Lowell group chasing a debt not mine

Cherylelou

Hi everyone. Desperately looking for some help, apologies if this is the wrong thread but I would appreciate it if I can be pointed in the right direction. 

Lowell have been chasing me for an o2 bill for an account I never opened. I called 02 in relation to this when I had letters from them and they advised it would be sorted out as I never opened the account with them. Instead they then sold the debt to Lowell group. I have sent them a prove it letter as the debt is not mine and they have relief saying I have to contact 02 again however I thought as they now own it it is up to them to prove the debt is mine not up to me to prove it isn’t. I contacted 02 3 times already and got nowhere so don’t really want to deal with them again. 

[Deleted User]

Did O2 actually sell the debt to Lowell, or pass it to them for recovery?

Cherylelou

The letter states it was sold to them on the 29/10/20. Thank you for replying

sourcrates

Lowell only buy debts, they don`t act as agents.
Unfortunately you must deal with 02 to resolve this, as the problem occurred before Lowell became involved.

Send a formal written complaint to 02 detailing your issues, at the same time, write back to Lowell telling them to hold action on the account as you have issued a formal complaint to 02 and they need time to deal with it.

They have 8 weeks to provide you with a final response, or a letter of deadlock, now if this does not get resolved in your favour, or you still remain unhappy, you should escalate your complaint to the ombudsman service that governs 02, there are two, so Google is your friend.

Information on how to proceed here -

How to complain to the ombudsman about a mobile phone provider (which.co.uk)

Cherylelou

Thank you. I’ll contact o2 again and take it up with them but Lowell have already issued a final response about this so think the ombudsman may need to help

pogofish

I had this with Lowell a couple of years back. Someone with the same name in another city seemed to be the problem.

Put simply, they don't care and will keep hassling you for money, no matter if the debt is yours or not.

Periodically, they will shut-up for a while, then start all over again. What I found was that they keep their calls to just under the number wher they could be pursued for harassment, then stop for a while, thus resetting the clock!

Log every call/file every letter and save every text, just in case though.

Communicating with them in any way was completely fruitless - even the one time I made the mistake of agreeing to their "offer" to sort this out resulted in them hanging-up on me when I refused to accept their persistent prods/leading questions to accept the "debt"

Taking it up with the originator for the debt may help but in my case, BT proved worse than useless and I had to keep escalating to chairman level before I could get what little I could out of the at all.  "Normal" customer service staff were utterly incapable of dealing with it..

Eventually, after about two years, they sent a letter saying I would face "no further action" - no apology/explanation, nothing but I've heard nothing else since!

PixelPound

So if it an account you never opened, then was it opened at your address, or another. Were bills sent to your address, or another.

If you complained to Lowell, they probably asked O2, who replied saying, say bills sent to that address, and not done any further investigation. As Sourcrates states, you need to complain to O2. Raise fraud with them (if it was opened at your address).

Cherylelou

Just an update on this. I have had a letter from Lowell today advising that they have closed my account with them and cleared the debt. Success finally!