Latest letter from Lowell re:JD Williams debt

[Markie1973]

I hope somebody on the forum can help and/or advise me please?.

 

I have received several letters from Lowell regarding a debt with JD Williams which is in dispute,

I have sent Lowell several e-mails advising them that the debt is in dispute

(I sent several items back to JD Williams which was faulty but JD Williams never acknowledged the return

neither did they credit my account, this lead to charges being applied to my account which caused my account to go over limit and even more charges being applied)

 

 

Lowell never responded to my e-mails and have kept on calling both my landline and mobile

despite me asking them to remove my numbers and requesting all communication in writing.

 

Today I received yet another letter from Lowell but one of the paragraphs has me somewhat worried and angry:

 

'What happens next'

We have a copy of your credit file and are in the process of obtaining your employment details.

Once we have this information, we will be in a position to decide what next steps to take which may include instructing an external agency who specialise in legal proceedings.

 

So apart from them supposedly having my credit file they intend to carry on harassing me by obtaining my employment details? surely this is illegal and is a form of harassment?.

 

I have sent another e-mail off to them today and have had a automated response from them

so I will wait and see what they come back with,

 

 

I have also started the ball rolling with the FCA as I have all of the e-mails sent to both JD Williams

and Lowell as well as the previous letters from them.

 

Also, as this debt is in dispute with JD Williams should my account been forwarded to a DCA?,

JD Williams never acknowledged my dispute and everything went quiet until

I received a letter confirming that my account had been passed to Lowell in August (I received this letter in October of last year).

 

Any help/advise will be appreciated.

[citizenB]

They will indeed be able to access your credit files due to the fact that they would have purchased the "debt" from JD Williams and are now the owners.

 

I certainly think this reference to your employers probably goes against any debt collection guidelines and I will ask others on the site team for you.

 

How did you return the faulty item and did you obtain a proof of posting and did you keep that ?

 

Do you have copies of any correspondence regarding the return of the faulty item ?

 

You might want to send a SAR to JD Williams to see if they have kept a record of the communications in their daily logs.

 

I do not think there would be any point in involving the FCA as they will not deal with individual complaints - if you have already exhausted the complaints procedure with Lowell/JD Williams then your escalation should be to the FOS

[Markie1973]

I returned the faulty item via their returns service and I received a just about legible receipt for the collection, also I have all of the e-mails that was sent to JD Williams and more recently to Lowell.

[fkofilee]

They are not allowed to really contact you at your work and I think what they are doing is unlawful.

[citizenB]

Well if you have a receipt for the collection - then they are on a hiding to nothing I would have said.. perhaps one more letter to Lowells along the lines of the following.

 

Dear Sir/Madam/ Named Person

 

Account References

 

I am in receipt of your letter dated DATE which is quite threatening and almost certainly in breach of any Debt Collection Guidelines.

 

I have already explained to you in some detail that there was, is, and still remains, a dispute with JD Williams regarding the sum you are attempting to collect. I have a receipt for the collection of the item which they have refused to acknowledge and remove from any statements.

 

I repeat, there is no debt owing to either you or JD Williams.

 

As it would appear that my complaint/dispute is falling on either deaf or ignorant ears, I am now escalating my complaint to the Financial Ombudsman.

 

Please be aware that any attempt to add adverse information to my credit history will result in my taking further action against Lowells.

 

I look forward to hearing from you only on the basis that you have now returned this file to JD Williams, along with an apology for the distress and harrassment.

 

Yours faithfully

 

PRINT NAME

 

[ScarletPimpernel]

The letter is bluster, designed to make you think that they will contact your employer, or decide to take legal action because you are working. It does not, of course, actually say that they can or will do either, because that would get them into trouble.

 

You have to remember that intimidation and applying psychological pressure are the DCA's stock in trade. Why do they do this? Firstly, because some people will fall for it, and they get an easy win for the price of a stamp; secondly, because they buy lemon debts which may not be enforceable for one reason or another, so there isn't much they can do - apart from bullying.

 

Frankly, I'd ignore it - it's just another in their chain of threatograms.

[dx100uk]

yep

 

 

pers id be ignoring them loyally

 

 

entering into letter tennis is a bit pointyless

 

 

dx

[citizenB]

Having spoken with others on the site team - I would say that you should ignore the draft letter I have posted up

[fkofilee]

Having spoken with others on the site team - I would say that you should ignore the draft letter I have posted up

 

Agree, entering into letter tennis is not a good idea... However in case it does go legal, do you have all the info you need to defend?

Maybe worth sending a SAR request to JD Williams, JIC