Hi
I have been having problems with Lowell for sometime now. I'll be as brief as I can!
After a bout of being ill, off work, depression etc I decided to start re-building my life, by first addressing my credit file and getting it sorted. When I received my file I saw balances on it, 5 in total all by this Lowell group, but I didn't recognise any of them.
I researched what I should do, first don't call them, write, recorded delivery, asking for proof that I owed these debt to Lowell. This was back in January this year.
They did respond (I sent a postal order for the £1 fee per balance) and they replied, sending me back the postal order, and stating that they will forward the details, so, I though "I must owe these debts then (I know I had some debts, but recall paying off few with house equity etc).
They failed to send the proofs in the timeframe required so I wrote again (always with recorded delivery), and asked why they hadn't provided proof, their response was that "these things can take time", so I contacted a solicitor, who had experience with Lowell and explained that they were 'naughty'!
Anyway, they finally sent 'proof' for 2 O2 phone bills (which were 2 of the 5 balances), the 'proof' was ridiculous, so I responded, always polite, to the point and factual, basically saying this was a joke and looked more like fraud than proof, their response, they cancelled these two balances.
This left the other 3 balances, and up until last Saturday I'd heard nothing, apparently unless they provide this proof, they cannot chase you any further, but they have, for 1 of the balances, the letter was written like we'd never been in contact, followed yesterday by a 'we've been trying hard to contact you Mr Jones, will no luck', this company is either weak with communication, or, has tactics to try and catch people, to get them to admit liability maybe, to start paying for debts they don't recognise! Well I wont be.
I called trading standards yesterday, who were relatively helpful, but added in that 'Lowell are a genuine company you know', I stated that I wasn't calling to authenticate Lowell, I was calling to explain they were committing an offence, harassing me for debts they wont/cant prove, so they passed me rightly to the Ombudsman's office who were tougher in their approach, they wrote there and then to Lowell, giving them (wrongly in my opinion) another 8 weeks to respond, this time they 'must' provide the proof, or shut the case.
I have dealt with the debts I recognise, and am slowly recovering from a bad time, but I will never admit liability for debts I don't recognise and I will never let a company I've never heard of bully me into giving them my hard earned money, when they cant/wont even prove I owe it! If they prove it, I'll sort it. I see others have had issues with this company as well....
I have been having problems with Lowell for sometime now. I'll be as brief as I can!
After a bout of being ill, off work, depression etc I decided to start re-building my life, by first addressing my credit file and getting it sorted. When I received my file I saw balances on it, 5 in total all by this Lowell group, but I didn't recognise any of them.
I researched what I should do, first don't call them, write, recorded delivery, asking for proof that I owed these debt to Lowell. This was back in January this year.
They did respond (I sent a postal order for the £1 fee per balance) and they replied, sending me back the postal order, and stating that they will forward the details, so, I though "I must owe these debts then (I know I had some debts, but recall paying off few with house equity etc).
They failed to send the proofs in the timeframe required so I wrote again (always with recorded delivery), and asked why they hadn't provided proof, their response was that "these things can take time", so I contacted a solicitor, who had experience with Lowell and explained that they were 'naughty'!
Anyway, they finally sent 'proof' for 2 O2 phone bills (which were 2 of the 5 balances), the 'proof' was ridiculous, so I responded, always polite, to the point and factual, basically saying this was a joke and looked more like fraud than proof, their response, they cancelled these two balances.
This left the other 3 balances, and up until last Saturday I'd heard nothing, apparently unless they provide this proof, they cannot chase you any further, but they have, for 1 of the balances, the letter was written like we'd never been in contact, followed yesterday by a 'we've been trying hard to contact you Mr Jones, will no luck', this company is either weak with communication, or, has tactics to try and catch people, to get them to admit liability maybe, to start paying for debts they don't recognise! Well I wont be.
I called trading standards yesterday, who were relatively helpful, but added in that 'Lowell are a genuine company you know', I stated that I wasn't calling to authenticate Lowell, I was calling to explain they were committing an offence, harassing me for debts they wont/cant prove, so they passed me rightly to the Ombudsman's office who were tougher in their approach, they wrote there and then to Lowell, giving them (wrongly in my opinion) another 8 weeks to respond, this time they 'must' provide the proof, or shut the case.
I have dealt with the debts I recognise, and am slowly recovering from a bad time, but I will never admit liability for debts I don't recognise and I will never let a company I've never heard of bully me into giving them my hard earned money, when they cant/wont even prove I owe it! If they prove it, I'll sort it. I see others have had issues with this company as well....
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