Collection agencies

[DodgyAgent]

Dear Sir
My email to someone I owe money to which is a tad overdue and has been forwarded to a collections agency:

Dear Sir
I need a statement and invoice for all outstanding fees from you by the end of this month we can then settle the account in full. This is the fourth time I have made this request. If you do not comply with this request we will assume that there is no further charge due.


I want to get a settlement figure for it before the end of march. I requested four times for the final invoice which I admit is overdue . I received this reply to my email:

Good Morning DA,

It is our company policy that when an account has been passed to our Collection Agency that all correspondence from our client is directed to the Collection Agency and not ourselves.
This ensures that our Collection Agency is not omitted from any emails and are able to respond quicker to both our needs and to changes in your circumstances.

Please could you direct your emails to **** at Master Collections who is copied on this email?

To which my rather childish reply was:

Dear Sir

To be honest I don't give a sh**it what your company policy is. It is our company policy to talk to whoever we wish. I have twice emailed "dickhead at credit collections agency" to request an invoice before the end of March and he has ignored them both.

Best Regards

Dodgy Agent

I will hastily add that it is not a bill from a contractor

[BrilloPad]

I will hastily add that it is not a bill from a contractor

Is it your bar bill from the Winchester?

[DodgyAgent]

Is it your bar bill from the Winchester?

[ChrisPackit]

I love these people. They send you letters saying unless you pay an outstanding balance of £xxx then they will send you to prison for 100 years if you don't pay. It's funny, when you know the correct procedure you can string them along for years. Best so far is 4 years for a debt that an ex business partner run up, so just waiting till it's statue barred now.

[Sysman]

Dear Sir
I need a statement and invoice for all outstanding fees from you by the end of this month we can then settle the account in full. This is the fourth time I have made this request. If you do not comply with this request we will assume that there is no further charge due.


I want to get a settlement figure for it before the end of march. I requested four times for the final invoice which I admit is overdue . I received this reply to my email:

Dodgy,

It is quite possible they have sold the debt to this collections agency, and the agency will have bought it at a substantial discount.

I had a run in with one of these collection companies a few years ago over a late bill and the amount they wanted on top for collection was quite frankly outrageous, more than double the original amount.

I got the local equivalent of the Citizens Advice Bureau to write a letter (in German) for me. The chap asked for copies of the original invoices, and neither of us has heard a peep from the collections agency since.

[Support Monkey]

I saw this very thing in a council office just the other day, the fella came in to pay his Rent arears and the lady said there was nothing they could do they would now need to deal direct with the collection agency and he should do it pronto to stop any further charges.

debt collecting is a licence to print money they will probably charge you for the bandwidth the email used

[Sysman]

I love these people. They send you letters saying unless you pay an outstanding balance of £xxx then they will send you to prison for 100 years if you don't pay. It's funny, when you know the correct procedure you can string them along for years. Best so far is 4 years for a debt that an ex business partner run up, so just waiting till it's statue barred now.

But they can mess with your credit record. That stopped me from getting a broadband upgrade for the sake of about a quid a month and they blocked access to webmail on that ISP.

This merely proves that it is useful to have a backup email solution with another ISP

[Old Greg]

And one day Dodgy, you too might be promoted to collection agent.

[Paddy]

I love these people. They send you letters saying unless you pay an outstanding balance of £xxx then they will send you to prison for 100 years if you don't pay. It's funny, when you know the correct procedure you can string them along for years. Best so far is 4 years for a debt that an ex business partner run up, so just waiting till it's statue barred now.

The length of time to collect a debt varies and is only applicable from the last demand, so if they keep send demands and you contact them; the debt is still valid. Some debts, are valid up to 12 years (such as council tax). Some debts that go through the high court can be retained longer especially if the claimant keeps going back to court to add interest and costs. A small debt of a few hundred pounds can end up as £20k + and once in the hands of the High Court the debt can be collected by the high court sheriff who has powers to enter any property in the country including your friends and neighbours to take your goods.

[DodgyAgent]

And one day Dodgy, you too might be promoted to collection agent.

I loathe them with a passion. They are staffed and run by people who in war time would staff up the running of a concentration camp (whereas we agents would be nicking the food parcels ).

I then got this email from them. There is another charge forthcoming which I wanted to be brought forward to offset against this year end's profits. This is what I got:

Your request for an invoice for all of the remaining balance was sent to me on 1st March after I pressed you for payment of what was then the outstanding balance of £2360 as it is now (see attached e-mails). Indeed on 25th January I sent you a letter of claim for the then outstanding balance of £3,360. After a series of e-mail exchanges on 3rd February you agreed to pay £1,000 and pay the rest 'as soon as I can', the terms of settlement put forward by you were not conditional on Our Client sending you an invoice for all of the remaining balance(see attached e-mail).

Accordingly Our Client is not obliged to send you an invoice for all of the remaining balance on the terms offered on 3rd February and neither are they legally obliged to when the outstanding balance to which our letter of claim dated 25th January pertains concerns invoices sent previously (see attached invoices). However for ease of reference please see attached Statement of Account.

Please note therefore that the total sum of £2,360 remains outstanding on your account.


Payment can be made as follows:

Post a cheque to us for £2,360 (payable to Master Collections Ltd).
Pay cash or cheque for £2,360 at any HSBC Bank, account number 41593552 (Master Collections Clients Account), sort code 402310.
Instruct the bank to telegraphic transfer £2,360 into the account specified above.

Once the outstanding balance has been settled your account will be reinstated for the remainder of the contractual term.

If we do not receive payment as above by Monday 26th March 2012 we will issue a Final Demand for recovery of the debt wherein Our Client will claim Late Payment compensation and interest consistent with the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998.


My reply was:

May I suggest you **** off