Brtiannia Music and Film Club and Intrum Justitia

GMP_3

Thought I'd add my case to the list here. Last Friday, I received a letter from IJ claiming I owed them £17.99 from my membership with Britannia. I know for a fact I don't owe Britannia anything, so did a quick search and found the excellent posts here, which convinced me not to pay just to get the matter sorted.
Instead, I used the form letter provided above (thanks very much for that) to reply by return post, requesting a copy of the credit agreement, enclosing a pound and telling them that if I have to deal with any further letters from them I'll be charging them a £20 admin fee per reply I have to make. I don't think this is unreasonable as this has taken up a fair bit of my time through no fault of my own.
Lo and behold, this morning I receive another letter claiming I now owe them £25.49 because they haven't received payment from their first letter. The interesting thing is, this second letter is dated 8th November, one day BEFORE I even received the first letter! This smacks of underhand business practice to me - both letters have apparently taken 7 calendar days to reach me. I'm involved in my own mail-order business and I know 2nd class post usually takes 3 or 4 days, occasionally less, occasionally more, but for two letters to both be exceptionally slow in arriving seems a bit suspicious. Even if I had paid the first fee, they'd now be wanting the extra amount regardless. If they've got a few thousand of these, you can see how they make their money.
Presumably this second letter went out before my initial reply reached them, even if they are "a bit slow" sending their letters out, so I'll wait to see if I receive any more before sending a second reply and charging them £40 for wasting my time with all this.
From the posts on here, ringing them is a bit hit & miss, so I won't bother adding to my costs (and stress levels) by doing that. It'll be interesting to see if they send me a copy of the credit agreement though. I get the feeling someone at Britannia may be being less than honest with all of this, so I'd like to know what it is I'm alleged to owe them for.
Thanks to all the contributers here - it's good to know you're not the only one undergoing an attempt to fleece you!

JamesDaniel84

Hi guys. Got a second letter today from IJ saying that I now owe £24.98 because of my outstanding debt to Britannia. Last time it was £17.48! I'm guessing from the other posts that this must be the admin charge for sending out another letter but it doesn't say anything of the sort.

It says that I must phone them immediately to confirm that I have sent the money off. I must make payment within in 7 days or terrible, terrible things will happen.

Well, I'm obviously not going to pay now and have simply written another letter, with a copy of the first. I was inclined to write an angry one, but remained polite and stated that I still am unaware of this debt. I still am unaware of who Britannia are. I am unclear as to why I now owe them £24.98.

i think that this latest letter must just be computer generated (why that means I have generated that much extra on top of my debt is beyond me) and so am not worrying. I am still convinced that I owe these nice people at IJ nothing.

They will not get penny one from me until they can prove that I owe them this debt, which is like proving that the pyramids were built by aliens. If others are in this situation I would urge you to do the same, even if you just want them off your back. Why should they take your money just because Britannia could not keep their records straight? There are far to many of us in the right, over small amounts of money, that it surely cannot be worth their while pursuing these debts too tenaciously.

Anyway, i'll keep you posted as to the outcomes of this letter. Cheers.

itsnever2lateisit?

jhluxton wrote: »

Something interesting I have noted is that apart from those who may have had the £20 charge levied no one appears to have had an outstanding amount of £20 or more levied.

We really are talking quite small amounts. I wonder just how many people have received these letters - they could rake in a small fortune!

I sent my request for a statement off on Monday - I dare say I'll get a demand for an excess payment of £20.

IJ do appear a dodgy outfit though their web site suggests they have some high profile clients.

John

When this thread first appeared it did occur to me that if I bought a list of (say) 10,000 names and mailed them a letter demanding payment of a small (ficticious)debt, that enough people would pay up to make me a small fortune :rotfl:

TidySpider

Another Britannia victim adding their case :mad:

01.11.07 I received a letter from IJ demanding payment of £17.48 , I rang IJ informing them that I had posted a dvd and cancellation letter to Britannia months ago, unfortunately even I don’t keep postal receipts that long!

Today I received a second letter with a increased balance of £24.98, again I rang IJ and requested proof of my debt and contact details for Britannia. The operator informed me that they do not have a contact telephone number, surely IJ must have the details of a company I apparently owe money to?
I asked to speak to the shift manager and was assured i would receive a call within 10 mins, guess what?..2 hours ago and I’m still waiting!

I will follow the advice of previously posted comments and contact the financial ombudsman, I do not intend to pay Intrum Justitia anything!

If you are in a similar position please do not give this unprofessional, bullying company any of YOUR hard earned cash.

Please post your details if you are suffering harassment from this company.

jhluxton

itsnever2lateisit? wrote: »

When this thread first appeared it did occur to me that if I bought a list of (say) 10,000 names and mailed them a letter demanding payment of a small (ficticious)debt, that enough people would pay up to make me a small fortune :rotfl:

Such frauds have been perpetuated - sending bills and invoices has been a long standing scam which has been reported in the media countless times.

I am just surprised that IJ, which to be fair is a long established company with many highly respectable high street clients is behaving in such away.

Fair enough, some people deliberately trying to avoid payment of large bills may need a bit of "persuasion" - but let's look look at the facts.

Here we have a company which has gone bust and whose "claimed" debts are being called in. However, most of us never knew what had happened to Britannia - except that we were not getting any mailings.

Almost all of us have relatively trivial amounts outstanding.

If they had just behaved properly by forwarding a statement of final transactions and a request for payment I imagine most of us would have paid up.

But by the time my first letter had arrived and I was looking for info on the demise of Britannia - more out of curiosity than anything - I stumble on this thread thanks to Google and find there is a lot of "grousing" going on!

Seeing that others are not happy and are shouting foul one automatically changes ones stance.

I am sure if the original people starting this thread had not been unhappy it wouldn't have started it would not then have caused others to join the snowball.

The Snowball has of course been caused by IJ not doing things by the book and taking into consideration the fact that they are not dealing with "won't pays" but the fact that they are dealing with people who, through a long period of non communication need proof that they owe something.

John

jhluxton

I forgot to mention in my previous post that the second letter came today and my £18.88 has risen to £26.38.

This letter was of course dated before I received the first - so as others have found payment without incurring a "late fee" was impossible.

I must say I also don't like hostile letters and this, considering the short period of time since the receipt of the first, is very hostile.

It has obviously crossed my letter send on Monday to which I await a response. I have written again pointing out that they cannot charge late fees when there is no time for people to pay or query and have put it in writing that I will not pay any such fee.

I have again requested that revelent documentation as per CCA is forwarded and if I agree with the statement I will pay the £18.88.

I have also told them that the virtual demand to "phone immediately" is unacceptable and I have no desire to deal with this problem over the phone as I wish to have a correspondence record of what transpires.

Sometimes, in such circumstances there is scope for either party to become emotive which doesn't help, and correspondence avoids this.

Two can play at the threatening game - I have demanded a prompt response otherwise its Trading Standards, Finance Ombudsman and I'll see a solicitor as well.

Perhaps this may cost more than the disputed £18.88 to sort out but a company that cannot behave in a reasonable manner needs standing up to.

Think of elderly people who may be worried sick receiving a correspondence like this.

It is clearly not acceptable to adopt the heavy handed approach without allowing for dialog or even payment of the claimed amount.

I await the next installment with interest and will report back.

John

KelvinFagan

Having thought I had sorted this over the phone last week, I too have had a second letter. I'm just about to get back on the phone!!


How come all the letters are demanding virtually the same ammount, are we supposed to have had the same DVD?

KelvinFagan

Well! I just got off the phone, and was told that the letter went out automatically after the first, but as Gavin Thorpe, the original operator I spoke too said, it has been written off, and todays operator said I can ignore the letter...

a result it would seem!?

52santafe

I received a letter from IJ on Wednesday 14 Nov stating I owed £14.48. I called them on their 01 number and got through immediately to be told it had gone up to £19.48. I explained that I had bought my 6 DVDs as was required to get the 3 DVDs for £10, and no longer had anything to do with Music and Film as from Mar 07. In April I received the DVD Happy Feet as I, according to their records, had not purchase anything recently. I emailed them to request a postage paid returns label in order to return this item. No answer so I emailed them again, still no answer. I sent it back to them with a covering letter stating that I could no longer contact them on the website, that I had finished my 6 DVDs and to remove me from their listing. As I had heard no more, I presumed that this is what they had done. On Wednesday, I sent copies of all my invoices - I always paid by credit card upon ordering so had no oustanding account - and a covering letter to IJ via recordered delivery, having checked with a second phone call that my account had been annotated with my first call. This morning I received another letter, the amount owing was not mentioned, but it stated that they would be taking further action. I too am concerned about my credit rating being blackened. Reading the previous threads, I have also emailed Watch Dog. I await the next letter .......

52santafe

Just called IJ to confirm that they received my Recorded Delivery using 01789 415181 which is the number I had used previously, to be told she couldn't transfer me and to redial 0870 3662160! I then used 01514732626 that was mentioned in a previous thread and had a very polite lady answer. She confirmed that my letter and contents had been received and forwarded to Britannia and that I wouldn't hear from either of them again! We can hope, I will await the postman! Good luck to everyone else in this battle.