C.A.R.S Debt collection agency - what can they do?

aliasojo

I'm absolutely furious to receive a letter from this crowd telling me to pay an outstanding balance of £33 within 7 days of post date.

It's a long boring saga but I cancelled my broadband with Pipex back in August. Only their left hand didn't know what their right hand was doing and they continued to bill me.

One dept would apologise and tell me they'd sort it, whilst another dept just kept churning out the bills.

Eventually they stopped billing me but reckoned there was £13 outstanding. They sent me a letter telling me to pay up within 7 days or it would be passed to debt collection agency.

I didn't owe this and phoned ombudsman chap for advice, he suggested I pay it to get them off my back, then escalate complaint and ask for refund.

I tried to phone to pay the very same day I got the letter but because their systems were down during the migration of data to TalkTalk, they could not access my account or take my payment.

This went on for over a week. I was assured they would put a hold on things and not pass it to the debt recovery folk as it was not my fault I could not pay.

However, they did pass it and I now have this crowd on my back too, despite the fact I managed to finally pay 3 days before the date on the debt recovery letter.

I paid the £13 Pipex/TalkTalk requested but the debt recovery agency want £33, they obviously added on £20 for their fees.

Pipex have told me to ignore the letter but clearly since their actions and inability to manage accounts well has put me in this predicament in the first place, I don't feel secure in their advice.

So, question is, can this C.A.R.S. lot actually do anything if the original £13 was paid to Pipex before the date on their letter? I'll be damned if I'm going to pay their £20 fee as well.

Yum

CARS (creditlink account recovery solutions) are a contingency debt company not debt purchase therefore they work on behalf of the client, in this case Pipex. They absolutely wont bother chasing for this but it is really important that you put a complaint IN WRITING to both CARS and Pipex explaining the sequence of events and im pretty sure they wont do anything further.

chanz4

just ignore them if you have now paid it, or write to them to say paid direct to creditor.

TalkTalk

Hi Aliasjo,

If you have paid the balance directly then the agency will be notified of this in due course. This will confirm the account is settled and to stop any further collections activities (including any admin fee's they applied)

Regards

Mark
TalkTalk Online Community Department