Dealing with a debt collector

Macker

Hi
A few weeks ago I got some text messages from a debt collector looking for 283 euro they say I owe to Virgin media ,this was followed by two letters and a legal notice within a few days , They have provided me with no reason why I owe the money ,My Virgin bill was paid by direct debit so Id like some form of statement to check against my bank records.
It did take me 3 calls to cancel the service and I canceled the direct debit when they messed me about on the phone and I was already using another service.

do I need to deal with these people ,if they had the decency to ring me I could have explained all of the above but it was just texts and letters ,they did suggest I ring them but why should I?

Peanut2011

Yes they have the right to chase you and if you wanted to sort it out you should ring them. They are obliged to give you details of the owed debt and if you are disputing that you will need the proof of the communication so far making your claim.

Best is to work with them as alternative is end up in court. And if you choose to ignore that too, get the judgment against you in absence.

Why ad yourself the additional trouble?

Samuel T. Cogley

They will have no interest in your past dealing with Virgin. You'll need to ring Virgin directly and sort it out.

Irishphotodesk

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

They will have no interest in your past dealing with Virgin. You'll need to ring Virgin directly and sort it out.

Won't virgin just say that they have passed the matter to debt collection agency and its in their hands now.

Which means the OP essentially needs to give the collection agency a call and try to deal with them.

OP... Did virgin send you bills that you ignored ?

Samuel T. Cogley

Irishphotodesk wrote: »

Won't virgin just say that they have passed the matter to debt collection agency and its in their hands now.

Which means the OP essentially needs to give the collection agency a call and try to deal with them.

OP... Did virgin send you bills that you ignored ?

If the issue is one where there has been a cock up in regards to billing Virgin will need to deal with it. The debt collection agency aren't going to get into the background of in arrears billing or whatever has happened to the OP. All they will be interested in is how the OP is going to pay.

Mr. Incognito

Lots of threads on this. Throw their letters in the bin and ignore them.

They have no rights to collect and wont do squat. They prey on ignorance of this.

They cannot affect your credit rating.

ebbsy

Mr. Incognito wrote: »

Lots of threads on this. Throw their letters in the bin and ignore them.

They have no rights to collect and wont do squat. They prey on ignorance of this.

They cannot affect your credit rating.

true

bfa1509

Peanut2011 wrote: »

Yes they have the right to chase you and if you wanted to sort it out you should ring them. They are obliged to give you details of the owed debt and if you are disputing that you will need the proof of the communication so far making your claim.

Best is to work with them as alternative is end up in court. And if you choose to ignore that too, get the judgment against you in absence.

Why ad yourself the additional trouble?

This is terrible advice. You should have just said "It's easier to pay at this stage" The OP doesn't need to prove anything to anyone.

eurokev

Mr. Incognito wrote: »

Lots of threads on this. Throw their letters in the bin and ignore them.

They have no rights to collect and wont do squat. They prey on ignorance of this.

They cannot affect your credit rating.

This x10, I had similar with eir a couple of years ago. Cancelled the service - yet they continued to bill me. I actually spent a couple of hours trying to sort it with eir after the first month. But no, they continued to bill me for 13months, until they finally "cut off my service" for non payment.
Soon after a debt collection agency took charge of the debt.
I ignored and it went away after a few months. Zero reprucussions.

Truthvader

Ignore ignore ignore. Idiots can so nothing to you.

Macker

Truthvader wrote: »

Ignore ignore ignore. Idiots can so nothing to you.

That was my thinking ,I honestly thought it was a scam at first ,I mean what company sends text messages to contact someone ,I have no issue paying my debts but as I say my account was direct debit for 2 years ,I don't recall any bill I ignored but maybe the cancelling was the issue ,the cancelling department hung up on me 3 times so I just cancelled the direct debit,I have phone records of ringing them ,maybe its for their equipment but they can have it back tomorrow ,its in my way

Macker

Peanut2011 wrote: »

Yes they have the right to chase you and if you wanted to sort it out you should ring them. They are obliged to give you details of the owed debt and if you are disputing that you will need the proof of the communication so far making your claim.

Best is to work with them as alternative is end up in court. And if you choose to ignore that too, get the judgment against you in absence.

Why ad yourself the additional trouble?

I think I'd go to court and give my side

Truthvader

Macker wrote: »

I think I'd go to court and give my side

It will never get that far. No-one is going to Court for €300

.anon.

eurokev wrote: »

This x10, I had similar with eir a couple of years ago. Cancelled the service - yet they continued to bill me. I actually spent a couple of hours trying to sort it with eir after the first month. But no, they continued to bill me for 13months, until they finally "cut off my service" for non payment.
Soon after a debt collection agency took charge of the debt.
I ignored and it went away after a few months. Zero reprucussions.

I had a similar experience (also with Eircom). I didn't ignore the debt collection agency - I called them and explained that I wouldn't be paying any early cessation charge for a service that had been mis-sold to me in the first place. They (Buchanan, Clark and Wells) were perfectly pleasant to deal with, told me not to worry and that I wouldn't hear from them again. That was five years ago and apart from the very odd random text from Eircom (threatening to cancel my service if I don't pay up), I heard no more about the matter.

Lenar3556

Macker wrote: »

I think I'd go to court and give my side

Based on what you have said you would be lightly to lose, although the chances of them bringing you to court for €300 are slim.

whippet

They are toothless and buy debts cheap and play the numbers game.

A few years back a brother of mine started to get phone calls from one of these from a disputed balance owed to a utility company.

The debt collector crossed the line when they phoned my brother’s work place and spoke to the receptionist about the debt.

So he googled them guys name ... found him on the CRO website which listed his home address .. so my brother took a spin out to the address .. took down the reg plates of the cars in the driveway.

Called the lad back and agreed to meet him but only in a specific location - rural pub car park late one evening and asked him if he would be driving his Black Ford mondeo or would he be in his wife’s red Golf ..... he never heard a word back from them

oholly121

ebbsy wrote: »

true

This again just call the agency and explain that you have a disputed with eir and you don’t believe any funds are owed and all correspondence from you will be ignored otherwise you’ll just keep getting letters

Truthvader

whippet wrote: »

They are toothless and buy debts cheap and play the numbers game.

A few years back a brother of mine started to get phone calls from one of these from a disputed balance owed to a utility company.

The debt collector crossed the line when they phoned my brother’s work place and spoke to the receptionist about the debt.

So he googled them guys name ... found him on the CRO website which listed his home address .. so my brother took a spin out to the address .. took down the reg plates of the cars in the driveway.

Called the lad back and agreed to meet him but only in a specific location - rural pub car park late one evening and asked him if he would be driving his Black Ford mondeo or would he be in his wife’s red Golf ..... he never heard a word back from them

Hope you're 13 and just made up that story. Not an advisable course of action.

whippet

Truthvader wrote: »

Hope you're 13 and just made up that story. Not an advisable course of action.

Absolutely true .. bullies can’t handle being bullied ... plus at the time my brother had the ability to ‘secure his position’ ...

bfa1509

In a slightly off topic question, how do utilities share your personal details with debt collectors without somehow breaking some kind of privacy/data protection law?

ohnonotgmail

bfa1509 wrote: »

In a slightly off topic question, how do utilities share your personal details with debt collectors without somehow breaking some kind of privacy/data protection law?

you consent to it when you sign up with them.

hullaballoo

bfa1509 wrote: »

In a slightly off topic question, how do utilities share your personal details with debt collectors without somehow breaking some kind of privacy/data protection law?

Yeah, it's a valid question.

There isn't really consent for the purposes of GDPR to processing personal data in this way but it's a bit of a grey area.

Utilities and other service providers have a tendency to say that the debt collectors are their agents but this is (a) not really true and (b) not really a valid processing of data even if it was true.

There is a bit of a gap in the law because the assignment of debt (and debt factoring) are long held to be valid exercises in law but it seems that there is a missing piece for debt collectors in obtaining and abusing personal data in the way they do. There are conflicting rights at play and it is unknown at present whether debt collectors (or more so the companies and individuals who sell their debts to them) are functioning in a legally permissible manner in relation to GDPR. And that's without getting into their collection practices which undoubtedly fall into the realms of criminal harassment, imo.

It may be something that the DPC and thereafter the Courts consider if someone is inclined to bring the question far enough.

sparksfly

Do not waste time, money or sleep dealing with this mob. Ignore all correspondence. If they phone, hang up immediately. They soon get the message.

Truthvader

Truthvader wrote: »

Hope you're 13 and just made up that story. Not an advisable course of action.

It’sa great course of action considering what they did by phoning their work.

whelan2

Do you still have their modem? I had similar with eir, once I returned the modem the debt went