Wescot Credit Services and ntl 'debt' (merged)

serpico

Having read all of these posts I find it remarkable how much it must have cost everyone in time aggravation and money to dispute what appears to be unlawful demands for money.

Personally if I was 100% sure I did not owe the alleged debt and could prove it I would have simply responded  just once in writing stating the reason why I did not owe the alleged debt and then let it ride, hoping they would take me to Court.

I had a similar situation some years ago of a business demanding money I did not owe.

I simply replied to them just once detailing why the alleged claim was false and then ignored all future correspondence except for one letter from their solicitors that gave me notice of intended of reovery through the County Court.

My response was simply to write B******s  with a large felt tip pen across the solicitors letter put it in an unstamped envelope together a with a copy of my first response letter and posted it back.

I then received a summons to appear in the Chester County Court. Knowing I could prove the claim to be false I completed the section denying the debt, together with a simple statement of facts, and a copy of my original letter to the Claimant why the claim was false.

I was only before the District Judge for fifteen minutes, the Judge found in my favour and awarded me £150 costs for loss of time from my business plus travelling and car parking fee.

Additionally on could also ask the Court to make an order that any incorrect information logged with the credit reference agencies be immediately removed by the Claimants.

No one has anything to fear from the Courts if they are in the right and can prove their Defence, plus it could be to their advantage to have a Court hearing because it indisputable clears their name of any false allegations, plus earn a few pounds few their trouble.

kmilward

This is part of a letter that I am compilng to send to NTL. i was wondering if anyone else has had this sort of a problem? I'd be interested in other peoples experiences with Westcot or NTL. I dont know what to do really. What can I do?

Any help would be really appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Kevin


I had an account with your almost 2 years ago. I signed up on a 9 months (student) contract. I used the service actively during the period whilst staying at my temporary student accommodation in from Oct 2002 to July 2003.

At first I tried to cancel the service by phone, the person said that my bills were paid and the account had in fact been canceled. I was surprised that soon afterwards I received another bill. I can’t remember the date but around the time of May through to July I made about 5 calls to NTL trying to resolve the matter to no avail. I remember speaking to a woman on one of the latter conversations; she told me that I had to write a written letter to confirm that I wanted to cancel the account. That was about the fourth conversation I think. If your staff couldn’t tell me that from the start they couldn’t be very well trained.
Just to ad further insult to injury. I must have called about 10 times to get these 5 calls because I remember it took me ages to get through; I must have been waiting 30 to 45 minutes on each call, at my expense!

Around June 2003 I sent written confirmation that I wished to cancel the service of which I received no reply. I have a copy of the letter that I sent. After sending I received no confirmation that the account had been closed.

A month on I received a letter from a debt collection agency called Credit Solutions stating that I owed £35.01. I was furious. At the time I’d moved away and my mother to save me any stress just settled the bill. The person on the end of the phone told my mother that the account was now closed and she demanded a NTL letter to confirm that the account was now closed to be sent to my parent’s house. It again never arrived. I have the letter from the first debt collection agency with the authorization reference number that was given to my mother when she settled the bill.

From that moment on I thought the entire matter had been settled until a few days after Christmas over year on I received a forwarded letter from my university address from a debt collection company called Westcot. The letter stated that I owed £60.49 for services from November 2003. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

I contacted Westcot immediately to query the letter. They weren’t very helpful at all. They made no effort to help me. They said that it wasn’t there problem and that their job was to collect the debt. I asked if the debt had been sold to Westcot and she replied no. They were just collecting it on NTL’s behalf.

The letter said that if I didn’t contact them by the 18th of November they would take further action. Like I said I didn’t receive the letter until a couple of days after Xmas. She extended the deadline for another fortnight.

I’ve called NTL to try and resolve this matter as Westcot weren’t going to help me. I spoke to a gentleman who said that I should contact your customer service or debt department. I called but the offices were closed at the time being Christmas and all.

I’ve spoken with another man since at NTL who did his best to try and help me but he couldn’t resolve the problem. He was however able to tell me that I not only have one outstanding debt but two. One for the £60.49 that I was quoted for the so called outstanding telephone bill, and a second for £270 for outstanding broadband account payments. I was shocked! Both the accounts to my mind had been closed. I had forgotten about them only to get a rude awaking that I didn’t in fact owed one bill but two and the second for a whopping £270.

I feel I’ve been screwed by NTL. I not at all happy and if I don’t get this matter resolved I will have no choice but to sue. This is not a matter of money; it is a matter of innocent people being taken advantage of by large corporate bodies. At Christmas time of all times! I even thought that the letter may have been a fake letter from Westcot to scare me into paying the amount. I went on the internet and surfed a whole bunch of financial forums where literally hundreds of people other people are having very similar problems with NTL and other companies related to Westcot. After reading through about 50 or so forums I found enough information to convince me that Westcot was a really company, just a really nasty one and I was recommended to sort it out rather than just ignore it.

The thing with this Westcot letter is; my name is correct and obviously my old address is correct but the client reference number is wrong. On the first debt collection letter that I received it stated my proper account reference number but not on the one from Westcot.

What should be done about it?

I would like you to write the debt off because it shouldn’t have got to this stage as far I was concerned the contract ended when I resolved the initial debt collection for the final payment on.

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svmitche

Hi there.

Three words:

Citizen's Advice Bureau.

I know the MSErs on this board can probably add something to assist you, but you would do very well to go to the CAB about this.

You have tried your hardest to end your NTL contract and if you do have copies of your cancellation letters etc you are in the right. A CAB advisor may be able to help you more fully if you take all the paperwork along.

I hope you get this situation sorted as I agree it is very distressing.

Good luck!

Walletwatch

Attaboy, kmilward

Do tell us how you fare !!!

Best of luck

kmilward

Thanks for the advice svmitche; I've got the number and address of my local CAB. I'll give them a call tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be able to go and see them at lunch time.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Thanks kindly

Kevin

Jen_Jen_5

To enforce any debt against you the creditor has to take you to court. This is where you have the opportunity to defend yourself and state you dont owe it.

By all means send a letter to NTL asking they write it off etc etc but if they dont tell them to take you to court, this is your opportunity to present all the evidence saying you cancelled it including all the other problems you've found on the internet and all the times youve tried to resolve it. NTL will also have to provide evidence that you owe the money.

This is what the debt collection compaines are threatening you with - Pay up or we'll take the matter to court and give you an opportunity to talk to an unbiased person who will make a fair decision - not that much of a threat?

WilliamT

I have just received a letter from Wescot saying all the disputed Gio Internet accounts have been cancelled.

Well I say 'cancelled' - the relevant paragraph actually reads:

"Due to a significant number of enquiries regarding the previous management of these accounts, we thought it appropriate to write to you again, and advise that we have now returned all Gio Internet accounts back to our client and Wescot is no longer acting in respect of this matter."

Whether that means they've given up on them permanently or some may resurface, I don't know, but I suspect it may not be worth their while to waste any more time on it.

Interestingly, the letter says NTL were Wescot's client, rather than Gio, which confuses me even further...

Anyway - at least its one less thing to worry about.

William

westernpromise

According to this website:-

http://www.home-repo.org/reposses/refusal.htm

Wescot are actually owned by Equifax.

The plot thickens.

steady__eddie

Sorry to dredge this one up again but it looks like it may become relevant shortly for some peeps. If I can get the link together, have a look at this.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/050406/175/ffrx1.html

JGB_3

Seems a while since the last posting but Wescot would seem to be still active. I have just received a letter out of the blue for an outstanding payment of £89.99. However unlike previous responses to this thread there was no indication as to who Wescot were working for. I did eventually get through to them on the telephone (20 mins) but they would not reveal the name of their client insisting it should be on the letter (even though I kept telling them it isn't). Another insideous twist was a request to pay them £5 via credit card over the phone to put any action on hold for 5 days. I declined this offer! I still haven't a clue to whom I allegedly owe the money. Is this a legalised scam? Have any further developments occured since the last round of postings?

JGB