Legal Advice req.

[0iD]

The mrs got a letter from a debt collection company this morn. It stated that we'd watched the film Human Traffic on U-Direct films pay-per-view via Sky in 2000 & not paid the £2.99. The state that 'despite repeated & persistant reminders', (we've never seen one, ever) they've had to pass it to this debt collection company who want the original £2.99 + £30 costs or they'll get a CCJ.

How bizarre. Now we have seen the film yes. But whether it was with u-direct we have no idea. If we did, a credit card would have to be registered & cleared before we watched it. Plus, as i've stated we've not had a single reminder in all this time.

Now i'm going to write a letter to this effect, but do you have a leg to stand on with these debt collection agencies?

It seems to me after the mrs read the letter to me that U-direct or thier assets have bee snapped up by some company who 'specialise in gay porn, fetish & erotica'. ???

How utterly bizarre. But what can we do?

[Stewart]

You got caught buying gay porn, didn't you?

0iD, mate, stop digging, come clean to the misses, and introduce her to John.

EDIT - sorry, got the name wrong: introduce her to Rich.

[0iD]

I've had enough of that tac @ work

[Rave]

Write back telling them where to stick it- or if you don't want the hassle pay them the £2.99. However, I'm pretty bloody minded, so it it was me I'd accept their court summons, then turn up and make them look stupid when they fail to provide any proof that they've sent me any reminders at all. They'd get laughed out of court.

[0iD]

That's what I thought Rich, (the voice of reason at last ) It does look like they are trying to shaft us (pun intended).

[shelley bda]

I'd ring them up and find out what's going on, then ask them to confirm anything in writing/ e-mail, i think half the time these companies threaten action thinking it will scare people into paying ( and i wonder how many people do pay just to get rid of the hassle? ) yeah you could pay it it's only a couple of quid but then why should you, it's the principle of it

Jon had this a couple of weeks ago, an online DVD rental company sent him a letter stating that he owed them £20 WTF!!! never had anything to do with online DVD rental at all, luckily they sent a letter of apology the next day so that was cool

[Rave]

It's a completely odd one though isn't it- if your card payment was declined why would they have let you watch the film and then waited five years to try and claim it back? If you have your old card statements I'd be inclined to dig them out to prove that you did pay.

Legally you very definitely do have a leg to stand on, to have any chance of getting a ccj against you to pay their 'fee' of £30 they'd have to prove that they made a reasonable attempt to collect the money- and since you've not had any letters from them for five yours they simply won't be able to prove that. Proof of posting a letter is not proof of delivery.

I very seriously doubt that they'd bother to go to court to collect £33, so it really does look as if the whole exercise is an attempt to take advantage of the unwary who don't know their rights. To be honest, you might want to give Citizens Advice a call to see if what they're doing is actually legal.

[5lab]

i'd check your credit card statement

and they will take you to court over £30 if they feel like it - and the costs quickly rack up. if i opened the mail for someone who used to live in my flat i'd know they got a parking ticket (somewhere) and the origional ticket (£30) they now owe £300 or so, mostly in costs. but i've never read the mail - its illegal to open someone elses post, so i just put all the letters not to me in the bin

[0iD]

Seems U-Direct films went bust 1st August 2001.

[iranu]

They would have to take you to a small claims court. For £2.99 it's not going to be worthwhile. I'm pretty sure that in order to collect a debt then they would have to do it within a reasonable period of time. Threatening you for £2.99 after 5 years would give any court a chuckle. Write back to them saying you have the credit card statement that proves you paid and that you will happily attend a summons. State that you will counter claim for loss of earnings, travel, stress etc. You'll never hear from them again.

[0iD]

Now i'm home & i've read the letter. I'm now sending an e-mail, and i'll be sending a copy by recorded delivery tomorrow, conveying our position that 5 yrs with no reminders is laughable and offering them the £2.99 if they can prove they sent us reminders.

[shiato storm]

hehe...i have to admit its a bloody cheek for these jokers to try and pull what they are...it could be there's a database of loads of addresses and this is a blanket letter designed, as mentioned, to scare people into paying up. I'd alert watchdog or similar as tehre may be thousands of people out there getting this letter and £33 times several thousand is more than my pocket money for several years!

[0iD]

The recovery company 'seem' kosher. key2recoveries.co.uk
Still, demanding 7 days for payment is a pit of a p*ss take as well. Shame i'm on a site survey most of tomorrow, I'd like to see any correspondence as soon as it arrives.

[shelley bda]

Originally Posted by 0iD

The recovery company 'seem' kosher. key2recoveries.co.uk
Still, demanding 7 days for payment is a pit of a p*ss take as well. Shame i'm on a site survey most of tomorrow, I'd like to see any correspondence as soon as it arrives.

Yay,!!! good for you! let us know how you get on

[0iD]

Cheers Shelly, if all else fails i'll threaten to set the people's champoin Rave on their ass. That's enough to frighten any but the hardest

[rajagra]

I once leased a car for a year. The paperwork said the leasing company would arrange collection at the end. They didn't, despite some chasing from me. Upshot was they tried charging me £1200 extra. They (and a collection agency) kept writing to me for 3 years asking for the money. I kept replying with a full explanation of why I owed them nothing. Eventually I worked out that they wouldn't stop writing until I did, so I stopped and soon they did too.

My advice: Keep copies of every single letter you receive/send. Keep everything brief and to the point, state your case succinctly. Try to deal with an individual rather than keep writing to the company as a whole. That way you can safely reply saying nothing more than "I refer you to my letter of (date)." If they keep writing saying the same thing over and over, reply one more time including copies of your earlier letters, and say something like:

"You have sent repeated demands for payment. Each time I have replied, explaining your errors. You have not addressed these errors in your subsequent demands. I cannot be expected to exchange correspondence on this matter indefinitely, so this will be my last letter on the subject. I enclose copies of my earlier letters. I now regard this matter as closed."

If it goes to court, the fact you've attempted to resolve the issue, and explained why you stopped replying, will work in your favour.

Your case may only involve £3 (or £33), but I'm sure they'll harass you as much as they did me if you let them. So don't.

If they don't have a leg to stand on, they won't take you to court. And it certainly sounds like their records are in a muddle. They're just chancing their arm, probably spamming hundreds of others with similar demands trying to make a fast buck. These alleged debts have probably been "sold" to the collection agency.

If they are not giving you the option to pay the original £2.99 on its own, then I wouldn't even consider trying to do so, even if you think you do owe it. Sending them a cheque for £2.99 could be taken as an admission of guilt.