RLP advice

[stressed]

Can anyone help with a very stressy situation that our son has got himself into.

Back in February he did a very stupid thing while working for a large retail store. While working on the tills he sold some items of clothing to one of his friends at a greatly reduced price (can i also say that this is hugely out of character for him). Anyway obviously he was found out. For this he was arrested (at a much later date, presumably because the store had to investigate this). On the day he was arrested he worked an early shift so when 6pm came and he wasn't home we were very worried. I decided to call his work and apologised for being an over protective mother but as he wasn't home did they know where he was, was he working late? I couldn't believe it when one of the managers told me that he had been arrested that morning for stealing. She couldn't tell me anything else.

Me and my husband called the police station to be told that they couldn't tell us anything due to data protection. We ended up going down there and having to show our ID and describe our son to see if he was there. He was 17 at the time. We were beside ourselves with worry.

Anyway cutting a long story short he was obviously sacked and given a formal warning from the police. We thought this matter was over until last Saturday (10th Sept) when he had a call from JBDR a debt collecting agency from Glasgow demanding £250 or if he paid by Tuesday 13th Sept their clients RLP would accept £150. ( this demand was in relation to the incident in February) They were very aggresive and even threatend to send someone to our home to seize goods to the value of. We explained that we had nothing in writing and knew nothing of this demand. JBDR emailed the demand to us so that we had something.

On Monday i called the head office of the retail company involved to ask why a dept collection agency had been instructed without us ever having received any letters. I wanted to get this sorted out by Tuesday due to the threat of the demand going up by £100. They looked into this and contacted us to say that RLP had been writing to the wrong address!!!!! They would cancel JBDR and would be in touch.

We were astounded today when a letter arrived for our son from RLP demanding £413. We called them straight away and the boy on the end of the phone said that JBDR must have made a mistake and he didn't know where they had got a final settlement figure of £150 from. We offered to pay the £150 that they were supposedly willing to settle on but were told that it was £413.

I have and email from JBDR stating that their client 'Retail Loss Prevention' - After serious consideration, our client will accept £150 in full and final settlement of the outstanding balance.

Our son has now got himself an appreticeship and is earning less than the minimum wage so literally has no spare money to pay this back.

Please anyone help us out with any advice. This is causing the family a huge amount of stress as we have never had to deal with anything like this before

I read on another thread that you one of you guys can check out the letter from RLP if it can be scanned. Well I would really apprecitate if someone would do this. Spoke to CAB yesterday and they were useless. Said that he had to pay. Then phoned a solicitor and they want to charge me £50 +VAT for half an hour.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[Gorang]

Re: RLP advice

I have had and am having dealings with JBDR myself

They love to try and put scare tatics in letters and by the looks of things this is exactly what they are doing here

Has any of them gave you a breakdown of what is owed with a full explaination of WHY it is owed

ie son sold jumper at £10 but jumper retailed at £20 so he owes us £10


I wouldn't worry about JBDR at the mo as they are just full of empty threats

[stressed]

Re: RLP advice

Not worried about JBDR at the mo - unless RLP get back in touch with them!

Yes they have broken the costs down to cover -

• Value of un-recovered goods. The goods were returned to them!
• Staff/Management time
• Admin
• Security/surveillance costs

[CleverClogs]

Re: RLP advice

Anyway cutting a long story short he was obviously sacked and given a formal warning from the police. We thought this matter was over until last Saturday (10th Sept) when he had a call from JBDR a debt collecting agency from Glasgow demanding £250 or if he paid by Tuesday 13th Sept their clients RLP would accept £150. ( this demand was in relation to the incident in February) They were very aggresive and even threatened to send someone to our home to seize goods to the value of.

That's illegal for a start.

Any doorstep numpty they might send - and they'd be daft if they did - would have no lawful power to seize any goods whatever. Nor would the berk have any right to enter your house or to loiter outside after you had bade him to depart and slither back under the stone whence he had emerged.

We explained that we had nothing in writing and knew nothing of this demand. JBDR emailed the demand to us so that we had something.

I expect they took care not to repeat the threat of seizing goods.

We were astounded today when a letter arrived for our son from RLP demanding £413. We called them straight away and the boy on the end of the phone said that JBDR must have made a mistake and he didn't know where they had got a final settlement figure of £150 from. We offered to pay the £150 that they were supposedly willing to settle on but were told that it was £413.

Oh, good; their arrogant greed has caused them to demand even more.

Do not pay them anything, for nothing is actually owed.

I have and email from JBDR stating that their client Retail Loss Prevention' - After serious consideration, our client will accept £150 in full and final settlement of the outstanding balance.

Do not pay that; do not even pay them 15p.

I read on another thread that you one of you guys can check out the letter from RLP if it can be scanned. Well I would really apprecitate if someone would do this.

I doubt if there's any need, for their flim-flam has not much changed over the years.

Spoke to CAB yesterday and they were useless. Said that he had to pay.

That really should be reported (link) as it is exactly the opposite of the national policy of the CAB - link and their report, Uncivil Recovery - PDF link.

[CleverClogs]

Re: RLP advice

Not worried about JBDR at the mo - unless RLP get back in touch with them!

Which they will, when it becomes evident to the RLP shonks that you're not going to pay.

JBDR are, however, all mouth and shiny polyester track suit bottoms, with no power other than fear to force anyone to pay.

Yes they have broken the costs down to cover -

• Value of un-recovered goods. The goods were returned to them!
• Staff/Management time
• Admin
• Security/surveillance costs

You have already stated that the goods were returned, so those alleged damages would not appear to be applicable.

The costs of the staff time, management time and of security or surveillance would all have been exactly the same if your son had not done what he did, so none of those can truly be said to be a direct (or even indirect) result of your son's antics.

The only cost that can be directly ascribed to this case would be the administrative charge imposed by RLP, and even that was the result of the store trying to claim for losses it had not actually sustained; had they chosen not to involve RLP, the "admin" charge would not have been incurred.

Therefore, neither you nor your son actually owes anything.