Compounded debt (from thin air) in 6 yrs: Sixt> eCollect AG > Themys & Dyke GbR

[themyshater]

Hi

Here for any legal action against Sixt/ eCollect/ Themys - please contact me

I received notice from Sixt to pay a processing fee for a traffic violation I allegedly received whilst using their car in Italy in 2020. After I enquired, Sixt said the processing fee was charged because they had to send my information to the Italian Authorities. I asked for evidence of the violation that they surely received, and they would not send it. So I refused to pay the processing fee. It didn't make sense for me to pay for a service I did not request and have no evidence of receiving.

Fast forward - it's been 3ish years of receiving threatening emails from eCollect, and now Themys. It's a joke. The fine has ballooned to €600ish. Finding/reading this today has been great in confirming my suspicions that it's a scam and that I'd be further charged if I did pay.

Also, I was living in Italy when this happened. Same address for 2 years. Never received the traffic violation mentioned here from the Italian Authorities.

[SixtSwindle]

Hi all,

I had the same experience: summer 2018, Sixt office -- Fiumicino Italy, eCollect sending recurrent messages since Jan 2023. I called them (mid 2023) and they apparently had my real address, phone and email. I asked them to share details and records of my traffic fine, they told me to send them an email with the request -- however, no reply for the last 9 months.
I haven't arrived to the third level of this game yet - but now I know that I should expect Themys soon

After reading this thread, my theory is that somebody might have hacked the Sixt system or there was some sort of a data leakage. Then perhaps someone really managed to sell this debt to eCollect or whatever got eCollect in the game (or they are really the scammers here). What do you guys think?

Anyway, like ThemyShater said, I'm also in for any legal action against Sixt or eCollect (probably I'll soon have some experience with Themys too)

[Louise128]

I also am being hassled since February by ecollect

i found this template on ECC website


Hi

i I looked up on ECC site and the give a template to send to the debt collectors.

<name>

<address>

<postcode and place>

<place, date>

Reference: <reference on letter of company – file number>

Subject: unjustified debt collection letter

Dear Sir, Madam,

On <date>, I received a debt collection letter from <name debt collection agency> which indicates that <name dating website> is entitled to a payment amounting to € <enter the amount>from me. You aim to collect this amount representing <name dating website>. This <letter/email> serves to state my objection to this debt collection letter.

A valid contract cannot be concluded without agreement. Are you aware that misleading and aggressive commercial practices are banned under the Unfair Commercial Practices Act? The unsolicited conversion of a trial subscription into a subscription that comes with a payment obligation is considered an unfair commercial practice and is prohibited within the European Union.

In addition, this purchase contract is invalid, because <select one of the options below and use it to finish this sentence>:

• <name trader> has not fully informed me of the terms and conditions relating to this subscription.
• <name trader> has entered me into a second subscription to another dating website unsolicitedly and without my consent.
• I have cancelled the subscription on time.

Burden of proof regarding the conclusion of a purchase contract

If you are of the opinion that this concerns a valid contract between me and <name dating website>, it is up to <name dating website> to prove how this agreement was concluded. If this is not possible, I ask you to declare this collection void and to send me a written confirmation of doing so within the period of 14 days after the date of this <letter/email>. I assume that you will suspend any further collection measures until this issue is cleared up.

Further steps

If I do not receive a response from you within the above period of 14 days, I will submit a complaint to the European Consumer Centre. I will also forward the complaint to the Supervisory Body, <the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) - or name the relevant consumer protection authority in your country>.

I await your response.

Yours faithfully,

<Your name and signature>

Attachment(s)

• Optional: proof of payment
• Optional: copy of purchase contract
• Optional: copy of terms and conditions
• Optional: copy of previous correspondence

Send this letter or email putting in your own detsils

and as for their so called solicitors apparently they have the same number as the Ecollect and not registered. That’s what I’ve read here snyway

[Strachan]

I have the same issue. Much ;ater after the rental and in Italy. I think it's a hack and I am ignoring all emails. I have had one and a reminder so far.

[SixtScam]

Hi All,
Sharing my story :
Rented a car from Sixt Faro Airport Aug 2023 for a couple of days, dropping the car off with no incidents and after the car was inspected there was no damage reported and all was well. Fast forward to November 2023 , 4 months later and my wife’s credit had a charge on it for EUR 682.00 from Sixt , which we assumed was fraudulent due to the time that had elapsed since the rental took place. We received no communication from Sixt prior that this happened, they just charged the card (mental note: always cancel card after car rental) . We proceeded with a charge back and started to receive emails from Sixt claiming that a misfuelling had occurred during our rental and that we were liable for damage costs. I am 100% certain that a misfuelling did not occur, and after 4 months was unable to locate the gas station receipt when we filled the car up. After ongoing emails since October 2023, we are now receiving debt collection correspondence from T&D for double the amount. I have questioned the documentation sent by Sixt and provided evidence from my side that the misfuelling did not occur. Still ongoing now, I have never acknowledged the debt and maintain that its fraud. I have replied to T&D requesting car utility logs, maintenance performed , fully itemised invoiced from repair garage used, since November 2023 and as yet nothing has materialised. I have also emailed the gas station requesting a receipt from that time, but no luck so far.

[PallasAthena]

This thread has been running for nearly 2 years and over 15 people have posted similar stories to yours. You will see that not one of them has reported that Sixt/T&D/ eCollect/ Themys have actually started any legal action in court. You might therefore conclude that ignoring them is unlikely to have any legal consequences for you and that continuing to ask them for evidence when they have been ignoring you for over a year is a waste of your time and effort.

[Cocotingo]

I also am being hassled since February by ecollect

i found this template on ECC website


Hi

i I looked up on ECC site and the give a template to send to the debt collectors.

<name>

<address>

<postcode and place>

<place, date>

Reference: <reference on letter of company – file number>

Subject: unjustified debt collection letter

Dear Sir, Madam,

On <date>, I received a debt collection letter from <name debt collection agency> which indicates that <name dating website> is entitled to a payment amounting to € <enter the amount>from me. You aim to collect this amount representing <name dating website>. This <letter/email> serves to state my objection to this debt collection letter.

A valid contract cannot be concluded without agreement. Are you aware that misleading and aggressive commercial practices are banned under the Unfair Commercial Practices Act? The unsolicited conversion of a trial subscription into a subscription that comes with a payment obligation is considered an unfair commercial practice and is prohibited within the European Union.

In addition, this purchase contract is invalid, because <select one of the options below and use it to finish this sentence>:

• <name trader> has not fully informed me of the terms and conditions relating to this subscription.
• <name trader> has entered me into a second subscription to another dating website unsolicitedly and without my consent.
• I have cancelled the subscription on time.

Burden of proof regarding the conclusion of a purchase contract

If you are of the opinion that this concerns a valid contract between me and <name dating website>, it is up to <name dating website> to prove how this agreement was concluded. If this is not possible, I ask you to declare this collection void and to send me a written confirmation of doing so within the period of 14 days after the date of this <letter/email>. I assume that you will suspend any further collection measures until this issue is cleared up.

Further steps

If I do not receive a response from you within the above period of 14 days, I will submit a complaint to the European Consumer Centre. I will also forward the complaint to the Supervisory Body, <the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) - or name the relevant consumer protection authority in your country>.

I await your response.

Yours faithfully,

<Your name and signature>

Attachment(s)

• Optional: proof of payment
• Optional: copy of purchase contract
• Optional: copy of terms and conditions
• Optional: copy of previous correspondence

Send this letter or email putting in your own detsils

and as for their so called solicitors apparently they have the same number as the Ecollect and not registered. That’s what I’ve read here snyway

Louise, I am curious to see if you have update on the issue you had with the above.
i have a similar issue with eCOLLECT AG for a fictitious fee of 12.93 EURO from BUDGET rental car in Zurich. BUDGET never sent me an invoice for that amount and more than a year after I rented a car, BUDGET sent me to collection out of thin air

[Cocotingo]

I have a similar situation but not with Sixth but with BUDGET AVIS GROUP in Zurich, CH. can anyone help me with this, please?

At the end of 2023 I rented a car from BUDGET at the Zurich airport Switzerland. During this rental period I received 2 traffic violations. My fault, I am fully responsible for them. As consequence, after receiving and paying the violations at home in the US, I received the 2 administrative fees, one for each violation, from BUDGET, for the amount of 50CHF each (100CHF total.) I was aware of those fees and I paid them right away. That was January 2024. I thought that that was the end of it. I have never received anything else from BUDGET AVIS GROUP.

Now, one year later, I received a letter from eCOLLECT AG, a collection agency based in Germany, with a claim from the BUDGET AVIS GROUP of 12.93 EURO, which together with the collection agency fees goes up to 114 EURO.

I have called BUDGET customer service and they were very dismissive. I was able to convince them to open a case and find out for what the 12.93 EURO are. I checked on the BUDGET website for the invoices under my rental agreement and there are only 2 PAID invoices for 50CHF each (admin fees for the violations). I emailed back and forward with all the documents and receipts that I have proving that I have paid everything. BUDGET customer service only said that: “As you can see on the invoices: NO REMITTANCE REQUIRED. THE AMOUNT DUE WAS PROCESSED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD ACCOUNT. This is all the information we have on the subject.”

After that, they stopped answering my emails for clarification as to why they sent me to collection if there are no unpaid invoices.

I sent an email with all the documents to eCollect ag explaining that I have paid everything I owed, and BUDGET said that there are no unpaid invoices. No one answered yet, but today I received a second claim from eCOLLECT asking to pay or legal action will be taken. The claim has been now increased to 135 EURO. They sent me the second claim two weeks after the first one and I am thinking that they will keep sending new claims with increased amounts until I pay.

BUDGET doesn’t want to be accountable and the collection agency I don’t think will stop sending me claims until it is paid or BUDGET tells the to stop.

I owe nothing to anybody. Why should I pay for a fictitious fees which has never been billed to me? BUDGET NEVER SENT ME AN INVOICE NOR A REQUEST OF PAYMENT for that amount. I only received two invoices for 50 CHF EACH which I have paid.

Suing BUDGET from the US seems to be a very costly way to solve the issue. I want to pay it just to have a peace of mind. This is driving me crazy. I feel I am being unjustly punished for something I wasn’t aware I owed (since I have never received an invoice for that amount).

anyone in a similar situation? any German lawyer? What would you do?

[PallasAthena]

Cocotingo ignore them. Read the many posts on here, their talk of legal action is just empty threats. No-one has ever reported legal action being taken by them. I can't imagine any German debt collector starting an action against you in the USA for Euro 12.93 (+costs), it's simply not a credible threat.

In the highly unlikely event they did start an actual court claim you will need to find a USA site to advise you. We are a UK forum advising on mainly UK law and are not in a position to advise on either US or German or Swiss law.

[stu995]

*Here for any class action that might happen*

We hired a car from Sixt at Faro airport in October 2024. At the desk they automatically added extra insurances which we didn't realise. Straight away we said we didn't want/need them and assistant said they would be refunded. For the week we had the car the payment wasn't pending so I couldn't see that they hadn't refunded it while we were still in Portugal. Returned to the UK at which point payment showed up (it was almost as if they didn't process payment straight away so we wouldn't notice!).
After various back and forths with Sixt with us disputing the extra charges, they presented us with paperwork that apparently we had signed. This consisted of a contract we'd never seen with my husbands electronic signature, that he'd had to provide on their ipad, automatically filled into boxes. It also included a made-up email for him as it was booked through my email. He was the main driver.

Eventually put it into the hands of our credit card company who found in our favour and returned the payment for the extra insurance to us. Because of this I'm assuming the balance of evidence showed that it was Sixt in the wrong? We were only disputing the extra for the insurances and willingly paid the part that included extras for a second driver, toll machine and tolls as we had agreed to these. After it was settled with the credit card company I still received emails and my husband letters from Sixt saying we owed the full amount (including the part we had already paid).
Fast forward and we have now had collection letters and emails from Ecollect.online and now emails to my email address (I was emailing Sixt to dispute charges) from T&D legal company.

As no-one yet seems to have been taken to court by T&D(german office) I'm assuming I can safely ignore the emails? I think we have legal cover with our house insurance so wondering whether to get in touch with them. Any advice or if anyone has had different outcomes would love to hear.

[PallasAthena]

This thread has been running for several years and at least 15 posters have been advised to ignore all letters/emails from eCollect and Themys & Dyke. No-one has ever come back to say that any further action has been taken against them or report any court cases. You might reasonably conclude that ignoring them is unlikely to have any legal consequences for you.

In your position I would ignore everything from eCollect and T&D. The only things you should not ignore are a formal "Pre Action Protocol Letter of Claim" issued under UK rules of civil procedure [aka a 'PAPLOC'] or any document from a court. No-one on this thread has ever reported receiving either of those.