Lowell and 3 mobile

[Southerner]

Re: Lowell and 3 mobile

Thanks rainydb, I'll see what they come back with this time and let you know.

Is there any advise from anyone else on what I should do ?

[labman]

Re: Lowell and 3 mobile

Mobile s are not covered by the CCA so how can they send you your credit agreement?

You need to ask for a copy of your contract, as they won't have a credit agreement.

Also, the fair processing notice would have formed part of the contract you signed. That would have stated how your data would be processed. It should therefore come with any copy of the contract you request.

This will need to be done as a Subject Access Request enclosing the statutory £10 fee.

[rainydb]

Re: Lowell and 3 mobile

If they are not enforcable as no cca, what can they do if I just ignore them? Can they still issue a default notice?

Sorry to sound a bit daft but it all confuses me a bit. I am awaiting the 'not enforcable under the cca' response from them.

[teaboy2]

Re: Lowell and 3 mobile

Yes they can, and they can enforce in court though they never do as the phone contract would not stand as fair when scrutinised by a judge.

Please do not confuse a phone debt with that of a regulated debt under a CCA as they are 2 completely seperate things.

[rainydb]

Re: Lowell and 3 mobile

Thank you. So am I best off completely ignoring them then as they wont take it to court anyway? I have to add that I am not trying to get out of a debt, it looks like I possibly do owe them one months worth which is £25.50. They are trying to claima lot more than that as I ended my contract early, which I didn't. It was for a dongle on a one month notice contract and I assume it is the one month I owe.

[rainydb]

Re: Lowell and 3 mobile

This morning I have a letter from Red Debt Collection Services. A tad confusing as they claim that Lowell Portfolio 1 Ltd have asked them to collect on their behalf. Why would they do this when they only ever sent me two letters themselves?

Conveniently they offer to 'help' me and I can set up a direct debit throught the Lowell 1 website. (surely then Lowell are collecting the debt?)

Nice little advert for Credit Expert on the bottom left of the letter. Shocking if it is an official advert for them to be advcertising on such scumbags letters. Shows CE cannot be impartial then!

Red Debt Collection Services are a trading style of Lowell Financial Ltd according to the footer. What is a 'trading style'? Surely they are either Lowell or they aren't? I'm lost.

If I have this right then Lowell write to me pretending to be 3 telling me they are being assigned, Lowell send me a statement, not the original and from themselves, Red write to me telling me they are collecting for Lowell but are Lowell. Are they breaking any code of conduct? They are misleading me into thinking they are different to Lowell but they aren't.

Anyway, letter only offers ways of paying and a nice polite reminder about my credit file being affected if I do not pay them.

So do I ignore this one too? Thank you for helping yet again I am assuming they are desperate now as they did nothing really to contact me before passing it to the Red department. Red seem nicer than Lowell, Red offer to help me bring my account up to date and offer me a repayment that suits my current budget.

I wont be paying their fictional bill. Just need to know what best to do.

[angel.islington]

Re: Lowell and 3 mobile

It's designed to make you think that your 'account' is being 'escalated' when in reality it's just the same person from the same desk sending a different template letter. You will likely also get some from Hamptons Legal, who are also one and the same. They are about as legal as my behind.

One thing that Lowell are is persistent. They have been sending me letters for TWO YEARS now, it goes around and around, Lowell/Red/Hamptons/Lowell/Red/Lowell/Red/Hamptons etc etc, which kind of defeats the impression of it being escalated. I've been successfully ignoring them but am now getting annoyed so am dealing with it. They also put a default on my credit file which I found in my investigations, so am working on getting that removed.

Personally, ignoring them risks them defaulting you. They will not think twice about this. I would get this dealt with now. I would find out what information they actually hold on you, not what they would like you to believe they have. Send a Subject Access Request (SAR). There is a fee of £10 for this.

Once you have this information, you can decide on what to do next.

[rainydb]

Re: Lowell and 3 mobile

SAR sent to Three. Thank you.

[Southerner]

Re: Lowell and 3 mobile

Hi,

After receiving a couple of letters from Lowells stating that my 'account' had been put on hold while they wait for copies of my statements from Three, this morning I have received a letter with Three bills attached detailing an outstanding balance in June 2009 of £54.81. Their letter states:

"After liaising with Three Mobile we can confirm that an early termination fee of £139.52 was added to the outstanding balance of £54.81, unfortunatley this does not appear on the statements enclosed.

We are now entitled to receive payment of the balance of £194.33 from you and enclose a copy of your statement as requested. Neither Three Mobile nor ourselves are aware of any reason for non-payment."

How should I respond to this letter ? I have not yet asked for a signed copy of my contract, should I follow this route ?

Many Thanks.

[Hurricane Puffrose]

Re: Lowell and 3 mobile

Hiya,

If you had served your contract and had given 30 days notice, this will be shown clearly on the notes of you 3 account. It is a legal requirement under the DPA for a clerk to make notes as to why the account has been accessed, there will also be a computer generated message showing the 30 days notice going on the account, the clerk cannot override this. its bascially an email from the mainframe to the database confirming the cancellation.

When you left if you received a sorry you are leaving or a retentions call from the company this is a clear indication the 30 days notice went on, and its worth noting that 99.9% of companies do not make a sorry your leaving call when there are termination charges on the account, they make more money that way.

IF they come back with proof of debt, hit 3 with a SAR which will prove the payments (automatic message sent to computer) your disconnection letter/call and any term fees added.

Also, ask your bank for proof of payments to 3, just in case. If the notice was clearly given on the account and no disconnection went through, that is not your fault and is for 3 to sort out.

[teaboy2]

Re: Lowell and 3 mobile

We are now entitled to receive payment of the balance of £194.33 from you and enclose a copy of your statement as requested. Neither Three Mobile nor ourselves are aware of any reason for non-payment."

OFT V ashbourne mangement services limited - Thats your reason.

Also as puffrose said a Subject access request to three will prove if there is any debt or not and if it is early termination charges you have the above case law to rely on, which makes early termination fees on contracts longer than 12 months with no right to cancel beyong the intial cancellation period, unlawful.

[Hurricane Puffrose]

Re: Lowell and 3 mobile

if you do ask for a SAR form you, and you see Updated FDT, there is your proof.

An FDT is a future dated transaction, its how you change your tarrif, add 30 days notice etc.

You are looking for the phrase, added 30 days notice, updated FDT.
or Added term date, updated FDT.

if it says anywhere term charges applied, you need to contact 3 directly as they have made a massive mess up. you unfortunatly cannot request the tape of the call longer than 6 months after the call being made, most companies destroy the recordings after this time.

[Southerner]

Re: Lowell and 3 mobile

Thanks.

I've just noticed that the address on the bill dated Sept 2009 is for an address that I have never lived at, therefore I would never have received this bill anyway.

Should I request an SAR now ? And if so, who/how do I pay the £10 to ?

Thanks Again.

[bluebottle]

Re: Lowell and 3 mobile

It's known in the trade as a DDB (Definitely Dodgy Bill). See if any other documents you have been sent have discrepancies like this or similar. If they do, Lowells and their other aliases may have to explain where they got hold of the bills from and why they have sent them to you. We could be talking Fraud under the Fraud Act 2006.

[rainydb]

Re: Lowell and 3 mobile

Just to update. I have never received a reply to my SAR (but have proof of receipt) but have stopped getting nasty little letters in the post. I'm hoping someone somewhere has sorted it and they've stopped but we'll see.