I need help!!!

peacor

Hi im new here so hello...

got a question and i hope you can help.

Back in Aug 2007 I had a mobile phone contract with O2 via Carphone Warehouse, I for some reason or another didn't pay the first bill and was duly contacted by the Carphone Warehouse to advise me i owed them a substaintial amount.

I called the call centre and spoke to a chap and I paid him over the phone an amount I cant remember and I asked him 'is that it now do I owe you anything else?' to which he replied 'no' i then asked will i here from you again he again replied no.

A year went by and I wascontacted out of the blue by a DCA who advised me I still owe £472.63, I contested and advised them of my conversation with the chap in the call centre. They went away to investigate and i didn't hear anything.

A year went by again and again a DCA contacted me again I advised the same and I didnt her anything.

Anyway this has gone on since then only this year the DCA a company called Rockwell have advised me I must pay this amount in full by 28/11/11.

I've contested yet again and this time they have come back to me to advise that Carphone Warehouse told me that I still owe this money as a cessation fee which represents the remaining balance of the contract.

I was not told about this during my conversation back in 2007 with Carphone Warehouseso I have advised Rockwell,I only wish tospeak with Carphone Warehouse directly and I want a copy of the call, as all call should be recorded for training & monitoring purposes and I also know from working in a call centre they should be kept on record for 5 years.

I have also advised Rockwell not to contact me via my work phone or email but they just dont listen.

PLEASE HELP!!!!

McKneff

I called the call centre and spoke to a chap and I paid him over the phone an amount I cant remember and I asked him 'is that it now do I owe you anything else?' to which he replied 'no' i then asked will i here from you again he again replied no.

My understanding of this sentence is that the caller rang to chase the outstanding money up to the end of that month, so when you paid him you paid him outstanding money and that months money, so in fact at that moment yu didnt owe any money, but they would expect you to pay for all the following months which is why they wouldnt expect to talk to you again.

You havent said anything in your post that you wanted to or even cancelled the contract during the phone call. So they are chasing money up to the end of the contract.

unholyangel

If you cancel while still in contract, they will usually either charge you for the remainder of the contract or waive some/all of this depending on when you cancel and if you are upgrading/getting a new contract with them.

You need to ask them for a breakdown of these charges to find out exactly what they are charging you for. Once it is in dispute, it should be returned to the network operator and you should deal with them.

Usually what they do is "sell" debts onto DCA's. And if that DCA cant get the money, they'll usually sell it on to someone else. If you've been contacted by a different DCA each time, this is probably why.

It can be quite difficult as some operators will claim the debt no longer belongs to them or require that you speak to a specific "team" in order to get it fixed as normal call centre agents are usually told they cant deal with it if it has been passed to a DCA.

Dont just ignore it. I'd also check your credit rating to make sure nothing has been registered against you.

NeilF3485

Usually lenders (be it a bank, utility or phone provider etc.) have a panel of DCAs which they use, usually it is a max of 3 or 4.

A lender doesn't usually sell debt until it has been through these 3 or 4 DCAs first (and usually it has a "goneaway" by then), at which point they sell it as "quad" debt for a very low price, I've seen some sold for as little as 0.6 pence in the pound.

Sales from one DCA to another (secondary sale) are pretty rare as there is very little likelihood that the purchasing agency will recover it (there view being that if one agency has bought it and not been able to recover the debt, it is unlikely they will fair much better).

As soon as it went to the initial DCA it will have been marked as a Status History [8] (default) on your credit file I would suspect, if not before. The fact it has been to multiple DCAs means it is very unlikely to not be appearing as such on your credit file.

Just because you have a dispute this doesn't mean that it will be closed by the DCA and returned to the original lender. regardless of whether it has been sold. They will however, have to suspend collections activity when notified of a dispute whilst they investigate it.

unholyangel

NeilF3485 wrote: »

Usually lenders (be it a bank, utility or phone provider etc.) have a panel of DCAs which they use, usually it is a max of 3 or 4.

A lender doesn't usually sell debt until it has been through these 3 or 4 DCAs first (and usually it has a "goneaway" by then), at which point they sell it as "quad" debt for a very low price, I've seen some sold for as little as 0.6 pence in the pound.

Sales from one DCA to another (secondary sale) are pretty rare as there is very little likelihood that the purchasing agency will recover it (there view being that if one agency has bought it and not been able to recover the debt, it is unlikely they will fair much better).

As soon as it went to the initial DCA it will have been marked as a Status History [8] (default) on your credit file I would suspect, if not before. The fact it has been to multiple DCAs means it is very unlikely to not be appearing as such on your credit file.

Just because you have a dispute this doesn't mean that it will be closed by the DCA and returned to the original lender. regardless of whether it has been sold. They will however, have to suspend collections activity when notified of a dispute whilst they investigate it.

Perhaps its changed now, but this wasnt the case for T-Mobile 8-9 years ago. I used to work for them when i was still studying. The call centre agents were advised they couldnt deal with the accounts or accept any payment. They could only give the details of the DCA it had been passed on to as effective the debt no longer belonged to T-Mob

As for returning, sorry that isnt legislation but common practice. Because if a DCA ignores claims the debt is paid/disputed and continue to ask for payment without providing clear cut evidence the debt is due....they're in breach of OFT's guidelines. Most DCA's simply refer back to the originator to have them to sort it out before continuing rather than waste legwork themselves. At least most i've had experience with.

somethingcorporate

There is no requirement for a company to retain call details. You should have a bank statement relating to the payment that you made though?

NeilF3485

Perhaps its changed now, but this wasnt the case for T-Mobile 8-9 years ago. I used to work for them when i was still studying. The call centre agents were advised they couldnt deal with the accounts or accept any payment. They could only give the details of the DCA it had been passed on to as effective the debt no longer belonged to T-Mob

Just crossed wires here I think. I agree that original lender won't deal with it if it's at a DCA, all I was saying is it doesn't mean it's been sold to them but that the DCA are dealing with it as "commission collect".

As for returning, sorry that isnt legislation but common practice. Because if a DCA ignores claims the debt is paid/disputed and continue to ask for payment without providing clear cut evidence the debt is due....they're in breach of OFT's guidelines. Most DCA's simply refer back to the originator to have them to sort it out before continuing rather than waste legwork themselves. At least most i've had experience with.

Agree that they will refer back to the original lender, but they won't usually return the account to them. Usually they will put it on hold while they wait for a response from their client (original lender). Too many people dispute/query these days, DCA would have no business left if they returned everything immediately.

Of course everyone does things slightly differently though, so don't disagree with what you say about Carphone Warehouse specifically, especially as you worked there so will know far more than I do.

But as for DCAs in general.....I worked at one for 6 years (don't tell anyone though).

unholyangel

NeilF3485 wrote: »

Just crossed wires here I think. I agree that original lender won't deal with it if it's at a DCA, all I was saying is it doesn't mean it's been sold to them but that the DCA are dealing with it as "commission collect".




Agree that they will refer back to the original lender, but they won't usually return the account to them. Usually they will put it on hold while they wait for a response from their client (original lender). Too many people dispute/query these days, DCA would have no business left if they returned everything immediately.

Of course everyone does things slightly differently though, so don't disagree with what you say about Carphone Warehouse specifically, especially as you worked there so will know far more than I do.

But as for DCAs in general.....I worked at one for 6 years (don't tell anyone though).

Definitely crossed wires I didnt mean return indefinitely. Just return to settle the dispute/prove the money is owed. I keep forgetting that when posting, not everyone will read what i write as i've intended them as they wont necessarily be thinking the exact same as me :rotfl:

peacor

Thank you one and all for your replies it has been a big help, I've since found Rockwell to be a trading name of Tessera Group, but as they are pressuring me to get other loans out to pay the amount off I've now sent a complaint to the OFT.Thank you once again.

mattyprice4004

....hang on a sec, I'm not sure I follow.

Did you pay the whole of the contract, or just the first months payment? Did you then continue to pay the contract every month until cancelled?