Advice Required - Relentless Debt Collector

Having skimmed the thread it seems like I'm about to have a whole host of fun. :rolleyes:

We bought a house that was formerly a rental property (got it cheap at auction as it needs fixing up)

In the first month we've had letters for former occupiers from various credit suppliers and debt collection agencies.

So far all have been told once, by recorded delivery that the person they are trying to contact does not live here anymore & the property has been sold to a new owner. Copies of the sale documents plus a statement from the former letting agency detailing that the former occupier was served eviction papers and did a runner prior to the eviction date.

So far out of 11 of them 4 have replied acknowledgement of the facts and have promised no further contact.
 
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Rifte said:
Have they offered any form of compensation?

I had a similar issue with BT a number of years ago and even after they resolved it I wouldn't let it go, and the CEO sent me a cheque of just under a grand.
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what is the difference between a bribe and compensation
 
arknor said:
well if he let it go after it was resolved.
he wouldn't have got anything.

so its practically a bribe to stop his further actions?
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On that basis every compensation claim is a bribe.

Irrelevant anyway to the issue because the OP has been put out of pocket by all of this and massively inconvenienced.i find it unbelievable that a company with a clearly disgruntled ex customer would not want to try and salvage some dignity from its failings.
 
arknor said:
what is the difference between a bribe and compensation
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Compensation would be where you're trying to regain something which you've lost due to the problems they've caused e.g. time and effort to resolve the issue.

A bribe would be them paying you to do (or not do) something.

If someone accidentally damaged something of yours, would them offering to pay for it to be repaired/replaced be compensation or a bribe for you to not go to the police?
 
I've been offered compensation!

Further to my recent email and letter regarding your complaint, I’d like to ensure you’re happy with my actions so far.

I hope this has been resolved and I’d appreciate if you could let me know if you’re happy to accept £30.00 goodwill that has been credited to your account and if so, which address would you like me to send this cheque to.
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:p
 
If you accept that will be looked upon by the ombudsman as completion.
Don’t accept that mess.
Wait and see what the ombudsman finds appropriate for your level of distress.
 
arknor said:
what is the difference between a bribe and compensation
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The former is something the speaker disagrees with and the latter is something the speaker agrees with. It's one of those subjective things.

EDIT: In this case, I'd regard £30 as inadequate compensation. The company has inflicted financial costs on the OP by forcing them to spend time gathering evidence, make phone calls and post documents. That cost is much more than £30. The company should at least refund the OP for the financial costs that the company has forced on the OP. The issue of the psychological harm caused to the OP by the company is a more difficult thing to assess, but still real.
 
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An offer of £30 after 3 years of hassle is nothing short of an insult.

I'd reply that you would prefer to wait for the outcome of the Ombudsman investigation. Don't forget that they get charged by the ombudsman regardless of the outcome - let alone a case where they are so clearly at fault - so it's in their interests to offer far more than that in order to settle in advance
 
To give some context, npower just sent me £70 as I had to contact them again due to once again changing my DD to £300. Their system cannot cope that I only have electric so once around Dec/Jan they try to double the bill and in June/July they try to halve it, my regular payments easily cover my costs, its just peaks and troughs. In the first few years this cause a large debit with them as well as misbilling me several times. I only stay as I don't want to pay them off for their mistake, plus not every 6 months they get to pay off some of my balance for me now :D
 
Sorry, been busy with work so couldn't update:

I refused the £30 offer...

I have made a formal complaint to the Ombudsman and the case is currently being considered. I feel it would be inappropriate to accept any compensation payment at this time.

Please note: the correspondence address you have for me is out of date. Due to the history of SSE appointing debt collectors to harass me, I would rather not disclose my current address at this time.
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Then they responded:

Further to your email to Holly, as you remain unhappy with the actions taken, your account has been passed to me for further review in line with our Complaints Handling Procedure. I would have liked to have discussed this with you by telephone but unfortunately I do not have a number for you.

I understand why you have contacted the Ombudsman due to the length of time this matter has been ongoing, however, I would appreciate it if you could give me the chance to resolve matters for you. I am confident we can work together to reach a reasonable resolution.

It is understandable you are reluctant to provide us with any details considering the experience you have had, I really can’t apologise enough for this. It is clear that despite you providing us with the details in 2014 the gas account was not updated which has resulted in you receiving letters from an external debt agency. I would like to assure you, we have since corrected this and would like to confirm that there is no balance due for payment.

Taking everything in to consideration I don’t believe the £30.00 goodwill offered by Holly is reflective of the situation and therefore propose to increase this to £100.00. I hope you accept my apologies and reassurance that the account has now been correctly restores your faith in SSE. I also hope the increase goodwill gesture meets your approval and you agree is reasonable in the circumstances.

I look forward to hearing from you on how you would like to proceed.
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Hmm have to weigh it up. Are they going to recieve a fine that will teach them a lesson worth learning of more than 100quid or not.
If not then don't look a gift horse in the mouth
 
How much of a guarantee is it that you can get more out of them by billing them for your time?

I'm not saying take the £100 by any means, I just don't know how easy it is to get money out of them. You deserve much more than that for the time it's been
 
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