Tweet
I defaulted on a vodafone contract in October 2014, I had had the contract for many years, and always paid my bill, despite it always being 2 - 3 times the amount they quoted me in the first place. Also I had many faulty unusable handsets, and could never get a signal. Vodafone kept renewing the contract automatically (against my instructions). So they are wanting to charge me £150 for service I never had. This has now grown to £276 with court fees and Lowells fees. Lowells have rang me a few times over the last few months bullying/threatening and lying to me about this poxy vodafone account (in one phone call the Lowell lady said that being in a mobile phone contract is a life commitment - like being in a mortgage). Obviously I do not beleive anything that Lowells say, they are all liars.
I received the court summons a few weeks ago, I responded with the above defence, Lowells then sent me an automated (systemgenerated) letter, directly following my submission of defence The letter had no reference to thedefence I had submitted, and it just carried on with the threatening,lying, misleading and bullying attitude that I have come to expect from Lowells. The debt does not exist, and I do nothave to pay it, but rather than risk an unfortunate judgement at court, Ihave just telephoned Lowells to make an offer of payment, to which this offer wasrefused.
I offered an instant "goodwillgesture" payment of £50, and £5 a month afterwards (please bear inmind I am on low benefits, unemployed and have no savings). This was refused.He said they would only accept full payment and only if I withdrew my defensefrom the court. He would not even take a payment off me of £50 toreduce the account balance, he said he would only accept full payment. ObviouslyI am not in a position to pay it in full, and the only way that I will pay anon-existent debt through bullying, will be in small amounts. I have justhowever, gone online to Lowells website and made a reluctant goodwill payment of£15 (justto prove a point that I can and will make a payment if I want, despite their bizarrerefusal!).
The previous debt collector who Vodafone appointed for this account, agreedwith me that the debt should not exist, and passed it back to Vodafone. Lowells however, are very unscrupulous andimmoral by reputation, so obviously theycondone vodafones ripping off of customers, poor service, and try to enforce vodafonesextortionate rip-off charges. I last had a (rubbish knackered second) handset off them a few years ago - they have not asked for this back, presumably because I had paid for it ten times over on the account, and because they know its worth nowt nowadays!
Another point I will make is that Lowells have almost doubled thebalance figure in the last few weeks, to make it more impossible for me to payoff in one amount (as they are trying to force me to do), so I feel much moreripped off now that the non-existent debt figure has doubled. Vodafone have hadthousands of pounds off me over many years, not content with that they wantmore, and now they keep increasing the balance amount with invisible charges.The Lowells rep on the phone today was mostinterested to know if I owned a house, presumably they would love to "feeup" an imorral poxy £150vodafone bill to the point they could repossess a house over it, this isquite worrying that debt-collectors are operating like this.
During todays phone call the Lowell representative said that I hadnever spoken to Lowells before, which is another untruth, I have spoken to them maytimes by telephone and explained the situation but they still persist inchasing the money, which clearly illustrates that they never make a log on my account of mycomments, and never log their own callsto me, when surely their client would want some kind of feedback or updates. This particular lie from Lowells would be misleading to the Court case (in their favour).Perhaps if Lowells had been giving feedback to their client, then Vodafone maynot have wanted to incur further charges (i.e. court fees) onto the accountwhen the legal costs involved will by far exceed the debt amount, when they areon dodgy ground for trying to charge me anything anyway. I get the impression Lowells are milking this for all they can. Thesefacts mean that Lowells (not vodafone and certainly not me) are liable forthe court fees, since they instigated them without good reason, and withouthaving any knowledge of the account or background of its communications withme. Lowells only submitted the court claim as thelatest in a long line of bullying tactics to get me to pay a debt that does notexist.
Lowells are trying to bully me into withdrawingmy defence and also into making full payment. I object to this attempt by Lowells to strongly redirect the court case intheir favour, particularly when the debt does not exist (and has recentlyincreased).
As it stands, Lowells will only withdraw the court proceedingsif I make full payment, and if I withdraw my defence.
My offer to Lowells (and vodafone), and this offer is underhuge protest, is £5 a month via direct debit, if they withdraw thecourt proceedings, reduce the balance to an acceptable figure. I would rathermake the payments to vodafone direct, instead of through Lowells, because of their constant misconduct inthis case I obviously mistrust them enormously.
Finally, I will also mention that the Lowells rep on the phone today was trying topass the buck, saying that I need to speak to their "legal team". Surely Lowells are one "common enemy", why by fragmentedlike this, surely this is a further example of their inefficiency and extremelypoor service to their client.
If I was vodafone and I had employed a solicitor to collect a dodgy debtand I found out they had refused an offer of payment off the balance, I would be furious.
I have been trying to post this update to my defence throughouttoday but the Moneyclaim website was down most of the time, and now it will not log in to my Court case, does this mean the case has been suspended or is it down to moneyclaim website server errors today?
There is no way I want the judgement AND to pay the debt, I told Lowells they can have one or the other, but they are adamant to proceed in giving me the judgement aswell as getting a load of money off me (and vodafone). If I do lose this case and get a judgement against me, I will make it my lifes passion to never pay another penny of this debt. If this means me moving address then so be it.
Any advise would be greatly appreciated. I have no other debts, defaults or judgements, and have no experience of dealing with the courts for anything. Has anybody won these types of cases with Lowells, Vodafone or other providers in the past?
I now have a vodafone PAYG SIM which occasionly "eats" £2 of credit for data useage (when I always have all data, 3G and notifications turned OFF) - would it help or hinder my case if I was to counter-claim for say £50 of invisible charges from a different vodafone phone? Should I get copies of all my previous bills and challenge all of them? I am reluctant to waste a whole load of time on doing this if its a lost cause.
One last question, am I write in saying that the outcome of these small claims court cases are usually dependant on the judges own mood/opinion, and not who is in the right and who is in the wrong?
I hope people from Lowells and Vodafone are reading this ;-)
I received the court summons a few weeks ago, I responded with the above defence, Lowells then sent me an automated (systemgenerated) letter, directly following my submission of defence The letter had no reference to thedefence I had submitted, and it just carried on with the threatening,lying, misleading and bullying attitude that I have come to expect from Lowells. The debt does not exist, and I do nothave to pay it, but rather than risk an unfortunate judgement at court, Ihave just telephoned Lowells to make an offer of payment, to which this offer wasrefused.
I offered an instant "goodwillgesture" payment of £50, and £5 a month afterwards (please bear inmind I am on low benefits, unemployed and have no savings). This was refused.He said they would only accept full payment and only if I withdrew my defensefrom the court. He would not even take a payment off me of £50 toreduce the account balance, he said he would only accept full payment. ObviouslyI am not in a position to pay it in full, and the only way that I will pay anon-existent debt through bullying, will be in small amounts. I have justhowever, gone online to Lowells website and made a reluctant goodwill payment of£15 (justto prove a point that I can and will make a payment if I want, despite their bizarrerefusal!).
The previous debt collector who Vodafone appointed for this account, agreedwith me that the debt should not exist, and passed it back to Vodafone. Lowells however, are very unscrupulous andimmoral by reputation, so obviously theycondone vodafones ripping off of customers, poor service, and try to enforce vodafonesextortionate rip-off charges. I last had a (rubbish knackered second) handset off them a few years ago - they have not asked for this back, presumably because I had paid for it ten times over on the account, and because they know its worth nowt nowadays!
Another point I will make is that Lowells have almost doubled thebalance figure in the last few weeks, to make it more impossible for me to payoff in one amount (as they are trying to force me to do), so I feel much moreripped off now that the non-existent debt figure has doubled. Vodafone have hadthousands of pounds off me over many years, not content with that they wantmore, and now they keep increasing the balance amount with invisible charges.The Lowells rep on the phone today was mostinterested to know if I owned a house, presumably they would love to "feeup" an imorral poxy £150vodafone bill to the point they could repossess a house over it, this isquite worrying that debt-collectors are operating like this.
During todays phone call the Lowell representative said that I hadnever spoken to Lowells before, which is another untruth, I have spoken to them maytimes by telephone and explained the situation but they still persist inchasing the money, which clearly illustrates that they never make a log on my account of mycomments, and never log their own callsto me, when surely their client would want some kind of feedback or updates. This particular lie from Lowells would be misleading to the Court case (in their favour).Perhaps if Lowells had been giving feedback to their client, then Vodafone maynot have wanted to incur further charges (i.e. court fees) onto the accountwhen the legal costs involved will by far exceed the debt amount, when they areon dodgy ground for trying to charge me anything anyway. I get the impression Lowells are milking this for all they can. Thesefacts mean that Lowells (not vodafone and certainly not me) are liable forthe court fees, since they instigated them without good reason, and withouthaving any knowledge of the account or background of its communications withme. Lowells only submitted the court claim as thelatest in a long line of bullying tactics to get me to pay a debt that does notexist.
Lowells are trying to bully me into withdrawingmy defence and also into making full payment. I object to this attempt by Lowells to strongly redirect the court case intheir favour, particularly when the debt does not exist (and has recentlyincreased).
As it stands, Lowells will only withdraw the court proceedingsif I make full payment, and if I withdraw my defence.
My offer to Lowells (and vodafone), and this offer is underhuge protest, is £5 a month via direct debit, if they withdraw thecourt proceedings, reduce the balance to an acceptable figure. I would rathermake the payments to vodafone direct, instead of through Lowells, because of their constant misconduct inthis case I obviously mistrust them enormously.
Finally, I will also mention that the Lowells rep on the phone today was trying topass the buck, saying that I need to speak to their "legal team". Surely Lowells are one "common enemy", why by fragmentedlike this, surely this is a further example of their inefficiency and extremelypoor service to their client.
If I was vodafone and I had employed a solicitor to collect a dodgy debtand I found out they had refused an offer of payment off the balance, I would be furious.
I have been trying to post this update to my defence throughouttoday but the Moneyclaim website was down most of the time, and now it will not log in to my Court case, does this mean the case has been suspended or is it down to moneyclaim website server errors today?
There is no way I want the judgement AND to pay the debt, I told Lowells they can have one or the other, but they are adamant to proceed in giving me the judgement aswell as getting a load of money off me (and vodafone). If I do lose this case and get a judgement against me, I will make it my lifes passion to never pay another penny of this debt. If this means me moving address then so be it.
Any advise would be greatly appreciated. I have no other debts, defaults or judgements, and have no experience of dealing with the courts for anything. Has anybody won these types of cases with Lowells, Vodafone or other providers in the past?
I now have a vodafone PAYG SIM which occasionly "eats" £2 of credit for data useage (when I always have all data, 3G and notifications turned OFF) - would it help or hinder my case if I was to counter-claim for say £50 of invisible charges from a different vodafone phone? Should I get copies of all my previous bills and challenge all of them? I am reluctant to waste a whole load of time on doing this if its a lost cause.
One last question, am I write in saying that the outcome of these small claims court cases are usually dependant on the judges own mood/opinion, and not who is in the right and who is in the wrong?
I hope people from Lowells and Vodafone are reading this ;-)
Comment