TSC Credit Management letter - VIRGIN MEDIA T&C

phonemone

regarding the so called debt they say you owe firstly do not admit to owing anything secondly speak to citizens advice and find out depending where u live in the UK what the civil enforcement laws regarding any out standing debt u may owe as they differ from Scotland and the rest of Britain the company must however prove u owe this debt and inform u when u received these services they are charging u for. make sure that they are not trying to get u to pay someones debt who has the same name as u because this is very common. DO NOT GIVE THEM ANY PERSONAL INFO ABOUT UR SELF IE PREVIOUS ADDRESS ,NI NUMBER , PLACE OF EMPLOY TELEPHONE NUMBER , BANK DETAIL , CAR DETAILS, DATE OF BIRTH . They can use this to enforce the debt ,make them prove u owe the money and they also try contacting Ur neighbors to extract details about u if they do this contact ur local court and report it. good luck

nanamoan

OK despite my telephoning them, sending them two letters, them and virgin media agreeing that there is no "proof" that they can provide that I owe the money, my advising them that I have been a victim of serious ID fraud for many thousands of pounds, they have now sent me a letter ignoring all this telling me that they are either sending someone to my house or sending it to their solicitors.
This is for £27.12. I have NO knowledge of this debt. I have told them this. I do not want to be worried about people knocking on my door or having my credit file messed up, it took a long while to sort out before.
Should I send a third party cheque for this amount and say if they cash it without providing proof of my debt then I will counter sue them?
I dont want this hanging over my head for Easter.
CAB had previously advised that my first letter and subsequent telephone call should have been enough to stop any further harrassment but obviously not. I refuse to phone their 0870 number any more as it is expensive and they obviously do not refer to the calls or messages either. I have copies of the PODs for the letters sent to them which they claim I have "not responded to previous correspondence"
Advice please

Bothwell_2

Hi folks, long-time lurker, just registered to say I'm having trouble with these guys as well.

It regards a debt that I didn't actually check up on (I left my deadbeat sister in charge of my internet connection when I moved to London, and she's got form for never paying bills so I just assumed it was valid). I've been busy clearing my debts and getting back on track with my credit score, so it was fairly easy for TSC to track me down through my legitimising activities! As soon as I got a letter from them demanding £165 I sent it off to them as three cheques (post-dated - didn't realise at the time you weren't supposed to do that, oops), and asked for receipts when they arrived.

Of course no receipts came despite my asking for them again and again, and the amount they imagine I owe has changed arbitrarily a number of times while they flap around trying to figure out how payment actually works. I'm also being chased by their solicitors (Geoffrey Parker Bourne) because of the "default", for various random amounts that sometimes take into account the money that's cleared into TSC's accounts and sometimes not. Finally lost my temper on Thursday when GPB amended the amount they'd decided I owe them to £203 (it was actually £60, and as of today, £0, so they can stick it :rotfl:) and threatened me with legal proceedings.

I've already threatened TSC three times with the OFT, but I've now gone ahead with that and ordered TSC to send me a copy of their own complaints procedure - if they can't manage that, then it's off to the Financial Ombudsman I'll go. Also threatened GPB with their legal equivalents; TSC being incompetent isn't actually their fault, but like the saying goes - if you hang around with poo you start to smell a bit yourself.

I'll let you know how it goes - my complaints to the OFT have been CCd to TSC and GPB, along with all the backup evidence required. All three have had the pleasure of receiving my complaint letters to the culprits. The Office of Fair Trading can't investigate individual complaints, but it can investigate companies if it feels there's been a serious enough breach of the rules. I would suggest that everybody here who is having trouble with these cowboys get on to the OFT immediately.

Don't forget to complain directly to TSC themselves - if they keep screwing things up even after you've made a formal complaint, you are able to escalate your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman. An interesting piece of trivia is that the Financial Ombudsman will charge a fee of £400 to TSC for the privilege of being investigated, whether the complaint is actually upheld or not. This has been in force since 2007 and is designed to make credit/debt collection companies clean up their act. There's a thread about this on the Motley Fool that goes into a bit more detail.

Whew, very long post! I'm not usually this long-winded, but if anybody else is having trouble with TSC I hope this helps somewhat. They are a legit company, they're just so mind-meltingly inept that they look like 411 scammers.

Bootnote: I actually would advise against speaking to them on the phone at all - get everything in writing. There's a variety of addresses you can use:

The head office I believe is actually Adwick Park, Manvers, Dearne Valley, Rotherham, S63 5NA, not Bute House, Barone Road, Rothesay, Isle of Bute PA20 0DY which is the address of their call centre - they may have moved and that explains the discrepancy, but contacting them at both can't hurt. They can be emailed at info@tsccm.co.uk and client.liaison@tsccm.co.uk - the second one is definitely live. If you want to have a bash at really vocal complaining, the business director is a chap called Bob Murdach, who may well be very interested to know how competent his underlings are. Perhaps not, but enough messages going directly to the fellow will surely inspire him to do something to shut us up. :rotfl:

badboy84

I have recently left employment with TSC Credit Management and would be happy to try and answer any queries that you have about the company..

TSC is all above board and only work on the information given by the clients that they work on behalf of. Mainly VIRGIN MEDIA (Previously known as NTL), BDML connect, JD WILLIAMS and so on.

lKamara

Hi,

I have just recently looked to change my ISP to Virgin Media, I filled out their online form and was told that they were going to do a credit check which I agreed to. I received an email saying that I owed them money and needed to call them which I did, I was put through to their debt collection department who told me that I owed them around £56.00. I said to the person I was speaking that this was imposible as I had never been with Virgin Media, they told me that it was from an account that I had with NTL in 2005, and that they had terminated the service because I had never paid for it. I informed the person that I had the service for 2/3years and that it had been paid via direct debit and that I in fact canceled the service to move to Pipex, she then told me that I had to prove that I had paid this by checking back on my statements which is impossible as I do not bank with the same company. The person I was talking to told me I needed to pay this debt by sending in a cheque or paying by debit card, I asked her what it is I am meant to be paying and who will get this money as I do not have any bill from Virgin and do not owe virgin money and I have no intention of paying something with out seeing a bill, I was then informed that I needed to contact a different department in writing and they would deal with this and send a bill to me. I can only say that Virgin Media have lost a customer, I am NOT going to contact them and will not be paying for something that I do not owe.