Old Debt? Mackenzie Hall

Britwife

We received a letter some time ago from them with just my husbands name and that they were trying to contact the above person. We chose to ignore it. We then got a letter about 1 month later saying we had to pay the debt withing 4 days or they would take action. That was date was about 3 or 4 weeks ago.

I was advised to send a prove it letter and then a statute barred letter but after reading how bad this company is, we chose to ignore it. The debt most likely isn't my husbands and if it is, it's statute barred so there is nothing they can really do. I remember the debt from a previous debt collector, my husband said they had to prove the debt was his because payments were made a year after my husband left the country so it just didn't add up to be his. It's also not on his credit report.

You can follow the advice I was given or ignore it. I don't know if ignoring it is the best but I refuse to deal with these people, they are known to buy old debts. I plan on updating as things go along if they contact us again

planning_ahead_2

Well I don't want to wait and worry that more letters will arrive - so will dispatch the prove letter (when I find it on here...just off to look).

Will definitely not acknowledge any debt - I am guessing that they just pick loads of Mr X. XXXXX and send the same letter to them all in the hope that some idiot will panic,make contact and pay.

I will let you all know how we get on.

planning_ahead_2

I've changed the template letter slightly (as they are not asking for any payments...just asking if DH is the named person). Does this look ok to send?

You have written to me regarding the account with the above reference number.

As your headed stationery makes it clear you are a debt recovery company I would take this opportunity to point out that I have no knowledge of any debt being owed which would necessitate the involvement of your company and therefore wish to make it clear that I do not acknowledge any such debt/s.

[FONT=&quot]I am familiar with the CPUTR 2008 and the Office of Fair Trading's Guidance on debt collection and I would ask that no further contact be made concerning the above account unless you can provide written evidence as to my liability for the debt in question and I await your written confirmation that this matter is now closed. Otherwise I will have no option but to make a complaint to Trading Standards and also inform the Office Of Fair Trading of your actions.

I look forward to your reply.

[/FONT]

Britwife

I would advise keeping the letter just as it's typed even though your revision looks good. They will probably try and send you letters stating that they have investigated and such and drag it out but they know they can't persue it if it's statute barred or not yours.

I'll keep an eye out on this topic to see how you get on. Whatever you do, don't ever talk to them on the phone and send your letter recorded delivery so you have proof.

I feel bad that I didn't follow some great advice but I don't do good with people like MH.

Manchester99

Hi,

My reply doesn't relate to anyones issues above, but I had my first dealings with Mackenzie Hall yesterday and wanted to post my experience, which I hope, in future, will help others.

I received a not so lovely letter from Mackenzie Hall stating they were persuing me for £42.50, a debt I owed to Sky. Now I cancelled my Sky subscription in 2006. Luckily I still had my old cheque book to hand, which showed that I made a final payment to Sky in September 2006 and haven't heard a thing from either Sky or anyone else since......

Thankfully I had looked up Mackenzie Hall before phoning them and came across this forum. I wasn't shocked what-so-ever that after 5 seconds of communication with their advisor that the abuse started. I informed them that I hadn't been with Sky for 4 years and that I don't owe them any money and have not been contacted previously from either Sky or a debt collection agency, to which I was told I was a liar! The abuse received was totally unacceptable.

I contacted Sky who were extremely helpful and confirmed that there was no outstanding balance on my account and have advise that they have now contacted the collection agency and asked that my records be removed from their system.

How can this company get away with sending me such a letter?

Where have they got my information from, to persue a debt that quite clearly didn't exist?

Big thank you to everyone who has taken time out to add help and information on how to deal with companies like this, I for one, am very grateful.

DarkConvict

Manchester99, problems seem to stem from one companies having different databases/system. Information maybe passed to collection, when the actual balance has been paid so nothing owed.
After sometime the account is flagged up and a DCA issued for the debt even though the debt does not exist. DCA's are rarely going to make up debts but often contact the wrong people. The issue is usually incorrect information been sent to a DCA.
Do check your credit report as collections will likely issue a default if there system says there is a problem.

Kings_Tamerton_Road

Hi can anyone help me I have recently received various letters from Mackenzie Hall saying i owe Simply Be £129.16, i have phoned them asking them to prove this as i do not recollect ordering from them............they told me to pghone Simply Direct who were able to let me know which address the account was at but it was going back to August 2002, don't get me wrong i have moved several times but do not recall ordering from them. Simply Be do not hold records going back that far which is a shame because if someone has ordered under my name I will be able to tell if they are a small size as I am a larger lady !!!!! Please help i need to contact them by tomorrow for this so say overdue account.....regards Sharyn

mazza25

If it is going back to 2002 is should be statute barred anyway

fatbelly

Kings_Tamerton_Road wrote: »

Simply Be do not hold records going back that far ...

So there is no evidence of an agreement between you and them and so no provable debt.

Tell MH where to go. If they don't back off, complain to the Financial Ombudsman.

planning_ahead_2

planning_ahead wrote: »

I've changed the template letter slightly (as they are not asking for any payments...just asking if DH is the named person). Does this look ok to send?

You have written to me regarding the account with the above reference number.

As your headed stationery makes it clear you are a debt recovery company I would take this opportunity to point out that I have no knowledge of any debt being owed which would necessitate the involvement of your company and therefore wish to make it clear that I do not acknowledge any such debt/s.

[FONT=&quot]I am familiar with the CPUTR 2008 and the Office of Fair Trading's Guidance on debt collection and I would ask that no further contact be made concerning the above account unless you can provide written evidence as to my liability for the debt in question and I await your written confirmation that this matter is now closed. Otherwise I will have no option but to make a complaint to Trading Standards and also inform the Office Of Fair Trading of your actions.

I look forward to your reply.

[/FONT]

Well - I have checked with Royal Mail online tracking and I know that they received our letter at the beginning of the week and so far no response. I am working on the basis that no news....is good news:D but watch this space and I'll let you know if I do here anything more.:cool: (that is meanty to be a cyncial smile smiley!)