Brtiannia Music and Film Club and Intrum Justitia

sue1967

hi
just phoned intrum justitia and spoke to a gavin thorpe
he has promised to write off the figure they quoted to me
he says is an admin error
btw i had proof i owed nothing

JamesDaniel84

Yep, I also got one of these letters from Intrum Justititia claiming I owed £17.48 to them because of some company called Brittania Music and Film. I had never heard of this company, although I had had some problems with Channel.co.uk and subsequently MusicandFilm.co.uk, much like others on here.

I'm not sure how I first got involved with them- some sort of half drunk purchase whilst a student I think- but found myself locked into some agreement. After buying a couple of the DVDs they sent me I got fed up and just sent the last one back, which I reckon must have been 4-6 months ago. I sent it recorder delivery but cannot find the receipt now. I am not that organised with my money to be honest because nothing like this has ever happened to me before that would have scared me into sorting it all out, and am beginning to regret not having all the relevant information stored somewhere.

I am certain that this 'debt' that I supposedly owe is wrong, because I have no items from them outstanding, and can only assume that this relates to the DVD I sent back. I tried to ring IJ the moment I read the letter, but no one picked up the phone. Tried again, and again no reply. I have now sent them a letter stating that I have never heard of this company and have no knowledge of owing any money, and asking if they could send me details. Hopefully this will sort it out!?! From the sound of it this was my best course of action anyway.

I was pretty pleased to see that I was not the only one with this problem, and thought I'd just add myself to the list of people slightly concerned by IJ and Brittania, and will keep an eye on this message board and see what happens. Cheers guys.

brifen

Like everyone else i arrived home today to find a dredded letter from Intrum Justitia today, they say i owe £17.48 but i've never ever been a member of Britannia Music/Film.

I got in from work, read the letter, got very annoyed, got on the phone (mobile phone) to Intrum. (0151 4732626) - Don't use that rip off 0870 159 0115 number.

I phoned Intrum (suprised that a human being actally answered (think it was human anyway)) and said i recieved a letter from Intrum saying i owe £17.48 for Britannia Music & Film. To which i got a reply of i'll have to transfer you to the relevant department. This was all good and well as i was put straight through to another human being who asked me for the reference number off my letter. After going through the usual questions for security i was asked straight away 'Have you come to pay your bill?' so i promptly ansewred no and explained that i've never been a member of Britannia etc etc etc... To which the person who i was speaking to (Dean) said okay he will put note on system etc... I could feel the conversation was going to end there so i sharply replied what are you going to do now and how do i resolve this matter because all thats going to happen is in a couple of weeks time there will be no note on the system and i'll recieve another letter stating i owe you even more money eh??? To which i got a reply all i can do is add a note to the system and hope someone deals with your query. Getting no joy here i said to myself in the knowing that this aint going to go away, Intrum are not interested in you unless you are paying them money and it is only going to get worse.

I then said to Dean okay, you put a comprehensive note on the system and i'll go down to Citizens Advice (CA) i'll call back again later and have the person who i speak to read your note back to me so i'm happy with it and relay what i've been told by CA. At this point i then said to Dean how much does it say i owe? To which he replied £24.98, at this point i laughed out loud and preceeded to say your having a laugh arn't you? My letter here says i owe £17.48 but you are saying i owe £24.98 he said yeah there is also admin charge to pay as well.

Off i go to CA....

Now that i've just got back from CA i thought i'd write this post for the forum. CA have advised me that i should write to Intrum and dispute the the payment asking for Intrum to reply in writing with proof and details of what i ordered, when and where along with proof of signature signing up to the Britannia as Intrum are required to by Law provide these details if they are going to recover any monies from you, as well as ask for them to respond within 7 days. (So this was going to be my next step however!!)

Just called Intrum back to hear the note that was supposed to be placed on the system, i had the pleasure of speaking to a woman who confirmed Dean had left a note on the system and my account has been 'Suspended' for now while they go back to Britannia to retrieve any information thay can about my illusive signing and purchase i have never made. She said we have sent another letter out dated 8th Nov 2007 (first letter dated 1st Nov 2007 arrived today 9th Nov 2007) so a second letter has been sent out before i have recieved the first one. Although i've been told to ignore it when it arrives because my account is now suspended i will be very interested to see what it says, i'm guessing it says i owe them even more because i've not paid the 1st letter, but we'll see when it arrives.

Why should innocent people have to go great lengths all because some company says they owe them money??? (letters, phone calls (0870), time, fuel, hassle/stress etc). I think i'll take bothe Intrum/Britannia or whats left of Britannia to Small Claims - How much does a Barrister cost per hour?? Surely i can claim the same amount for my waisted time too??

I'll keep you posted on what letter number 2 has to say for itself.

Later.....

jhluxton

Looks like I am not the only one to receive a letter from Intrum Justitia concerning Britannia!

I found one waiting when I came home from work today claimning an amount of £18.88.

To be honest I was ready to write a cheque and just pay it. Then more out of curiosity as I hadn't heard of Britannia's demise and I do keep an eye on the business news, I discovered the thread here when using google.

To be honest I am not sure if I do owe £18.88. Not ordered much from Britannia of late and when I did I generally paid on line, I am sure when I last looked I didn't owe them anything.

Perhaps I should write and complain using one of the suggested templates.

John

shakeshaft_2

You can add another one to the list, I just received a letter this morning telling me I owed 9.99. Now I am certain that I don't, because I haven't ordered anything for ages and always kept on top of the recordings they offered. But how do you go about proving that when you don't keep records of the bills??

Well I suppose I had better ring Intrum Justitia and ask them to send me proof of this debt, because I don't see why I should pay it just because they say I have to...

Andrea

KFL

Pleased to see that I'm not the only person keeping our postmen and women busy with the spurious letters from Intrum justitia.

I opened my mail this morning to find out that I owed then £17.48 on behalf of Brittania Music....apparently MusicandFilm.co.uk became them at some point this year. The chances are that I owe them for a DVD that I forgot to cancel (never going to join a music club again!) but I guess through all the administration issues they haven't sent me the bill.

Anyway, I agreed to pay the £17.48 - only to find out that in the space of 2 minutes it had gone up to £24.48 covering admin fees for the second letter that has just been sent out to me. :mad: What a load of rubbish - trying to charge me for a letter that has probably not been issued and if it has been issued, it was sent before the 1st one could actually be delivered! Seems like a bit of a shoddy money making practice to me.

They didn't get the extra £7!

sue1967

why should anyone pay this if they dont have proof of owing money
am sure watchdog would love to get into this has anyone been in touch with them about it?????
sue

jhluxton

There must be thousands out there with a grouse about Intrum Justitia.

I think if we regularly communicate with other people on line we should just mention this thread and channel people in this direction as there may be many out there who think they are alone.

John

sandra61

Guess what, I also got a letter today so I havn't had time to phone as yet to see what they have to say for themselves. I was a member of Britannia and hadn't heard from them for ages, as the last time I tried to access their website it was getting "upgraded" Didn't know they were no longer trading.
Quite ironic as I also work for a debt collector:o

jhluxton

>

sandra61 wrote: »

Guess what, I also got a letter today so I havn't had time to phone as yet<

To be honest I don't see why they need phoning - if everyone writes a letter and sends it "signed for" it is likely to cause them more hassel than phoning.

Its often easier to express oneself more clearly and forcefully in a letter than when dealing with someone over the phone.

John