Blinkin Telewest!!

mrsmitch01

I don't know if I'm on the right forum but here goes.......
I had an account with Telewest in 2000-2001 and was billed for a months usage of £720!! I checked the bill as it was stupidly high and found calls to numbers that I didn't know and at times when I wasn't even at home. I queried the bill with them and offered to send wage slips and time sheets as evidence that I wasn't making the calls and they weren't interested.
Debt collectors letters were sent and the account stopped.
Fast forward 14 years.
My husband and I are currently with Sky and haven't been best pleased with the quality of the phone line. So my hubby called Virgin Media who informed him that because this £720 is owing then we can't have their services until it's paid off. Ok! So I've sent them a formal letter and a copy for my own records and have had a phone call, they say that even though this has been wiped from my credit file, I still owe them the money.
I've told them that the whole thing is a joke and I'm not prepared to pay it. I am currently waiting to hear back from Cisas, the ombudsman as I'm really not happy.
I would like to clear my name, and to be honest wouldn't have their services now anyway. It's just so annoying. Has anyone else had this problem or has any advice. Thanks 😀

sourcrates

Hi,


We don't have cable, so never used Virgin, so no direct experience.
The good news is the debt will be statute barred now, so you don't have to pay it, and as you say, its no longer on your file, so cant hurt you.


In all honesty that debt should not be on there records anymore due to the time limits involved, but if they say no, then they say no, unless the ombudsman can resolve the matter, your stuck with there decision I`m afraid.


If your phone line is faulty, that's nothing to do with Sky, all they do is provide the service, the infrastructure is owned by BT openworld, you need to check your line for faults, get them to do it, it wont matter which provider you are with, a fault is a fault.

fermi

They can certainly retain in their internal records the fact that a debt was owed and unpaid under DPA. There is no set time limit for that, just that you retain it no longer than necessary. If a company does not want to do business with people who have bad unpaid debts with them in the past, and want to keep details of those debts to facilitate this, then nothing in the DPA stops them.