Corporate consortium

Kpros

Hi Guys,

My partner (starting to regret allowing her to move in!) has today received a letter from:

The Corporate Consortium
Capitol House
St Marys Road
Watford
WD18 0RR

The letter simply states that during her employment with The Co-op (which was well over a year ago) she was overpaid holiday amounting to nearly £400 between April 2015-June 2015.

We today rang the co op and spoke to the legal department who gave us the apparent holiday dates (although it was over a year ago she believes it is all nonsense and she hasn't taken the dates). They have agreed to contact the store, get copies of the holiday request forms and then send them to us in the post.

They instructed me that I must make contact with the 3rd party agent ''The Corporate Consortium' to inform them of the current agreement.

I rang this company and the guy I spoke to was a complete idiot. Rude, abrupt and wouldn't let me get a word in edgeways. He essentially tried to raise his voice at me for contacting Co op and said we should have come to them as its their business now.

We got into a bit of a heated conversation and I pretty much just told him that we strongly deny the over payment, we are awaiting proper proof of the over payment and once we receive that we are confident that it will rubbish the debt. If once we receive the proof it is found to be correct then we will pay. I told him to accept this as our full co operation and if he isn't happy with that then please send us a court date. I then ended the call.

He was saying that my partner should 'email' them and they should be the ones dealing with co op!

I'm just wondering if anybody has any advice? Anybody dealt with them before? Who are they and do we have cause for concern?

The other very worrying factor is my partner moved from her current area due to very serious family circumstances. Apparently there were a number of letters to my partner at her old address (of course she has not seen/had these)... how did this debt agency obtain her address details? She has no debt at all, financial situation is fine this has come completely out of the blue.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thanks in advance

National_Debtline

Hi

I hadn’t heard of them previously but I found this thread from 2010 on the Consumer Action Group forum, which suggests that they are part of Capitol Commercial Collections Ltd. Essentially they appear to be a debt collection agency.

www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?274196-The-Corporate-Consortium

You’ve done the right thing by insisting on evidence. You should keep all correspondence in writing from now on.

James
@natdebtline

Kpros

Hi James,

Thank you so much for your reply.

I've just read the forum in your link. This is an identical scenario as my partner (albeit a few years ago though!) and its interesting that another girl has the same problem too and also seemed mystified by the letter.

I will keep correspondence in writing from now on, thanks for the tip off. I made a point of telling him that the call was recorded and I kept repeating 'please accept this as my full co-operation with you'.

In your experience are they likely to fade away? Are these type of companies known for taking people to court? Neither of us have ever had a debt/debt letter so we're a little inexperienced in this area; the last thing I want to do is line some rogue companies pockets!

Our intention is to get the evidence (we will demand the original copies of the holiday forms, not a 'scan' or 'email' as these could easily be edited on the most basic software') and then go from there but my partner is adamant that she didn't take the holiday. There were 5 holidays in total amounting to 35 hours but some of the dates were for 4 hours and 6 hours e.t.c; she is convinced that she has never had holiday for a few hours so it seems ridiculous.

If there were a couple of genuine holidays (we doubt this but if) would you recommend we pay or perhaps go down the route of contacting Co Op with a strongly worded letter asking them to drop the debt (I see that was what the girl in the above forum did)

Thanks

Kpros

Also, do you know how would they have found her address? They obviously had her old one which was fine as the employers had this but not her new one. Nobody knew her new address, not even her old friends so I'm wondering how they obtained this? In fact, she has only recently (the last 2 months) officially registered living with me so I'm struggling to understand how. I wouldn't expect some debt company to be able to obtain personal details?

sourcrates

Kpros wrote: »

Also, do you know how would they have found her address? They obviously had her old one which was fine as the employers had this but not her new one. Nobody knew her new address, not even her old friends so I'm wondering how they obtained this? In fact, she has only recently (the last 2 months) officially registered living with me so I'm struggling to understand how. I wouldn't expect some debt company to be able to obtain personal details?

They do a search of public databases, including credit reports and stuff like that, unless your under the radar, it's fairly easy to trace someone.

Sounds like a strange situation that her workplace would pass on a salary overpayment, does she still work for the co-op ?

By the way, as the DCA is only acting for there Client, they can't do a thing to you, as they don't own the debt, you don't have to deal with them, and there's nothing they can do except spout hot air !!!

Kpros

Hi Sourcrates, thanks for your reply!

Oh, I see, so I guess a decent search would spit out anything at all that she has registered here I take it.

No, she stopped working for them in mid August. She handed in her notice but didn't work it (she wasn't paid for this as she was paid a month in arrears). She was on a 8 hour a week contract.

That's really useful advice and has put my mind at ease! I will refrain from have any contact with them anymore and will deal direct with the Co-op. I will refuse to pay it unless they can send me the original holiday request forms on the grounds that anything apart from that could have easily been falsely created with a very simple cut and paste job.

Is there any other advice you can offer guys?

Great advice both, thanks!

fermi

It's certainly NOT in the DCAs interest for you to successfully dispute the debt with Co-op, which is why they try the tactic of pressuring you to pay ASAP and trying to stop you dealing with the Co-op themselves.

Kpros

I see! It's starting to make a lot more sense now!

I think I will just wait for the proof from the Co-op and go from there. If they are able to send the original holiday forms that she has allegedly signed then I will make a decision based on this but reading the article that was mentioned above its starting to look like this is purely a scare-mongering tactic.

All of this support has helped a lot so thanks everybody! I will keep you updated!

Bluebandit75

Hi kpros how did you get on? Eldest child has received a letter off them, I don't intend on doing much, having read this and another forum.

Thanks

Kpros

Hi all,

Forgive me for not replying sooner.

The outcome was that both the company in question and co-op decided not to contact us again which basically means they had no proof of any over-payment. We have heard nothing more and we consider the matter finalised now.

If anybody finds themselves in the same boat then I guess unless they have concrete evidence, ignore them!

Thanks again for all of the help.

middleclassbutpoor

I wouldn't ignore them, I would follow the process you did - simply contact the Coop and ask them to provide you evidence of the overpayment and dispute it. Then write to the DCA claiming the overpayment is in dispute and that you are dealing directly with the Coop and ask them to not contact you again.

If they can't prove the debt, then they will go away. Ignoring them will just escalate matters.