Hi peeps, I'm in Pencoed so can also offer a lift if anyone needs it

Hi locutus, Checked my Experian credit score, and they've only done 2 searches, the account defaulted in may 2008, again I had no correspondence and didn't receive a default notice. i googled the code of practice and the 1st step to complain is to contact customer services or email through the website, i guess that is the best way forward?

Hello locutus, thanks for your reply I have 2 addresses, Telefonica O2 UK Ltd, Debt Management Team, PO BOX 202, Houghton Regis, LU6 9AG ------- Telefonica O2 UK Ltd Limited, 260 Bath Road, Slough, Berkshire, SL14DX And 3 phone numbers, 0844 844 4736 pre collections, 01133086018 Lowell and 01132722000 O2 UK LTD So many numbers and addresses, What is the best thing to do? Steve

Hello caggers, This morning I was greeted by a surprise letter from O2 regarding a mobile phone debt going back to 2nd of Jan 2008. The number on the letter was a number I used to have, although I don't recall there being a debt. There are a few strange thing though, the letter bangs on about Lowell financial and even the account number is Lowell. The letter whilst has the O2 logo on has Telefonica branded all over it, i didn't think or remember O2 letters having that?!?! On the reverse is a 1 day transaction history for the 2nd of Jan 2008, what started as a debit for over 200 pounds then had a removed of 117 pounds making the total 127. I recall this period of time as my Son was born and was critically ill during this time and I spent Christmas/new year in hospital with the other half and our son. Never had any correspondence from O2 and also I had a company mobile so would not have had a contract personal phone then... I seem to remember paying the contract off though well before Jan 08. There is a PO box address on the letter and it reads something like this: Dear stevo7790, During a recent check of our records we have come across this outstanding amount, it might be that you were not contactable at your address when we tried to contact you or a fault on our part that we contacted you at an address that you were no longer at. You may not have heard anything regarding this matter since the last transaction date however we would appreciate that you treat this matter with the utmost urgency and call us within 20 days to sort the outstanding balance. If you do not contact us we will have no option but to pass you to our specialist debt collection company Lowell portfolio financial services who will contact you directly to deal with the debt. if you have a query to this debt please contact Lowell on this number la la la la and we will investigate it for you, although we will not be able to give you a time limit but will put the account on hold whilst we carry out any investigations. If you would like to pay the outstanding balance please give Lowell a call on la la la la. There is no giro type payment thing on this letter and also part of me is thinking that this isn't an O2 letter also it does say original account number but this isn't an O2 one. I dispute the overall balance because I am sure there is nothing to pay, but what is the best course of action? Thanks chaps Steve

Stanwixman, the point being if you have done nothing wrong, nothing illegal... then they can do whatever they like! In this case though it is up to them to prove you did download/share/upload whatever, which because you didn't do any of the above is going to be pretty difficult, and why should you even consider paying them?

Well if you haven't done anything wrong, then why worry? send the LoD and then relax

I have to admit and sorry if I am wrong but, ok you got a good deal but I for one don't go abut bragging about my utility provider/s, I dont use them out of choice but more out of need. The OP has a problem with the company in question and most certainly isnt happy, so in the interests of the OP I don't think positive opinions of their practices count or are needed. The OP needs help not a 'look at what you could have won' opinion

Hello Blomquist and my fellow Caggers. I am not up with tenancy laws however I live with my OH who is a tenant. When we first moved into our house that is rented we were told by our letting agent to wait for the bill. A little over a month and we got a British Gas bill that was not ours, so without opening the letter we rang BG and gave the name the letter was addressed to and they dealt with it... they did ask us if we knew where the previous occupier lived, however that is none of our business. We then got a letter from SWALEC who turned out to be our supplier and a welcome pack. Apart from the BG stuff this is what we expected and in all fairness to to Blomquist we would have waited to as being naive we would no have known who to call. However at the very least we would have called the letting agent for some advice. Any mail that is not addressed to us goes straight back in the post and thats it. In our case it was both the previous occupier and land lord to a) sort out the final bill and b) give us a clean slate when we moved in which was as close as damn it done If anything you do have to question why there was such a delay in not getting any utility bill, at the same time though... surely any bill would have been addressed to the old tenant so I am not sure what you were meant to do, would it be possible to chance suppliers if there was a debt from a previous tenant?

8of9, I'm not trying to cause an argument, and am sorry if my comments have appeared to challange yours. I think the law on wifi is a bit confusing, I pulled this extract from the hand of history website: It needs to be noted that in the UK it is illegal to use someone else's WIFI without their permission. It may also invalidate the broadband contract if the owner does allow it to happen (just go and check your contract with your broadband provider and you will probably find that you are not allowed to share your connection with others) So by having an unsecured network you are techincally 'broadcasting' and allowing others to potentially download from you illegally. I am sure it is an offence to broadcast intentionally, can anyone clear that up for me? but I am not sure how it works if your not computer savvy and are unaware that being secured or not makes any difference. Caimbeul: Yes totally agree with you, they have to prove you downloaded an illegal file, at the same time it makes you wonder though, you use a bittorrent client and download legitamate files, only to get one of those letters... seems a bit coincedental to me

Snap, I am an IT Engineer, work in a workshop... i'm more hardware based though. Yes I see your point, and it is an interesting point however if the user who added the torrent always had the intention of using the torrents against the users that shared it, just to prove you did in fact share and download it would you not be at risk of copyright theft regardless, as the intention was there when you clicked download? It is for the to prove it though.

What appears to be happening though, is a torrent file has been 'planted' on a or a few sites with the intention of catching people sharing. This is how bundles of IP addresses are being collected. What remains to be seen though is how accurate this data capture software is and is it accurate enough to enforce further action. Again it appears as though every letter is based around the use of torrents, so if you have downloaded with torrents and got the letter something is working i guess. It would be interesting to maybe have a poll, showing how many people are using torrents and have the letter as oppose to the people with the letter and not. The IP addresses have to have come from somewhere, otherwise a court ruling for the ISP's to hand over information would not have happened.

Hello again, Not necessarily, it all depends on the file you have downloaded. If the torrent is for the whole uk top 40 then that is what would download, you would have the whole chart, there would be no way to remove an individual song unless you downloaded it track by track

8of9, thats interesting, not sure how any of this would stand up in the courts.

Mr Incredible, I think the answer to your question is as follows: On some websites where torrent files are available to download, some of the downloads will be the current top 40 songs in the charts. This won't be a compilation album you find in the shops as it changes all the time, it will be something somebody has put together by ripping songs from the radio, albums or other means, hence the date. Each song in the top 40 will be copyrighted to the record label each individual artist belongs to. Does that make sense?

8of9 it isn't the responsibility of the ISP I wouldn't have thought, it would be the consumer. Personally I regard having a secured connection being in the same league as having an anti virus/firewall. However let's say someone is piggybacking your connection, the IP of that machine would be different to the IP of your machine. Also if you had your hdd forensically check tests would prove that the file wasn't downloaded on your machine. But come on, how many people would pull up outside someones house just download an mp3 from a torrent file?!?! but also 7000 odd people all doing the same thing, I don't think so. In the past when I have done this with my mobile phone was just to check mails and browse when bored, especially if you don't want to pay extortionate hotels internet fees. I don't see the point in changing your wifi password on a regular basis, ordinary people wont waste their time trying to guess somebody's password, especially if you pick up several connections in the area.

Hello Caimbeul, Thanks for your reply to my post I understand your POV and agree, it is the same with newsgroups there is a lot of legitimate files out there and yes you may only use it legally. However, and please correct me if I'm wrong... All these letters are stating the said user has downloaded an illegal file via torrents Albeit one that seems to have been planted with the view to further potential legal measures. If my assumption is correct, then it has to be said how many of the people who have the letter/s have/are using torrents?!?! I can't recall anybody saying they have not used torrents (I'll have to re-read the whole thread) It is important to understand that this company are not saying you have just downloaded any old file, you have specifically downloaded A file. You don't accidentally download a torrent, legal or otherwise. Furthermore copyright theft, piracy et al are all criminal offences, and whilst the measures and fines might be unjust.. get caught you will feel the brunt of the industry in question. To all people getting these letters, are you, do you have you used torrents in the past? if not send the LoD if yes, still feel free to deny the claim but there is always a chance if you do a lot of downloading

P2P or peer to peer file as its known is continuously ransacked by firms threatening to sue etc... some have and some have not. Let's be clear on this and this to everyone who has had a letter. In order to have been deemed ( whether you have really or not ) responsible to breaching copyright specifically with a torrent file as states the following needs to have happened: you need to have a software client, utorrent for example, you have to download this. you need to access a website that hosts torrent files like thepiratebay you need to open the file and select the software client to download it. You can't do this by accident, and it isn't simply a case of 'the file just appeared' you have to have done it! simple. So because there is a huge debate as to if this is a [problem] or not, let's look at it this way... do you use torrents? if yes then maybe you should be worried ofcourse unless you can prove it and if you don't use torrents then there can be NO WAY you are liable, again unless you have had a hdd replacement can be proved within reason. I don't file share I don't need to but let's say you do, I cant stress how highly important it is you understand the SHARE part, its one thing to download it, its another to share the download after it has finished. If it was me, any downloaded files would be moved straight out of the shared folder and stuck elsewhere, and the torrent file deleted. Also any wireless security can be hacked unsecured or not. In the IT world we use terms like piggybacking where your relying on someone elses connection to browse and download. Or you can interrupt data packets and capture logon details. Please also bear in mind there next to no chance of someone bothering with your wifi if it is security protected. Why target yours when lots of others cant be bothered to secure their connections. Also I will point out it can be deemed an offence not to have a password as you are deemed to be broadcasting. To summarise, if you don't use Torrents and none of the above makes even the most highly tuned brain cell tick over then send a LOD and forget abut it. But if you use Torrents for gods sake stop the sharing! this is where you will get the big boys coming after you under the DCMA etc!

I did read all the posts, hmm... I think I'll keep away from this topic to. I was only trying to understand the situation, but thank you Benny for your most unhelpful and seemingly abrupt post.

Sorry to seem like I'm butting in here, but this is the first time on CAG where I have become confused, not by the legal jargon but purely the circumstances surrounding the case. The OP is taking Vodafone to court simply because they don't do a text only service on contract? My ex was deaf and I have a fair few deaf friends, deaf from birth... they all have mobile phones and they never complain. I know its each to their own. I'm guessing the basis of the court case is because through correspondence somebody has made you feel that your being discriminated against? Am I right in thinking this to be the case? I never judge anyone or anything on face value but I really don't know where your coming from with this. Do other operators offer a text only service? as it seems a bit unfair to make Vodafone the culprit for a service they simply just don't offer. Furthermore why not suggest it as an idea?, it would benefit both provider and consumer. Fair enough make a complaint that is your right, however just because my lawn mower wont actually bin the grass cuttings for me, doesn't mean I'd take Fimo to court over it. Or am I just not getting the point? Sorry if I don't Steve

PGH7447 and Helios, Thanks both of you for the comments, I will do exactly that

Hello Caggers, I am getting the occasional latter from Moorcroft, from their pre-court division Basically my final BT bill ( I left BT ) was a bit big to pay all in one go, so I have been paying them off in small amounts. BT didn't really like this and decided to pas me over to Moorcroft. I have still been paying BT and they are still accepting the payments, but now Moorcroft don't like it lol! however they are trying to stick on an extra £20 overall for admin costs which I don't think I will pay. With BT the bill is only £40, but with Moorcroft it is £60 so a made up pre-court department can go shaft themselves. Anyway ranting aside, is there a way I can get them to pass the account back to the client? as I'm paying BT and Moorcroft are only 'acting on behalf of their client' so as they don't own the debt I dont see what they can do. Any help is always appreciated. Steve

Thanks for the clarification Buzby

Hello, It was a Style Card, That I got through Kwikfit... I'll get the account in dispute letter sent off and see where that gets me, if I do get a CCA then I'll SAR them.

I have a feeling with Dell that a replaced part come with a warranty, I deal with Dell at work. Also I think the laptop would get an extended warranty both on the repair and the fact it was repaired. My experience with dell has always been ok after the long drawn out online warranty repair procedure Nice lappy btw

Thankyou miss muppet, I appreciate your reply, I don't need to send another now do I? Am I sending this to Wescot and not RBS? the reason for this is because I don't know the account number or have any details of the original RBS account. Have I just answered my own question? lol Thanks