Debt collector letters - note to the regulars

zzzLazyDaisy

bazster wrote: »

There are complaints that need making (such as those to landowners/retailers) and those that are a complete waste of time which could be better spent writing to someone else.

If anyone has half-an-hour to research and write a pointless letter to worthless debt collectors, my advice would be: don't. Spend that half-an-hour instead writing to your MP about the entire fraudulent private parking "industry". That would be a far better investment of 30 minutes of your life.

I agree, write to your MP, do whatever it takes to get the monkey off your back.

As for the rest, I think we have to agree to differ. The bottom line is that PPCs are doing court in increasing numbers. They are targetting ignorers. They have six years from the 'event' to issue proceedings, so even if they are slow to come to the party, they have plenty of time. And of course, there is always the possibility that smaller less active PPCs may be bought up for their stash of unfarmed PCNs.

Court is a stressful lottery - This is simply offered as an extra string to people's bows.

Daisy

bazster

Court may be stressful, but for many people so is writing endless letters that are actually, for the most part, a complete waste of time since nothing was going to happen anyway.

The chances of copping a court case for a PCN (even from ParkingEye) are still tiny. I think people should be told this so they can make their own minds up instead of being terrified and dragooned into being part of our campaign (or possibly being so horrified at what they read here, with its endless letters and legalese, that they rush off and pay up without even bothering to register).

zzzLazyDaisy

bazster wrote: »

I think people should be told this so they can make their own minds up.

Fair comment, and I agree.

However most of the people that I come across are already scared witless by the debt collectors threats and that is why they turn up asking for advice. So at least this gives them a choice of ignoring or being proactive.

bazster

If someone is scared witless by debt collectors then the best advice is to explain to them how powerless debt collectors actually are and how they can be safely ignored. Taking them seriously by writing letters to them affords them a degree of legitimacy they simply don't possess and I would've though increases the stress level.

Stroma

Yes but some people are wondering about the logic of ignoring and on what basis we are advising that. I've said previously that if everyone simply refused to pay and ignore them completely it would work. Unfortunately getting 25m motorists to ignore is impossible.

So getting complaints in about debt collectors should be done the same as complaints to retailers, just accepting a multitude of debt collector letters for debts that don't exist shouldn't be just accepted.

I agree that people should decide what to do, but an explanation should be given on the options, and the pros and cons on each one. This is something I've been advocating for a long time.

Stroma

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

TBH I don't know if the PD applies to Scotland /NI, but I am not convinced that it is relevant because POFA doesn't apply, and there is no efficient cross border way of issuing against a defendant in Scotland, even if the PPC knows who the driver is, which is unlikely (you taught me all that, Stroma, so that's just by way of explanation to anyone else reading who doesn't know about these things!).

It doesn't alter the fact, though, that motorists in Scotland are still likely to find the letters chains stressful, and I have done a couple of cease and desist letters for scottish motorists omitting reference to the PD, but making it clear that they know there is no jurisdiction in scotland so the debt collection agency is in breach of CSA CoP 10 (h), which appear to have done the trick and stopped the letters. I can add one of those to the example letters?

And I have learned a lot from you thanks !

bazster

Stroma wrote: »

I agree that people should decide what to do, but an explanation should be given on the options, and the pros and cons on each one. This is something I've been advocating for a long time.

Well it's not happening, at least not here. What I see here is lots of people running around like headless chickens yelling that the sky is falling in and the only way to stop it is to spend the next six months writing a hundred letters to Uncle Tom Cobley and all, with no reference whatsoever to the fact that the chances of your particular sky falling in are, to say the least, remote.

Stroma

I have posted two threads here, one is a foi request on how many times the EDI link has been used in 12 months, the other shows how many claims have been made in that period. I link to them in replies here, if people cannot do the maths then I despair!

The chances of things happening are remote, but it's no good if you are the one with the claim, so we fight them on what is in place now, popla, complaints & small claims, if you feel that is not the right choice, you try and convince every motorist in the uk to ignore them

Guys_Dad

bazster wrote: »

Well it's not happening, at least not here. What I see here is lots of people running around like headless chickens yelling that the sky is falling in and the only way to stop it is to spend the next six months writing a hundred letters to Uncle Tom Cobley and all, with no reference whatsoever to the fact that the chances of your particular sky falling in are, to say the least, remote.

Do not overlook the therapeutic value of needing "to do something" for lots of people. Equally the Ostrich solution is the way others choose to deal with things.

In general the regulars are not themselves ostriches and see what can happen on occasions when that approach is followed.

bazster

Guys_Dad wrote: »

Do not overlook the therapeutic value of needing "to do something" for lots of people. Equally the Ostrich solution is the way others choose to deal with things.

In general the regulars are not themselves ostriches and see what can happen on occasions when that approach is followed.

Unbelievable! So anyone who looks at the stats and decides that (on the basis of pretty good odds) they will take their chances instead of spending precious hours of their life battling something that in all likelihood doesn't need to be battled is an Ostrich?

Or, in other words, anyone who makes their own decisions and chooses not do do what you want them to do is an Ostrich!

What I'm suggesting is that this place needs a dose of realism and that people requesting help should have the facts presented to them and not simply be browbeaten and scaremongered into the playing the game. If that suggestion is so offensive to some of you that you resort to misrepresenting me then I'm afraid that says more about you than it does me.

I notice that no-one is willing to address this point I made earlier: does it not occur to you that some newbies will read the blizzard of scaremongering here and the exhortations to write a dozen letters for fear of the sky falling in, and instead of registering and getting fact-based, sober advice they will simply run away in horror and pay the PPC? Like I said earlier, ParkingEye must be peeing themselves laughing.