BW Legal mistaken identity debt letter

usherx

I received a debt notice from BW Legal for PRAC financial limited for a small amount from a British Gas bill.   Only problem was the address for the debt was not mine, but similar.  The two addresses are v similar - indeed the other address is across the road from me.  But they are different enough not to be confused and the postcode has one letter different.  I rang BW legal to inform them of this.  They have amended the details, but gave no satisfactory reason for the error.  There is no link between me and the other address except for the similarity in the address.  Would I be right in thinking they couldn't get hold of anyone at the actual address and so went for the closest sounding alternative.  Bizarre.  Has this happened to anyone else?   The rep on the phone was also quite difficult - not accepting that there had been an error for some time.   Fortunately the amount was small so not a big shock to receive it and the mistake was so glaring that it was not in the end hard to change it.  But what if someone had been so spooked by the letter that they simply paid up and didn't look closely enough to check the address.  Shockingly unprofessional.  Would be keen to hear if others have had similar experience either with this company or others.

sourcrates

"Shockingly unprofessional" just about sums up the debt collection industry in two words.

You were lucky they didn`t try and pin the debt on you anyway, that would normally be par for the course.

Its most likely what they refer to as a "mis-trace", someone with similar details to your own, was it addressed to you or someone else ?

usherx

It was addressed to my wife at our address, which was in the heading of the letter & clearly quite different from the address that incurred the debt in the first paragraph   Our number is 1 while other address is 1a - we are The Avenue - the other address is Avenue Parade - & postcodes have diffetent final letter!   

sourcrates

usherx said:

It was addressed to my wife at our address, which was in the heading of the letter & clearly quite different from the address that incurred the debt in the first paragraph   Our number is 1 while other address is 1a - we are The Avenue - the other address is Avenue Parade - & postcodes have diffetent final letter!   

Sometimes very little information with regard to the debtor, gets passed on to these collection companies, so they attempt to "fill in the gaps" themselves, they may write to various "john smiths" within a postcode area, in the hope of a hit.

You did the right thing to challenge it, we usually recommend doing this in writing, as it can be difficult talking to them on the phone, but I guess you got the same result.

usherx

Thanks - not surprised to hear it’s routine practice