Milk Man Debt

JLbrown16

Hi,

Sorry If I haven't posted this in the right place, looked in a few forums and wasn't sure which was best suited.

I'm after a little advice, around 6 months ago we received a letter from our New's agent/Milk man claiming we owed £75 for milk we hadn't paid for, both my wife and I were confused because we had been paying the milk by standing order.

We gave the news agent a call and explained we were still paying and had always paid via standing order to xxx account, the man we spoke to was instantly very rude and told us that he had sent a letter months ago to tell us he had a new bank account and the cost of the milk was increasing... But we never received said letter!? We told him this and said we could prove that we had being paying on time at the original agreed rate every week so at most we only owed about £20 and that surely he should have noticed we were still paying money in to this account and sent another letter or knocked on our door, his reply was something of the lines of "You know what f**k you, I don't need sh*t customers like you, you can stick your money up your !!!".... And he hung up.

My wife and I were shocked but figured, plenty more milk men around we'll find another and moved on.

Yesterday we received a letter from the news agent demanding we pay the bill of £75 immediately or he would take us to a small claims court for it.

is there anything we can do here? We've reluctantly offered the £20 that we believe we may well owe but I refuse to pay this man money I don't owe him!

Thanks in advance.

ViolaLass

Get proof from the bank that you have paid into that account - bank statement or something like that.

MrsTinks

Could he take you to court? Well yes in theory he could try for small claims court. He'd need to be really pedantic but we recently had a case of someone who had a CCJ for £20 against them so never say never.

My recommendation would be a physical letter stating that you have paid your bill of £x per pint by DD/SO to the account they stipulated on starting the agreement. You are happy to provide this evidence from your bank.

Maybe something along the lines of:

Dear Mr Milkdude

Following recent conversations with yourself on (date) and (date) I am writing to you to settle this matter.

It is your claim that we have failed to pay for the provision of milk from yourself, with the reason being that you have changed bank accounts and in addition the cost of milk has risen. You allege the amount owing is £75.

As explained to yourself we have been paying our bill by Standing Order to the account outlined in our original agreement at a rate of £x per pint (or whatever). This is evidenced in our bank statements.

You further stated that you have notified us by letter of a bank account change and price increase. We have explained that we have not been in receipt of any such notification from yourself.

We do believe in paying a fair price for our milk, and as such we have offered to forward you the payment making up the difference between what we have already paid and the revised cost based on when you state the price change came into effect. We believe this amount comes to £xx.

Please note that this is not an admission that there is any fault on us in failing to act on a letter, we still firmly believe we did not receive this, this is purely offered because we want to support local farmers and businesses such as yours.

Please find enclosed a cheque for this amount, cashing this will constitute acceptance that this account is settled in full and closed with a nil balance.

Regarding the amount paid into the original account, this would still be held in the account by the bank, and you would be able to claim this even if the account is closed as it has not been refunded to us.

Please keep any further correspondence in writing, following the abusive nature of your last phone call we request that you delete all records of our telephone contact numbers.

Sincerely.

JLBrown

National_Debtline

Hi

I agree with the others that you should offer evidence of the payments you have already made to the original account. Offering the difference up to the new price seems reasonable and civil. The letter from Mrs Tinks should fit the bill nicely.

James
@natdebtline

sourcrates

Defiantly send the letter Mrs Tinks has so eloquently constructed above.

It shows that you are wiling to come to a compromise, you are not being awkward, that you wish to resolve the matter, and, that you want to continue supporting your local businesses.

It would bolster your case if any future legal action was taken to recover the debt.

MrsTinks

One DOES have quite the eloquent turn of phrase when one doth choose to...

I write a lot of business mails - what can I say LOL

PS - not bad for English being my third language I guess :rotfl: