Quote:
Originally Posted by RobboEdin
Of course, this is all hearsay, anyway, from a source that usually provides less than full information.
How long ago? No information.
Was it really Telewest? Maybe but perhaps just a vague recollection. I still sometimes refer to Telewest but have no idea when it changed to NTL then Virgin Media.
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He had to write to VM (Scotland I think he said). VM say it was from 20 years ago when he left Telewest, so it's definitely a debt related to Telewest but (he says) he's never been signed up to them. This all came about when he tried to sign up with VM.
---------- Post added at 15:08 ---------- Previous post was at 15:04 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by nomadking
They're not chasing after an old debt in general, but if somebody has arrears with a company, it's not unreasonable for them to ask for that debt to be cleared before signing up with them, again.
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Fair point, but i'm surprised it wasn't written off years ago, for accounting purposes if nothing else.
When I worked in housing, if rent arrears hadn't been paid and the former tenant hadn't been traced after so long, the debt would have been written off. Otherwise the councils total rent arrears would look bad as it was inflated with debt that was unlikely to ever be repaid.
---------- Post added at 15:10 ---------- Previous post was at 15:08 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hugh
If he did owe, he’s a credit risk, and could accumulate further debt...
It also depends what else is on their credit score - if they have other missed/late payments for other utilities/credit cards/loans, this will lower the overall credit rating - it's very rarely decided on one "negative" action.
Do you have a link to this story, please?
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Fair point Re: credit risk, but they did say that if he paid it, he could have a VM account, so I don't think there were any other factors involved.
---------- Post added at 15:13 ---------- Previous post was at 15:10 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by pip08456
What a load of typical B/S from you again.
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Unusually, your usual pig ignorant comment has served a purpose on this occasion as it could be an indication that this situation is not that common.
---------- Post added at 15:27 ---------- Previous post was at 15:13 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by GrimUpNorth
I think it's fair enough to refuse a service to someone who historically owes you money.
I used to work part-time for a company that collected debts for various companies and from my experience the majority of the people we visited denied owing anything and insisted the company was in the wrong. Strange how very often they 'wrongly' owed money to lots of different companies who all must have got their records messed up. I suppose it's just like the majority of people in prison are innocent too!
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He does deny any knowledge of this debt, but as you say this could be because he doesn't want to pay it. He might owe it, but have genuinely forgotten about it or VM might indeed have got him mixed up with someone else.
He did ask about a subject assess request, but the VM staff said that they had no other information other than what he had given him eg the original invoice.
My main concern isn't about this particular individual though, but the fact that any of us can, on the face of it, be accused of owing money based upon very flimsy & very old information with no way of challenging it!
There used to be a PPV service on Sky that went bust called U>Direct. Years later a debt collection company bought their outstanding customer debts, again with very little information about how these debts arose. From what I remember they either had to be written off or were unenforceable because of this.