Desperate for HELP!!!

ArbitraryRandom

PennineAcute said:

ArbitraryRandom said:

There's two things I can suggest:

1. Treat this as any other unrecognised debt. Send them a letter/email instructing them to 'prove' the debt and go from there. There's a lot of advice on this thread including a letter template that you can adapt: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2607247/letter-when-you-know-nothing-about-about-the-debt-aka-prove-it-letter 

2. If you have made a formal complaint, after 8 weeks you can escalate it to the energy ombudsman (I think this would come under the category of 'complaint about customer service' and 'billing'): https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/energy-advice-households/making-complaint-about-your-energy-supplier-or-network-operator 

I would personally recommend emails as they're faster, free to send, and harder to lose. Plus you have a copy of both sides of the conversation - they're accepted just the same as letters if you need to escalate the issue anywhere. 

Trouble is, the email can be ignored and said never to be received.  A nice letter sent by special delivery provides perfect evidence that the letter has been received.  £7.xx is a nice price to pay to have the needed evidence.

An email to a valid public email address is accepted as delivered if the matter gets to small claims or the ombudsman.

If we're taking the stance 'everybody lies', someone can refuse to sign for a letter or claim the contents were different than you say (as an extreme example, I know of someone who brought a small claims case and the person they were suing said the only thing they had received was a Christmas card - and they had an old Christmas card as 'proof') 

FreeBear

Spoonie_Turtle said:

PennineAcute said:

ArbitraryRandom said:

There's two things I can suggest:

1. Treat this as any other unrecognised debt. Send them a letter/email instructing them to 'prove' the debt and go from there. There's a lot of advice on this thread including a letter template that you can adapt: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2607247/letter-when-you-know-nothing-about-about-the-debt-aka-prove-it-letter 

2. If you have made a formal complaint, after 8 weeks you can escalate it to the energy ombudsman (I think this would come under the category of 'complaint about customer service' and 'billing'): https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/energy-advice-households/making-complaint-about-your-energy-supplier-or-network-operator 

I would personally recommend emails as they're faster, free to send, and harder to lose. Plus you have a copy of both sides of the conversation - they're accepted just the same as letters if you need to escalate the issue anywhere. 

Trouble is, the email can be ignored and said never to be received.  A nice letter sent by special delivery provides perfect evidence that the letter has been received.  £7.xx is a nice price to pay to have the needed evidence.

Signed For would be cheaper and gets a signature as proof of delivery.

There may be regional variations, but round here, Royal Mail hasn't collected signatures since the start of Covid. A button press on their PDA and optionally, a photo of it going through the letterbox is all the "proof" they provide.

Proof of posting is all that is required. Court process (and legislation I believe) deems a letter to have arrived withing 2/3 working days of posting.

born_again

FreeBear said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

PennineAcute said:

ArbitraryRandom said:

There's two things I can suggest:

1. Treat this as any other unrecognised debt. Send them a letter/email instructing them to 'prove' the debt and go from there. There's a lot of advice on this thread including a letter template that you can adapt: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2607247/letter-when-you-know-nothing-about-about-the-debt-aka-prove-it-letter 

2. If you have made a formal complaint, after 8 weeks you can escalate it to the energy ombudsman (I think this would come under the category of 'complaint about customer service' and 'billing'): https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/energy-advice-households/making-complaint-about-your-energy-supplier-or-network-operator 

I would personally recommend emails as they're faster, free to send, and harder to lose. Plus you have a copy of both sides of the conversation - they're accepted just the same as letters if you need to escalate the issue anywhere. 

Trouble is, the email can be ignored and said never to be received.  A nice letter sent by special delivery provides perfect evidence that the letter has been received.  £7.xx is a nice price to pay to have the needed evidence.

Signed For would be cheaper and gets a signature as proof of delivery.

There may be regional variations, but round here, Royal Mail hasn't collected signatures since the start of Covid. A button press on their PDA and optionally, a photo of it going through the letterbox is all the "proof" they provide.

Proof of posting is all that is required. Court process (and legislation I believe) deems a letter to have arrived withing 2/3 working days of posting.

Add in the fact that no one at a large company signs for mail. It is all done via RM. Otherwise poor old postie would never get anything delivered waiting for someone to sign for hundred's of items.

Gerry1

M25 said:

Block the calls. If it's landline no shortage of call blocking devices if it's a mobile there's plenty of apps that can block numbers including rangers of numbers (eg 0345*) or even block ALL numbers not in your contacts (some phones have that too).

Don't speak to strangers.

MultiFuelBurner said:

It always amazes me that anyone speaks on the phone when called from (X) company. We let unknown calls go to voicemail and if no voicemail is left then it can't be that important.

@M25

@MultiFuelBurner

Those strategies could seriously backfire.  Doctors and hospitals usually withhold their numbers (wrongly in my opinion, especially as letters are sent in envelopes emblazoned with NHS logos) and don't leave voicemails because they don't know who will be listening to them.

MultiFuelBurner

Gerry1 said:

M25 said:

Block the calls. If it's landline no shortage of call blocking devices if it's a mobile there's plenty of apps that can block numbers including rangers of numbers (eg 0345*) or even block ALL numbers not in your contacts (some phones have that too).

Don't speak to strangers.

MultiFuelBurner said:

It always amazes me that anyone speaks on the phone when called from (X) company. We let unknown calls go to voicemail and if no voicemail is left then it can't be that important.

@M25

@MultiFuelBurner

Those strategies could seriously backfire.  Doctors and hospitals usually withhold their numbers (wrongly in my opinion, especially as letters are sent in envelopes emblazoned with NHS logos) and don't leave voicemails because they don't know who will be listening to them.

That's what the NHS app is for, all letters and correspondence

t0rt0ise

MultiFuelBurner said:

Gerry1 said:

M25 said:

Block the calls. If it's landline no shortage of call blocking devices if it's a mobile there's plenty of apps that can block numbers including rangers of numbers (eg 0345*) or even block ALL numbers not in your contacts (some phones have that too).

Don't speak to strangers.

MultiFuelBurner said:

It always amazes me that anyone speaks on the phone when called from (X) company. We let unknown calls go to voicemail and if no voicemail is left then it can't be that important.

@M25

@MultiFuelBurner

Those strategies could seriously backfire.  Doctors and hospitals usually withhold their numbers (wrongly in my opinion, especially as letters are sent in envelopes emblazoned with NHS logos) and don't leave voicemails because they don't know who will be listening to them.

That's what the NHS app is for, all letters and correspondence

It varies. One hospital I attend has everything in an app, the other has nothing. My GP has very little with nothing worth looking at.

atlantis187

Thanks for your replies guys.

They have been ringing me from this no. 08081964658 to my mobile then after the first few times I blocked this and in the last couple of days I got this text
"This is EON NEXT, We urgently need to talk to you about your gas bill account. Please call us on 03453015906

So I thought to ring the number and explain once and for all that this is not my bill and I have no association with this bill, the person answered and explained that this is the debt collection agency and that eon had passed this over to them. I explained to the guy that this is not my property and I know nothing about it, he said he will log it as a complaint and send it back to EON and they would contact me in next couple of weeks.

I'm just really scared now that they may add this to my credit score and damage my credit rating as they have my name and mobile number.

M25

...but they don't have your real address? I'm assuming you've not spilled your guts on that point.

Just block the calls and texts and ignore them. If you start getting lettters then you'll need to take some action obviously because that could affect your credit history if they took you to court.

Stop speaking to strangers.

Most call blockers don't block withheld or private numbers unless you set it to. Scammers etc don't normally block their numbers anyway as it's a bit scammy. You were called by a scammer pretending to be another company https://who-called.co.uk/Number/03453015906

That debt is none of your business unless they write to you which they might do now as you've confirmed you are connected to that mobile number which must be some sort of error.

Stop speaking to strangers.

MultiFuelBurner

t0rt0ise said:

MultiFuelBurner said:

Gerry1 said:

M25 said:

Block the calls. If it's landline no shortage of call blocking devices if it's a mobile there's plenty of apps that can block numbers including rangers of numbers (eg 0345*) or even block ALL numbers not in your contacts (some phones have that too).

Don't speak to strangers.

MultiFuelBurner said:

It always amazes me that anyone speaks on the phone when called from (X) company. We let unknown calls go to voicemail and if no voicemail is left then it can't be that important.

@M25

@MultiFuelBurner

Those strategies could seriously backfire.  Doctors and hospitals usually withhold their numbers (wrongly in my opinion, especially as letters are sent in envelopes emblazoned with NHS logos) and don't leave voicemails because they don't know who will be listening to them.

That's what the NHS app is for, all letters and correspondence

It varies. One hospital I attend has everything in an app, the other has nothing. My GP has very little with nothing worth looking at.

It is what you make of it I send all messages to my surgery through the app. Not using it probably does have an effect but the upshot is no NHS calls required. 

I might have to evaluate your responses as I feel from the other post you might have mistreated your tortoises 😜

Spoonie_Turtle

MultiFuelBurner said:

t0rt0ise said:

MultiFuelBurner said:

Gerry1 said:

M25 said:

Block the calls. If it's landline no shortage of call blocking devices if it's a mobile there's plenty of apps that can block numbers including rangers of numbers (eg 0345*) or even block ALL numbers not in your contacts (some phones have that too).

Don't speak to strangers.

MultiFuelBurner said:

It always amazes me that anyone speaks on the phone when called from (X) company. We let unknown calls go to voicemail and if no voicemail is left then it can't be that important.

@M25

@MultiFuelBurner

Those strategies could seriously backfire.  Doctors and hospitals usually withhold their numbers (wrongly in my opinion, especially as letters are sent in envelopes emblazoned with NHS logos) and don't leave voicemails because they don't know who will be listening to them.

That's what the NHS app is for, all letters and correspondence

It varies. One hospital I attend has everything in an app, the other has nothing. My GP has very little with nothing worth looking at.

It is what you make of it I send all messages to my surgery through the app. Not using it probably does have an effect but the upshot is no NHS calls required. 

Our GP surgery does have a few things done through their website - usually is sending them messages and requests - but they still phone us when they want to communicate something to us, for most things.

I haven't had phone calls from the hospital about routine appointments - get those via the hospital website with physical letters to follow - but my parents frequently get calls for things that aren't routine, or for further clarification about something when the Dr is writing up the letter after an appointment, that kind of thing.
When I was having OT assessments for a wet room and dealing with the Housing Association, most of the calls came from different numbers and obviously before they called from a number for the first time, those numbers were previously unknown to us.

So the suggestion of not answering the phone to numbers they don't recognise isn't helpful. 

And I think for the OP they're too far gone to employ any other strategies for getting the people off the phone without divulging details.  They might just have to try saying now something like 'sorry I can't help you over the phone, you'll have to put this in writing' and hang up.