Paid money under false pretences

[megzmcc1989]

After deciding we were going to buy a house through co ownership (which we have been rejected because of this default) my fiance opened up a credit expert account to find out he had a default with a company called Lowell but with no reference number we had no way of finding out where this was from. About a week later we received a letter saying we owed £162.85 because of an unpaid o2 account. We had thought we had cancelled and paid the early termination fee for this account but having spoke to o2 they can tell us this was not cancelled or paid. We never received anything from o2 to tell us otherwise, as the account was from 2007 they no longer have access to the notes on the account so cannot tell us about any calls made.

We got in touch with Lowell and explained all of this to them and that we wanted to dispute the money owed. After finding out this will take up to 6weeks we decided to exhaust all other ideas before paying the money.

After speaking to several different customer service advisors we got one who was actually willing to listen to our problem. We explained that we wanted to pay the money but because of no prior knowledge of the money we wanted to put a correction on my fiances credit report but we needed something to back this up. After explaining to this advisor that on top of a letter saying we paid the money we needed another letter saying that they posted out letters but we never received them and that the letter we did receive we paid in full. He said he would speak to his manager and having been on hold for a while we assumed he was confirming this. After he came back he said this was fine with his manager and I then asked could he email them and he said yes again after confirming with his manager.

We paid the money and only got the email saying the money had been paid but not the second email saying what we had agreed. When we rang back to ask if we were going to receive this email the advisor then told us (after promising us this email if we paid and supposedly confirming this with his manager) that 'they were not allowed to do that'.

Now we feel cheated because we were going to dispute the money owed but decided to pay it to save time as we only have 10 days to appeal the decision of co ownership (thursday 22/9/11) and thought we were going to get the letter to back up a correction we were going to put on my fiances credit report.

I then rang back and requested to speak to the manager who was able to tell me they only bought the account in 2009 but the other advisors had told us they had been posting letters from 2008. She also told that someone told them that my fiance had moved from his mothers address, after speaking to his mother and two brothers (the only people living at this address) no one spoke to this company to confirm this.

She told me she would investigate into the call and what we were promised to see what resolution she could offer, I told her the only one would be what we were promised.

We feel cheated because we paid the money under false pretences and disappointed that a company has to lower themselves to such lies to get money. Not to mention the stress this whole situation has brought onto us. We never knew about the money or it would have been paid years ago!

Is there anything we can do? The supervisor is ringing me on 19/9/11 with the resolution and if it isn't what we were promised, is there anything I can do or say to get what we were promised?

[bednobs]

it's a bit difficult to work out, but i don't think you have been tricked into paying the money - you don't seem to dispute you owe it, therefore how can you be tricked into paying back a debt you owe?

[pink-kittens]

if you had no prior knowledge, or thought you had paid it off why did you pay it?

[boxtops]

If you didn't think you owed it, why pay?

[megzmcc1989]

We needed to get it resolved before 22/9/11 so instead of missing out on appealing the decision to get our house with co ownership we decided we would just pay it under the grounds that they would back our correction on the credit report... which they agreed to. If they hadn't agreed to that we were going to miss out on the house and dispute the payment. They knew we were going to dispute it if they didn't come to an agreement with us and I know they cheated us out of disputed it, they have the money so they aren't going to dispute it now... but we paid it under false pretences, we were told we would have our letter to back up our correction.

[bednobs]

but i don't see how they could correct your credit report- as far as they are concerned the bill DID go unpaid for 4 years, so in their opinion, what is on the report is true. If you really did pay it, get proof from you bank statements

[boxtops]

I still don't see why it's "false pretences" - from what you say, it seems to be a legitimate outstanding debt to O2.

[pink-kittens]

who said you needed to pay it by that date?

[bednobs]

hi pink that is the date that they have to appeal turning down the mortgage (because of this default)

[megzmcc1989]

o2 have said they got more payments from my fiance - there has not a single penny been requested from his account from we cancelled. We never had any letters or anything from anybody to say we owed the money, which as far as we are concerned is a fault of o2s for not cancelling the contract when we asked. There was a large payment came out of our bank account which we assumed was the early termination fee and as we heard nothing more from o2 we though nothing more of it. o2 claim to have had more money paid but nothing has come from our account to them and since they can't access our account they cant tell us where it has come from. As far as we were concerned the account was cancelled and no correspondence was ever made to tell us we owed the money. If we knew 5 yrs ago, we would have disputed it then and if it did come back that they never cancelled the contract like we asked then fair enough but if it was a mistake on our end we would have paid it.

What was agreed with Lowell was that if we paid the money would they back up the correction on our credit report (which you CAN put on yourself) so we paid money which we didn't think we should have on the grounds we wanted this sorted ASAP and now they have fallen back on their agreement

Do we not have a leg to stand on? Even if they agreed to back up our correction?

[pink-kittens]

ah, thanks bednobs

[bednobs]

did you cancel by letter? can 02 tell you anything else, or havethey washed their hands of it now that they have passed the alleged debt on?
it seems very mean to me that the mortgage co are turning you down for a disputed £150 debt!

[megzmcc1989]

o2 have washed their hands of it, they can't access our details for us to dispute it so I don't understand how Lowell will be able to either! We cancelled by phone and I know Lowell are renowned for this type of behaviour, they were investigated by watchdog 2yrs ago for similar problems. Its not the mortgage company refusing us, its the co ownership and its not because of the money, I have asked them if we pay it will it make a difference and they said no, it is the word default stopping us from getting it. If we had something to back up a correction they would accept us... which is what Lowell promised us!

[boxtops]

It doesn't help you, but I'm afraid that this is one of the very reasons that I always put cancellations and so on in writing, so you have some proof later if it's challenged. If it's only £150 (which yes, is a lot to some) then you might just want to wash your hands of it as long as the credit record has been set straight. You can easily get a copy of that from a national company like Experian, for about three quid.

[megzmcc1989]

so we can't argue that they scammed us out of money? They knew we wanted to dispute the account but we wanted it sorted quickly and so they promised us something they knew they would not deliver just to get money... and now we can't even dispute the account?

[boxtops]

I don't see why it's a scam. It would be a scam if a) you hadn't owed the money in the first place, and b) you paid money and it didn't go to clear the account. A scam is when there is no debt, and you have no proof that there isn't (even though you believe this to be the case).

I don't think it's a scam, I think that the unpaid debt is showing as long-standing on your OH's credit rating report, and the fact that you have queried it means the people who bought the debt now know where you are and have followed it up.

I'd be interested to see other people's views on this.

[joko]

but they havent scammed you out of any money...you owe it to them...

had you not wanted something from them, you would not have paid it...and they knew it...so they told a little white lie to clear their books

had you not paid it would have cost them more and more money to deal with the issue and after 4 years i see nothing wrong with them wanting it sorted

you could complain in a strong manner about the underhanded technique...but i dont think you will get the cash back - why would you?

most you can hope for is an apology for the 'misundertsanding'.

i would continue pushing for the letter though...or find a way that the credit people can speak directly to 02 and get the info they need to remove it

[megzmcc1989]

Thats all we want is the letter saying that they posted out letters and we never received them (which we didn't) and the letter we did receive we paid. I told them to look at our credit reports and they will see EVERYTHING is paid up the way it is supposed to be, why would we just ignore one thing? If we knew about this 5 yrs ago, it would have been paid 5 yrs ago!

Might not be a scam, but thats the way we feel, we told them we wanted to dispute the account unless they would supply us with the above letter which they told us they would so stupidly we paid something we feel we shouldn't have. We don't want the money back but we paid under the agreement we would get the above letter, and on three different phone calls we were promised this. All we need is the letter to back up our correction, we don't need them to take the default off.

[megzmcc1989]

Sorry, in case any one takes that out of context, just because I said it we knew about it 5 yrs ago we would have paid it 5 yrs ago doesn't mean we wouldn't have disputed it first... what it is meant to mean is that if it we ACTUALLY knew about about it 5 yrs ago and it came back as a fault of our own we would have paid it...

we never had any knowledge of this debt until this month this year.

[joko]

i suspect you were promised by someone who had no authority to say this...someone young and new and desperate to get results...

could you call to discuss and record the call? they do it...for quality and training purposes ... to why cant you? all you would be doing it verifying what you are claiming...

i would also write to them lots of times with lots of complaints...when they respond they may acknowledge your request etc without realising it and without actually breaking the rules and it may be enough evidence...

such as "...we realise we promised you this letter confirming the letters were sent and we know you didnt receive them, but we are not allowed to send a confirmation letter of this..." or something...so its not an offcial letter ...

[megzmcc1989]

Yeah thats what the manager said - the fella didn't have the authority to make the call but he had us on hold to 'ask his manager' and he came back and said his manager said that was fine - which she will be able to hear when she listens to the calls made.

The team leader is calling me back on Monday which is why I put this up to see if I had an argument. By the looks of it we don't though. She is going to listen to the calls and see what was said to see what resolution she can come up with and I told her the only resolution we will settle for is the one we were promised. Thought maybe if I had a good argument about this she would feel obliged to send the letter.