3G debt-Roxburghe/HFO/Graham White-HELP!

finnigan123

hi all, i have been having a general look on the net and have seen lots of forums regarding Roxburghe but i am very confused on how to proceed with my particular situation...
between 5-6 years ago i had a 3G contract which i had nothing but trouble with, after numerous phone calls to india/money being taken from my acount when my phone would have no service for days on end i asked to terminate my contract due to the fact that 3G were not adhering to their promise of providing me with a phone service, as far as i was concerned that was the end of it - i can't recall the exact outcome or how much i owed but i was never chased for any outstanding debt.

During the last 5-6years i have moved 3 times but have never recieved any correspodence regarding this matter until i recieved a phone call in December 2009 from Roxburghe stating that owed a ridiculas amount of money (£600+) for this debt - i very politely asked them to provide a breakdown on exactly what i owed and dates to specify when i ended my contract with 3G and my last payments to them and how long left on my contract, etc because to be honest i couldn't remember, i gave them my email address and asked for them to email this information imediately and as an honest person i would pay what i owed but no more.
I did not recieve any emails from them and now i recieve a letter dated 03 March 2010 from Graham White Solicitors on behalf of Roxburghe;

FINAL WARNING
TAKE NOTICE that despite many attempts to make payment from you, you have chosen to withhold settlement of the amount as stated above (£371.49)
It is a legal requirement to send a notice of INTENDED LITIGATION before legal proceedings are issued in the county court. This letter fulfils this requirement.
If you are in doubt as to the seriousness of this situation you should seek independent legal advice, as the consequences of litigation can be far-reaching, such as;
>Substantial legal costs and statutory interest being added to your debt
>Your name being listed on the Register of Judegments affecting your chances of further credit in the future
>seizure of your assets by Bailiffs
>An order to obtain information from judgment debtor
It is your legal responsibility to repay this account to us immediately, and we put you on notice that we shall refer the matter in seven days.
Please be assured this matter will not go away without solution or resolution.
If you do not wish to incur the consequences of COURT ACTION you must pay the amount claimed immediately. If you cannot pay the full ammount, or you have a defence to this claim, you should call this office without further delay.
Yours sincerely
Michael Sobell

I have no intention of paying this money as i believe from what i have read on the net so far that this debt collection company are not always above board - the debt is definately coming on for 6years in age and to be honest the whole 3G contract/phone service was a complete joke to start off with (I believe Watchdog featured this company recently but i can't seem to access this on the net to know exactly what was said)
My main concerns are that i will get baliffs knocking on my front door - which i really couldn't deal with.

Please can someone direct me on exactly how i should proceed now???
Do i send any correspondence back / should i ignore this??

please can someone advise....

mozzyc

Bumping you up

Tixy

Hi and welcome

The only way you will get baliffs at the door is if the current owner of the debt (presumably roxburge) get a CCJ against you before the debt becomes statute barred.

The reason for the heavy letter could be because they also know it will become SB soon so are intending to take action before then. £600 isn't a huge debt to be take to court for but it does happen.

If they did take you to court it obviously would not become SB.

I think you have a couple of options - either ignore the letter but keep an eye out for court papers. Or 2 start the process by sending the prove it letter - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=11570893&postcount=2

If they prove the debt you would then go on to write for a statement of account, detailing all transactions and a copy of the CCA (and crucially you'll be finding out the last payment date).

You will then know how close to SB it is and if you can avoid them until it becomes SB.

danf110

Hi,

I'm in the same situation and sent the prove it letter. I am yet to receive the proof but in the meantime I received a call from Graham White Solicitors acknowledging the prove it letter had been received however, they gave me details of my last payment which they said was 1/9/04 for £105.80. I checked my statements and the last payment was made on 1/9/2004 and the amount agreed with what the DCA told me. What do I do as I have received the final notice before litigation as you talk about above? They said if I pay now it will be £317 and if not £470 plus interest. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Many thanks,

Dan

danf110

Any advice??

Tixy

I would wait for them to provide proof of the debt being yours.

When they do (which it sounds like they will) I'd suggest you come to an arrangement with them to either pay the debt outright (if you can afford to) or to set up a monthly repayment plan for however much you can afford.
You want to avoid litigation and a CCJ if possible.

LeeSouthEast

The first error was the cause for cancelling the contract - they make no promises at all to provide you with cellular service.

However, send the 'prove it' letter, and see what comes back.

DarkConvict

I believe phone service is generally guaranteed at the house you originally took the contract out at. If there was no signal from the start you need to tell them otherwise you are deemed to have accepted the signal level, otherwise if the service drops during the contract, again you need to tell them and give them time to fix it. These are 2 ways of getting out, also signal is not guaranteed inside buildings so watch out for that clause (as well as mobiles not covered by been used in rain...) .