One small victory against incompetent companies and their debt collection agencies?

LABMAN

wwdits said:

LABMAN said:

wwdits said:

LABMAN said:

No, it's not a victory. What you have done is make yourself look extremely foolish.

How so? 

When it ends up in  COURT and you have to answer honestly why you deliberately paid more and deliberately made the payment anonymously what are you going to say? Guess who is going to be paying way more than £40?

Thanks for your input LABMAN. I am going to say that they ignored my letters, failed to collect the money, waited 6 months to find their mistake and then sent some bullies to collect it. But the question was how will it end up in court? Edddy and shaun have both suggested breach of contract which I guess is a small possibility. Do you have any other plausible basis for suggesting I could be taken to court?

You haven't paid the account.

wwdits

pinkshoes said:

So you moved house yet didn't ask for a final bill. (your mistake)
Wrong, I did. I notified them and they had a direct debit and the account was transferred no problems.
They then sent you a bill 6 months later once they'd tracked you down (fair enough)
They didn't track me down - they just sent a debt collection agency round out of the blue threatening legal action.
You then paid the bill, but paid the wrong amount (your mistake) with no reference (your mistake) so that they cannot match it to an outstanding amount, nor can they reference it to you.
Before that they ignored emails and letters asking for an explanation. The rest is correct. 
So if it does got to court, I would imagine that given you have clearly been negligent on 3 accounts, then although you have paid the bill, there is a strong possibility that all their costs would be awarded against you.
On what basis would I be taken to court?
I really don't see what you are trying to gain from what was entirely your fault. Sounds like you are trying to bully them.

Hi pinkshoes! A couple of corrections to your assumptions: see above, thanks for taking the time to offer your opinion. By way of a counter: I am not the one sending threatening letters for no reason, they are, I am not the one that cocked up their billing system, they are, I am not the one ignoring their letters, they are. The point is that companies should not think it is acceptable or cost less for them to behave in this manner. That is the intention. Finally if your definition of bullying is an individual pushing back at being harrassed and shouted at by a debt collection agency for no reason then that's an interesting one.

DoaM

They sent debt collectors around? Really? Or did a debt collection company actually contact you by letter (or email)?

wwdits

DoaM said:

They sent debt collectors around? Really? Or did a debt collection company actually contact you by letter (or email)?

Letters and phone calls only so far.

Fosterdog

Nobody needs a reason to take another person to court. I could submit a court case against you if I wanted to, the court would then tell you that I have issued a claim against you. You then have to tell the court that you are defending the claim because you don't know me and we have never had a contract for you to give me money. As I am the one making the claim I would then have to prove why I think you owe me money. In our case it would be cut and dry and awarded in your favour because I can't prove in any way that a debt exists. If you don't tell the court you are defending the claim then even with me have no reason to claim against you I would win by default.

With the energy company you do owe them money so theY have a valid claim against you, the money you transferred was not in payment of the debt you owe because you've given them no possible way of matching the payment to your debt. 

George_Michael

wwdits said:

I am not the one sending threatening letters for no reason, they are, I am not the one that cocked up their billing system, they are, I am not the one ignoring their letters, they are. The point is that companies should not think it is acceptable or cost less for them to behave in this manner. That is the intention. Finally if your definition of bullying is an individual pushing back at being harrassed and shouted at by a debt collection agency for no reason then that's an interesting one.

You keep repeating that you don't owe any money and the company concerned has no reason to keep chasing you but the fact remains, they do have a valid reason. This reason is that you have an outstanding debt to them, a debt which despite you sending them money, remains. 
You did not follow the correct procedure for making a payment and you did this deliberately so it would cause them problems.
Despite your constant failure to listen to anyone else on this forum, the only one that is going to have problems from what were to put it politely, rather stupid and juvenile actions on your part is you.

Probably a silly question, but why did you post on here if you are not willing to take notice of anything that has been posted by others?

DoaM

wwdits said:

DoaM said:

They sent debt collectors around? Really? Or did a debt collection company actually contact you by letter (or email)?

Letters and phone calls only so far.

So your beef with them is actually that their first contact with you (after 6 months) was via a debt collector rather than direct? So that's got your back up and led you to act like a petulant child rather than deny the debt and refer the DC back to their client?

powerful_Rogue

OP, if you wanted to pay some money into your bank account, would you simply place it in an unmarked envelope and pop it through the banks letterbox?

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

All of the replies appear to forget that energy companies are regulated, the OP only has to advise them payment is made (with some info so they can actually allocate the payment) and to stop contact otherwise they'll follow the complaints procedure and escalate to the regulator if the response isn't satisfactory. 

The fees anyone can claim in small claims are very limited (£90 is the amount I've seen mentioned here) plus the filing fees of £75 in this case. 

It would be interesting to know whether a court would award the costs of debt collection agencies, is paying a third party inflated charges to chase a debt mitigating your loses? Are consumers bound by these charges? 

wwdits

DoaM, exactly (except of course I did), and yes I am listening George. The fact that everyone here is getting wound up about it means I've almost certainly accomplished my goal: !!!!!! them off enough to get their attention, so they just may rethink how their incompetence came about, and possibly even to treat people respectfully in future, e.g. by not by threatening and then ignoring them as the first course of action. So thanks guys I've had a blast!