Being chased for a debt that's not mine.

Checkmate19

Post your case on the boards here. I bet debt is gone by the end of the week. Or ring them and start screaming at them. Only joking but go on the offensive. Mention your going to ring joe duffy, post on twitter. That usually does the trick.

flutered

stronglikebull wrote: »

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.

the op has no crontract with the debit company, so they cannot take him to court, the supposed contract is with v. media, tell the debit company this, i went down this road in the past, it proved to be the correct road

marklazarcovic

eircom tried this with me ages ago,couldnt give me a service so took stuff back,billed me anyway,like you i had calls confirming i owed nothing and they just sorted it on the system there and then. not a chance they did. 6 months later debt recovery letters started arriving, i rang eircom to be told not to worry,its automated,and they just sorted it on the system yet again ..lolol ..did they fcuk,over a year of letters,i ignored all after the first one. absolute disgrace pressuring people, no doubt they get a percentage who pay money they do not owe,but are too timid to fight over and just pay.

SEPT 23 1989

Why do you worry yourselves silly over chicken feed?

Have some fun with them and their 'debt collectors'

Prune Tracy

Don't mind puerile "stick it to the man" stuff OP.

flaneur wrote: »

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.

This is a myth - customers do agree in the terms and conditions to a third party taking over the debt (which the system says exists). You seem to have dignity and reason OP - therefore don't lower yourself to contacting Joe Duffy.

Debt collectors are referred to as bullies but the vast majority of the time they are recovering money that is owed for a service and would otherwise not be paid. Like with any business. As far as they're concerned, this is no different. But they should soften the attitude in cases like this when the customer has explained it's an error. Don't worry about them but keep pushing it with VM. Most importantly - get the calls listened to.

The reps here on Boards certainly aren't directly able to resolve it - they're just customer service advisors, that's all. However, keeping it public on social media will likely mean they have to escalate it. Pressure on management is what's needed. The only thing is that all these vindictive types will leap in to have a go at the reps (yet complain about bullying - lol) when it's precisely zero to blame on them. Hopefully people here might bear in mind that they're humans, not avatars, when heading over to the VM forum. And they can only give generic responses, not discuss a closed account publicly.

Wonder if the item was posted - have they checked the tracking with An Post or whatever courier company? Not saying that means you should have to pay for it - just that this might be why there is a balance showing (which should of course be wiped).

Prune Tracy

GerardKeating wrote: »

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

Well seeing as it's not that poster's name on the notices, they're not demanding money from them. And I think that refers to hired goons, not letters!

shaunr68

To the OP: have you contacted the Virgin Media: Reps account as suggested by Jean in the other thread? Any luck resolving the issue?

my3cents

shaunr68 wrote: »

To the OP: have you contacted the Virgin Media: Reps account as suggested by Jean in the other thread? Any luck resolving the issue?

Virgin Media Harassing me

I would suggest if nothing has happened yet and if the OP wants to shame Virgin Media into action they scan and post the letters the debt collection agency are sending out (obviously removing personal data).

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

flaneur

They just want it into PM to make the thread less public.
Send your private details by PM but keep updating the thread.

Prune Tracy

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

flaneur wrote: »

They just want it into PM to make the thread less public.
Send your private details by PM but keep updating the thread.

They give a canned response because they cannot comment on a specific account without the account details. They need the account notes first. And they cannot discuss the account publicly because it involves personal details and releasing these details publicly would be a breach of data protection.

Not everything is a conspiracy - and stop blaming the customer service advisors.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

No, the OP needs to get his issue sorted.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

What do you mean; I would say that???

Prune Tracy

Maliah Plump Bow wrote: »

What do you mean; I would say that???

Presume you don't consider chasing for a genuine debt (I know that's not the case here) bullying and you've never been lax about paying your bills/abiding by company terms that you've agreed to for a service you use, contacting the company to set up a plan if you can't pay on time, and you don't blame customer service agents on minimum wage with very little influence for company/management policy?

flaneur

Prune Tracy wrote: »

They give a canned response because they cannot comment on a specific account without the account details. They need the account notes first. And they cannot discuss the account publicly because it involves personal details and releasing these details publicly would be a breach of data protection.

Not everything is a conspiracy - and stop blaming the customer service advisors.

Considering how the company is acting, it would seem their aim is to push the problem away, not resolve it.

I’m not blaming the customer service advisors. They’re usually the ones left in the frustrating position of having to defend the indefensible in these kinds or organizations.

Nobody seems to be willing to admit that there’s been a complete screwup and nobody has the authority or autonomy in the organization to deal with it. The result is a customer’s account goes through an automated process to a debt collector.

That’s an absolutely disgraceful way to deal with customers, yet these companies do it all the time and somehow get away with it.

I would not allow them to take the on going discussion fully private. Just continue to update the thread, without confidential information.

This “under the terms of the data protection act” thing is used all the time to hide.

The Data Protection Act also requires companies to ensure that data held on customers is accurate and amend it when errors are flagged up.

It looks like when the OP previously tried to contact VM about this they were stonewalled wirh thr DPA notice.

Prune Tracy

That is simply not correct, flaneur.

It is a breach of data protection to publicly discuss a customer's account - not just their details like name, phone number, address and email, but account history. An account's information can only be discussed with the account-holder and anyone whom the account-holder authorises to be put on the account. This is why, when someone phones up with a seemingly innocuous question about their relative's account, the agent cannot tell them anything - it is information about someone else's account.

And it still applies when the customer is using a pseudonym on social media.

This is the reason for the canned responses. If there was a conspiracy, it's not like the reps here are gonna know who the customer is anyway until they get their account information.

The customer says they were advised on the phone it was wiped - so it was admitted there was a screw-up. That message was not picked up by the agency though. People like to believe this was deliberate but realistically it was far more likely to be an error (however people love to believe the worst, and sit back and watch the associated drama) and now the hands of customer service agents are tied.

Keep pushing it to be escalated to management OP - and get calls listened to/find out if there is tracking info relating to the package they're charging you for.

Social media doesn't "shame" anyone - as they're not going to do something to tick off customers unless they truly believe they have grounds for it. But social media is good for creating awareness among management.

Also, while I totally believe this case, I do not always believe social media complaints - two sides to everything. And you know why the company doesn't state the true story publicly? Data protection. It's not always in their favour. This is why companies and organisations say they cannot comment on an individual case - because they genuinely cannot.

Soulseeker333

Sorry I'm flat out emailing and following procedures for this. Im genuinely losing sleep and finding it hard to switch off from it. I was also giving VM time to respond. VM pmed me a few days ago to ask for my account number that was Wednesday and nothing since.... I understand they are customer service reps and usually very nice. I also know the debt collectors are following procedure. I try to remain calm and polite but no one is helping me or listening to me so it gets difficult.

OP is actually a she!!😉

Soulseeker333

Prune Tracy wrote: »

That is simply not correct, flaneur.

It is a breach of data protection to publicly discuss a customer's account - not just their details like name, phone number, address and email, but account history. An account's information can only be discussed with the account-holder and anyone whom the account-holder authorises to be put on the account. This is why, when someone phones up with a seemingly innocuous question about their relative's account, the agent cannot tell them anything - it is information about someone else's account.

And it still applies when the customer is using a pseudonym on social media.

This is the reason for the canned responses. If there was a conspiracy, it's not like the reps here are gonna know who the customer is anyway until they get their account information.

The customer says they were advised on the phone it was wiped - so it was admitted there was a screw-up. That message was not picked up by the agency though. People like to believe this was deliberate but realistically it was far more likely to be an error (however people love to believe the worst, and sit back and watch the associated drama) and now the hands of customer service agents are tied.

Keep pushing it to be escalated to management OP - and get calls listened to/find out if there is tracking info relating to the package they're charging you for.

Social media doesn't "shame" anyone - as they're not going to do something to tick off customers unless they truly believe they have grounds for it. But social media is good for creating awareness among management.

Also, while I totally believe this case, I do not always believe social media complaints - two sides to everything. And you know why the company doesn't state the true story publicly? Data protection. It's not always in their favour. This is why companies and organisations say they cannot comment on an individual case - because they genuinely cannot.

I've spoken to 'management' and they have no charm whatsoever. Closed my complaint after less than 24hours of contact about it and refuse all responsibility. They affirm it's my problem and I can deal with it. Joe Duffy and I could give up my family name but thanks for the tip!! I own up to my responsibilities even when I don't want to but this is completely unjust and something I have had absolutely no hand in.

Soulseeker333

I will of course keep this thread updated with the issue for future...as I'm sure there will be....cases.

stimpson

As I say, keep posting on the thread daily. I know the reps are just doing a job, but if you keep it polite and measured there’s no problem. You do need to keep the pressure up so they keep chasing it internally. Set a reminder at the same time each day and keep asking for updates.

Did you send a data protection request yet?

my3cents

Stop worrying. It will never go to court because there is no evidence.

If you want to be proactive then do the data protection request for all the information that they hold on you as separate requests to both the debt collection agency and VM. They have to provide the information its the law.

Once you have the info you will see that the collections scammers are making threats without having anything to back it up and VM don't have enough to make a case anyway.

The letters are written so they do affect people like you and there are enough people that are similarly affected to make it a worth while approach.

The system is that for a given volume of debt harassing the debtors with letters that pretend to be from a solicitor (they are just form letters from a template) or pretend that a court case is just around the corner costs a small amount of money and gets back a percentage of the overall debts. The agencies don't expect to get all the debt back and won't waste money chasing those that obviously won't pay. Unfortunately they also know that people that engage with them like you have are more likely to pay up so that makes it worth there while sending you a few more letters than those that just plain ignore them.

Also follow up again with comreg, no need to open a new case just tell comreg that VM are refusing to deal with you and never did anything to sort out the issue tell them all the grief they are giving you despite that fact they have no proof that a second device was ever sent to you. If you don't like the answer that you get from comreg ask new questions you have to keep at them to get them to keep going. If VM tell comreg its all sorted then thats what comreg will believe until you tell them otherwise.

Checkmate19

I had a problem with gas company years back. In the right. Two months it took to resolve. But i won in the end. Kept ringing them. It's terrible when your in the right and they stone wall you. This won't go to court but i would still try to ring vm. I would also ring the debt collection agency.

flaneur

I don’t buy the “it’s not deliberate” argument.
The company isn’t putting the correct resources into place to deal with these issues when they arrise because they don’t care and because they’ve taken a deliberate decision to just create a culture where problems like this are ignored and pushed away because resolving them would involve employing managers and not just people reading scripts off a a screen.

That’s a deliberate decision because someone decides to build the systems this way.

Also if you start incentivising people to collect debts, whether they’re owed or not, that’s also a deliberate decision.

Turning a blind eye to repeating errors like this - deliberate decision.

If they were taking the OPs problem seriously it would be resolved by now. It’s not, so you can conclude they don’t care and just are expecting them to either give up and pay or go away.

There’s a lot more to customer care than saying “have a nice day” and a fancy logo.

GerardKeating

Prune Tracy wrote: »

Well seeing as it's not that poster's name on the notices, they're not demanding money from them. And I think that refers to hired goons, not letters!

Whom said the OP's name was not on the letters?

BeardySi

GerardKeating wrote: »

Whom said the OP's name was not on the letters?

That post isn't referring to the OP. Another poster complained about letters to a previous tenant in their house still coming after they'd left and claimed that they were somehow being harassed...

Soulseeker333

STILL no response..their customer service is cruel at this stage.

stimpson

Soulseeker333 wrote: »

STILL no response..their customer service is cruel at this stage.

As I said already you need to keep on top of them. Post on the thread daily. The squeaky wheel gets the oil.

RobbingBandit

Prune Tracy wrote: »

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.

Person never lived at my address never ever, virgin ducked up the address.