasnt paying...to which he arrogantly replied "we will see what action they take now"....

GeorgeUK · 22 September 2008 at 11:37PM

drummer - how long before it comes off your credit file? Things stay on your credit file for 6 years. The debt could be almost statute barred too - no payments made to debt for 6 years (5 in Scotland) and no letter acknowledging the debt.

HannaB · 4 October 2008 at 7:40PM

rog2 wrote: »

They know that the majority of people are going to be 'frightened' into paying up when they receive their letter.

Same thing has happened to my partner. Received a letter from Red Debt Collection Services relating to a £380 T-Mobile debt. I've been with my partner nearly 4 and a 1/2 years and it's definately not been a debt he's accrued during this time. In fact, my partner doesn't even remember having a T-Mobile phone.

Actually reading the letter though, it's quite funny. At first glance, it's very threatening, lots of UPPERCASE BOLD TEXT and lots of red writing. But after the initial shock of "Oh-my-God-it's-a'debt-collection-notice", I've read what it actually says:

"Our agent had failed to make contact with you and as a requirement we must now inform you that 7 days from the date of this letter we intend to instruct our Legal Department to review your account. This may involve commencing legal action against you..."

Firstly, what agent? There has been no phone calls or knocks on the door. They know our address and we don't tend to go anyway. They obviously hire fairly incompetant agents who can't read maps!!

Secondly, what are they actually threatening to do? In a weeks' time they'll pass their "file" to the guy on the next desk who may or may not take it further

.

The letter then goes on to talk about "If a court then grants enforcement of judgement..." (bold scary writing, it then mentions balliffs, appearing in court, etc, etc). But all this is meaningless. Aside from the fact the courts would probably throw the "file" out anyway, this would be about 5 stages along in the process, which is an empty threat because it hasn't even been passed to Dave the Legal Guy on the desk next door. Very threatening!!:rotfl:

We'll be sending the National Debtline letter template, me thinks. Let's hope their "agents" will be able to understand it.

HB x

mcwildcard · 7 October 2008 at 12:16PM

Well I've got a new slant on this scenario!

About 3 weeks ago I received a letter from 'buchanan clark and wells' acting on behalf of Lowell, trying to retrieve the balance of a 4 year old debt with Three.
It was the first I'd heard about this debt, so I rang BCW to try and find out what on earth was going on.
They informed me about the original debt, and gave me the mobile number and account details to use when speaking to three for further info.
So I rang Three, they were pretty helpful, and agreed to send a copy of my final bill to my current address.
It has arrived and although the original debt is fairly plausible, I have this niggling recollection of changing my price plan to the lowest one for the last few months, which isn't being reflected in my final bill.
Unfortunately I have no way of checking this, I shredded my Three bills a couple of years ago, so it's impossible to verify my suspicions.

Today I received a 2nd letter from BCW, a final notice no less.
It states that I have "failed to notify us of any legitimate reason for non-payment" and threatens legal proceedings.
Incensed by this, I rang them this morning to inform them that I'd be paying my outstanding balance directly with Three, as I didn't want them to get their grubby little hand on my money through unnecessarily aggressive tactics.
The woman on the phone told me that regardless of whether I do this, they would continue to chase me for the money?!?
I then asked her why I'd been sent such an aggressive letter, she said that it was worded at Three's request, which is an outright lie.
Google the quoted passage from the letter above plus 'BCW' and you'll see that it's clearly THEIR wording, as it's on their letters in regards to other companies.

What I want to know, is who should I pay (if anyone) and more importantly, has the data protection act been violated, as my Three agreement only agrees to them passing on my details to a third party, NOT for that third party to pass on the details willy nilly to other DCAs.

edit:
Oh, and also, how exactly does this work in regards to the doctrine of privity?
How are these parties able to act on a contract that they weren't originally involved in?

Love_A_Bargain · 4 November 2008 at 1:44AM

By reading these posts they all sound so familiar. My BF received a letter from Red as well regarding a debt owing to tmobile in 2006. He requested documents showing how this debt was accrued and they told him that they do not have this information anymore. Well I don't know how they expect him to pay this debt without any documented proof.

Am thinking of writing a letter to tmobile for the outstanding bill of the said amount that Red debt collectors is requesting. Any ideas or advise would be appreciated. Also if anyone has a letter template that I can use to write this letter to tmobile would be helpful. thanks.

GeorgeUK · 4 November 2008 at 3:38PM

Here is the "prove it" letter.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=11570893

They should supply a copy of the airtime agreement as proof that the debt is in your BF's name, but as it is only from 2006, they may have this.

Red Debt Collection (Lowells) & 3 mobile

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free