Advice please regarding Asset Collections

[lindamc68]

Hi

I have a debt which was purchased by Asset Collections and they sent me an email regarding the outstanding debt, I replied to them asking for confirmation of the debt amount and who they had purchased the debt from.
When they replied with this information the email was also sent to another 22 email addresses which were both staff and other clients of theirs.

I have received emails from some of the other email addresses regarding this mistake, I contacted them regarding this and they have acknowledged that a mistake was made and this was being dealt with.

As an apology they have offered to deduct £125 from the balance and this is their final response as no personal details were disclosed.

Just some advice if its best to leave it there or is there something else I should be requesting them to do, I understand it was only my email address and the fact I owe money to a certain company that was disclosed.

Thanks


Linda

[MIKE770]

Re: Advice please regarding Asset Collections

Report them to ICO, they offer you money off an alledged debt (cost them nothing), do not be soft with them, go get them thru ICO etc, they have broken Regulation etc

ICO = ( Information Commission Office) they want to know these things. no such thing as a mistake the damage has been done by some idiot of the Human species, in some DCAs it is viewed as a tactic to embarrass you!

[lindamc68]

Re: Advice please regarding Asset Collections

Thank you I will look into that, they have sent me a reply saying they will hold any action for 30 days gives me time to contact the ICO.
I was embarrassed to be honest even though I know I owe the money. They have stated that they only shared my email address no personal data like its okay !

[MIKE770]

Re: Advice please regarding Asset Collections

contact ICO

care to enlighten us to the alledged debt all details without your personal information/account numbers???

[lindamc68]

Re: Advice please regarding Asset Collections

Will do I have found a letter on their website to send to them, it was a debt from over 2 years ago for a payday loan company Uncle Buck, the amount they stated owed is £493.
The email they sent to the email addresses all 20 of them stated the debt was unpaid (the company who it was sold from)and had been sold to them.

I have sent an email to Asset Collections with the letter from the ICO website I will update when I get a reply.

Thanks again

[Diana M]

Re: Advice please regarding Asset Collections

it was a debt from over 2 years ago for a payday loan company Uncle Buck, the amount they stated owed is £493

Perhaps compensation for their admitted error (breach of the DPA) should be £493 not £125

Di

[lindamc68]

Re: Advice please regarding Asset Collections

Final reply received today unfortunately no change don't think the FOS will change anything

"I duly note your concerns and have again reviewed the decision taken in our response, relating to the breach of sending you a shared email response.

We apologised for this incident in our final response letter to you on 14^th July 2016, the compensation awarded was adjusted to your account to reduce your outstanding balance from £493.88 to £368.88, had the amount been greater than the balance, this would have been credited to you directly for part or the full amount.

You note that we think this is trivial in your letter dated 19^th July 2016, this is not the case. We identified the error on Friday 8^th July 2016, an individual email was sent to you on 9th July 2016 advising we were investigating the matter. Following our investigation we sent you our final response on 14^th July 2016 which advised that we would be managing the individual through our HR procedures and of the adjustment we have made to your account of £125.00 by way of an apology.

Following this incident, you were not caused any individual financial loss. The guidance states that “distress alone will not usually be sufficient to entitle an individual to compensation”

We do recognise that this caused you upset which is why we have made an adjustment of £125.00 to your account. I can confirm that there is a financial impact on applying this credit to your account for Asset Collections and Investigations Limited.

We have previously provided you with the details for referring your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman including their guide document. If you require to refer to this information, it can be found on our website.

Please note this is a response to your email following our final response letter dated 14^th July 2016."

[charitynjw]

Re: Advice please regarding Asset Collections

https://inforrm.wordpress.com/2015/0...lorna-skinner/

Case Law: Vidal-Hall v Google, Distress damages can be awarded under s 13 DPA without pecuniary loss (and misuse of private information is a tort) –


Google had appealed to the Supreme Court, but apparently it has been withdrawn earlier this month, so this decision stands.
If that is the case, distress alone is ok, & Asset are wrong.