Debt collection agency sent letter for non-existent debt!

fierystormcloud

Hey, can someone advise me please?

Maybe I am worrying/fussing about nothing.

My husband and I were members of a gym for 2 years... I joined first, and he joined 3 weeks later. (Both circa mid summer 2014.)

So by around Feb/March this year we were going a lot less, so come June this year, we cancelled the membership. They emailed us both (several weeks apart,) saying the direct debit will stop, and the membership has ceased.

All good.

Then last week, we both got a letter from a debt collection agency - in separate envelopes - demanding £92 payment (for 4 months gym membership,) PLUS £125 'admin' fee for agency ... So over £200 EACH!

The letter also said 'despite several letters sent to you already, we have not heard from you, and you must pay this amount in full within 14 days, or we will be entering the matter into court!!!' We never got any other letters by the way...this was the first!

Straight away I rang the gym and said 'we quit 4 months ago, both of us! And you emailed us confirming it ... What the heck?!!!!!!' Woman on phone said, 'oh it's an admin error; it's happened to a few dozen people. You need to contact them yourselves and tell them what's happened, then they will confirm with us, and then they will cancel any action and close the case.'

I was annoyed at having to contact them but I did, and the debt agency said 'right that's fine, we will verify it with the gym, and close the case if it's all OK.'

Upshot it is IS OK, and when I rang them back today, they said the case has been closed, but despite my request, they refuse to put anything in writing to confirm that no further action will be taken, that the original letter should not have been sent, and we never owed any money...'

Is this normal? They were quick enough to send letters to me and my husband to say we owed money we didn't owe, but refuse to send anything out to say it was a mistake, and we don't owe it... So apparently, we are supposed to take their word for it verbally only! So annoying!

I am pretty peeved actually. Especially as the letter they sent last week claimed they sent several forms of correspondence BEFORE that letter, and we never got anything before!!!

Any advice or info anyone? Can we demand confirmation from them that they will take no further action, and the letter last week should not have been sent? Thank you.

fatbelly

It sounds like it's sorted to me.

By the standards we normally see in the debt collection industry you've got off lightly.

See what comes next - I would expect 'nothing'

If they or another agency do demand money the best response is a written prove-it letter.

sourcrates

Typical DCA lies and mis-truths.

Computer generated letters worded specifically in such a way, to get you to contact them in a hurry.

If you have any more follow up demands, post back for advice.

fermi

fierystormcloud wrote: »

I am pretty peeved actually. Especially as the letter they sent last week claimed they sent several forms of correspondence BEFORE that letter, and we never got anything before!!!

Any advice or info anyone? Can we demand confirmation from them that they will take no further action, and the letter last week should not have been sent? Thank you.

No profit for the DCA in doing that.

FBaby

Things like this happened all the time. I had a similar issue with my old bank last week, and a month ago, it was with the phone company and a few weeks before the car insurance company! It is a regular occurrence and I spend a lot of time on the phone sorting such matter. Each time they try to put the blame on someone else then themselves!

I go through the motions, try to remain polite because it's never the fault of the person who ends up on the phone, and each time it does end up sorted, it's just annoying to have to sort out the mistakes they make and rarely get a genuine apology. It's life!

fierystormcloud

Thank you so much everyone.

So the upshot is that we can't insist they send a letter confirming 'no more action' then?

So they're quick enough to send letters out (one each!) to demand money we didn't owe, but won't send anything confirming it was an error?

And the gym should have to answer to this too! :mad:

So flippin' annoying! We have literally done nothing wrong, and yet we have a debt letter sent to us, claiming they have already sent 'previous correspondence.'

How can they get away with this? I mean, if we had left it and binned it, we would have had a court order soon!

National_Debtline

fierystormcloud wrote: »

Thank you so much everyone.

So the upshot is that we can't insist they send a letter confirming 'no more action' then?

So they're quick enough to send letters out (one each!) to demand money we didn't owe, but won't send anything confirming it was an error?

And the gym should have to answer to this too! :mad:

So flippin' annoying! We have literally done nothing wrong, and yet we have a debt letter sent to us, claiming they have already sent 'previous correspondence.'

How can they get away with this? I mean, if we had left it and binned it, we would have had a court order soon!

Hi fierystormcloud


I think Fermi sums it up pretty succinctly further above.


They (the debt collectors) have been passed the debt, they've then been advised it shouldn't have existed in the first place. From that point on, there is zero incentive for them to spend another second or ounce of energy on anything to do with it. You can by all means complain if you so wish, but I suspect they are willing to take the chance that most people will put it down to experience and move on.


There are any number of examples out there of gyms - often but not always smaller chains - who make a dog's dinner of their recordkeeping and fail to close memberships properly when customers cancel, hence debt letters coming out of the blue months (even years) later.


All I can suggest is that, in your future dealings with any such businesses, you document any cancellations/terminations as painstakingly as possible so that you are equipped against any further phoney demands.


Dennis
@natdebtline

fierystormcloud

Thanks Dennis.

Yeah we did have the email confirming that they had accepted our cancellation, (as well as a copy of written confirmation that we posted to them cancelling the memberships...)

And also, they stopped collecting the DD. We didn't even cancel it, they just stopped collecting ... so we kind of had the proof that the membership was finished with the DD stopping AND the confirmation from the, via email. IYSWIM. And also, it had come to the end of the second year, so we hadn't bailed part way through, and broken the contract.

What pees me off is that if we had not seen the letter or it had gone astray etc, we could have had a court demand, or something, and a black mark on our credit record!

And what the heck did they ay they had sent previous correspondence for? They have sent nothing.

Bunch of muppets! :mad: