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Any lawyers to help with a debt collection threat?


slimjim

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Just had a phone call from Fasthosts, demanding £70 or they will "Set a debt collection agency" on me!

 

Set the scene, I have had a web site hosted with them for 3-4 years.

Every year it just rolls onto the next year, payment via a credit card.

 

This year I didn't want the hosting any more, so I left it, knowing it would not renew as my credit card number had changed anyway.

 

This was on the 28th Dec...

 

As expected, the hosting stopped (checked the site and it was dead)

 

Just had a call from them saying I HAD to tell them I was cancelling before it rolled over, or I HAVE to pay the £70 for the years payment!

 

So... what do I do? Panic and pay the £70... or await the debt collectors?

 

:blush:

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Speak to a manager there. It's not worth damaging your credit over £70 mate. They may reduce the amount owed but I would pay it and not leave it hanging :thumbs: Someone close to me owns a very large debt aquisition company and they are grief! Thats my advice :thumbs:

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Pay the £70. It's not worth the ballache for such a tiny amount, just consider it a lesson learnt.

 

Tbh I'd ring them up and speak to a person, explain the situation and ask very nicely if they'll get rid of the fee, although you may not have much success.

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Fasthosts contracts do contain that statement unfortunately. They require notice or you are subject to the fee, even if you then cancel the service. Effectively they will then sell that space onward to another customer and get double the money for it.

 

So you may as well use it. Just fill it with a picture saying - "I paid £70 for this" and a whole bunch of files that you may or may not want to access away from home over the next 12 months, at least then you will have the satisfaction of knowing that space cant be sold on after you have already paid for it - then fill in the cancellation form advising that you wish to cancel on the next aniversary. :shrug:

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Or put a picture of someone you don't like on it and some text saying they are a tw4t. :#1:

 

No. Dont do this, it's a bad idea. You will get told off and your webspace will be taken down as soon as it is discovered and you will have to do some serious sucking up to get it switched back on. :ninja:

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Or put a picture of someone you don't like on it and some text saying they are a tw4t. :#1:

 

No. Dont do this, it's a bad idea. You will get told off and your webspace will be taken down as soon as it is discovered and you will have to do some serious sucking up to get it switched back on. :ninja:

 

 

Been there done that hey Chris? :lol:

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If you signed a contract saying that you have to give notice or there is some other auto renewal clause in the contract then you havnt got a leg to stand on my friend.

 

For such a small amount I would pay them and be rid off.

 

Having said that (just to be devils advocate here) if you decide not to pay and just hold out there is very little they are likely to do. The potential cost of recovering that money is more than the amount itself. If it does get refered to a debt collector then state from the very beggining that you are willing to go to small claims court over the matter.

 

Debt collectors (esp the shady ones) make money but adding their 'admin fees' to outstanding amount which essentially amount to pay up a small amount now or else. They cannot add any further charges if you have explicity stated you are willing to go to court. All they can do is freeze the amount and either see you in court on leave it. What business will spend the time and arseache of taking you to court for £70 with no prospect of adding extra fees? I'd say no one.

 

Reverting back to my original point though. If they do see you in court you will have to pay them their £70 so my advice is just to pay it.

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Reverting back to my original point though. If they do see you in court you will have to pay them their £70 so my advice is just to pay it.

 

+ court costs.

 

If you don't want to go to court, and you don't want to hdold onto the domain, ask if they will accept part offer 50/50 as full and finall settlement to close the account. Worth a shot.

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Completely agree with everyone who says you dont really have a choice.

 

This is one of the majour scams with internet providers unfortuinaly they get people on thier books with a really cheap first year, then when it rolls over bam they hit you.

 

Nothing you can do you have to pay. They are rolling contracts. (My legal team at work will never let any contract get signed that has a rolling clause they always insist a date is set even if it is 5 years etc.. as they have had such trouble in the past with fake charities etc.. setting up donation contracts that get forgotton about in the system, people leave who originally signed them etc.. and before they know it they are paying £1000s every year to scams/services the company doesnt use/need/want)

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Hi from Jeds Wife (Janet - LLB/Law )

 

What you are talking about, the 1st step is scare tactics like in the process of taking you to court etc.. they will have just pushed the debt onto a DCA because they have given up on it, so now they have given a DCA the right to collect that debt taking a hit of the the money owed.

Now the DCA will use letters to scare you, taken to court is not really going to happen, for £70 they'll just bombard you with letters or sell it on to another DCA thats how small amounts work.

So asking for copy of the contract that was signed with the supposed company might be hard for them to get, and most of the time they'll never have it.

 

But as its only for £70, ide pay it and take up the commercial space so the company can not resell it and double money!

 

Hope this helped? Thats £70 ph for my advice to thankyou ;)

This note from Jeds wife copied here by ChrisS

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Hi from Jeds Wife (Janet - LLB/Law )

 

What you are talking about, the 1st step is scare tactics like in the process of taking you to court etc.. they will have just pushed the debt onto a DCA because they have given up on it, so now they have given a DCA the right to collect that debt taking a hit of the the money owed.

Now the DCA will use letters to scare you, taken to court is not really going to happen, for £70 they'll just bombard you with letters or sell it on to another DCA thats how small amounts work.

So asking for copy of the contract that was signed with the supposed company might be hard for them to get, and most of the time they'll never have it.

 

But as its only for £70, ide pay it and take up the commercial space so the company can not resell it and double money!

 

Hope this helped? Thats £70 ph for my advice to thankyou ;)

This note from Jeds wife copied here by ChrisS

 

This is what comes from leaving my self logged in... :scare: (jed)

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A HUGE thanks for all the advice people!

 

Here is what I sorted...

 

Called them up to chat to them... as friendly as I could be to find out exactly what I could about the situation.

 

They had me over a barrel and by using the service, legally I had agreed to the terms and conditions, which covers this rolling contract thing.

Very sneaky, but apparently everyone does it.

 

Anyway, after being as nice as pie with them, proving I couldn't have used the space anyway... we came to what I think was a good mutual agreement.

 

I have paid the £72.54

 

As I have now paid, I pointed out (As nicely as I could) that I could have easily spent the whole year filling the webspace with LOTS of data. Like Terra bytes!

Because my plan is for "unlimited" space (With no "Fair usage" policy).... :teeth:

 

So we have agreed that, even though I have PAID the money for the year, the webspace has been cancelled and removed from me. BUT I now have £72.54 CREDIT with them. Which I can use for buying Domain names when ever I like, until the credit runs out.

 

Personally, I think this is a good deal as I have a few domain names with other providers all ready, so when it comes to renewal time, I will just transfer them over and use the credit to pay for them.

 

 

This has been a good lesson for me, also shows they are a bunch of ********* but they are still well within the law.

 

I reckon I got a good deal, what do people think? :blush:

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It's as good a deal as you could have hoped for.

 

Unfortunately you initially did the worst thing possible though, you didn't contact them when you wanted to cancel. I see it all the time; people decide they no longer want insurances, credit agreements, contracted payments etc and just cancel the direct debit. Big no no :nono:

 

As you've found out, most companies are amenable when you approach them :thumbs:

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