Threatened with court after I gave bad trustpilot review

[Guest]

To keep it simple as possible. My son won a CCJ against an employer that did not pay his wages. The debtor did not pay up. We engaged a dept collection agency because of their good trustpilot reviews. My son paid them £1500 to begin process. 2 years later they still have not recovered my sons £10,000 and don’t seem to be doing much. The debtor lives in plain sight and is forming new companies. I gave a 1* review of them on trustpilot and they quickly emailed my son saying they will start proceedings against me if the review is not taken down immediately. They say my son signed a non disclosure agreement which includes giving internet ratings. I took the review down for thinking time. I have not signed this agreement but can I review if Im not the customer? Can I be prosecuted for writing a factual review about events? Comments please.

[Amethyst]

Factual is absolutely fine, it's best to keep emotion out of it. Have you a copy of the agreement your son signed with this company?

If you had a CCJ against them then why did you go to a debt collection company rather than go through high court enforcement or any other enforcement methods?

[Fetteler]

We took advice when he did not pay up. Seems it was not good advice. Will try to get agreement form from my son.

[ploddertom]

Let us see what the Judgment says - redact all personal info.

[«THÖMÅS®©™»]

I am sorry, but I am going to state this as I believe it to be correct...

I am sure that Article 12 of the Human Rights Act 1998 applies which allows for free speech and opinion LINK

Please do correct me if I am wrong here.

Similarly, Article 13 of the Human Rights Act 1998 LINK

I would like to point out that while I am pointing it out, it is not legal advice, but could this be a valid defence against a malicious claim from this company?

[charitynjw]

ss 2,3 & poss 4

[«THÖMÅS®©™»]

As I understand it...

Defamation is when somebody says something that is knowingly false.

For example, if I said that somebody committed armed robbery when they robbed Santander on "High Street" in London with a gun in his hand when he did not.

On the flip side, if I said that Rolf Harris has a conviction for abusing minors. which is also not defamation, because that is fact.

Stating an opinion is surely not defamation, is it? Saying that "the weather is very chilly, we might get snow" is an opinion. Saying Uncle Buck is a "scam company" is also an opinion and should be covered under article 12 of the Human Rights Act 1998?

Trying to make it as clear as possible.

I welcome corrections...

[charitynjw]

See above

[«THÖMÅS®©™»]

Sorry, I dont follow...

If you mean the one about two societies, I can prove what I am saying, I have it all on paper. So it is not defamation.

[Fetteler]

I think it may be a much different argument due to the 'non disclosure agreement' they say my son signed (still waiting for him to dig it out). Anyway I did not sign this agreement and I think its unreasonable that he should not talk to his father about the progress or lack thereof.
My son is worried for my safety now as this debt collection agency is run by, dare I say, thugs.

Here is the email they sent my son after I did the review. note - I did not leave a review on 'bark'. I dont even know what is is. I did it on trustpilot. Note 2, I did not hide behind an anonymous post. I used my full Google profile. (unlike the people giving 5* reviews)

************************************************** ********
Further to your Father leaving a 1* review on the review site ‘Bark’ we thank you for the same.

My 2 pet hates are, 1. people who hide behind keyboards and 2. paedophile’s for me both of them go hand in hand, the reason for that when they commit the act behind their keyboards they never think of the consequence to their own actions and once they do get caught they never take into consideration the consequence to themselves and the people around them and then when they do get caught they look to blame everybody else.

We will not accept this for many reasons not least due to the below GDPR regulation, this is clear on our terms and conditions.

XXXX LTD will not discuss any part of your agreement with any third party and therefore this contract is bound as a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA). Both parties agree that no part of this contract is to be discussed with any other party. No part of this contract is to be discussed within the public domain which includes online forums, within social media and online review sites without the express permission of XXX LTD under The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

You may want to take into consideration that the last person being a Debtor based in TOWN who took exception to us recovering monies from decided to also hide behind a keyboard and write things without looking at the consequences, the consequences being that we proceeded with our Lawyers YYYY Co London who proceeded with an injunction in the High Court within two workings days, to first of all remove the review and secondly as our non disclosure agreement had been breached costs were awarded to XXXX ltd of £8000.00 for the companies troubles.

You are not authorised to write any review whether that is 1 * review or a 5* review, if the review is not taken down in its entirety by 15:00 today being 29th March 2019, we will instruct our lawyers to immediately apply to the High Court in London for an immediate injunction against yourself SON and Your Father, a screenshot of the review has been taken in the eventuality it needs to be passed to our lawyers,.

Now I appreciate when the review was left without authorisation that you have not as yet had the anticipated result and clearly did not think of the consequences to your actions today but there will as stated be huge consequences for you.

I get the review was maybe left out of frustration and , but ask yourself this question because personally I am struggling to find the answer to this question, ''given the significant amount of work XXXX ltd have carried out well over the last few months, which included surveillance work, Debt Collection Work, service of papers why on earth would XXXX lts not want to get it paid, and if the debtor had not been made bankrupt rendering us unable to legally recover the money would we not have done so? Maybe your unaware? Either way it needs removing in the time frame and we will have a conversation about it on Moinday.

[charitynjw]

.....if the review is not taken down in its entirety by 15:00 today being 29th March 2019.......

Either they will or they won't!
If I were a betting type of person, I'd bet on the latter.

Have you checked whether the stated lawyers are kosher?

[Fetteler]

I just checked. They are another debt collection company in London. The Home page of their website usefully informs us that London is the capital of the United Kingdom.
http://stenfield.co.uk/locations-ser...lection-london

[Amethyst]

What was your review ?

Have you checked if the debtor has actually actually been made bankrupt ?

https://www.insolvencydirect.bis.gov.uk/eiir/


https://m.thegazette.co.uk/search?


or if a company check on companies house https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/


Did the company tell your son of the reasons why they were unable to collect ?

Take the review down for now - save yourself a lot of trouble - do the investigating and get all the documents / evidence together and then consider if there can be a formal complaint to any regulator etc

also check on Bark for reviews of same company - they have not been specific in their message so it may be someone else's review they are shouting at you about.
I can't see any thing on TP that sounds relevant to your case but there's only 2 1* reviews and they're both from debtors and nothing at all on bark - course I might have wrong company.


Their email to you is utterly disgusting - but context is likely important.

where did you take advice from with regards enforcing the judgment ?

[charitynjw]

I just checked. They are another debt collection company in London. The Home page of their website usefully informs us that London is the capital of the United Kingdom.
http://stenfield.co.uk/locations-ser...lection-london

A no-win-no-fee debt collector.
Doesn't sound as if they are on a retainer.
Imho, not the type of outfit which becomes embroiled in a defamation action.

[Amethyst]

Also your son has six years to enforce so if they aren't bankrupt he could look at proper enforcenent action.