Philips Bailiffs/Lowell Financial??

jasgeo

wow, I'm not the only one! I got a letter from them a couple days ago to an address I've not lived at for a 1.5 years The letter is dated the 5th. The amount is for between £30-£40 and is behalf of Lowell Financial who apparently have quite a dodgy reputation, and supposedly operates under different names.

I know damn well that I was on top of all of my accounts when I lived at that address, so something seems fishy about this.

Has anyone gotten anywhere with these guys as far as where these out-of-the-blue "depts" have come from?

Mal883

Glad I found this page, have received an almost identical letter to everyone else, dated 5 January 2010, except its for £10.67. The time period July 2007 and non-consumer account surprise, surprise match other posts.

Me thinks this is just another scam?

I will definitely use the template letter to demand further information.

aidyw

Mal883 wrote: »

Glad I found this page, have received an almost identical letter to everyone else, dated 5 January 2010, except its for £10.67. The time period July 2007 and non-consumer account surprise, surprise match other posts.

Me thinks this is just another scam?

I will definitely use the template letter to demand further information.

I have just received the same letter with all the same details i.e date etc, has anyone sent the letter or had any kind of response from Philips yet, I do not even know who Lowell financial are and I was also caller "17" in a queue which advised I would be spoken to in 40 mins!!!
I have heard of this kind of thing before where scammers "frighten" people into paying money to avoid further action, My debt was also between £30-40.

Would be appreciated if anyone could reply to thread who has sent the letter off.

I actually sent an email from my "blag" e-mail address and received an automated response saying that someone will reply to me within 7-10 days.

Bob_Black_2

Since receiving my letter and responding to both Philips and Lowell I have been quite strongly advised to take no further action other than to send letters asking them to prove I am the debtor. Quite notorious this lot and not adverse to matching a name to a debt from what I'm being told. I've been assured that it won't be for council tax or anything like that, which is normally dealt with by local agents and will not have waited 4 years to chase.

pepe2008

Could anyone who believes ( or subsequently proves ) that this is a scam...(ie, send out a Scary Letter mentioning Baillifs etc but keep it down to about £40 and a proportion of people will ring up and gladly pay just because they have been frightened into doing so....send out 1000 letters get 150 paying £40 is a nice £6000!)...please copy the letters and send them to the OFT ( www.oft.gov.uk ) so that it can be dealt with.
The OFT work on strength of numbers, so the more the merrier, however they will take action on individual cases.

ALWAYS COMPLAIN!

shprice

Just received a letter from Philips demanding £20 on behalf of Lowell Financial. No idea what this is for - think I'll send the "prove it" letter and see what happens. It all sounds a bit dodgy to me.

Jamesf81

Be careful when dealing with Philips and make sure you follow correct procedure.

They will call at your house no matter how small the debt. Experienced their visits myself.

lang2000

So I am not the only one, I have also received the same letter dated on 5 Jan 2010, it is for £46.59, and it didn't state what exactly the debt is for, only saying "outstanding arrears on behalf of Lowell Financial", I remember I received two debt collection letters from Lowell Financial early last year, demanding two small amount of debt, one is for around £40, another one is for £70, I called them, and paid them off immediately on both occasions, and now it is this Phiilips, I suspect Lowell Financial sold their customer details to Philips, and Philips is trying to make some money out of it.

I am not going to pay it until I know exactly what and who I am paying for, I will send the "prove it" letter.

Bob_Black_2

I have just received an email from Lowells dated 28/01/10

Dear Mr. Black,

Thank you for your recent correspondence.

We have noted your comments and please be advised that in order for us to access your account and process your enquiry we require an account reference number. If you cannot locate this, then please forward your full name and post code.

Once we have received this we will be able to respond as soon as possible.

Kind Regards

R**** P****

Senior Administrator
Customer Services
The Lowell Group


How odd that they don't know who I am or what my address is! I'll write my response later today but needless to say I'm not providing them with any contact details other than the reference number they provided me... which I've already told them in my first letter!

HellsGranny

If they can't access the supposed debt from their own reference number, they aren't a very good company, are they?

Actually, I've had dealings with Lowells myself, trying to reclaim a debt which was at least 15 years old. Knowing that it was unenforceable, I ignored the letters, first from Lowells, then from another branch, Red Collections (same company).

It was interesting to see how the tone of the letters changed starting with 'This matter will not go away' to threats, then to a 50% off offer, until finally they said that on reviewing their records, they had noticed it was Statute Barred and would not be contacting me again. (I dom't recommend this unless you are sure of your ground though!)

Their in-house 'bailiffs' will not be bailiffs at all, you do not have to deal with them, in fact there is a template to block their coming to your door at all. Only Court Appointed Bailiffs, who are totally differerent, can come, but you would be informed of a judgement agaist you first.

Cheers, HG