Mam was an agent for a catalogue, now they are saying she is responsible for the debt

vax2002

Next question :
Who would the customer these goods were delivered directly to pay, your mum or the catalogue company directly ?

turn_over_a_new_leaf

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

Did they have separate accounts with their details on them, or were these all on her account?

I know it sounds terrible but for all these years they have been on my mam's account. But like I said this was from 37 years ago, she has treated her account the same for all this time. I am concerned that at some point there needed to be something my mam should have signed to register her as an agent, but she was never told about this so her situation changed without her knowing.

turn_over_a_new_leaf

vax2002 wrote: »

Next question :
Who would the customer these goods were delivered directly to pay, your mum or the catalogue company directly ?

They would pay my mam.

vax2002

On her documentation does it name these customers or just name your mum and nobody else ?

turn_over_a_new_leaf

vax2002 wrote: »

On her documentation does it name these customers or just name your mum and nobody else ?

Just my mam's name.

But like I previously said she once before had a problem with one of her 'customers' and the catalogue helped her and told her to remove that customer from her 'books' (as my mam calls it).

piglet25

I remember the catalogue agent business, they order on their account for people and the people make the payments, they used to have payment cards to fill in from the catalogue which the customer and the agent had and if there were any problems then the catalogue used to take over thecustomers account and they would have to pay them directly, not the agent - hope that gives a better idea of the set up

vax2002

Ok, bad news by the sound, your mum has been buying items on her catalogue account and allowing people to pay her the debt back.
Any loyalties to the company are long gone in this day and age and in absence of any paper work which currently relates to this person or names, then without them she would be held liable for the debt.
First action is to put an immediate halt to this catalogue business of getting other people goods on mums name, that must stop immediately.
I would certainly look at putting some pressure upon the person not paying and recovering the goods, even if they can be sold on e.bay to clear some of the debt.
You could bring a civil claim against the person owing mum this money in court, the threat of it may make them start paying, but they are some real champs in life and a 1k catalogue debt is someone taking the proverbial.
If you want my opinion, I would see if you could organise a whip round to clear this debt amongst the family and talk mum out of the catalogue game.
I do feel very genuinely sorry for her and you, but in absence of any proof of account with this third party, the debt will fall to who signed the agreement for the credit.
In an agent arrangement, each customer is given their own agreement to sign and the agent acts as the collector.
Sorry.

turn_over_a_new_leaf

vax2002 wrote: »

Ok, bad news by the sound, your mum has been buying items on her catalogue account and allowing people to pay her the debt back.
Any loyalties to the company are long gone in this day and age and in absence of any paper work which currently relates to this person or names, then without them she would be held liable for the debt.
First action is to put an immediate halt to this catalogue business of getting other people goods on mums name, that must stop immediately.
I would certainly look at putting some pressure upon the person not paying and recovering the goods, even if they can be sold on e.bay to clear some of the debt.
You could bring a civil claim against the person owing mum this money in court, the threat of it may make them start paying, but they are some real champs in life and a 1k catalogue debt is someone taking the proverbial.
If you want my opinion, I would see if you could organise a whip round to clear this debt amongst the family and talk mum out of the catalogue game.
I do feel very genuinely sorry for her and you, but in absence of any proof of account with this third party, the debt will fall to who signed the agreement for the credit.
In an agent arrangement, each customer is given their own agreement to sign and the agent acts as the collector.
Sorry.

Thank you for your help I really appreciate it. The annoying thing is my mam doesn't really gain anything from this, it was just something she enjoyed doing for people, sounds stupid to say that now.

If we pay the debt, can we still take her to court (or threaten too?) and see if we can claim it back... even though we have no written agreement that she bought the goods? They were delivered to her address and signed for by her. That is all we have...

turn_over_a_new_leaf

piglet25 wrote: »

I remember the catalogue agent business, they order on their account for people and the people make the payments, they used to have payment cards to fill in from the catalogue which the customer and the agent had and if there were any problems then the catalogue used to take over thecustomers account and they would have to pay them directly, not the agent - hope that gives a better idea of the set up

This is exactly what my mam did, up until 2 weeks ago! Could things have changed without her knowing? Now we have been told each individual person who buys through her needs a credit check, my mam honestly had no idea about this or any other changes to how things work. She was never told! And up till now she had no reason to think it had changed because she has never had any problems!

vax2002

Yes you can take this person to court as you have proof of delivery and your mum could provide a sworn affidavit that this was the agreement.
It may just be the nudge needed to get them to either hand the goods back or pay up, failing that, pursue it and let them suffer the wrecked credit history.
A very sad situation, but someone has been taking advantage of your mum and a stop needs to be put to it.