Wrongly accused of not paying for fuel

HenrytheGreenTrain

To add to it… the fuel station was owned by coop but has changed hands to ASDA express - I think between the date of the incident and it’s pursuit by the debt collection company… coop say talk to ASDA ( I found them on fb) - can see where this is going… 🙄

Petriix

Personally I'd just tell them "good luck in court" and to stop harassing you. Probably best to say something like "the alleged debt is disputed" and that you will not be paying under any circumstances. Debt collectors often won't pursue a disputed debt but you can safely ignore anything unless they actually send a genuine letter before claim. 

If they do actually take you to court then the onus will be on them to prove (on the balance of probability) that you do actually owe them the money. Obviously this would be quite difficult given the circumstances and it would be trivial to file a successful defence. Let us know if and when this happens so we can help formulate the defence, otherwise I wouldn't give it any more thought beyond what I've said above. 

HenrytheGreenTrain

Thank you very much 

ontheroad1970

Nasqueron said:

Grumpy_chap said:

Might be a bit premature to complain via public forums.

Why not simply respond to the garage stating that you were there and did pay, together with the evidence of the payment.  Even better if you still have the actual receipt.

Why is it premature when a firm has wrongly sent debt collectors after a customer who paid their bill fair and square, causing considerable distress and potentially even a police action for bilking? Firms should not be allowed to be this blasé about checking basic facts

Possibly because using a tactic before it's necessary weakens the leverage of the threat of exposure to social media