Mobile provider claiming i owe them money from 2 years previous!!!

Babydoggy

Today i received a bill out of nowhere from a debt collection company for 280euro.
The bill is for a mobile provider that i was with two years ago. I had always paid by dd and never owed any outstanding money. I changed over to 3mobile. The tranfer was done in a 3 mobile phone shop. They said that they contacted my previous provider and i didn't need to do anything. I never got any outstanding bill,email or phone call from my previous provider regarding any money. The letter sent by debt collection company has my address spelt wrong. The letter says that i ignored previous correspondence which i never got. I called them and they said that they need to speak to the mobile provider which gave them this information. They said they sent me previous correspondence by email which i never got as it was not my email. Can anyone advise as i never have had any unpaid bills in my life.

davo10

Contact your previous provider. Ask them what this bill relates to. Explain to them what you posted here.

sydthebeat

Some mobile providers will say your eligible for an upgrade when you are still in contact, giving you the impression that you are out of contract.
From my experience, other providers do not get involved in checking if you are in or out, and will sign you up regardless... Including CW.
You are then subject to early cease charges which you may not realise.

theteal

sydthebeat wrote: »

Some mobile providers will say your eligible for an upgrade when you are still in contact, giving you the impression that you are out of contract.
From my experience, other providers do not get involved in checking if you are in or out, and will sign you up regardless... Including CW.
You are then subject to early cease charges which you may not realise.

The new provider might (should) ask the customer if their contract term is over, they've no way of checking another company's systems though

As mentioned before, have a chat with the old provider to see what has happened. If the above has happened, ultimately it is the customers responsibility to know whether they are or are not still within contract.

jimmycrackcorm

sydthebeat wrote:

Some mobile providers will say your eligible for an upgrade when you are still in contact, giving you the impression that you are out of contract. From my experience, other providers do not get involved in checking if you are in or out, and will sign you up regardless... Including CW. You are then subject to early cease charges which you may not realise.

The new provider has nothing to do with the previous one. People can sign up for a new contract if they wish while still on one with a different provider.

I suspect that there was a miscommunication in that the OP thought that the three shop at the time were stating that they were closing the old contract with the other provider even in fact they would have said that porting the number over meant the other provider didn't need to be contacted.

There is no way that a provider can get details of any bills our money due from another provider due to data protection laws.

OP should pay the outstanding bill but in reality there's nothing the debt collector can do about it except harass the OP.

Babydoggy

theteal wrote: »

The new provider might (should) ask the customer if their contract term is over, they've no way of checking another company's systems though

As mentioned before, have a chat wuith the old provider to see what has happened. If the above has happened, ultimately it is the customers responsibility to know whether they are or are not still within contract.

I was out of contract and had not upgraded my handset which would have entered me into a new contract. My issue is why two years previous was i never sent any correspondence about any outstanding bill?

lawred2

Debt collectors are powerless - ignore their template scare tactic letters. They carry zero weight.

The only time to take notice is if you get a district court debt claim notice handed to you.

What you should do is contact the mobile provider and argue your case. Do not engage those poxy 'debt collectors' other than to issue a cease and desist notice. You have no contract with them.

TallGlass

Tell em to go and sing for it. 2 years, good luck is what I would be telling them along with see you in court over it. Best thing is to just ignore it.

Cushie Butterfield

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

OP should pay the outstanding bill

Only if it can be established that there is one & that it relates to their previous account.

Just handing over money would be unwise to say the very least.

Babydoggy

TallGlass wrote: »

Tell em to go and sing for it. 2 years, good luck is what I would be telling them along with see you in court over it. Best thing is to just ignore it.

3 mobile told me that they would cancel my account with the provider and to just cancel my own dd to make sure that the old provider did not keep taking money. I will not be paying this as i was a dd customer for about 7 years with the old provider and i never owed anything. Surelyif they had my address and phone number they would have contacted me before now. I sm thinking they must be mixing me up wuth someone else due to ering email and misspelled address.

AngryLips

Babydoggy wrote: »

3 mobile told me that they would cancel my account with the provider and to just cancel my own dd to make sure that the old provider did not keep taking money.

This is probably where you went wrong. You're always issued with a final bill after your service is finished, so if you cancelled your DD before this then that's probably where the balance occurs.

lawred2

AngryLips wrote: »

This is probably where you went wrong. You're always issued with a final bill after your service is finished, so if you cancelled your DD before this then that's probably where the balance occurs.

bit odd that they didn't follow up with a closing statement or requests for payment...

only for a debt blagger to appear two years later

irishgrover

Contact the collection agency again.... Record the call, ask them to confirm that they sent previous correspondence bus mail, get them to confirm what email address they sent it to, confirm it's not yours....... Then ask them about their data protection policy and procedure... Explain that there has just been a significant breech of the data protection laws, confirm that they are contacting com reg to inform com reg of same and ask them what their compensation policy for data leaks is......

Babydoggy

As my bills were online and i am no longer a customer of the old provider i can't log into my old online account to view my bills or my final bill. I wouldn't have just cancelled my dd without paying my final bill. Should i contact the old provider and ask for copies of my old bill?

lawred2

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

The new provider has nothing to do with the previous one. People can sign up for a new contract if they wish while still on one with a different provider.

I suspect that there was a miscommunication in that the OP thought that the three shop at the time were stating that they were closing the old contract with the other provider even in fact they would have said that porting the number over meant the other provider didn't need to be contacted.

There is no way that a provider can get details of any bills our money due from another provider due to data protection laws.

OP should pay the outstanding bill but in reality there's nothing the debt collector can do about it except harass the OP.

"just pay the bill" is terrible advice and exactly what these b@stard companies hope will happen

Xterminator

no, contacting the company directly and paying anything that is owed is a good tactic. especially when it is genuinely owed (which seems not certain in this case)

paying the debt collector and the debt collectors fees. that's bad advice.

dudara

Babydoggy wrote: »

As my bills were online and i am no longer a customer of the old provider i can't log into my old online account to view my bills or my final bill. I wouldn't have just cancelled my dd without paying my final bill. Should i contact the old provider and ask for copies of my old bill?

Contact your old provider asap. They are the only people who can tell you what's going on.

CeilingFly

lawred2 wrote: »

Debt collectors are powerless - ignore their template scare tactic letters. They carry zero weight.

The only time to take notice is if you get a district court debt claim notice handed to you.

What you should do is contact the mobile provider and argue your case. Do not engage those poxy 'debt collectors' other than to issue a cease and desist notice. You have no contract with them.

This is simply appalling advice that appears on boards now and then. They dnlt on their own have specific power, but they are representing the company that has engaged them and the compnay will in many cases follow the advice they provide back that can include commencent of leagl action and that then cannot be reversed and you then have a choice of full payment + a fixed level of legal fees or going to court and taking you chances.

As they say - "its good to talk" .

Terms and conditions allow for most companies to engage a third party to aid in collection of debts. - Its like a halfway house before it goes to solicitors and issuing of court proceeding which IMMEDIATELY adds additional legal fees that cannot be avoided.

So people should aways ignore such advice not to engage.


For the OP, simply continue as you ahve done, request the information, give them the information you claim is correct. There will be a trail, they will see that it was ported by Three on the dates and that an error was obviuosly made somewhere.

Unfortunately with so much automation in billing systems, some errors are not noticed until the customer get correspondance such as this and simply providing the correct information sees the issue resolved.

You can ask the debt collection agency for the information or you can ask the service provider - as the debt collecion agency has a more direct line into their billing system, I would deal with them to get it sorted quickly.

lawred2

CeilingFly wrote: »

This is simply appalling advice that appears on boards now and then. They dnlt on their own have specific power, but they are representing the company that has engaged them and the compnay will in many cases follow the advice they provide back that can include commencent of leagl action and that then cannot be reversed and you then have a choice of full payment + a fixed level of legal fees or going to court and taking you chances.

As they say - "its good to talk" .

Terms and conditions allow for most companies to engage a third party to aid in collection of debts. - Its like a halfway house before it goes to solicitors and issuing of court proceeding which IMMEDIATELY adds additional legal fees that cannot be avoided.

So people should aways ignore such advice not to engage.


For the OP, simply continue as you ahve done, request the information, give them the information you claim is correct. There will be a trail, they will see that it was ported by Three on the dates and that an error was obviuosly made somewhere.

Unfortunately with so much automation in billing systems, some errors are not noticed until the customer get correspondance such as this and simply providing the correct information sees the issue resolved.

You can ask the debt collection agency for the information or you can ask the service provider - as the debt collecion agency has a more direct line into their billing system, I would deal with them to get it sorted quickly.

Here we go with a defendant of the industry. The debt collectors are nothing more than paid hands. Engage the service provider. Do not legitimise the debt collection agencies and their automated mail systems by engaging them in any shape or form other than to request that they desist. They have no legal footing in Ireland other than to be a middleman sending out threatening letters.

CeilingFly

lawred2 wrote: »

Here we go with a defendant of the industry. The debt collectors are nothing more than paid hands. Engage the service provider. Do not legitimise the debt collection agencies and their automated mail systems by engaging them in any shape or form other than to request that they desist. They have no legal footing in Ireland other than to be a middleman sending out threatening letters.

I'm no defendant, but i always read any terms and conditions I sign up to and they invaribly say that the compnay can used a third party to engage in debt collection./ Hence by agreeing to the terms and conditions you agree that the company may use a third party agency.

They will always work on behalf of the company under the company's guidance.

In my own opinion, if you have a genuine case, they are a lot easier to deal with than finding someone in the company who has authority to correct the issue - I had one on to me a couple of months ago regarding an issue with Elavon (business merchant card services). I send the person the email thread and 5 minutes later i got a reply to accept I was correct and confirmed that nothing was owed.

If I had to deal with the company it would proabbly have had to go to several "escalations" before being sorted.

At the end of the day - if you respect these people they can be very accomodating, but act like a boll$x and they treat you the same way. Just like most things in life. Respect usually gets respect returned

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

lawred2 wrote: »

Here we go with a defendant of the industry. The debt collectors are nothing more than paid hands. Engage the service provider. Do not legitimise the debt collection agencies and their automated mail systems by engaging them in any shape or form other than to request that they desist. They have no legal footing in Ireland other than to be a middleman sending out threatening letters.

But he is fundamentally right. The OP needs to contact the phone company as they have engaged the debt collection to act on their behalf. The company can employ anybody they please to send out debt collection demands.

Babydoggy

I found my original contract with the original provider which was Sept 2012 for 24months. I was out of contract. However what don't understand is why i never got any correspondence from them and then two years later i get contacted by a debt collection company. Even if i had any outstanding bill should the provider not have contacted me first to resolve any issues.

dudara

Have you contacted them yet? Until you speak to them and get more details, we really can't offer any more advice than has already been said

Bazzy

OP

The way number porting works and this is a comreg guideline the provider you moved from had the option to cancel the port if you we're still in contract with them the number doesnt automatically move networks

Email your original provider and copy comreg on the mail that'll put a fire up them

especially if you have a copy of your contract

franklyon

What's the name of the debt collection agency?

lawred2

Derek Steep Bodyguard wrote: »

But he is fundamentally right. The OP needs to contact the phone company as they have engaged the debt collection to act on their behalf. The company can employ anybody they please to send out debt collection demands.

I didn't say that they couldn't but they are only paid hands. Ignore them and deal only with the service provider.

CalamariFritti

I would agree with the OP in that the original phone provider should have made contact with regards to a final bill if there was one. According to the OP neither his address, email or phone number had changed and it would have been easy to make contact.
I'd be inclined straightaway to categorically deny any other costs than whatever the outstanding billing amount was, if there was one that is. It is a reasonable expectation that your provider would inform you of a final bill in a normal timeframe and before escalating it to third parties.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

franklyon wrote: »

What's the name of the debt collection agency?

That's immaterial to the issue. The OP needs to contact the company. Everything else is supposition.

SEPT 23 1989

Anything under a grand is not worth chasing

Bin all correspondance

dudara

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

Anything under a grand is not worth chasing

Bin all correspondance

That is reckless advice. Any debt can be pursued and could result in judgement against you. The chances are less for smaller amounts, but you can never assume.

franklyon

Derek Steep Bodyguard wrote: »

That's immaterial to the issue. The OP needs to contact the company. Everything else is supposition.

Not at all some debt collection agencies are crooks and I wouldn't bother contacting the debt collection agency especially if they are UK based