Lowell - DCA - sharks, bullies... stay away! Here's my story.

deliciosa

Lowell
I thought I write down my experience about this debt collection agency. They are the worst of the worst! Any help, advise would be much appreciated!
Short story is: I have decided to put my finances in order after New Years. As one of the steps, I checked my credit report, started with annualcreditreport.co.uk. To my delight, all green… except for my last accoutn which says its from Lowell, for £106 and which is DEFAULTED. I was gutted. I have debt but I have always been paying more than minimum and it does not cause problems, no creditors calls, nothing bad. And then I find a default account? Called up annualcreditreport, whosaid I needed to call Lowells. So I called. This all happened this Monday.
First of all, the offputting manner of the people (spoke to several) on the phone was disgraceful. They insisted I give them a reference number which I couldn’t since there was none on the report. They did not listen to my explanation. I insisted I didn’t know anything about this alleged debt. After about 20 minutes on the phone they searched by my name and found my account, at one of my old addresses. They said it's a debt from T Mobile. I never had an account with T Mobile. I tried to explain it to them but they wouldn't listen. They called me a liar! They insisted I send in copy of my passport to them. I refused - no bloody way. They said they will keep reporting default because I am denying my debt.
At this point I was on the verge of tears, literally shaking, telling them its not my debt!!! They said they don’t believe me and "shame on you for not admitting it". It was awful!!! I spoke to about three people because I kept on ringin back. The last lady on the phone was the worst, I was by then really crying even though I tried to calm down, she was shouting at me that I should calm down and that she will put the phone down if I don’t cooperateand that she cant do anything unless I send in my passport's copy! I hung up on them and cried loudly for half an hour, then I called T Mobile customer services.
Now they helped, read out a disclaimer that its not mine, put all notes on file, passed it on to frauds department. They said they will investigate. But they said only lowell can take off the default notice.
So finally I emailed Lowell with the new information. Never received a reply. Tuesday I sent off my statutory application fto all three agencies for credit report. I will need to tell them whats going on if they also have default there!!!!
Wednesday mornign I sent another email to Lowell. No reply. In the afternoon I called and spoke to a horrible man. I started to explain him what has happened so far and he kept on interrupting me, and demanding that I have to prove its not my debt. How can I prove something is not mine? And that I need to send in identification. He was like "why don’t you want to send in ID, you must be hiding something". I got so upset again. He did not listen! I still was respectful, I said "Please is there any way I could speak to one of your colleagues, it seems that you and I are not really on the same wavelength, let me just speak to someone " and then I told him he wasn’t listening… so awful, I started crying again. I called T Mob again and they told me there was a note on "my account" saying that a guy from frauds was dealing with the case and they very helpfully gave me an email address for idfraud department and name of the guy. I wrote a long email explaining everything and sent it off there for the guy. He got back to me and we corresponded and he confirmed that he will delete this account and that he will instruct Lowell to delete the account and remove the default. He was very sensible, very helpful, respectful, a credit to his company.
I then called Lowell. Wanted to tell them my good news! I got email confirmation, everything, that this will be sorted. The people on the phone didn’t even let me finish! Actually, they didn’t even let me start! They gotmy personal details first of all, they located the account, they said they have to report this as debt againbecause they can only put a temporary hold on ti for two days and they did it on Monday. Horrendous, awful people!!!! I emailed the t mobile guy back desperately asking for help and he said he will sort it out. Last email I have received from him says:
Dear Ms xxxxxxxx , thank you for your email. I can confirm that Lowell rarely send confirmation that they have removed an account from their records.
But do please retain this email for your records as evidence that the account has been closed.
Kind Regards,
xxxxxx.

So hope this will turn out right? What else do I need to do? Will they remove the default? I have spoken to the credit agency and a very nice girl there helped, she said they SHOULD remove it and that these emails are sufficient but Lowell need to do it, will they do it? Awful, horrible, rude, insensitive people, I hate them. I am the innocent party and they are accusing me!!! If anyone has any ideas how to take this forward please do share. Others: stay away from these animals. They find happiness in insulting a scared person to tears.

Thank you for reading!!!

RAS

Hi

Have a look at this thread

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=568224

Also will be back as you should throw all the regualtory bodies at this lot.

Will get pip's list of people to complain to - I would start with the Information Commissioner as Lowell have provided false information to a third party, then demand compensation for the damage to your credit rating. Then they might start to learn to behave.

RAS

Will check this as one needs updating

Office of Fair Trading, Contact page: http://www.oft.gov.uk/advice_and_resources/resource_base/legal/cca/

The Information Commissioners Office, Complaints page: http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints.aspx
(note: I chose to complete and download the .pdf form on Data Protection, which I am also sending to the other offices, with an accompanying letter)

Trading Standards, Central office homepage: http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/
-Please note, you can search by inserting the postcode in the top right hand corner, remember to use the postcode of the DCA rather than your own-

Consumer Credit Association, enquiries page: http://www.ccauk.org/consenquiries.htm

the Financial Ombudsman Service, Contacts page: http://www.financial-ombudsman.org/contact/index.html

Members of parliament list, (as provided by RAS): http://www.parliament.uk/directories/hciolists/clomps.cfm

poppett

ahhh hun virtual !!!!!!!!!!{hugs}}}}} being sent your way. What a horrible experience for you. Hope it all gets sorted real soon.

deliciosa

Thank you guys, for the advise and for the hug too!!! I will start reading all the material you have provided in a second, just wanted to say thanks first. But they will remove it for me right? I am just about to call Lowell again....

RAS

Hi

Do not bothr ringing them as they will deny the contact ands then you have to chase them for the transcript

Write to them with a copy of the e-mail from T-mobile and tell them that unless all your credit records are corrected within 14 days, you will report them to the Information Commisioner for providing false information and refusing to update it, and you will be reporting them to the OFT and FO.

Tell thm you will be loooking for compensation for the damage done to your credit record anfd that this is to all intents and purposes libellous.

deliciosa

RAS wrote: »

Hi

Do not bothr ringing them as they will deny the contact ands then you have to chase them for the transcript

Write to them with a copy of the e-mail from T-mobile and tell them that unless all your credit records are corrected within 14 days, you will report them to the Information Commisioner for providing false information and refusing to update it, and you will be reporting them to the OFT and FO.

Tell thm you will be loooking for compensation for the damage done to your credit record anfd that this is to all intents and purposes libellous.

Hi thank you! Wow this sounds so good. I have already called them before reading the post and they were !!!!!!!s, as expected. Ok that's great I do this straight away! and I will send it recorded. If they dont remove it (do you think they will?) then what do I do?

Thanks, your wording sounds so professional, I will just copy and paste it!!!
Thank youthank you!

deliciosa

Oh I forgot to give update.
Please read the transcript of our conversation, me and Miss Stupid of Lowell. (They probably don’t use real names, but she said she was Dee.)
After the initial address, post code, shoe size, mothers maiden name, she found the account. Took 6 minutes tho.
Dee: Fine Miss xxxxx I have located your account. Are you calling to clear this balance by debit or credit card today?
Me: No, Its not my debt, as I have previously advised your colleagues. I believe thre might be notes on the ac…
Dee (interrupting me): So it is your statement that you are denying the debt, I have to inform you that you need to prove that it's not your debt or you can pay by debit or credit card.
Me: Listen, let me explain. Its not my debt and II have contacted T Mobile, they have admitted the mistake and deleted my account, they sent you and me an email about it, so that you delete it too.
Dee: We will not delete the account until you pay this balance in full, unless T Mobile tells us so.
Me (sighing): That's exactly what I am saying. They said they have sent you confirmation that you need to delete the account and remove the default notice. Have you received it?
Dee: There is nothing on the account I'm afraid. But it will take us 14 days to sort it out once we hear from T Mobile. (this was actually the only bit of relevant info she said). But you must call them now and talk to them and ask them to write to us.
Me (speaking slowly): They - did - write - to -you. That’s what I am saying.
Dee: Ok Miss xxx that's fineso how can I help you today? (??!!!??)
Me: By confirming that you will look out for the confirmation and rectify the mistake as soon as possible?
Dee: I am afraid we are dealing with may accounts and many situations like this and we are a large company and we cannot confirm this.
ME: What has the size of the company got to do with you confirming that action will be taken to rectify your mistake? (getting !!!!ed off here)
Dee: As I said we are dealing with many accounts like this so we cant confirm that we remove the default notice.
ME): So you are saying you are putting default notices on many innocent peiople's accounts? Because that would cover "accounts like this".
Dee: No I can't confirm that but if you would like to clear this balance by credit or debit card then we can take payment over the phone and consider this matter settled. (disgusting creatures. Knows this wont be paid, tries to bully me into paying. )
Me: I have just explained that I do not owe this money and that I have proof of this fact.
Dee: I understand miss xxxx but I think you are getting hyped up over something insignificant here (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!oh m,y god is she being bloody serious). I can offer you a reduced payment of £83 if you pay today by credit or debit card. (This is a bloody joke)
Me: I don’t think its something insignificant. I do not owe you money and you put a default on my account!
Dee: You can clear it by making a payment today by debit or credit card.
At this poin I just could not take it anymore. I had to options. A.) would have been to shout "listen you stupid idiot, would you sell your soul for bloody £80 just to meet your miserable daily quota to stay employed by the most disgusting company that ever existed on the face of earth, don’t you understand that I don’t owe you any bloody money and if you offer me to pay by credit or debit card I will tell you where to shove your f**** credit cards you miserable, dishonest, lowlife, bullying excuse for a human being…" and B.) was to hang up. I opted for B.

deliciosa

I have read all the info you posted above. THANK YOU GUYS!. I will now write to Lowell, attaching the email conf. Let's see what they say.

RAS

Hi

I think that a copy of the transcript above should accompany your letter (minus your asides) and that you should Cc your letter, the e-amil from T-mobile and the transcript to the Financial Ombudsman.

I am going to keep tabs on this as it is an absolute classic which will be great evidence when we get debt collecting trolls.

deliciosa

What is debt collecting trolls?

Ok I will do that. I also think I should copy in all the credit reference agencies.