Being chased for a debt that's not mine.

Soulseeker333

Hi,

I'm wondering if anyone can advise me. I've been onto Virgin Media and Comreg....neither could help.

I signed up for VM back in June. They sent out a package to the address, i wasnt there to sign for it but one box arrived and was signed for by another tenant.They sent an engineer out and told me that no I couldn't get their service. Fair enough! I arranged for the box that we never opened because it wasn't installed to be collected. When the courier took the package he asked where the other one was and we said that's all we received can you take note of that. Yes he told us.

Throughout July and August I received calls from both VM and a debt collecting company. I rang VM and they told me not to worry they'd wipe it from the system. I had to ring numerous times about this and get passed from operator to operator. I finally received a voicemail from a manager to confirm it had been sorted apologies etc.

Fast forward 6 months and I'm being harassed by CMOS and High j Ward solicitors telling me its my last chance to pay before court but I can't bring myself to pay for something I had no hand in even if it is only 175e.

I have no paper trail up until October where I refused to talk to VM unless it was through email. They're refusing to get rid of my debt and insist I pay. How is this fair?? I haven't a leg to stand on in court with no paper trail and voicemails disappearing after 30days. Ive asked a transcript of my calls.

Can they take me to court? I'm losing sleep over something I have nothing to do with!

Any advise is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

P. Breathnach

I don't think that you have anything to worry about. Any contract that you had with them became void when they were unable to provide you with a service.

I presume that there was an error about the second packet, and that they are failing to amend their own records. The most important thing is that they cannot prove anything was delivered to you.

Don't worry about "not having a leg to stand on". The burden is on Virgin to prove that you owe them something, and they don't have that proof.

Soulseeker333

Thank you P. Breathnach. Glad to hear it's them who have to prove it. Would court increase the money I'd have to pay if it sided with VM?

They're not backing down at all and this has been going on months which makes me feel like I will get in trouble if they won't let it go. Id be hoping to get a mortgage in the next year or two and fear this will affect my credit rating.

Has anyone ever had this problem with Virgin Media? If so how did it pan out?

my3cents

Soulseeker333 wrote: »

Thank you P. Breathnach. Glad to hear it's them who have to prove it. Would court increase the money I'd have to pay if it sided with VM?

They're not backing down at all and this has been going on months which makes me feel like I will get in trouble if they won't let it go. Id be hoping to get a mortgage in the next year or two and fear this will affect my credit rating.

Has anyone ever had this problem with Virgin Media? If so how did it pan out?

It will never get to court for that amount. Although there are plenty that post here that will try and tell you otherwise.

They are in business to harass you into paying and by the sound of it its starting to work on you.

There is no proof that the item was delivered to you and obviously no one has a document signed by you to say to took delivery of the SECOND box.

If you want to be proactive you can write to them asking exactly what information they have because you believe they have no proof. Under the data laws they have to provide that info (there is a small fee they can apply for supplying the information but iirc its only about €6). At the same time point out that if they fail to provide any evidence to make a court case that any further communication will be considered harassment and dealt with accordingly.

If it was me I'd be delighted to say see you in court, because they have no evidence, probably don't have access to any information other than VM saying you owe them money and won't waste money taking court action for a small amount.

P. Breathnach

It's fairly common in cases of this sort that the court orders the loser to pay the legal costs of the other party. My guess is that if this went to court, you would win easily, but there is always a risk that the judge might see things differently. So I understand your concern.

It looks to me as if Virgin and their solicitors are acting like bullies, and that you see yourself as being in a vulnerable position.

That's the sort of behaviour that gets my dander up, and if they behaved like that with me I'd go to war with them. But I think that I am good at that sort of thing, and not everybody is comfortable fighting against large businesses. What I would do is write to Hugh J Ward saying: (a) I do not believe that I owe Virgin anything; (b) I do not have any item belonging to them; (c) if you can prove otherwise, please show me that proof and I will acknowledge my mistake and pay the amount demanded; (d) if you do anything that impacts on my credit rating, I will seek full legal remedy, including possibly claiming compensation.

[I am a Virgin customer, and have had no problems with them. It happens that I have a box of theirs that they failed to collect, and I think they have forgotten about it.]

P. Breathnach

my3cents posted while I was thinking and typing. We are not a mile apart.

I hope that you feel strong enough to fight this.

Soulseeker333

It is getting to me and yesterday i was starting to consider just paying the money so they'd leave me alone. Ive never had any debt before and am very respectful of contracts i make with companies. But this is beyond belief. And after these responses I'm feeling more positive about my situation.

They've closed my complaint so I can't communicate with them about it, they stopped replying. Comreg said they called and asked them to stop but VM said they won't waive the charge and Comreg said they won't do anything else. I've requested transcript of the calls is the information they have about the delivery something else I can request?

Thanks so much!!

Soulseeker333

I really appreciate your practical advice. I'm going write to Hugh J Solicitors. I want to do all I can to strengthen my case if it does go that far. I will go to court rather than pay just because I feel it's such an injustice. I can't imagine many judges would side with them.

Thanks again you've no idea the weight you've taken off my shoulders.

stimpson

Virgin Media have a forum here: https://www.boards.ie/ttforum/1546

I suggest posting on it. Public shaming works.

My mother in law had issues with both Eir and Vodaphone. It took a few weeks, but opening threads on their respective forums here eventually sorted it. I found that they would reply by PM. I would just post straight back into the thread. Keep it public. Stick to the facts. PM them the personal information. Keep everything else public. Post on your thread daily.

They will ignore your requests for a transcript until you request it under the data protection act: https://www.dataprotection.ie/docs/Making-an-Access-Request/963.htm

RobbingBandit

These guys are cowboys I got a few bills in my door addressed to someone else returned them to virgin now on Monday I've gotten a debt collector agency letter to the same person again has gone back to them borderline harassment at this stage. Good luck op hope you get sorted.

stimpson

I’ve dug out my threads for some light reading.

Eir took almost 4 months to sort it out

https://www.boards.ie/ttfthread/2056834307/1

Vodafone was over a month:

https://www.boards.ie/ttfthread/2056895700/3

Be polite but firm (sarcasm also helps).

Soulseeker333

stimpson wrote: »

Virgin Media have a forum here: https://www.boards.ie/ttforum/1546

I suggest posting on it. Public shaming works.

My mother in law had issues with both Eir and Vodaphone. It took a few weeks, but opening threads on their respective forums here eventually sorted it. I found that they would reply by PM. I would just post straight back into the thread. Keep it public. Stick to the facts. PM them the personal information. Keep everything else public. Post on your thread daily.

They will ignore your requests for a transcript until you request it under the data protection act: https://www.dataprotection.ie/docs/Making-an-Access-Request/963.htm

Thanks for the tip on requesting it under the data protection act.

I've copied the message into the forum you suggested too so fingers crossed.

Thanks again!!

MOH

Pre-Virgin, UPC lost my account when I moved house, insisted I'd never had an account with them, and wanted to charge me a connection fee for a new account, so I switched to Sky. They then started sending me threatening letters looking for the return of a digital set-top box when I'd never even had digital TV with them. Sent a fairly angry letter to their head of customer services and never heard any more from them.

flaneur

Virgin Media Ireland are also not just any company, they are regulated by ComReg.
I would suggest you start by making a formal complaint to Virgin Media and following up with a call to ComReg.

Also a quick call to the Data Protection Commissioner wouldn't be a bad idea. They are clearly holding data on you that is erroneous.

I would also point out very clearly in any communication to VM that you may consider seeking legal advice.

Also tell that debt collector to send you on proof of the existence of a contract.

stronglikebull

Don't even engage with the debt collector. In fact, if they contact you again be as abusive and abrupt as you can possibly be. These scum deserve nothing more for this kind of harassment.

In fairness to you, you've stuck to it a lot longer than I would have. VM are terrible for customer service. They're as bad an ISP as we've ever had in this country, and I had a BT Ireland account that I couldn't get them to stop harassing me about for nearly a year. Ignore them, and it'll go away. No way they can go to court over something you've already written to them about, that a manager there has said was resolved, and when you had never even received service on. Even if they did, they'd pay a fortune to be made look like the idiots they are.

lostie815

Something similar happened me I was a VM customer but they kept sending me someone else's bill for four months and insisted I paid it took four months to sort out not even a sorry from them.

jimbobaloobob

I had a similar situation with them picking up a box from me few years ago. Courier collected it but VM said they never received. I was bombarded for months but refused to give.
Then i called them out on it on Twitter and hash-tagged them to it. Immediately their PR team got in touch through private messages and sorted it out after i threatened to take legal action for the continuing phone calls (up on 2-3 per week).
Only thing that got me anywhere was asking them to stop harassing me though contact on their twitter account.

In your case i wouldn't worry, some of the earlier posters have given you sound advice.

flaneur

Honestly might be worth talking to a local solicitor. You’d never know, you might be able to chase them.
It seems like an extremely annoying situation and one that is not of your making.

GerardKeating

RobbingBandit wrote: »

These guys are cowboys I got a few bills in my door addressed to someone else returned them to virgin now on Monday I've gotten a debt collector agency letter to the same person again has gone back to them borderline harassment at this stage. Good luck op hope you get sorted.

Isn't "demanding money with menaces" a criminal offense ?

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

flaneur

There really needs to be proper regulation of this kind of activity.

A corporate body threatening spurious legal action against an individual, when they know they've no case and wouldn't have a leg to stand on in court, is just using the threat of the legal system as a way of extracting money.

That should be illegal and should have penalties as it's basically using the threat of court to get people to pay bills they may not owe at all.

Prune Tracy

RobbingBandit wrote: »

These guys are cowboys I got a few bills in my door addressed to someone else returned them to virgin now on Monday I've gotten a debt collector agency letter to the same person again has gone back to them borderline harassment at this stage. Good luck op hope you get sorted.

How does that make them cowboys? It just means the previous person living at your address never changed their correspondence address with Virgin Media. If you want someone to blame, it's that person, who possibly deliberately didn't give them their new address so that they can't reach them for debt.

The bills are not in your name, you're not liable - liability is based on name, not address, so why are you worrying about these notices?

The main query here seems like an automated thing. Before the stock post of "You must work for Virgin Media" appears, I don't and it's possible to be a dissenting voice without working for the company, but I do have customer service experience and I know these things are just due to automated systems. It's not good but it's not personal and don't blame phone advisors.

The package may have been marked as "sent" in error. I would send Virgin Media an email for forwarding to Complaints, to remove this debt.

Soulseeker333

I gave VM that explanation that an error occurred somewhere down the line and they point blank refused to believe this. They are having none of me, they closed my complaint so I can't contact them about it anymore. It's pay or continue to deal with the debt collectors from them. I considered going to the guards re: harassment but I'm not sure there's much they can do. I thought about a solicitor too but I just don't have the money. A rep from VM has bitten when I posted in the VM thread but I hold out little hope.

flaneur

You have no contract with the debt collector and they're trying to enforce a contract that doesn't exist.

If you can't afford a solicitor, next best thing would be Joe Duffy and the court of public opinion.

stimpson

Soulseeker333 wrote: »

I gave VM that explanation that an error occurred somewhere down the line and they point blank refused to believe this. They are having none of me, they closed my complaint so I can't contact them about it anymore. It's pay or continue to deal with the debt collectors from them. I considered going to the guards re: harassment but I'm not sure there's much they can do. I thought about a solicitor too but I just don't have the money. A rep from VM has bitten when I posted in the VM thread but I hold out little hope.

As I said, keep posting on that thread daily. I’d be surprised if the reps don’t sort it out.

Cheshire Cat

Contact Conor Pope on Pricewatch (Irish Times). He is quite good at sorting out nonsense like that.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/consumer

shaunr68

Good luck OP, stick it out you have had great advice here. Only thing I'd add is to write to VM and state that you refuse to deal with the debt collectors, because no debt exists. Tell VM that the dispute is between VM and yourself and you will not co-operate with any third party chasing a non-existent debt. Add that if they aren't able to provide evidence of a debt then they can knock themselves out and take you to court.

Checkmate19

Get on to social median and shame them. Ring them and tell them your doing it. They will soon back down. Twitter and here. Get through to someone in vm and tell them your doing it as well. Fight fire with fire. Only way to deal with companies in this situation is go on the offensive and tell them your going to shame them every way you can.

SEPT 23 1989

Can I ask how much this debt is?

Checkmate19

They are chasing you over a box. Christ that's low. Shame them. This won't be going to court and if it did would be laughed out of court. I'd get onto them and tell them you are going to post this case on twitter and every other social media. Bet that will end it. I can a similar problem with another company and they soon changed their tune once they knew i wasnt going to be bullied.

shaunr68

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

Can I ask how much this debt is?

It says in the first post, 175 yoyos. Certainly enough to kick up a stink about, on principle if nothing else