suing a credit agency for defamation?

happinessfactory

newbie here :-)
hello everyone (*smiles, waves*) (especially martin lewis- i'm a real fan of yours and this site is brilliant!!)

i'm not sure if this is the right forum but i couldn't find anything similar on the board when i searched so i'm hoping one of you will be able to help or point me in the right direction.

basically, orange wrote to me in november 2004 to say i still owed them £16 from when i'd terminated my contract in august 2004 to switch to 02. they didn't explain what the money was for. i wrote back to them stating that my orange account had been in credit when the contract was terminated (there was a three week crossover when i ended up paying for both 02 and orange because i wanted to use my 02 phone straightaway) and so i didn't owe them any money, though i did enclose receipts and provide my new address in case they wanted to write to me again.

didn't hear anything from them again until october 2005 when i discovered
orange have trashed my credit record, alleging delay and default of the £16, and have instructed lots of debt collection agencies (all of whom have been calling at my old address which is not very nice for the people who now live there, not to mention very stupid because orange are well aware of my new address, having received it from me!)

after writing 24 recorded letters to all and sundry at orange and at the debt collection agencies, i still haven't managed to get any documentation of calls i'm alleged to have made (carphone warehouse took back my orange phone as a trade in so i'm highly dubious) or correspondence they claim to have sent me. i even offered to make an ex gratia payment of the £16 if they removed the delay and default on my credit record, but they refused because "this information is correct".

i complained to the various credit agencies who came back with, "the client concerned has investigated the accuracy of the information above and have verified its accuracy. therefore, this information will remain unchanged. should you have any further queries please contact the client directly." unfortunately in all this time i've had just one reply from orange, clearly written by someone with no grasp of the issues and resolving nothing at all.

because of all this, my remortgage application has been delayed and today my online application for a cheaper credit card was rejected (my credit record is all 0000000000000000 apart from this default). i'm self-employed and my credit rating is really important to me because my cashflow is so irregular. these things are really getting me down and as i have lupus, i don't have the energy to fight to 'clear my name' much longer.

yesterday i spoke to a friend of mine who is a solicitor and was told to "sue them (both the credit agencies and orange) for defamation". so how does one go about this? has anyone ever done it and were you successful? it seems a bit dramatic over a £16 debt - am i going to end up paying £££ to a solicitor to finally resolve it on my behalf? (the friend is a corporate lawyer so knows nothing of the laws of defamation).

please help, i honestly am going mad trying to get this sorted out. thank you :-)

Loretta

I would be very interested in the answer to this too, my ongoing saga with Naturally Close, see my previous thread on this, over £9 continues with no end in sight. Can it really be cost effective to have debt collectors and writing all these letters and making loads of phone calls to me for £9 and happinessfactory for £16? What is it all about?

---lee---

Personally, I don’t see what it’s got to do with the credit reference agencies. They are only publishing the information provided to them by their customers (Orange in this case). After all, that’s their job.

Your issue is with Orange. As it’s only £16, the first thing I would do is pay them, that way the entry will be marked as settled which will look better on your credit file.

How you would go about suing them, I don’t have a clue.

Woby_Tide

have you spoken to the executive office at Orange, not the greatest but tend to have a bit more thought in them tahn the standard Cusomer Service team

Xbigman

Paying them can be seen as admitting the debt.

If you want to sue you need to sue the company who actually issued the default. It may be orange or it may be one of the debt collectors. You will need to see a specialist lawyer.

If you have written asking for the debt to be proved, and it has not then get on to office of fair trading (OFT). Failing to provide this is an offence.
Regards



X

Systemaddict_2

You say your orange a/c was in credit, but do not say by how much?

You must also take account of the fact that a charge may have been made by Orange for the 3 weeks 'cross over' period.

When you exchanged your phone, did you ask for a final bill from Orange?
Did they send you one?

Has orange or debt collection agencies got your new address? i.e. have they sent any communications to your new address or are they still sending at your old address?

Please establish all the facts and have proof that you are NOT at fault, otherwise you may end up spending a lot of money (in litigation) and time.

Before embaking on litigation, may I suggest that you write a letter of formal complaint (giving events in chronological order)to the CEO of Orange UK. Please send the letter by special delivery and enclose all supporting documentry evidence. If there is no response to this letter then consider writing to OFTEL. Get help from CAB before seeking legal action.

Becky

It amazes me how difficult it is to get the so-called debt information from these companies.

I had it happen to me and I never did get the debt information out of the lying *****. All I could do was prove my innocence with my own information.

Did you keep all the paperwork from Orange from when you had an account with them?

I would forget the credit agencies as they are simply the messenger.

Hopefully you have kept paperwork as this can be a real 'life-saver'.

Whenever I close an account with a company I ALWAYS keep historical accounts paperwork in a file. You never know when the little swines will try something!

Personally I wouldn't pay the £16 if you are absolutely sure you are in the right. Even if it was £0.01 you shouldn't give in to them. False accusations of debt is an awful thing to go through and I wouldn't wish it upon anybody (except for those issuing it!!!).

I would have thought that paying the money would be an admission to a debt which could affect your rating (?).

greenwich

happinessfactory wrote:

yesterday i spoke to a friend of mine who is a solicitor and was told to "sue them (both the credit agencies and orange) for defamation". so how does one go about this? has anyone ever done it and were you successful? it seems a bit dramatic over a £16 debt - am i going to end up paying £££ to a solicitor to finally resolve it on my behalf? (the friend is a corporate lawyer so knows nothing of the laws of defamation).

Forget defamation, libel etc. If Orange or the credit agency had published this information to all and sundry, you might have a case. But since they have used the information for a lawful purpose and have not given it to anyone who has no genuine need to know, they have a defence in law known as 'qualified privilege'. If you took them to court, you would have to prove they were acting in bad faith, which is a tough hurdle.

Xbigman wrote:

If you have written asking for the debt to be proved, and it has not then get on to office of fair trading (OFT). Failing to provide this is an offence.

Xbigman, I am not doubting what you say, but do you have any references for this or can you remember where you read it? I'd like to know in case this ever happens to me.

dchurch24

I would start an official complaint - they must have a complaint procedure - then when/if they do not give a satisfactory answer take it up with the ombudsman.

Suing for libel can be very costly. This would be the steps I would take first.

steam_dan

I would suggest writing direct to the Managing Director of Orange. Orange customer services should be able to give his name. You should address the letter to the Registered Company address and mark it "For the personal attention of:" the managing director.
It is worth taking the trouble to find out his name rather than just addressing it to "Managing Director".
Personally, I give any companies customer service dept only two opportunities to resolve my issue, the second by escalation to the team leader. If this fails I go straight to the top. I have had a significant amount of success with this strategy.

Hope this helps.

talksalot81

Although Orange might well have just made a mistake, their lack of response and assistance may well have unnecessarily stressed (and possibly damaged the health) of the OP. If libel was not a sensible case, im pretty sure that would get the OP somewhere.

If you can prove orange wrong and prove they have ignored the evidence, then you would definitely have something.

Incidentally, I was refused credit a while back, i got my credit report and the only thing on it was (surprise surprise) Orange PCS. It all looked in order except that the 'settled date' was some years after my last communication. It sounds to me alot like orange are failing to carry out customers instructions properly- in my case I guess they must have failed to cancel any financial instructions I had given them at some point, it sounds a bit like they have charged you without notice or charged you after you cancelled...