Help! Possible Scam (Webbiling)

Asmales123

I recently was involved with a dating website for a short amount of time, the payment was through Webbiling. I decided to cancel the direct debt with the company after the agreed amount had been paid over the agreed time i originally agreed to, i also went through both websites Terms and conditions to ensure i did this correctly. After a few emails from webbiling, I received an email confirming the cancellation of the transaction with no problems at all.

On the same day however, i received another email stating that ANOTHER direct debt had been set up for the same website through webbiling. The actual direct debt was £5.00 every 30 days which wasn't even a payment option on the dating website. The membership that i apparently paid for also wasn't even active on the account that i apparently bought it for. A few days later I also received a dunning letter from webbiling threatening legal action if I didn't pay the £5.00 with an extra £12 extra costs. I emailed webbiling telling them I didn't authorise this and would like to cancel this direct debt. We have been having a tennis match of emails over the past few days and they are claiming that they tried to charge me but the bank wouldn't allow it and it was charge back. They also pretty much refused to cancel the transaction as every time i asked them to cancel it as I wasn't involved they just ignored it

I contacted my bank that i was associated with immediately to seek advice, i learnt from them that webbiling hadn't even tried to collect any money from my account, no direct debt was set up and there was no records of webbiling ever attempting to get the money i apparently owed. They also confirmed that the original direct debt was handled correctly and there should be no owed money to the company.

I don't know if this is the right forum for this but honestly I'm quite scared, to me it does sound like a scare tactic to try and get more money from me but the threat of debt collectors is honestly scaring me, I mean, why would debt collectors get involved for a debt that doesn't even apparently exist?

Please help.

Flobberchops

A scare tactic is exactly what it is. They're attempting to lumber you with hidden (or straight-out invented) costs and are hoping the combination of the relatively small amount and threat of legal action will make you roll over and accept the loss. However, you don't have to.

They have no means of enforcing a payment which, as you say, isn't in the terms and conditions of the service you signed up to. You have every right to ask your bank to cancel this Direct Debit and furthermore to recall all payments you didn't authorise. This is your legal right under the Direct Debit Guarantee . If the website really and truly considers you in breach of the contract they can attempt to take you to the small claims court to recover the money, however for the sake of a few recalled payments of £5 each this is unlikely to be worth their time. And as you're confident you understood the Ts&Cs and have them on your side, they should have no leg to stand on.

In my opinion: you should lose no sleep at all in recalling the unauthorised payments, blocking further correspondence with this dishonest company. I believe the law is on your side on this one.

Asmales123

Yeah it sounds exactly what it is, its the fact that they're claiming to have attempted to start a direct debt, have waffled on about how they've attempted to charge me and the bank hasn't authorised it and now its been charged back to them that's annoying me when in reality they haven't attempted anything...

What should i do if if debt collectors do get involved if at all?

Robisere

This company has been carrying out this krap now for a long time. Check out this:
http://www.alphatucana.co.uk/general/webbilling-com-scam/

And this from MSE forum: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3354934

But for a real eye-opener, check out their accounts, for a supposedly high class operation, assets are relative peanuts:
https://companycheck.co.uk/company/05585179/WEBBILLINGCOM-LIMITED/financials

Find them, write threatening legal action:
http://www.endole.co.uk/company/05585179/webbilling-com-limited

Or just ignore their empty threats. Debt recovery costs money, they have no legal position with which to threaten this. And that is all it is: an empty threat. They want people to fall for the two P's - Panic and Payup.

Asmales123

If the debt collectors or collection agency do get involved, what could i do? I've heard sending a prove it letter to the email is a viable way to get them to leave you alone

Flobberchops

Asmales123 wrote: »

If the debt collectors or collection agency do get involved, what could i do? I've heard sending a prove it letter to the email is a viable way to get them to leave you alone

The onus is of course on the company to prove you owe them. I don't believe debt recovery action can start until you've been defeated in the small claims court or failed to respond to a summons, and as I said before I don't think it will get to that stage as they haven't a leg to stand on and are unlikely to pursue legal action.

If they send threatening letters, put them unopened in the bin. There won't be any gorillas knocking on your front door.

Asmales123

I don't really want them sending letters really kinda hoping they just stick to emails if they even get involved...just seems like such a massive waste of money and time on their behalf to go to all this effort for a payment that has never existed...

Shakin_Steve

Flobberchops wrote: »

The onus is of course on the company to prove you owe them. I don't believe debt recovery action can start until you've been defeated in the small claims court or failed to respond to a summons, and as I said before I don't think it will get to that stage as they haven't a leg to stand on and are unlikely to pursue legal action.

If they send threatening letters, put them unopened in the bin. There won't be any gorillas knocking on your front door.

How will he know the letters are threatening if he doesn't open them :rotfl:



Sorry :embarasse

Flobberchops

Shakin_Steve wrote: »

How will he know the letters are threatening if he doesn't open them :rotfl:

Big red letters, suspicious rattling or ticking inside, the vague smell of almonds...

Hdays488

Any update on this? Did they continue to chase you?

I did a similar thing, I cancelled my recurring payment and deleted my account from the website the same day I signed up, within the 3 days of their cancellation policy then watched my account like a hawk and cancelled the direct debit as soon as it showed up with the bank (no payment taken).

I have mailed both the website customer services and we billing.com to confirm that this has been cancelled, so hopefully will get a confirmation from either of them.

Just thinking ahead, if they attempted to charge despite cancelling the payment and the account the same day, well within their 3-day policy, can I just ignore this or would it affect my credit rating going forward? The website company is based in the US, webbilling are based in the Netherlands I think, and it is just an 'office' in the UK. Can an 'office' place a mark on your rating?

If not then will happily just ignore any contact they make, should they claim I am owed them funds.

Geoff1963

put them unopened in the bin

Bad advice.

Use a shredder.