Fredrickson International & Bryan Carter Solicitors - Vodafone ***RESOLVED***

[Robw757]

Hello all

 

I am new to the forums, I have been out of work for the past 3 years and have approx £10,000 worth of unsecured debts. Including credit card, personal loan and store card. I have been gradually trying to deal with these debts over the past 2 years or so, dealing with various DCAs.

 

I have recently moved into rented accomodation with my girlfriend, who is currently a student. A lot of my debts are still registered at my previous address. My partner is not aware of these, and I do not wish to worry her with them.

 

I have contacted the CCCS for advice, and they suggested I offer token payments of £1 to all of my creditors as I am not working. Presently the only company who I have given my new address to is Fredrickson International regarding a debt of £1000 to Vodafone from a previous mobile phone contract dating back to around 2007. I was paying Fredrickson around £10 per month up until February, but now I cannot afford this and have offered them the £1 as reccomended by the Consumer Credit Counselling Service. I sent them the offer of token payment and my budget and creditor details. They have not even commented on my offer and instead sent me a letter from Bryan Carter Solicitors (who I assume to be part of Fredricson) demanding full payment in 10 days, or they will commence legal action. Apparently I can also contact Fredrickson again to avoid this.

 

What action should I take, as I cannot afford to make any more than a token payment at present? Also I read something about a Vodafone Web Action group or something on here, are they able to help in cases such as this?

 

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can give. I really need to straighten out my finances and get back on track.

[cerberusalert]

We have a member of the vodafone webteam that comes on this forum, go to http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/telecoms-mobile-fixed-internet/213340-vodafone-webteam-customers-problems.html and contact them, you will receive a response which will include a reference number, post it back here and lee_vodaphone will look into it for you.

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/telecoms-mobile-fixed-internet/259838-vodafone-complaints-vf-webteam.html

[Pinky69]

I'll ask site admin to ask Lee Vodafone if he can help you.

[Pinky69]

Thanks for the link Cerberus.

[Robw757]

Do I need to contact Vodafone using the supplied link then?

[Pinky69]

Contact them on the link given and they will give you a reference number. Come back here with it and Lee Vodafone will come to help you.

[Robw757]

Will do, thanks for that

[cerberusalert]

Moved to the Telecom Forum

[Robw757]

Thanks for that, I have emailed Vodafone and await their reply.

[Robw757]

No reply to my email from Vodafone as yet. I am worried about ignoring the letter from Bryan Carter Solicitors, should I be sending them the token payment offer again??

[locutus]

You are always best dealing with the original creditor. I've had battles with Fredrickson International and Brian Carter before, they threatened to take me to court, I said I was disputing the debt with the original creditor, then they took it through the moneyclaim online, I posted a defense and they dropped it, costing them about £60, and they received nothing... They use the court threats and the court process as a bully tactic, Don't allow yourself to be bullied. You are doing your best to clear this debt, and if CCCS say £1, then that is the maximum you should pay. (and will look REALLY bad on them if they did take you to court!) If they are just acting as credit agents for Vodafone, cut them out and pay Vodafone directly. I'm sure Lee will be along soon and help straighten things out for you

[MARTIN3030]

Rob can you give us a little info as to the backround of the VF issues whilst we await VF teams interventions ?

 

What does the £1000 represent ?

When does it originate from ?

Did you try to sort this out with VF previously ?

What have you got in writing ?

When was your last contact with VF ?

What does your credit file record in relation to this ?

Have you had/got a statement of the account which shows any payments made/fees added ?

 

Has VF sold the account or are Fredriksons collecting on behalf of VF ?

 

What communications in writing have you had withg Freds ?

[MARTIN3030]

If you have informed Fredricksons of your financial position,and they have ignored this-then there are some points from the Office of Fair Trading guidance on debt collection that should be conssidered.

Specifically;

 

Unfair business practices;

 

Communication

 

2.2e Failing to provide debtors or creditors with information on status of debts,for example not providing requested balance statements when reasonably requested.

 

Physical/Psychological Harassment

 

2.6 f Pressurising debtors to pay in full,in unreasonably large instalments,or to increase payments when they are unable to do so.

 

Deceptive and/or unfair methods;

 

2.8 c Refusing to deal with appointed or authorised third parties such a Citizen Advice Bureax,indipendant advice centres or money advisers.

 

2.8.g Failing to refer onto the creditor reasonable offers of payment.

[MARTIN3030]

By ignoring your bringing to their attention of your financial status your difficulty to offer or make higher payments,Fredricksons also breach CSA codes of practice of which they are subscribed to and are expected to comply with.

 

 

I think that you need to be sending a letter outlining all this to Fredricksons.

[Robw757]

To summarise, I had a contract phone with Vodafone around 2006. Early 2007 I became unemployed and was unable to maintain the monthly payments.

I currently owe £1,003 (according to my Experian File) the default was entered on 2/12/2007.

 

I have had no contact with Vodafone, who I would obviously like to sort this out with.

I did not enter into any agreement with Vodafone, as I was not in a position to pay anything at the time. Fredrickson dealt with it ever since, and accepted £10 per month which I paid for around 18 months.

 

I have not been able to pay this amount since around February this year, and Fredrickson have been writing, texting and calling me on a regular basis. I have not spoken to them on the phone, but had written to them in April offering the £1 as reccomended by the CCCS. They wrote back to me saying thank you for my letter, and told me the balance was £1092.14, and that there client reserves the right to add interest to this account.

 

Since then they have sent me more annoying text messages and now this letter from Bryan Carter solicitors.

[MARTIN3030]

Ok thats all fairly clear.

So obviously you are not denying that the debt exists,but the way things have been handled.

You could do with getting a full statement showing the balance owed prior to Fredricksons intervention,and any charges fees or interest added,together with payments that you have made.

 

Its hard to believe that a defaulted account of this age,has not been assigned-this is something you could do with finding out for sure.

A favourite trick of DCAs is to tell you that their client has said this and that-even though the client has no further rights to the account...they say this thinking that you will HAVE to agree since they are masquerading as enforcing client instructions.

 

Bryan Carter...well you dont need to look too far on the site to see how he operates.

 

Lets wait for the VF team to pick this up and see if they can throw any light on things.

[MARTIN3030]

Carters favourite ploy is to file a claim via Northampton Bulk.

He will go for judgement by default if the defendant does not respond-this tends to be the means by which he wins...in many cases we have seen on CAG.

So its important to keep us up to speed here.

[Robw757]

but should i write to carter an make the offer of £1 as reccomended by the CCCS? I want to avoid court acction if possible.

[Robw757]

I haven't received a reply to my e-mail that I sent to Vodafone, so I am hoping the lee Vodafone may be able to help soon.

 

I have just been going through the various correspondence from Fredrickson, and the letter I have from Bryan Carter says I have 14 days to telephone Fredrickson (which I obviously will not be doing) to arrange repayment. Otherwise he will reccomend to his client that he start litigation.

 

Should I write to Carter, or just Fredrickson?

[MARTIN3030]

Fredricksons are a party to any actions by third parties they engage or instruct-if its them who have instructed Carter,then its they I would write to.

Just point out the things you have been told here.

I have contacted the VF team and given them a link to this here,so just be a little patient-someone WILL respond.

[Robw757]

Thanks Martin, I will write to Fredrickson and reiterate what has been said here, and make them the offer of £1 a month again, as reccomended by the CCCS.

[Lee Vodafone Company Rep]

Hi Robw757,

 

It's great to see that so much help has been on hand for you here while I've been away - thanks everyone.

 

I note that you appear not to have received an automated reply to your email as of yet. Could you check your Spam folder for me just to make sure it's not gone in there?

 

If it hasn't then just send me a PM with the email address from which you sent it and I'll try to track you details down this way.

 

Many thanks,

 

Lee

 

Web Relations Team

 

Vodafone UK

[Robw757]

Hi Lee, thanks for your reply. I have sent you a PM with the e-mail address details.

 

Regards

Rob

[Lee Vodafone Company Rep]

Hi Rob,

 

Thanks for the PM.

 

I'm afraid I wasn't able to locate an email having being received it our email system from you.

 

Don't worry though as I'll PM you an alternative way of getting in touch with us.

 

Thanks,

 

Lee

 

Web Relations Team

 

Vodafone UK

[Robw757]

Hi Lee, thanks for that, I have just e-mailed you the details now

 

Regards

Rob