Who here has been harassed by a collection agent?

KittyKate

Without going too much into it, I had some cheque fraud on my RBOS account and the debt was written off. Unfortunately it was sold on to the wonderful (!) people at Capquest who have been ringing me up to 3 times a day.

They call and go 'Hi this is Martin from cap(very mumbled) is this kate?' so I say 'where are you calling from?' and they say 'Capquest - it is about an outstanding business matter. I cannot discuss this until you give me your name and address' which I refused to give. Even HBOS didn't have my mobile number. They call me between 8am and 8pm, I get out of work and check my mobile and I have missed calls from them, I would block the no but they call from different extensions so it's hard to determine it's them who are calling.

When I refuse to say who I am (have been advised by debt helpline to ignore them) they start to shout and be really rude and say 'it'll only get worse, we can't help you if you don't help us'.

I can't get RBOS to ask Capquest to stop harassing me because the 'correct people arent in until Monday'. In the meantime I've been advised to ignore Capquest's calls. I hate being harassed by the company - I can't imagine how awful it would be if I actually was liable for the debt. Surely it is illegal?

Broken_hearted

Just tell them you don't owe it, you don't want them phoning and it's their money they are throwing away in phone calls.

lynzpower

buy whistle & blow it down the phone they should naff off

changkra

lynzpower wrote:

buy whistle & blow it down the phone they should naff off

Not a good idea. If you perferate someones eardrum it then becomes a police matter.

Canaan

[/QUOTE]
When I refuse to say who I am (have been advised by debt helpline to ignore them) they start to shout and be really rude and say 'it'll only get worse, we can't help you if you don't help us'.
- I can't imagine how awful it would be if I actually was liable for the debt. Surely it is illegal?[/QUOTE]

I had six years of this and it pushed me to the edge of a breakdown. In the end I stopped answering the phone and any knocks at the door and didnt open any letters. It has only been in the last year or so that I have had the strength to tackle my debts. They are very good at frightening and intimidating, thats their job.

Canaan

Robin_T_Cox

Register with the TPS, and change your telephone number.

http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/

Tootsie_Roll

KittyKate wrote:

Without going too much into it, I had some cheque fraud on my RBOS account and the debt was written off.

I can't imagine how awful it would be if I actually was liable for the debt. Surely it is illegal?

Just because the debt is written off by RBOS doesn't mean you don't have to pay it back - it is still outstanding and unless there are other circumstances that you haven't noted I would certainly not ignore it as suggested. You need to sort this out unless you fancy being hounded.

saver_sam

TR - The OP refers to cheque fraud. If the OP did not spend it, does not owe it, she should not be made to pay for it. The police should have been involved and RBS should deal with it. Agreed don't ignore it, but should be dealt with in writing rather than by telephone, especially where Capquest have anything to do with it. And wouldn't "hounding" maybe constitute harrassment - Admin of Justice Act springs to mind here.

KittyKate

...TR, Sam is right - the debt consisted entirely of cheque fraud. RBOS sent me 1 letter to collect before I even realised there was someone impersonating me in shops, bars and in the bank. I sorted it out with the police and HBOS but in that time it was sold to Capquest (illegally). Capquest, well, I can't tell them a thing, they just shout at me. The bank don't deal with fraud queries 'over the weekend' and are likely to take 10 days to sort it out. In the meantime I'm being called 3 or more times a day by Capquest (inc missed calls).

It was the national debtline that told me to ignore Capquest as they have less power than my local SPAR for getting a penny out of me. I am trying to sort it out but I can only go at the pace of the people I'm reliant on to help me. This was all in my OP!!!

hypno06

I had an egg loan that was mistakenly passed over to Capquest last year. They harrassed me so much that they pushed me to the brink - ringing me several times of day, work home and mobile and even though Egg were telling me that they were sorting things out to bring back the loan as it had been referred in error, of course Capquest refused to believe a word I was saying.

Eventually, Egg did get through to Capquest that it was referred in error. Capquest then were very nice to me (surprise surprise).

However, the same thing happened a few weeks later - my loan was referred to Capquest in error (bloody computers!) and this time, Capquest rang me up saying that they were ringing me to let me know that this had been received, and did I want to check things out with Egg before they took things further. Nice as pie they were!

Although Capquest were fine in the end, when I could absolutely prove it was not a debt that should ever have reached them, for the duration while I was going backwards and forwards with them and Egg, they were absolutely terrifying, so I feel for anyone going through anything remotely similar.

I am sure that it is not just Capquest that use these tactics though, they are probably all as bad as each other.

Good luck with getting it sorted out x

kevster1009

More meaningless drivel from tootsie eh? The bloke is an idiot. didnt even read the post properly......maybe we should all pay things we dont owe know...just for him!