debt-collection charge

recessionhater

Hi, I received a letter from Moorcroft or Moorgate or some such name - a debt collection agency, collecting a debt for British gas. The debt was £36, and I was just about to pay it - but the letter says that British Gas have added £5 as a debt collection fee. Can I just pay the £36 and point out to them I have paid everything? What is the £5 for? I don't want to deal with the debt collection agency, as I have no contract with them - and although I expect the law allows them to employ debt collection agencies, I am against this practice, and so I just want to pay the £36 to British Gas. I feel the letter may have misrepresented the situation, in that the £5 is probably Moorgate's fee, and not a fee added by British Gas. How can I deal with this in a way that doesn't give the debt collection agency a penny?

chanz4

BG would add a collection fee, it costs them to pay agencys to collect your debt

Yum

you cant just not pay a fee cos you dont believe in it.

I dont believe I should be paying £120 per month in council tax but I dont have a choice in the matter.

Also, their defence is that they would have sent you at least a few letters stating that your debt was being passed to a debt collection agency. UNless you can dispute the usage for that bill you have no real defence. I'ld say just pay it.

recessionhater

I paid the £36 I owed to British gas and Moorcroft have cancelled the £5 collection charge. This was because I was repeatedly hassled by phone from an Indian call centre to pay the British Gas bill, but each time I asked whether the bill had been updated with the final reading as agreed with EON when I switched accounts or whether it was a British Gas "estimate", the Indian man didn't understand the question, and I requested a callback from an English person - and it was noted on my British Gas account that I had requested a callback from an English person, a callback I didn't receive, as British Gas put the £5 charge on and sold the debt to Moorcroft... Moorcroft seemed to agree the details of the bill were in dispute, or hadn't been verified by British Gas, and so they waived the £5... So paying whatever they tell you to isn't always the best idea.

chanz4

fair enough, think they did it to avoid a complaint as cost more to dispute.

dresdendave

recessionhater wrote: »

I requested a callback from an English person - and it was noted on my British Gas account that I had requested a callback from an English person, .

Surely what matters is that you got to speak to someone who was fluent in English and understood British Gas customer service procedures. Why the obsession with their ethnic origins? Would you have slammed the phone down if you detected a hint of a Scots or Welsh accent?

recessionhater

dresdendave wrote: »

Surely what matters is that you got to speak to someone who was fluent in English and understood British Gas customer service procedures. Why the obsession with their ethnic origins? Would you have slammed the phone down if you detected a hint of a Scots or Welsh accent?

The person did not understand my question about whether the gas bill was based on the confirmed metre reading used by EON for their opening account. But I object to receiving phone calls from India full stop. It should be a criminal offence for any company operating in the UK to use Indian call centres. Why should my business be being routed through foreign countries? I think you will find that many English people object to this too (try reading a newspaper or two?)

poppasmurf_bewdley

dresdendave wrote: »

Surely what matters is that you got to speak to someone who was fluent in English and understood British Gas customer service procedures. Why the obsession with their ethnic origins? Would you have slammed the phone down if you detected a hint of a Scots or Welsh accent?

I've always maintained that a company that wants to pay Indian wages should surely be charging Indian prices to their customers (ie both much lower than British wages and prices), whether it be British Gas, BT or any other company. Any DECENT company should not expect their customers to put up with substandard service just so they can make extra profits.

The OP has stated that the operator in question did not know or understand what he was saying, and he was within his rights to ask for someone who understood simple English.

FredWhispers

It should be a criminal offence for any company operating in the UK to use Indian call centres.

Perhaps organise an on-line petition?

I've always maintained that a company that wants to pay Indian wages should surely be charging Indian prices to their customers

If they used UK staff with UK wages your bill would go up, so in effect your bill is actually been reduced because of this policy. I guess if you dont like it, change supplier!

Finally! What clothes do you wear? Ones manufactured in the UK or cheaper ones made using slave labour in india/china? Funny how it is OK to knock india call centres but the same persons are happy to use Indian/Chinese sweat shops if it saves them a few quid on clothes. Hypocritical?

I find some of your comments offensive and racist towards people just trying to earn some money.

Fred

poppasmurf_bewdley

FredWhispers wrote: »

If they used UK staff with UK wages your bill would go up, so in effect your bill is actually been reduced because of this policy. I guess if you dont like it, change supplier!

It may keep my own bill down but it also increases my tax and national insurance bill, and also increases the costs to the whole country as it absorbes the cost of paying for the many, many thousands of British people displaced from their jobs. In case you haven't noticed we have more than two million unemployed and a million young people between the ages of 18-24 have no jobs.

Finally! What clothes do you wear? Ones manufactured in the UK or cheaper ones made using slave labour in india/china? Funny how it is OK to knock india call centres but the same persons are happy to use Indian/Chinese sweat shops if it saves them a few quid on clothes. Hypocritical?

Same goes for this statement. Britain once led the field in cotton and wool manufacture and production. What we save in wage costs we make up for in increased tax and insurance to pay for the unemployed.

I find some of your comments offensive and racist towards people just trying to earn some money.

I couldn't care less how you find the comments.

Fred

Cancel my subscription because I don’t need your issues.

recessionhater

It may keep my own bill down but it also increases my tax and national insurance bill, and also increases the costs to the whole country as it absorbes the cost of paying for the many, many thousands of British people displaced from their jobs. In case you haven't noticed we have more than two million unemployed and a million young people between the ages of 18-24 have no jobs.

Totally right - it nationalises the costs, which we then all have to pay through tax, while allowing the company to privatise the profits.