Told I owe money, but I don't

Lotus-eater

I run a small business, for ages, maybe a year or so a communications company has said I owe money for calls made on my phone number.

I've told them no such service was set up and asked repeatably for proof of the contract, but they have just sent bills which prove nothing.

This morning I recived a solicitors letter which says I have 7 days to pay or have legal proceedings taken against me.

The sum is about £50, I know it isn't a scam and is a reputable company.

I don't know what to do tbh. I'm just writing an email to them now, what should I include in it to legally ask for proof of this debt?

They are based hundreds of miles away from me, so presumeably if it goes to court it will be there, which means it will cost me more to get there, than to just pay the thing.

Any advice please, I'm so fed up with all this.

jm2926

Lotus-eater wrote: »

I run a small business, for ages, maybe a year or so a communications company has said I owe money for calls made on my phone number.

What kind of calls? Do you mean an override provider on your line who charge you separately from your normal phone bill? If that is the case I'd be asking them to provide proof of calls made, and additionally the account/agreement details of the service. Is it calls from a landline?

edited to add - if it's an override service that doesn't involve additional equipment or dialling a number before the call, then BT should be aware of it as they would have to ask them to set up their end. (assuming you have a BT line)

Lotus-eater

jm2926 wrote: »

What kind of calls? Do you mean an override provider on your line who charge you separately from your normal phone bill? If that is the case I'd be asking them to provide proof of calls made, and additionally the account/agreement details of the service. Is it calls from a landline?

edited to add - if it's an override service that doesn't involve additional equipment or dialling a number before the call, then BT should be aware of it as they would have to ask them to set up their end. (assuming you have a BT line)

Yes that's exactly what they say, an override on the line, from my landline.

I have a line through the post office, which in effect is BT and AFAIK they don't allow any sort of override service, which makes the whole thing daft.

But they don't listen to me, just keep sending bills, some of which make no sense at all, they sent me some for 0870 numbers which were advertised for other companies for a while, then they seemed to disappear.

Now the solicitors letter, I want to know what happens next really if they keep ignoring my pleas for a copy of the contract.

Lotus-eater

I looked at the ofcom web site and have sent off a complaint in accordance to their complaints proceedure. Wait to see what happens.

Debt_Robot

Lotus-eater wrote: »

I looked at the ofcom web site and have sent off a complaint in accordance to their complaints proceedure. Wait to see what happens.

Fingers crossed

hippyadam

Might be worth firing off an email to the solicitors too, attaching some of your earlier unanswered requests for proof etc.

The letter is probably a bluff, but if you send something to the solicitors they may charge the company that is chasing you to deal with it... A bit sneaky but hey!

jm2926

Have they provided itemised bills?

I'd advise asking Post Office to investigate in the first instance, as far as I am aware you cannot run a pre-select service over the top of a line which you have purchased from a reseller (in this case Post Office reselling BT), unless you do it on a call-by-call basis.

You can check which telephone company you are currently pre-selected with by dialling 12711 for a pre-recorded message.

You might get more info over on the telecoms board.

In the meantime have you sopken to the companies customer service and requested a copy of their complaints process etc? It may be an error has occurred when they were adding another customer which has resulted in them having your phone number.

Given the time/effort and possible costs of defending this it could be worth paying the £50, although very annoying to do so.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

I would def ask for the bills, the alledged calls made, also a copy of the agreement, as i am sure if they did take you to court, then they would have to provide this information on request anyway..

I personally would not pay the £50 out of principle...

The above request i would put in writting, and would not ask over the phone, i would also send it recorded delivery, and also say you would be forwarding a complaint to ofcom ( or whoever the complaint body is) and see what their response is then...

dont panic..... or worry..... lets just see if htey can produce the above information first, which i am sure they have got to do by law, if you ask for it

Premier_2

Lotus-eater wrote: »

...This morning I recived a solicitors letter which says I have 7 days to pay or have legal proceedings taken against me...

When I receive this type of threat for a claim I totally deny, as you seem to do in this instance, I tend to write back and suggest they don't waste waiting any more time if they are at all serious.
As I've would have already denied the claim (and I suspect you have done this too) then they may as start legal proceedings immediately if they are so inclined as there is clearly no intention to settle without a court order.

... usually I don't hear from them again.

However before doing this, you need to be 100% certain of your position.
I'm not sure it it's the same with all over-ride telecom suppliers but the ones we use all provide us with complete calling details. Are they prepared to provide you this detail?
(I suspect they won't get too far in court without it)
If so, are the numbers they claim were called possible?
Consider the numbers called and the times made. Are they numbers your business would regularly call? (regular suppliers, clients, etc) are they all the calls to the same number? (perhaps an employee has been calling a wife/husband/girlfriend/boyfriend on the sly - call the number and find out who they are) ... and if they are realistic calls, do they occur on your main telephone bill too? (you can't be charged twice for the same call)

I doubt you will need to, but if you could really seal the fact they are bogus, then you will definitely win in court (e.g. say you only have two lines, both of which were being used for outgoing calls according to your usual bill at the time an alleged over-ride call was made, you can prove it to be false)

Savvy_Sue

I don't know how other people feel, but I agree with those who have said that the company won't get far in court without evidence, so would it be worth pointing out to both the solicitors and the company that you have repeatedly requested this evidence, and as it's not forthcoming you look forward to your day in court?

I know that's not true, that you'd far rather NOT be in court, but it's similar to Premier's 'bring it on' suggestion ...

Lotus-eater

Ofcom don't take complaints, they have another service which looks at your problem after the companies complaints proceedure has run it's course.
This explains it, for anyone who is interested.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMatPqH2n4k&feature=player_embedded

I work for myself, a one person business and I use the phone line at home, so yes I am 120% sure.

I now know why they have my address and number. I was a reseller for a company that was taken over by someone and then that company was taken over by this current one.
I had problems a couple of years ago with the 2nd company too, where they got me mixed up with someone else by the looks of it and sent me a huge bill. I spoke to someone there and sent an email and they said they would get back to me and never did, so I forgot about it.

I don't know what's happened, but it looks like my details are mixed up in some way. I've tried telling them this and they just don't want to know.

So what "legal proceedings" are they likely to take now, the complaints proceedure can take 8 weeks, but they ony gave me 7 days to pay, so something might go ahead.