Help please, unknown debt?

RAS

Alpha

Some contact points for complaint on post 68. try you MP as well.

pipk62

Here are a list of websites for the organisations that RAS posted on post #68.

These addresses are the ones that I have used to find the information that I required, You may want to research pages other than the ones I have linked to, try clicking on the home page if any of these aren't what you wanted.

Office of Fair Trading, Contact page: http://www.oft.gov.uk/contactus

The Information Commissioners Office, Complaints page: http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints.aspx
(note: I chose to complete and download the .pdf form on Data Protection, which I am also sending to the other offices, with an accompanying letter)

Trading Standards, Central office homepage: http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/
-Please note, you can search by inserting the postcode in the top right hand corner, remember to use the postcode of the DCA rather than your own-

Consumer Credit Association, enquiries page: http://www.ccauk.org/consenquiries.htm

the Financial Ombudsman Service, Contacts page: http://www.financial-ombudsman.org/contact/index.html

Members of parliament list, (as provided by RAS): http://www.parliament.uk/directories/hciolists/clomps.cfm

pipk62

Hi again.
Been so busy lately, havent had chance to do much on interweb!
Hope those links above prove helpful to someone, and heres the letter I sent to the other organisations.
Feel free to give any constructive criticism to this, even though I have sent these letters, it still may help anybody else who may copy it.

my address

at my house

my town

my postcode

September 15, 2007

whichever organisation

Reference; Ruthbridge Limited

Dear Sir or Madam:

I am writing to inform you of the apparent illegal actions of the company named above in the hope that you may be able to help or inform others of their actions.

This company is a Debt Collection Agency who has been attempting to obtain monies from myself despite not giving me required information on the alleged debt.

I have completed a form issued by the Information Commissioners Office which has been sent to that organisation, with copies (enclosed) of letters etc I have received from, or sent to Ruthbridge Limited, which may prove helpful in researching this matter further.

I do appreciate that you may not be able to take direct action to prevent this, but I wish to inform your organisation of this matter, if only for reference purposes, but hopefully for your organisation to take some form of action to prevent this continuing with myself, or to prevent it happening to others.

All items enclosed are copies of the originals, and I have no wish or need for them to be returned.

Many Thanks.

Sincerely,

Me

cc: all those listed in post above

enclosures(26)

On another, although linked, matter I had an idea earlier whilst trying to search for a template.
What would you think of a new thread (hopefully sticky-fied) where we could post template letters and address lists, and nothing else - except a link to the origins of the template/addresses?
If you think that may be a good idea I'd be willing to start it off.

pipk62

I'm going for a hat trick here :rolleyes2

UPDATE:
Since my last update I have been sent 2 other letters from Ruthbridge (they don't give up, do they?)
The first was addressed to the occupier, and is exaclty the same as PM7 had got; http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=5932958&postcount=72


The second was a letter with an attached Standing Order Mandate, asking for £55.00 per month, the letter read as follows:

RUTHLESS limited

My address

Usual references

Dear Mr You

As a final option prior to legal proceedings, our client has suggested monthly repayments of £55.00. Should you wish to comply with this offer, please complete and return the enclosed standing order mandate, which should arrive in our offices no less than 10 days prior to the start date quoted.

Altenatively, should you wish to remit via our payment book option, please contact the undersigned, who will be pleased to forward the same by return.

If no response is received from you within 10 days, we will presume that you accept legal proceedings as the only viable option to conclude this matter and our process server will be instructed accordingly.

Yours sincerely

LEGAL DEPARTMENT

Well, thats it for now. :rotfl:

Alpha47

Hi Pipk

I cannot believe how much trouble these people can be. as I already stated Ruthbridge have sent my alleged debt back to crapquest before I could send the letter at12+2+30, which was really annoying, and Ruthbridge phoned trading standards to tell them that it had gone back as time expired. :mad:

I am doing what trading standards suggested and leaving it to see if I hear from Crapquest, so far I haven't. Trading standards offered to write to crapquest for me if this happened as they have been threatening to me bankrupt on what at the best is a time expired debt (might actually not be mine).

I will however send letters the same as you if I do hear about it again, also I will complain to everybody on your list. So thanks for all the info, it has helped me.

I think your suggestion for templates is a really good idea, although I am fairly new to the site and don't understand it all yet.

Regards
Alpha

pipk62

I shouldv'e pointed out that at the time I was trying to reorganise my life as my partner has moved out,
I'll just give a brief explanation; We both have solid ideas on how we should manage things, we each had a child of our own (my daughter and her son), we both have different working schedules, she had no place or time to study (shes a student nurse) and we both had 'issues' with money; we were near to breaking up TBH, so we sat down and talked, and came to the conclusion that we could easily live apart, yet be partners still, (We have learnt the term is LATs - Living Apart Together).
It actually turned out to be a very good move in view of the money situation, I have had my Tax Credits, CTC, Child Benefit (My DD was youngest) increased, and still kept the same reduction on my council tax (25% for single occupancy - read on...).
And she has had an addition to her grant from the Uni, her WTC dropped (unbelievably WTC don't take Bursary grants into account, meaning she is effectively unable to claim any money from earnings, as on their paperwork she doesn't work - despite working 8.30 to 5 on plaement!) but she pays no council tax, she had a 25% discount before for being a student (see, told you to read on ) now she gets 100%....
Anyhoo, all this resulted in me having to change a lot of different things to my name = spending too much time on the phone.
All while I was working longer hours too, as well as doing day to day single parent things, phoning these organisations kept moving to the end of the list, until I thought Sod it! I'll copy the lot and send it in to each organisation, My place of work very kindly copied it all, and put them into envelopes, all I had to do was pay the 70p each, bargain!


Have had a couple of replies, one from the CCA, saying that Ruthbridge isn't part of their organisation, but they see from the letters that Ruthbridge belong to another organisation;

Credit Services Association

Wingrove House

2nd Floor East

Ponteland Road

Newcastle Upon Tyne

NE3 3AJ

I found this really nice of them, they probably did have the address to hand, but to think they had the courtesy to send me this information for something that wasn't anything to do with them, amazing!

(BTW:- :rolleyes2 This is obviously the CSA that was posted by RAS, with a follow-up by Rog 2 that I didn't see/ forgot, I feel such a doofus!,:embarasse )

And an acknowledgement letter from the FOS, informing me they "receiving very high volumes of enquiries" and they will respond fully in time.

So, I'll have to post another off to CSA :rolleyes: and sit back and wait.

I mention all this, just so people realise the route I took was easier for me at that time, but it would probably benefit most to do all the phone calls etc first.

Bye all

Alpha47

Hi Pipk

Just read your post, think you are doing incredibly well. Its funny I have a parter I do not live with and it works out really well. Been about 12 years now, my son has ME/CFS and needs full time carer (me), so it was easier at the time, did not know we were called LATs.

I have no news on the Ruthbridge front Its good to know other people are in the same position and found this forum a great help. Hate to think how much money these companies make out of people who are scared by their tactics and pay up.

Regards
Alpha


Regards
Alpha

pipk62

UPDATE: I have received more replies, as mentioned before, I have had replies from CCA & FOS, and have now had replies from

Trading Standards: they say that they are aware of this company's activities, and they are working with OFT

OFT: Who have sent me a letter and form asking for permission to disclose my identity to the trader, in case they wish to take licensing action against them.:T

MP: David Laws, who has written to the secretary of state for business Enterprise and Regulatory reform on my behalf.

And Ruthless have sent me another letter, from their Debt Counselling Department! They will not give up!

rog2

pipk62 wrote: »

And Ruthless have sent me another letter, from their Debt Counselling Department! They will not give up!

I suppose you have to 'admire' their tenacity. :rolleyes:

Well done so far - I really hope these chancers get their just desserts. :T :T

pipk62

Just to let you know, I haven't received anything else from ruthless.


And also to hang my head in shame.... I was asked to contact my MP and also had a form to send to FOS, which I haven't done either of! :shocked:

Have been a bit busy lately!