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

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vax2002 wrote: »

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.

Thank you so much you have been a great help, and have made me feel so much more positive about all of this.

It has been hard to try and make my mam feel positive too! We can sort this out, eventually.

piglet25

Did the customer ever have any payment card? I can remember when you got commision from catalogues - think it was 12.5% in goods and 10% cash, that was the set up for agents and 'normal' customers too. If she has got any sort of signature, even for the delivery, or on cheques paid then it will help. I would defo go for the court option, cos if this lady has been a customer for five years then its not just the money its the fact that she knows your mam and she knows what mess she will be left with

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Thank you everyone who has replied to my thread

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piglet25 wrote: »

Did the customer ever have any payment card? I can remember when you got commision from catalogues - think it was 12.5% in goods and 10% cash, that was the set up for agents and 'normal' customers too. If she has got any sort of signature, even for the delivery, or on cheques paid then it will help. I would defo go for the court option, cos if this lady has been a customer for five years then its not just the money its the fact that she knows your mam and she knows what mess she will be left with

Thanks for the reply. My mam has known the customer for over 5 years but she has been a customer for 4 of them. My brother in law has known them for over 20 years!

We only have a signature for delivery with the courier. That was a few months ago before chrsitmas (around november time). My mam does get comission too, which im sure she has lost due to the charge for not paying the full minimum payment this month. She uses what comission she gets to buy her grandchildren school uniforms. Its just so shocking someone would do this!

So small claims court is the way to go? Should we still write to the disputes department of the catalogue? Sorry for all the questions!

edit: No the customer didn't have a payment card, so we don't have a signature on that

Sagz_2

Who works out what your Mams commission is?

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Sagz wrote: »

Who works out what your Mams commission is?

The catalogue does I am sure.

vax2002

The commission would most likely based on payments on that one account.
What the catalogue can enforce is the credit agreement.
This is a contractual issue between the agreement holders.
Loyalty with these companies is worthless.
I certainly feel some pressure needs to be applied to the person taking the proverbial.
What kind of goods are we talking here ?
laptops, phones ?
Could they be pressured in to returning them so they can be sold to clear some of the debt.
They certainly need a knock at the door and a chat and clarify the position regarding what they intend to do.

Old_Git

has the customer given any reason for not paying

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vax2002 wrote: »

The commission would most likely based on payments on that one account.
What the catalogue can enforce is the credit agreement.
This is a contractual issue between the agreement holders.
Loyalty with these companies is worthless.
I certainly feel some pressure needs to be applied to the person taking the proverbial.
What kind of goods are we talking here ?
laptops, phones ?
Could they be pressured in to returning them so they can be sold to clear some of the debt.
They certainly need a knock at the door and a chat and clarify the position regarding what they intend to do.

It was christmas presents that were bought, she would order them every year. Only this year she can't afford to make the payments (I assume). We would not be able to take the items back... Its just one big mess

All my mam wants is the goods to be paid for the way they should be. It is partly our fault for not making sure we were protected if this type of thing happened. My mam will be cancelling her account once all payments are made, and I can't wait for that.

They are not answering the door to us, and not answering phone calls either. I think the best route is a letter to scare them... I'm sure they won't think we would do that.

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Old_Git wrote: »

has the customer given any reason for not paying

None at all, they just stopped bringing the money to us. We assume that it is because they can no longer afford to make the payments.