Buchanan clark & wells??

akhan48

I received this e-mail today:

Dear Mr ***** ****,

This is an urgent message from Buchanan Clark and Wells.

We have been attempting to contact you as we require to speak with you as soon as possible.

Could you please contact us on 0844 571 4044 quoting this unique reference number *******, or alternatively reply to this email with a contact telephone number and we will arrange for someone to contact you urgently.

Thank you


Buchanan Clark & Wells

********************************************************************************

Registered Company: BCW Group Limited – an arvato company

Place of Registration: Scotland
Registration Number: SC223606
Registered Address: 24 George Square, Glasgow, G2 1EG

Sunday Times "Top 100 Companies to Work For" 2004, 2006, 2010 & 2011

Best 100 Workplaces UK

Europe's 500 - Entrepreneurs for Growth

ABOUT BCW GROUP LIMITED

BCW Group is a part of the German company arvato infoscore GmbH a leading full-service BPO provider
for all financial services along the value chain. Our portfolio of services includes integrated
solutions for all stages of the customer lifecycle including risk management, finance, and collection
services. With more than 3,500 employees in 11 countries, we are a subsidiary of arvato AG, the
internationally networked outsourcing service provider of the Bertelsmann SE & Co. KG aA Group. We help
companies in Europe to grow. Read more about arvato infoscore at

Read more about BCW Group at

If you have received this message by mistake, please contact the sender immediately and delete the message
without making, distributing or retaining any copies of it.


*******************************************************************************


It says they have been trying to contact me... Well I haven't had any phone calls, texts or letters. This e-mail is the first I have heard from them. Not thinking properly, I sent them a quick email back, saying "Whats it about?". That's it, I didn't tell them my number or anything else. Waiting to hear back from them now.

As far as I know, I don't owe anyone any money. So I would be interested to know where this debt has magically appeared from!

Will update when I hear more from them. The advice on here has been very useful and feel confident in dealing with these cowboys now. Failing that I know a good solicitor so can easily get legal advice, if needed. If I do genuinely owe someone money, I will gladly pay them directly.

IRM_2

I would just like to share my experience with Buchanan Clark and Wells:

I received the first ‘standard’ letter stating

“VERIFICATION LETTER
Dear Mr {Surname}
We are trying to contact {first name and surname} with regards to a private matter. We have confirmed your address through a credit link obtained via a credit reference agency as being the same person who previously lived at the original address above (This address is correct but I could never remember registering anything there as it was my new partners address and I only lived there for a short time, hence my suspicions. Suspicions were also raised as I believed I had no outstanding credit and the letter appeared to be false due to being in two different colours)

Please contact us on 0844 571 4061 quoting the above reference number and one of our operators will be available to take any relevant details to resolve the matter.

If you believe you are not our customer, please contact us as soon as possible on 0844 571 4061 to enable us to amend our records and to remove your address from out system file.”

After some research it appears BCW are a legitimate Debt Collection Agency.
I followed the advice given on this website after reading through the posts and ignored the first letter in the belief that I owed no money to anyone.
2 weeks later I received my 2nd letter which stated the princely sum of £27.30 they were chasing and stated it was for an unpaid Orange mobile account. So without confirming I was the person they were chasing for an outstanding debt they released details. Again this raised my suspicions further as I do indeed have an account with Orange for my mobile phone. I have had the contract with them for over 6 years and have always been paid via DD from my account.

I called Orange customer support and with the help of the reference number they were able to tell me there was in fact an outstanding debt on my account. 2 years ago I took out a sim only PAYG new contact for an ipad. I loaded the sim with £10 credit and have rarely used it outside of my home Wi-Fi network. If I do I tether it to my phone as this has included data allowance. When the chap from Orange looked into it he stated that there was a charge for not setting up a DD on my PAYG sim of roughly £3 month, the computer had picked up on this and had begun charging me without my knowledge. Clearly believing I was PAYG and therefore no requirement for DD to be set up the chap from Orange was able to clear the account and informed me that he would get the request from BCW cancelled.

So my advice would be once BCW show their hand and inform you who the debtors are, get in contact as mine was simply a computer glitch.
I will update further if I hear any more from BCW.

fermi

PinkRoses wrote: »

I've just received a letter from BC&W saying they're trying to get hold of me regarding a private matter and want me to confirm my address. After reading these threads I am unsure of what step to take?

Parallel discussion on this, so I'll move all posts over to the other thread.

---> https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4847661

Sarahp5698

I have received a letter addressed to my son. Who is currently serving in Afghanistan.

'Dear Mr ******

We are trying to contact Mr **** ***** with regards to a private matter. We have confirmed your address through a credit link obtained via credit reference agency as being the same person who previously lived at the original address above.

Please contact etc etc etc.

I phoned them to inform them that although he is my son he hasn't actually lived or been registered as living here for 7 years.
I told them that he was currently in Afghan and wouldn't be back in this country until June. They still then asked for a contact number and address they could contact him on. They wouldn't believe that he didn't have a contact phone number that they could ring him on immediately. Plus wouldn't accept that although I'm able to send him Facebook messages that it may be days before he is able to reply dependant on whether he was in camp or not. Their attitude was he should be contactable straight away.
I know my son had a problem with Orange when he first went on tour as they were supposed to have put his contract on hold while he was away so he would have no service or charges until it was reinstated when he returned. But a letter came here from Orange with an amount owing on his account which I paid for him and he transferred money when he was able to.
After reading other posts I can only guess Orange have passed his details to this company.
I just couldn't believe their attitude to the fact that he couldn't be contacted, no compassion or understanding when a mother is having to tell them at this present time he could be under gun fire or lying in a ditch so if I couldn't contact him then neither could they.

fatbelly

You will get some more letters from them. Please treat them with the contempt they deserve.

Our usual advice (which here would apply to your son) is to ignore letters like this until a definite allegation is made. Then send a prove-it letter if it is not 100% clear what it refers to.

You should not have to guess what debt is being chased.

stressedbymoney

Have read threads regarding this company and have found them - the threads - very useful!!

However - I received two letters from them yesterday with the usual stuff about being traced through an address credit link etc. As soon as I read the letters I realised that they related to being a guarantor for my ex's and one of her children's mobile phone contracts with Orange. As a bankrupt she could not get them in her own name - I know - stupid of me to do this!

These contracts were for 2 years each and were taken out in February 2012 - by the end of that month my ex ended the relationship!! I contacted Orange to cancel them and was told that I would have to pay about £1000 to do this. She had already left me with significant debt and I was not in a position to do this.

To cut a long story short - she wanted money from the equity in my house - I sought legal advice and laid out exactly what she had already had from me and that she was not getting a penny more. In the letter I also asked her to arrange for another person to act as guarantor. Ran the letter past my solicitor before posting! Know she took this to a solicitor but not heard anything more for nearly a year now.

Orange contacted me to discuss one of the accounts as it was in my name and they wouldn't discuss it with her - she was apparently on another line as they talked to me. She set up a DD for both accounts and I agreed she could handle the account without reference to me - again - stupid I know!

Over the past two years or so I have spoken to Orange a number of times about my own account, and I have asked on a couple of occasions if my name is linked to any other accounts, to which they have said no.

I see from the client reference on one of the letters that it matches one of the accounts. I do not recognise the other reference number.

Can anyone advise me what to do???? I went on the BCW site but have not set up an account or anything - just found out how much the debts are for and foolishly entered my mobile number so am expecting them to start calling me, although I think they tried this with my old number as had several missed calls from a Glasgow number.

I would like to deal with Orange direct about the account I recognise, however I don't think they will speak to me as it is now in her name.

What does anyone think is the best way to go with this - write directly to Orange??? Send recorded delivery???

Also - the contract(s) would have ended in Feb this year - in which case does my obligation as guarantor end with the contract, or could she have taken out another contract with my name attached - if she has done this without my permission, would this count as fraud??

Any advice would be welcome!!

stressedbymoney

Ok found a really helpful link in these forums to Noodle where I have accessed my credit report for free. It shows that the two mobile phone contracts are still linked to me (unknown number now known!)

My report doesn't show any defaults and there are no negatives in it - however when I have gone into history of each account, on one it shows three months of 0 payments, and on the other there are 2. Does this mean these payments were not made?? If so, why are they also showing as green, ok and up to date???

The accounts have also been active for 24 months now - does anyone know if I can now write to Orange and cancel them, or at least get myself removed as guarantor???

Thanks for any replies!!

fatbelly

If the debt is still owned by Orange, and if they are still reporting to the CRAs then it sounds like it is*, then you can contact them for further details and to make a payment arrangement.

I can't see why they would release you from your obligations as guarantor though.

If you have other debts, you need a strategy to deal with them as a whole. Stepchange? Payplan? National Debtline?

* Are BCW referring to Orange as 'their client'?

stressedbymoney

Thanks Fatbelly - letter doesn't refer to Orange at all - it's only through my investigations that I have deduced it's them!

I think my initial response will be to wait for a second letter(s) and then send them the proof letter on this forum.

In the meantime I could write to Orange to enquire about the two accounts and see if I can negotiate to get out of contract - does this seem a reasonable plan??

Yes have other debts which I am managing - because she was bankrupt they were all in my name!! Some people are just morally as well as financially bankrupt - found out afterwards she had left a previous partner in debt too!!

sourcrates

stressedbymoney wrote: »

Some people are just morally as well as financially bankrupt - found out afterwards she had left a previous partner in debt too!!

Ouch !!!!!!!:mad: