Bryan Carter - SimplyBe -Frederickson International

[sailingman321]

My other half had a catalogue and missed some payments, charges were applied which she verbally disputed some time ago - she then refused to pay them because of the charges. She pointed out at the time she would be willing to arrange to make payemnts if the charges were removed.

It is now some time later with my wife ignoring communications on the account and the alledged debt I think has been assigned to Frederickson International.

She has now received a letter from BC (Bryan Carter) solicitors as follows:

 

"Dear Mrs X

We write with regard to this oustanding debt.

Payment must be made in full wiuthin the next fouteen days failing which we will recommend to our client that proceedings be issued without further notice.

Should proceedings be issued, additional charges will be added to the existing balance as shown below.

List including interest, court fees and solicitors costs - total balance being between £1000 and £1500.

Before the account is referred to us to litigiate you still have an opportunity to conatact Frederickson International Ltd with your payment proposals. In order to avoid further action you should telephone them immediately on #######.

This is a serious matter and you may wish to seek independent legal advice.

Your sincerely

BC"

 

Our situation is that my wife is willing to come to an arrangement to pay the original debt she owed but not the excessive charges that were applied to the account. However I intend to help her defend the full claim if they do start court proceedings.

She does not remember ever signing anything for this account or receving any agreements (we think it may have been an online application) and we are not sure when the account was opened but it was more than 3 years ago I would guess.

 

I did successfully defend a Barclaycard claim a year or so ago that eventually showed consisted entirely of charges - has the process changed at all please?

 

When I successfully defended my Barclaycard dispute the first step was to send out a CCA request - is this still the case please?

[Helios]

Yes CCA request to carters, they have 12 days to reply with a signed agreement

 

when was this catalogue account taken out?

[sailingman321]

Not sure exactly when - I am hoping the CCA request will provide this information - can I request copies of statements through CCA request too please?

 

Thanks for your quick response!

[Seminole]

You could ask the catalogue company for statements but they may not provide them or want to charge you for them. I wouldn't ask Carter for them as he'll just ignore the request.

 

Best option would be to make a Subject Access Request under the Data Protection Act to the original creditor. You may need to do the same to Freds/Carter as well if they've added charges. Don't specifically ask for statements but make it a general SARN using the template in the library.

 

Freds and Carter are very closely linked. Carter is also well known on this site as a complete rogue.

[diamondgirl]

You'll probably find that the cca comes without any signature other than their companies. Seems to be the norm for SimplyBe thats if they send you one.

 

DG

[harrassed senior]

Personally I would send the CCA Request, and wait to see if they have anything enforceable before spending £10 on the Sars Request.

[Guest Mrs Hobbit]

I did this but wrote to the Company Secretary asking for the alleged agreement, we entered into dialogue over several months, they caved when they couldn't provide the Agreement with my signature, they tried the ploy but you got the the goods. Not denying that, but I am not paying the charges for the failed direct debits (it was involved with ID Fraud). they ended up taking off the charges and I paid the balance which came to about $59.00. Took about 18 months, but I got there in the end. By writing to the Comapny Secretary and no one else, it didn't cost me anything apart from the recorded delivery costs. This is part of the J D Williams conglomerate and their registered company address is on the inside of the catalogue. I dealt with no-one else regarding this matter. Why not try doing it the way I did?

Edited July 11, 2010 by Mrs Hobbit

[ftolad]

"Dear Mrs X

We write with regard to this oustanding debt.

Payment must be made in full wiuthin the next fouteen days failing which we will recommend to our client that proceedings be issued without further notice.

Should proceedings be issued, additional charges will be added to the existing balance as shown below.

List including interest, court fees and solicitors costs - total balance being between £1000 and £1500.

Before the account is referred to us to litigiate you still have an opportunity to conatact Frederickson International Ltd with your payment proposals. In order to avoid further action you should telephone them immediately on #######.

This is a serious matter and you may wish to seek independent legal advice.

Your sincerely

BC"

One point to note is the statement about interest and court costs in the letter above. Surely, as the amount is less than £5,000 then if it did go to court then it should be allocated to the Small Claims Track (please correct if I'm wrong). As such, they wouldn't then be able to claim for costs.

 

Also, as part of the CCA request, check through the T&C's. I'm pretty sure it needs to be stated that they are entitled to claim interest at a specific rate. If it's not there, I'm sure that they can't claim it - again please correct if I'm wrong.

 

I'm in the same position as you, I had my letter yesterday, but also as my CCA to Frederickson's went in last week, I had a second letter stating that the account is now on hold.

 

Reading some of the other BC threads, there is a wealth of info there, and plenty of people here who can help.

 

[zazen.warrior]

Post removed.

Edited July 29, 2010 by zazen.warrior

[sailingman321]

Interesting - this went all quiet - hence my silence.

Then out of the blue a new letter from Moorcroft giving notice of intended litigation.

This is a standard letter that lots of others have received.

My wife is bottling it but I have told her not to worry too much yet.

 

I intend to get her to send a CCA request to Moorcroft tomorrow - we didn't bother doing this with Fredricksons.

 

This account is obviously doing the rounds so will try to nip it in the bud this time.

 

Just so I don't get complacent here but does Moorcroft ever go the full distance?

I have had similar dealings with them in the past also that always came to nothing.

Edited January 24, 2011 by sailingman321

[Bazooka Boo]

If Freds and their tame solicitor BC never took this to court, you can pretty much bet your bottom dollar, there is nothing EVER going to happen especially as it is with these clown, Moorcr@p don't do court, they can't they are only a DCA, if anyone was to take your OH to court it will be the catalogue, and as you have already said, they cannot come up with any agreement, they won't get a look in, even on the small claims track!

 

If you really wish to send them anything, then IMO I would send them the account in dispute letter, they don't know their bum from their elbow and as they will have bought a portfolio of lemons, they will never have any paperwork or history of the debts they bought.

 

As long as the outstanding balance is not huge, and certainly not above £750? Then you 'could' just pay the balance for the goods, and ignore any fees or charges they have added, no-one, not to my knowledge, has ever been taken to court for unpaid fees & charges?

[sailingman321]

Hi Bazooka

To be honest I am not sure what the correct balance of this account is without the charges - We will send a CCA request to Moorcroft and one to the cataogue to see where things stand.

Once we have fended off the legal threat - then I guess we should send a DPA request for the statements and anything else they have to the catalogue - this way we find out what we actually owe and can send them "goodwill" payments in installments.

 

Thanks again!

[themagician]

as they have probably shot your credit file to bits i wouldnt pay them another penny.

and for the good will gesture it dont exist in the life of a dca!

[sailingman321]

Would not paying the genuine part of the debt be fraud?

All along we said we wanted to pay for the goods we received but not the additional charges - wanted these to be removed before we payed them.

[dx100uk]

put in a reclaim for the charges

that will put the a/c into dispute and stop all action against you.

 

once the charges are reclaimed

then start paying off the balance

 

dx