Does anyone know Moorcroft?

[dommcd]

got a debt passed on to them by o2 of £115.15. The first i knew of it was when the letter came about a month or so ago. I was quite angry because i was trying to get awswers from o2 and they were not being very helpful. So much so that instead of dealing with my problem they just kept giving me the old computer says no and transfeered the debt to this moorcroft without informing me and have also probabally defaulted me, again with no notice. Any way I phoned moorcroft up and explained the situation. They gave me the "I understand what you are saying but contract this and contract that" basically they want their money. They asked me how much i thought i was liable for i replied none of it but as a show of good faith (god knows why i am showing a dca any kind of faith) i offered to pay £60, just over half. They accepted this and based on what i had said, they would dispute the rest with o2 and let me know.

I got a letter about the reciept of the £60 and then nothing untill the other day when a letter arrived as follows.

 

Our records show that you have defaulted on your agreement to pay £55.15 per MONTH with the result you are now in arrears for the sum of £55.15

 

Unless payment of this amount is recieved by return of post we may instruct our solicitors to commence legal proceeding against you without further notice

 

How come all of these companies seem to be able to do things without notice?

 

The thing is I have made no agreement with them to make any payments of any amount and why would i have to pay them £55.15 per month when the entire "debt" is £55.15 it would be sorted in one payment.

How likely is it that they will take me to court for £55 especially when they know that it is disputed and are fully aware that there were no agreement made between moorcroft and myself to pay this money.

 

I plan to call them and was wondering if anyone has any advice on the sort of things i can say. anything would be helpful.

[bongobaz]

i would send them a cca request!

i had dealing with moorcroft and i sent a cca request which they defaulted on so i took them to TS and have heard nothing back from them since!

[Guest Battleaxe]

Get in touch with . they know Moorcroft and how they work.

 

it is not a bailiff issue, but being a DCA these are sneaky people who will ignore you. Alison will soon have them responding. She does not pull any punches.

 

 

 

Edited sorry but no commercial links !!!

[mutzi]

Firstly, stop phoning them now! If everythings in writing it'll be harder for them to get away with such deception. If they phone you say you'll only deal with them in writing and hang up. They will lie to you, just stick to the facts and they will come undone, eventually.

 

Ask them to prove the repayment agreement exists. If they have placed a default on your credit file then insist on its removal. Sections 10 & 13 of the data protection act should kick them into line quickly. Damage here is damage to your credit file resulting in more expensive credit.

10. - (1) Subject to subsection (2), an individual is entitled at any time by notice in writing to a data controller to require the data controller at the end of such period as is reasonable in the circumstances to cease, or not to begin, processing, or processing for a specified purpose or in a specified manner, any personal data in respect of which he is the data subject, on the ground that, for specified reasons-

(a) the processing of those data or their processing for that purpose or in that manner is causing or is likely to cause substantial damage or substantial distress to him or to another, and

(b) that damage or distress is or would be unwarranted.

 

13. - (1) An individual who suffers damage by reason of any contravention by a data controller of any of the requirements of this Act is entitled to compensation from the data controller for that damage.

What did the letter you got after the £60 payment say exactly and what did you say when you paid it?

[lookinforinfo]

That is why the mods constantly advise us to do everything in writing. And that

includes disputing the debt. If you want to halt them in their tracks you are going to have to send both Moorcroft and 02 ccas and SARs respectively as well as

stating firmly to Moorcroft that at no time did you ever agree to monthly payments

and not only are they well aware of it, but they also know that the account is in dispute because they have already admitted over the phone that they will liaise with 02 to resolve your query on the outstanding balance.

 

Also tell them that because you now cannot trust them to deal with you honestly over the phone, you insist that all future dealings are to be conducted in writing.

[Thailand]

I had Moorcroft knocking on my door last night for a friends debt - even though he's rang them and given his new address and put the debt in dispute.

 

Its his second visit in a week. We enjoyed watching the guy sat in his fancy car on the phone to his bosses - he must have thought it was worrying for me. Not a chance... we switched on all the lights and turned the music up.

 

So don't talk to them - they are all lawbreakers IMO and the only language they speak is greed and lies. Communicate on paper and ignore every call

[dommcd]

you will have to forgive my lack of understanding of the whole process here. but what exactly are ccas and SARs and what will they show. Also if o2 or moorcroft have placed defaults on my credit file is it true that one of the reasons i can have them removed is that they never informed me of their intent to issue them.

[mutzi]

Don't worry, too many abreviations to keep up with around here anyway

 

CCA request - Pay £1 and the company must produce a copy of the credit agreement, if they fail to provide it within set time periods the agreement becomes unenforcable. Template letter here.

 

SAR - made under the Data Protection Act. You have the right to view any information held on you by a company. Useful for finding out what charges have been applied to an account etc. They can charge a maximum of £10 for a request and have 40 days in which to fulfil it. The template for getting a list of bank charges is here. You will need to modify to ask for what you need.

 

As for default removal, check here.

[jamesbond]

moorcroft subscribe to an affiliation of debt collectors with an email complaints line...

if every one has a go it may do some good...

 

Credit Services Association

Wingrove House

Ponteland Road

Newcastle upon Tyne

NE5 3DP

Telephone:00 44 (0)191 286 5656Fax:00 44 (0)191 286 0900Email:General Enquiries - info@csa-uk.com

Membership Enquiries - membership@csa-uk.com

Training Enquiries - training@csa-uk.com

Services Enquiries - marketing@csa-uk.com

Complaints - complaints@csa-uk.com

 

007 :)

[dommcd]

Im going to send this off to moorcroft today. I got it from a template somwhere else on this site.

 

Moorcroft Debt Recovery Ltd

Pre Court Division

PO Box No 17

2 Spring Gardens

Stockport SK1 4AJ

 

Moorcroft reference: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Client reference: xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Dear Sir or Madam

 

Consumer Credit Act 1974 s78 (1) Demand

 

I require you to supply me with a true copy of the credit agreement under which this account is conducted. This is my right under your obligation to supply a copy of the agreement under the legislation contained within s.78 (1) Consumer Credit Act 1974 (s.78 (1) for running – account credit) - your obligation also extends to providing a statement of account. I enclose a £1 cheque in payment of the statutory fee.

 

You are notified that you are obliged to supply these documents, under S189 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974.

 

Non-compliance with my request is a criminal offence under the above Act and will result in a report being submitted to the relevant statutory authorities.

 

Take note at this stage, that any legal action you may contemplate will be both vigorously defended and contested.

 

As you are aware, a credit agreement that is not properly documented and signed by the customer is totally unenforceable under the Consumer Credit Act and therefore is a complete defence to any court claim that is issued.

 

Furthermore you are reminded that under s78 sub section (6) whilst the default continues you are not entitled to enforce the agreement in law

 

 

Yours faithfully

 

If and when Moorcroft send it to me what exactly will it show. Will it be an agreement between me and moorcroft to pay them so much a month or is it something else. Because if its the first one then it wont exist because like i have said i have signed nothing from them regarding anything.

 

In response to an earlier question the letter i recieved regarding the payment i made of £60 goes as follows.

 

We write to confirm that further to your recent telephone instruction the amount of £60.00 has now been deducted from the Debit/Credit card details which you supplied to us and posted to your account on our system.

 

Please contact us on the above number should you have any queries.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mutzi]

It'll be your agreement with o2. That letter should delay them for now.

 

Do you know the exact nature of the £115? Is it all missed payments or are there charges in there too?

 

I was wondering whether they had mentioned any sort of agreement in that letter or what they were going to do about contacting o2. Guess they never bothered.

[dommcd]

the nature is not so much missed payments, well it is but i would consider it more witheld payments.

for some reason a dd didnt go through. say payment was due on the 16th I didnt know untill a week or so after when o2 sent me texts about it. I contacted o2 (via email) to find out what it was about and made it clear that i wanted to pay them. Before they replied they cut me off and when the reply did come it just sort of told me what i had already told them, but on the same day a letter arrived saying you owe us £30 if you send us payment in 7 days your service will be returned. So i sent them payment and nothing happened. after a couple of weeks (maybe i gave them too much time but i thought they would eventually reconnect me) i contacted them again asking why i had not been reconnected and informing them that i would not pay for a service they were not providing when i had done what they asked so i witheld payment untill the matter was sorted and informed them of this. When the reply came it turned out that their computer had added another £30 to the balance 2 days before they had recieved my payment so i still owed them that. This £30 was the following months bill which annoyed me because they say it was on their system on the 2nd. Firstly i would not have known about this and secondly my bills are not due to be paid untill the 16th of each month so it wouldnt have been due for another two weeks anyway yet it was being used to withold my service.

So i contacted them again telling them this and that i wont pay for a service they are not providing and just got some rubbish computed says no response so i contacted them again saying that they were making no effort to deal with my issue properly and again the respons was we understand your frustration but we dont really care.

 

The next thing i know a letter from moorcroft arrives. I had been a customer of o2 for two years and i knew their customer service was bad (i had my phone stolen and they were terrible they didnt even block it when they said they had) but i did what they asked in the first place and then they offer no help whatsoever.

 

This is the issue which moorcroft were supposed to take up with o2 (well i think I have covered it all but the main points are there)

 

I know they say contract this and contract that but that first letter from o2 said you pay us this and we in return will do that. I payed and o2 did nothing so are they not responsible for breaking the contract also.

 

if it had been sorted properly i would have carried on paying them and there would be no problem to deal with.

 

It doesnt seem fair that these banks and other companies can do this sort of thing when it seems that we can not do similar in return. I mean can I place a default on Barclays credit file? God knows from reading this site they deserve more than one!

[mutzi]

Is this right?

 

• A DD wasn't paid for a month you had already had service for.
  
• You paid what you owed and they cut you off.
  
• They did not reconnect you and billed you another £30.
  
• Some time later moorcroft come looking for £115?

Did they ever reconnect you?

[Guest HUSBANDKHAN]

Moorcroft Have Prbably Added Another £20-30 For Admin.

[dommcd]

Thats about right.

 

When I found out that a payment had been missed I made it clear that i wanted to pay them for the month that was missed. while I was waiting to see how they wanted it paid (I had suggested they re try the DD) they cut me off and sent me a letter aking for the month promising to reconnect me a soon as they recieved the payment (or in about 7 days) so i sent them a cheque with the slip at the bottom of the letter and nothing happened. This is when i contacted them telling them i would not pay them any more untill i had some answers and this was sorted im not paying for no service. While all this was going on they billed me for a further 4 months all of which i was not recieving the service they were still charging me for. one month they sent me a bill with two months in advance (i think it was to the end of the contract when the trouble started i still had about 4 months left on it) now minimum contract or not I dont see why I should have to pay them for no service and absolutley disgraceful customer relations.

 

They never reconnected me but like i said carried on billing me till the end of the contract. Luckily it was only a couple of months it could have been a lot more.

 

Thats when moorcroft showed up. In fact they got involved about a month before the contract was up but o2 had already billed me in advance untill then

like i mentioned earlier the last bill from o2 had the money they reckon i owed them, the current month and then the month after that in advance all of which I HAD NO SERVICE.

 

Now whether i may or may not owe them this at the end of it all aside.

 

Moorcroft are claiming that i have defaulted on an agreement to pay them so much on such a date. I have done no such thing. I only know how much it was because of the treatening letter (which doesnt make sense because one payment of the amount they want would clear the balance so why would they say i had agreed to make MONTHLY payments of this amount) and as for the date that this was supposed to be paid on god knows it could have been yesterday for all i know. (obviously it wasnt because they have already sent the letter but you get the point)

[mutzi]

I would take it to trading standards, put in a complaint about both companies. 02 cannot bill you if they are not supplying a service they said you would get. It may well be that they never initiated the DD that month for whatever reason (though they'll blame the computer so no one has to take responsibility,) meaning this entire situation was their fault to being with.

 

As for moorcroft, debt collectors do this to everyone. They make up agreements where none exist and threaten court action when they have no real claim on any money in the first place. All in an effort to intimidate you into paying.

 

Find your local trading standards office by typing in your postcode here. Tell them exactly what has gone on, send copies of any letters you have. Let them deal with it. Hopefully you'll get your £60 back and moorcroft will disappear.

[dommcd]

Thanks for the advice i will give it a try.

[antibank]

not many companys will take you to court for less than £100, its not worth their while. What debt collection agencys dont like to tell you is that they have to accept whatever you offer them. If they annoy you write to them telling them under the administration of justice act you do not wish for them to contact you by any means and to refer your account back to 02. Advice them that as per oft guidelines for debt collection that if they ignore it will be classed as harrasment

[dommcd]

This letter has come in the post today dated the 6th november which is the day they should have recieved my cca request. dont know if the two might be related.

This time its from their home collections department rether than their pre court division.

 

Dear dommcd

 

Ref O2

Balance £55.15

 

Our records show that despite our letters to you, you have defaulted on the agreement we reached with the result that youare now in arrears for the sum of £55.15

 

As a result of this your account has noe been passed to our home collections division for action.This may involve our local representative calling at your home within the next few days to establish how you propose to settle the balance outstanding.

 

If however you wish to continue paying direct to this office you must send a payment to us for the full amount of the arrears. It is stressed that this payment must reach us no later than 10am on 13/11/06

 

We would emphasise that if no satisfactory agreement is made with us or our local representative you may leave us with no alternative but to instruct our solicitors to commence legal proceedings against you without further notice.

 

Can you believe this crap. Despite our letters to you? They have sent four letters to date 1. telling me they are collecting the debt 2. that they confirm the reciept of £60 3. That i have defaulted on the agreement and 4. the letter above.

Once again they refer to this agreement that was reached.

 

What should I do regarding this letter and what if somebody calls round.

I dont want people comming to my home. What if my mother or 12 year old brother answers the door. What can I do if this does happen because personally I would be happy to break their arm and dump them out on the street but Im sure there are more civiliced ways lol.

 

Any advice would be helpfull.

[antibank]

its a standard letter, advice them that you will only deal direct with their client and that you do not wish for them to contact you in anyway. Advice them that any form of contact will be seen as harrasment. contact this guy, Simon Gordon, Head of Media Relations

tel: 01753 628335

email: simon.gordon@O2.com

 

tell him what probs you are having and he will sort them

[dommcd]

so i should send a letter to moorcroft telling them not to contact me in any way. should I also tell them that I have made no agreement to pay them which is why i am playing hardball so to speak. Also when you say deal only with their client is that o2. when i spoke to a woman from moorcroft about the first letter a couple of months ago I asked if o2 still had an interest in this and if there was anyone there i could speak to about the matter she said they didnt and there wasnt and the only thing i could really do was write to their complaints department in the same way as you would if your phone had broken and they were slow in giving you a replacement or if your chips were cold at macdonalds which wouldnt be any good.

Anyway this simon gordon it says he is head of media relationd so what is it that he will be able to do. an in my email to him should i explain the situation with o2 then talk about the trouble with moorcroft. If i copy and paste the posts where i have explained it to you guys do you think that will be good enough.

[mutzi]

http://www.oft.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/50F06527-9FC5-4610-B385-999D6E2A8950/0/oft664.pdf

 

2.6 Examples of unfair practices are as follows:

h. ignoring and/or disregarding claims that debts have been settled or are disputed and continuing to make unjustified demands for payment

 

2.8...

i. failing to investigate and/or provide details as appropriate, when a debt is queried or disputed, possibly resulting in debtors being wrongly pursued

k. not ceasing collection activity whilst investigating a reasonably queried or disputed debt.

 

2.12...

f. visiting or threatening to visit debtors without prior agreement when the

debt is deadlocked or disputed

 

(Best bit)

RESPONDENTS TO THE CONSULTATION

...

Moorcroft Debt Recovery Ltd

 

They know they are not supposed to do this, but do it anyway.

[dommcd]

bin a bit busy over last couple of days so havnt had time to sort this. Had a chance to read that report I wasnt sure what you were trying to show me untill i read it but i think i get it now. Basically its stuff they are doing that they shouldnt because the debt is disputed, but they are. even tho they were one of the consultants on the report so should know better.

Is this the sort of thing I should make Simon Gordon aware of. I will get started on a letter to email to him.

 

In the meantime I was going to send this to moorcroft

For the Attention of A J Martin

PO Box No 17

2 Spring Gardens

Stockport

SK1 4AJ

Moorcroft Reference: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Client Reference: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Dear Mr Martin,

I am writing to inform you that from now on I will only deal with your client and not yourselves regarding the above account.

This is because you have not dealt with the account in an acceptable manner. Despite my good will in offering a part payment when I feel there is nothing to pay, you have conducted yourselves in an unprofessional manner by continuing to press me for further payment when you are aware that the account is in dispute and are supposed to be liasing with the client concerning the alleged amount owed.

Furthermore, you are attempting to secure payment by means of threatening behaviour and reference to my defaulting on a payment agreement between Moorcroft and myself that does not exist. These methods are both unethical and I’m sure (particularly concerning the latter) quite unlawful.

I will consider any further contact from you, especially from any member of your organisation visiting my home as harassment.

In addition, I will also be informing your client, in this case O2, of your actions when I take the matter up with them.

 

Do you think this is ok or does it say too much?

 

Also I have sent a cca request off to them which excluding weekends has 5 to arrive so should I say no further contact except your compliance with my cca request or just leave it at no contact?

 

 

 

[antibank]

Thats fine to be honest, they will try to deny getting it, let me know if you do as I have access to corp192.com and I can obtain their directors info etc

[dommcd]

just to let you know the 12 working day deadline for my cca request has expired and i have heard nothing from moorcroft regarding it. so what happens now?