Smells like a fishing expedition. My guess is that the company just sends the letter to everyone who had been resident in a property at any point in given timeframe in a hope that someone coughs up. Good luck to getting refund if anyone pays the “bill” in error and realises that afterwards.
Scottish Power abuses folk in the same way.
They have an absolute horrendous reputation being voted 200th out 200 companies for Customer service year after year – they really are that bad – bordering on dubious practices
Something really stinks about the energy oligopoly.
British gas tried to do this to me for over 2 years.
They would phone and send me letters saying I owed them £76 for 3 month period before I had even moved in.
What took the piss the most was the first time I called to tell them it was the last tennent they asked for my name and then stared using that on the bills the cunts.
The wife had one from Virgin media, have had to send a letter asking for proof of debt, when’s she’s never been a customer. They threaten to mark your credit record and the like to scare you into paying, it’s shameful.
From what I’ve read the big company sell off what they think is debt (some very old too) that they can’t be bothered to work out themselves at a hugely discounted amount. Effectively free money to the company that won’t chase it down. Then the “debt” recovery company spam out letters to whomever they can link near to a debt. People that lived at an address at about the right time, etc.
Some people obviously post to make it go away, some pay as it “sounds like it could have happened”, others contest, others may turn out to be genuine debt. It’s a dirty business born from poor administrative processes by the company.
The important thing to know is, it’s the debt collectors responsibility to prove the debt (innocent until proven guilty and all that), so ask for proof and let them do the leg work.
4 comments
Smells like a fishing expedition. My guess is that the company just sends the letter to everyone who had been resident in a property at any point in given timeframe in a hope that someone coughs up. Good luck to getting refund if anyone pays the “bill” in error and realises that afterwards.
Scottish Power abuses folk in the same way.
They have an absolute horrendous reputation being voted 200th out 200 companies for Customer service year after year – they really are that bad – bordering on dubious practices
Something really stinks about the energy oligopoly.
British gas tried to do this to me for over 2 years.
They would phone and send me letters saying I owed them £76 for 3 month period before I had even moved in.
What took the piss the most was the first time I called to tell them it was the last tennent they asked for my name and then stared using that on the bills the cunts.
The wife had one from Virgin media, have had to send a letter asking for proof of debt, when’s she’s never been a customer. They threaten to mark your credit record and the like to scare you into paying, it’s shameful.
From what I’ve read the big company sell off what they think is debt (some very old too) that they can’t be bothered to work out themselves at a hugely discounted amount. Effectively free money to the company that won’t chase it down. Then the “debt” recovery company spam out letters to whomever they can link near to a debt. People that lived at an address at about the right time, etc.
Some people obviously post to make it go away, some pay as it “sounds like it could have happened”, others contest, others may turn out to be genuine debt. It’s a dirty business born from poor administrative processes by the company.
The important thing to know is, it’s the debt collectors responsibility to prove the debt (innocent until proven guilty and all that), so ask for proof and let them do the leg work.