Hellix - threatening email for paid debt

james_so

Sorry if this is going over old ground, but some up-to-date reassurance would be greatly appreciated..

My wife is receiving calls and threatening emails from Hellix about a debt (£8.50) which we paid last February and it is making her extremely anxious as they are now threatening to add solicitors fees to it. They have changed the reference to make it look like a different debt but we are 100% sure it is the same debt.

From what I have read about Hellix, this is pretty normal, abusive, behaviour and having read around a bit, I am of the mind to simply ignore it until they send a letter (if they ever do).

I need to put her mind at rest, though so I was thinking maybe if we sent a letter to them with evidence of the payment and told them to only contact her by letter, that would shut them up. Or is that the wrong thing to do at this point? Any advice would be hugely appreciated.

I have included the most recent email below.

Time to pay your long outstanding debt for £8.50 taken out in your name with XXXXXXXXX, we have now been asked  to booked agents to collect £8.50 directly from you or conduct a pre sue report.
 
You have refused to repay back the money you took from our above client XXXXXXXXX, and judging by your current actions to date, you have neither paid or made arrangement to pay.  
 
Before we now enter into the next stage of action in the retrieval of our clients money, we want to go on record for County Court etiquette, to show that we made a final effort to gain payment to avoid court cost, further action including if judgement is not paid, enforcement action.
 
The usual amount for a County Court Claims is summarised below
 
Principal Debt £8.50
Interest £0.71
Court Fee £0.85    
Solicitors Cost £150
 
In this critical instance, I respectfully request you share our details with your solicitor so that we can share your case file with them and also the evidence of the collection attempts that have already been made.

sourcrates

Sorry, was that £8.50 ?? not £850 or £8500 ?

Calls and emails can be ignored, especially ones such as this, are they really chasing a debt of £8.50 ?

If they want to get serious, and lets face it, there not doing well so far, they must write to you in a good old fashioned letter, all that rubbish in the email can be ignored, its quite laughable actually.

Bottom line here, should they start a court claim, very unlikely, but if they did, you have evidence the debt was paid, that would form your defence, the court would find in your favour, they would lose, you would win, the end.

Please assure your wife this is a very poorly scripted generic concoction some YTS trainee has typed out on there ZX81, during a coffee break, tell her not to worry, put the kettle on, and relax.

james_so

Thank you sourcrates, yes, £8.50, I am just aware of how these things can get more expensive if the wrong course of action is taken. She is more relaxed now and TBH I am a bit jealous that someone has a working ZX81!

fatbelly

The court fee is far more than £8.50, which is why it would make no sense. The error is probably deliberate

DjangoUnchained

as a gesture of goodwill you should offer to pay them back a penny a month for the next 10,200 years, im sure theyll accept.