Halifax Harassment

[totallylost]

Hi all

I feel pretty annoyed... that's putting it very politely.

I am well o/d on my Halifax cc thanks to the charges that are being made. Yes, I intend doing something about it.

I keep getting telephone calls from the Halifax... they ask for ID, and I have to say I am pretty cheezed off that they have rung me and I have to identify myself.

These calls are fairly frequent. I spoke to one chap today, went through the rigmarole and he introduced himself as Paul, from the Halifax...

He went on about how much I was o/d and how much would I like to pay. I was very polite and I managed to keep talking so that he couldn't interrupt. He did manage to tell me that what he understood was that I was not going to pay. I was very upset and corrected him by saying that I had said that I was unable to pay at the moment. He kept on and on and in the end I told him that these calls are classed as harassment. Oh, he said, what am I harassing you about. I explained that these calls are far too frequent; not one caller knows the details that another caller has and that I have to go through "my pain" in explaining the situation over and over again. He goes on again about payment and me not wanting to pay.

I told him that he was now winding me up and that was harassment. I also told him that the o/d is caused by their illegal charges. I ended the conversation politely and thanked him for calling.

I think I put the wind up him a bit. He was a little speechless at times... not that he had much choice. LOL

Sorry, I had to get that off my chest.

Is it actually harassment if the same company are calling 6 or 8 times a day with the same request, demanding payment?

[hagenuk]

It most certainly is.

 

You can (and in my opinion should) inform them that they must stop calling you at once.

 

Use this letter and adapt for your own circumstance.

 

Dear Sir/Madam

Ref: Account Number:

Despite my instruction regarding any communication from your company, which stated that I require all communications in writing, your telephone calls continue.

 

This behaviour constitutes harassment; my instruction stated quite clearly to you that I require all communications in writing. Do not telephone me again and remove any telephone numbers you hold for me from your systems.

 

Your telephone calls are in breach of the Office of Fair Trading guidelines. If you continue to telephone me after the receipt of this letter an official complaint, together with a log recording the times and frequency of the calls will be passed both to that office and to the Trading Standards office. For your information note that all telephone calls are recorded.

 

This type of debt collection method is contrary to the ‘Administration of Justice Act 1970’ in that it is intended to cause alarm and distress to the recipient. Your methods will not be tolerated. Should the telephone calls not cease immediately a formal complaint, containing copies of all correspondence including yours, will be submitted to the relevant authorities. This will be relevant to questions of your fitness to hold a licence under the Consumer Credit Act, whether or not it results in a prosecution.

 

Take further note that continued telephone calls after the receipt of a request not to call may constitute a criminal offence under Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003.

 

I trust that I have made myself understood on this matter.

 

Yours faithfully

[totallylost]

THANKS Hagenuk

 

Even if I haven't yet gone ahead with the process of reclaiming? It's still harassment?

 

Phew, am I going for it! Im really in the mood right now!

Thanks again.

[hagenuk]

The fact that they are calling as often as they are is harassment, plain and simple. Look at my thread here

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/other-institutions/18141-cabot-financial-telephone-harassment.html?highlight=telephone+harassment

 

to see some other examples of letters you can use to educate them some more!

[totallylost]

Cool.

There's a few massage parlours in Bristol.

Thanks again.

At least I can make a start to regaining some control.

Cheer Hagenuk

[fatboy88]

i think they have started doing recorded messages calls now and wait for you to press 9 or something like that. I find it quite funny how they ask you to put in your mobile number for security reasons lol

[Guest bluecloud]

Don't forget that under the Data Protection Act you are not required to confirm your indentity to someone else calling you. In fact, they are supposed to confirm their identity for security purposes and to prevent fraud.

 

 

.

[bathgatebuyer]

I get the same thing too - even after sending in the 'Please stop harassing me I'm taking you to Court' letter! They've already tried phoning me today, but as usual leave me shouting, "Hello.................Hello.............Hello.................."before it then hangs up.

 

It's bloody boring now.

[AbuDhabiDaddy]

dont forget to tell them you just need to make sure that the dictaphone is on and that you need to record the call for staff training purposes....;-)

[totallylost]

The 'deadline' is a lot that I get these days.

I have also just come out of hospital after a brain op. What are they going to do??? Sue me??? HAHAHA!!! I really don't care anymore. My life is worth more than their harassing calls.

 

My son took a call the other day. He told them that his mum was very ill and in hospital having a brain operation. (It wasn't that bad, thankfully). Oh, they said, we will stop the calls for 10 days.

 

How big of them.

 

No matter who I speak to or how I tell them, they still call. I have sent them all the relevent letters and even had the statements back. I don't know what to do with them - nor do I have the energy at the moment.

 

They are the biggest bunch of b*llsh****s I have ever come across. They are not interested in helping anyone, no matter what. I feel there is no point in being rude, but there is definitely no point in making the effort to be polite either... why should I pretend to be happy and polite when I feel like telling them otherwise? There is no point. No difference. Life's too blinking short.

[bathgatebuyer]

I agree with everything you've said. I was served with a default by them the same day I sent my N1 form into the Court. I phoned the number on the default letter and explained that the matter was in the hands of the legal system. The guy on the other end of the phone, but the phone down for a bit and I had the pleasure of listening to one of his colleagues being ridiculously rude to one of their CUSTOMERS (often forgotten about).

 

"I'm not talking to you again if you swear back at me. I know you've been in hospital but we'll take you to court if you don't give us the money tonight. Oh so you're lying now and telling me stories?"

 

God knows what Mr B.......(Yeah I did hear his name) had said, but when this individual came off the phone she was effing and blinding about the guy she'd just been speaking to.

 

I even said to the guy who cameback onto my line (in a very sarcastic tone), "Good luck to your colleague bullying some poor guy into the grave".

 

The response? "It's one of those days I'm afraid".

 

Astonishing that they hadn't even recognised what they were doing. And that I now know that Mr B (very unusual name can't be too many of them about) has been in hospital and has debt problems.

 

Shameful.

[tonyevic]

It MOST CERTAINLY is harrasment and under the Administration of Justice ACT is a CRIMINAL offence.

 

You are at liberty to ask them not to phone you but to correspond via mail and ask them to remove your phone number from their database.

 

Please see act below

 

1) A person commits an offence if, with the object of coercing another person to pay money claimed from the other as a debt due under a contract,

• (a) harasses the other with demands for payment which, in respect of their frequency or the manner or occasion of making any such demand, or of any threat of publicity by which any demand is accompanied, are calculated to subject him or members of his family or household to alarm, distress or humiliation;
  (b) falsely represents, in relation to the money claimed, that criminal proceedings lie for failure to pay it;
  © falsely represents himself to be authorised in some official capacity to claim or enforce payment; or
  (d) utters a document falsely represented by him to have some official character or purporting to have some official character which he knows it has not.

(2) A person may be guilty of an offence by virtue of subsection (1)(a) above if he concerts with others in the taking of such action as is described in that paragraph notwithstanding that his own course of conduct does not by itself amount to harassment.

(3) Subsection 1(a) above does not apply to anything done by a person which is reasonable (and otherwise permissible in law) for the purpose--

• (a) of securing the discharge of an obligation due, or believed by him to be due to himself or to persons for whom he acts, or protecting himself or them from future loss; or
  (b) of the enforcement of any liability by legal process.

(4) A person found guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.

 

 

 

Hope this helps

 

 

Regards

Tony