Letter from Capquest/alleged debt from Shop Direct.

[Jd79]

Hi all, Glad I found this site as it has put my mind to rest. On 30 November I had a letter from Capquest stating that they had bought a debt from Shop Direct Financial Services in the sum of £434.00. To say I was gobsmacked is an understatement as 1. I had never heard of either company and 2. I don't do debt.I did a bit of research and found out who these people are and fortunately discovered your goodselves in the process.Having done a bit of reading on the LB site I decided to fire off a "prove it" letter to CQ on 9 December - too quick possibly? I did this to try and establish what this is all about as I genuinely do not have a clue. Having looked up Shop Direct I see they are a group of four and the only name that I recocognised was Littlewoods. I have searched what brain I have left and there is a slim possibilty that I purchased some cheapo cutlery (abt 20 to 30£) from Littlewoods around 5 or 6 years ago on the the internet. I would have paid by cc and definitely not thro' a catalogue. I have never, until the appearance of the CQ letter, had ANYONE telling me that I have an outstanding debt. I have had a follow up letter dated 14 December from HL Legal threatening court action and increasing the total to £514. CQ responded with a letter dated 16 December stating 1. They have enclosed a notice of assignment - no they did not enclose that notice and 2. They have requested a copy of the agreement and statement of account from the originator which they will forward to me and 3. They have stated that I should request the fair processing notice from the originator?Well, that is where I am up to folks, for something that I know nothing about. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[Curlyben]

Re: Letter from Capquest/alleged debt from Shop Direct.

So far sounds all par for the course I'm afraid.
CQ "buy up" quite a bit of Shop Direct debts, but mostly return them after they have been challenged as they do not have the required back up paperwork.
Ignore HL legals "threats" as they are merely solictors-for-hire that sell threat-O-grams to the DCA industry,
All told you have noting further to say to CQ untill they comply with your request.

[labman]

Re: Letter from Capquest/alleged debt from Shop Direct.

It is clear they have got the wrong person. You did exactly the right thing sending the Prove It letter and it is now for them to prove you do owe the debt. To be honest, until they do that you have absolutely nothing to say to them.

Do not speak to them on the phone, keep everything in writing 'for the avoidance of doubt.' If you are sure this is not your debt, I wouldn't worry about the Notice of Assignment (NOA) for the moment, as they're not going to find a copy of an agreement that never existed, and without this they will find it virtually impossible to take you to court.

I wouldn't worry about it, and let them waste their time searching for a non-existant document.

If things begin to look any more serious, post back up; similarly if they do come up with proof of something you've genuinely forgotten about. Until then, ignore!

[Jd79]

Re: Letter from Capquest/alleged debt from Shop Direct.

My thanks to Curlyben and Labman for their very helpful replies. Just by way of an update I have now received an NOA which gives the appearance of being a "mock up" and is dated 28 October from Shop Direct. The interesting thing about it is that it shows my name and a totally different address in a town the I have absolutely no connection with. Suffice to say that I have currently not responded. That's it for the moment and Merry Christmas one and all.

[labman]

Re: Letter from Capquest/alleged debt from Shop Direct.

One could reasonably assume from that there is someone of the same name living in that different town and perhaps they've got the wrong person.

In any case, that is not adequate proof in the form you've said, so continue to ignore.

Happy Christmas to you too. :beagle:

[ODC]

Re: Letter from Capquest/alleged debt from Shop Direct.

The so called notice of assignment will certainly have been printed on the Crapquest Threatomatic. It is a **** poor cut and paste job. Closer examination will reveal plenty of clues. There will be reference number in minute print near the bottom and if there are any barcodes or matrixes they will be similar.

As for HL Legal as CB says these are just empty threats using the name of a faux solicitor and these too are printed off using the same threatomatic

[Cally]

Re: Letter from Capquest/alleged debt from Shop Direct.

I have had exactly the same from Capquest and H.L Legal, I am also getting 3-5 calls on my mobile everyday from H.L Legal - I would love to know how they got my number. I'm just ignoring them, they'll get bored eventually and try to trick someone else out of money they don't owe.

[Jd79]

Re: Letter from Capquest/alleged debt from Shop Direct.

Hi All,

I have today received something called a "Reconstituted Copy of Credit Agreement". This purports to show details of an account held by me with Index Extra. This may be my account (contains my dob). It shows the account being opened on 090906 and summary of transactions over the last six years. The goods purchased amount to £62 20 and a payment being made on 190906 (ten days after opening) for £48.99. As I said earlier I pay my debts straight off.

A further purchase is allegedly made on this account on 170609 in the sum of £13.21 bringing the total to the £62.20 mentioned above. I have no knowledge of this purchase.

If there is an outstanding debt it can only be for £13.21 and no one has ever approached me in relation to this matter prior to Capquest coming on my horizon. I suppose it is possible that this was from the address in Luton that I alluded to my earlier post.

They have also managed to insert a letter for some other poor beggar in with mine. They are chasing him for nearly £1200 - hope the don't think I will volunteer to pay that one also.

Any thoughts on the next move would be much appreciated. Thank you in anticipation.

JD

[ODC]

Re: Letter from Capquest/alleged debt from Shop Direct.

They have made a serious breach of Data protection by including another persons details in your letter. You may like to contact this other person and advise them of this and suggest they may like to take legal action against these cowboys. They would get plenty of help on here

[labman]

Re: Letter from Capquest/alleged debt from Shop Direct.

I'd send them this.

Dear Sir/Madam,

Your Ref: xxxxxxx

This is a formal request under the Consumer Protection From Unfair Trading Regulations (CPUTR) 2008.

I require your organisation to provide written confirmation that states clearly whether you currently hold an original signed Consumer Credit Agreement, or whether you do not hold an original signed Consumer Credit Agreement pertaining to myself.

For the avoidance of doubt, an original signed Consumer Credit Agreement is just that; not an application for credit and not a reconstructed or microfiched document from other sources.

Please note that until such times as a legally enforceable, original Consumer Credit Agreement can be produced and a copy sent to me by return, then this letter is not an acknowledgement of debt.

Please also note that failure to provide a direct answer to this request will be brought before the court, should you decide to defy the content of this letter and instruct solicitors to pursue enforcement action regardless.

Yours faithfully,

[Jd79]

Re: Letter from Capquest/alleged debt from Shop Direct.

My thanks to ODC and Labman for their informative replies which I will be taking up. My query before moving on to the next step would be - is it standard procedure for these people to add on hundreds of pounds of interest/charges to a £13.21 debt (which I do not believe to be mine). My belief is that this a a huge mistake by Shop Direct that should be put right.

[bluebottle]

Re: Letter from Capquest/alleged debt from Shop Direct.

As I have put on posts in other threads, as of 6 April 2010, the Information Commissioner has the power to fine data controllers/users who breach the Data Protection Act 1998 up to £500k. Contact the person whose letter ended up in the same envelope as yours and both of you complain to the Information Commissioners Office. The ICO has already fined two companies a total of £100k (£40k and £60k, respectively) for transgressions.

[Jd79]

Re: Letter from Capquest/alleged debt from Shop Direct.

Following on from my previous messages, and having taken labman's good advice by sending the suggested letter, I have now received the following reply from CapQuest:

"Further to recent contact with our office and your request for further information in relation to the above account, we would confirm that your account is now on hold for 28 days whilst we obtain the information required.

If you have any proof of payments or correspondence that would assist with your query, please forward these documents, with a brief covering letter, to our Collections Administration department, so that we can resolve this matter as soon as possible."

Would you suggest that I contact Shop Direct Finance Company Ltd at this stage?

I have not contacted the Information Commissioner at this stage, but I am bearing it in mind.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

[ODC]

Re: Letter from Capquest/alleged debt from Shop Direct.

Crapquest are under a misapprehension here. Its up to them to prove you owe the debt not for you to help them in their Crap Quest

[Jd79]

Re: Letter from Capquest/alleged debt from Shop Direct.

Hi folks here I am back again. This matter has not totally gone away, however it has slowed up somewhat since I reported CQ to ICO. I recently did a a credit check and found that Shop Direct had linked my name and address to the Luton one which i have no connection with. This is the first time I have ever done such a check, perhaps I should have done this in the beginning. I have now written to Shop Direct informing them of their mistake and they have asked me to prove where I was living in 2008/9. I have reluctantly assisted them by providing these details. I say reluctantly, because I do not see why I have to prove my innocence, which is out there for any competent outfit to establish, had they looked. I am currently awaiting a reply from SD. Any other steps I could take? At the end of the day I think I will report the matter to the Financial Ombudsman,given the fact that I have had nine months of hassle, because of the incompetence of others. Any thoughts will be very welcome.
JD