Can anyone give advice regarding default?

Kazipoo

Around this time last year I got an Avon brochure through my door, my mum had a flick through (its not really my thing) and decided she wanted to put an order in for some items. The order came to £45. 8 Weeks later the items still hadn't arrived and my mum asked me to chase it up. The rep had not left her contact details on the order form, so I contacted Avon from a telephone number on their website. They said they would get the area manager to give me a ring regarding the order. A few days later there was a knock at my door. It was the area manager for Avon. She told me that it looked like the previous rep had done a bunk with over £300 worth of Avon orders! She asked if I wanted to become a rep to take over, I told her it wasn't my thing, so she said, Tell you what, why don't I give you a few books, you can place an order for your mum, maybe get a few of your mates interested and you could make a bit of money yourself if they order over £75 (or around that). So I reluctantly agreed and managed to get my friends to order around £120 worth of stuff, meaning I should earn around £24, not too bad I thought. Then when the order came through, it stated on the invoice that I had an admin charge of £7.50. I wondered what it was, so I contacted the area manager again. She told me it is a standard charge, and that there would be another one the following order. I wasn't happy because she hadn't told me about this, and now this was needing a bit of effort... I told the manager that I didn't want any more books and she came around the very next day with 10 more. She said that it will cost me money at first, until I am all sorted, but that I should start to see the rewards soon. I was still disinterested, but as my mum was loving the offers, I decided to continue for a little while.

Fast forward to June 2009, I have now taken orders from friends for around 6 months, and still don't find that it is worth my time and effort. I decide to quit. The balance for the last order is £30 some and I have some returns. I decide to wait until all of the returns have been accepted before I pay the final amount.

In July I receive a phonecall from Avon, stating that I need to pay the outstanding amount immediately of £30 ish. I tell them that they should have received the returns by now and have they deducted them? She asks if I got a receipt for the returns.... erm.... no.... the guy turned up, grabbed the bag and literally ran off, short of running after him I didn't have a cat in hells chance of getting one either. I explained this to her and the response was basically "unlucky!" So I swallowed it and told her that I would rather phone the usual number to make the payment, as I didn't like giving information, particularly financial information, to anyone who phoned me. She told me that if I did not pay with her, at the end of the phonecall a charge would be added to my account. That didn't go down well, as you can imagine and I dug in my heels and told her I would phone them back.

When I did phone them back (around 30 seconds later) I was informed that a £10 late fee had been added to my account, so being the diva that I am, I refused to pay unless they removed the charge. They refused to remove the charge and we were at loggerheads. They kept phoning, every few days, and adding further charges to the account.

In August I received letters and phonecalls from a debt collection agency, stating that my outstanding account had been passed to them to deal with. I was fuming, because as far as I was concerned, the new amount of £59.06 :eek: was in dispute.... I explained what had happened over the phone and the DCA took the "tell it to someone who cares" attitude and demanded the amount in full. I told them I would pay the original £30 odd but not a penny more. They advised that I should pay the full amount and try to claim the rest back, I refused.

In September I decided to take a free trial on these credit file websites, and was shocked to find that Avon cosmetics have filed a default against me. They did not inform me of this and I was quite cross. I contacted Experian and they told me that officially the default could be removed as firstly the amount was in dispute, and secondly I was not informed that they would file a default against me. She told me to write to Avon and ask them to remove the default and explain my reasons for this, and also contact the information commissioner to see if they could do anything, but warned me that it could be a long process. The rest of my file is in absolute fine order, yes I have controlled debt, but it is all paid on time every month. I am very careful about these things, but now, because of a mere £30ish amount (£59.06 inc charges) I have mucked up my credit file for 6 years.

I know I have been stupid, and I know I should have just swallowed my principles and paid the darned thing initially, but I wonder if I could get any help from those who know to help me recify the situation. Do you think it would be worth contacting Avon again and asking them to remove it? Do I have a case with the information commissioner?

Tixy

You should not need to go to the information commissioner - this should not be done in any event until you have tried to resolve the issue with Avon & the DCA.

Did you pay nothing to the DCA? Have they been writing to you in the meantime? If they write again send the prove it letter - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=11570893&postcount=2

Also you can ask for proof of a default notice (which clearly hasn't happened)
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=26867863&postcount=9

If/when they confirm they don't have one you can send the letter a couple of posts below to tell them to remove it.

Did you ever sign an agreement with Avon?

Kazipoo

Tixy wrote: »

You should not need to go to the information commissioner - this should not be done in any event until you have tried to resolve the issue with Avon & the DCA.

Did you pay nothing to the DCA? Have they been writing to you in the meantime? If they write again send the prove it letter - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=11570893&postcount=2

Also you can ask for proof of a default notice (which clearly hasn't happened)
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=26867863&postcount=9

If/when they confirm they don't have one you can send the letter a couple of posts below to tell them to remove it.

Did you ever sign an agreement with Avon?

Thanks for the info.... regarding signing an agreement, I believe I signed something in a book/magazine thing, can't remember what it was for, but I will dig out all the paperwork (I have a habit of hoarding) and take a look.

Kazipoo

Forgot to add.... the reason for posting is because yesterday I got another letter from a second DCA who state in their letter that they could take me to court or make a deduction from my earnings which will have an affect on my creditworthiness. Well, hello??!!?? What incentive do I have to pay this now? I don't work so they can't deduct from wages, they have already mucked up my credit with the default and I would really love for them to take me to court so that I could argue my case!!

I am quite willing to pay the original outstanding balance, heck I'm even willing to pay the £59.06 if they take the default off my credit file!

Tixy

I would try the above suggestions first but as a last resort this letter http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=26867863#post26867863 can be used to offer to pay the debt and get the default removed.