Westcot and Compensation

[caspar]

Hi All,

I've had a constructive moring putting together another claim for compensation from Westcot. For a period of nearly 10 months they bombarded me with letters from both themselves and their solicitors, each getting increasingly threatening while still failing to respond to a Prove It letter sent on receipt of their second letter (I always ignore the first one from any DCA).

I asked for compensation, especially bearing in mind at times I suffer from an illness which their letters exacerbated. I received a reply today three pages long referencing every letter they had written to me and denying any wrongdoing. Every single paragraph of today's letter contained more than one, and sometimes as many as four factual errors on their part (yes, in one paragraph!)

I have today replied again asking for compensation as their final paragraph bypassed the FOS and asked, if I was going to initiate litigation proceedings, would I write back and give them a chance to respond again (something I consider a rather strange request - possibly a veiled admission of guilt?)

So I have written back with some evidence of the effect of their actions on my illness and I now wait to hear what they say.

Watch this space!

[Never-In-Doubt]

Re: Westcot and Compensation

Best of luck matey

[IF]

Re: Westcot and Compensation

Good luck Casper from me too

[garlok]

Re: Westcot and Compensation

And best of luck from me as well Casp. Perhaps its just me but any response made like the one you have quoted I always take a hard line and it is an admission of liability and guilt. No grey area. If there is no categorical denial then they have admitted liability in full.

Led Barclaycard into a lot of trouble with us and don't screw around with small amounts either, DCAs get threatened with 5 and 6 figure sums from me as I have a heart condition with interest liability (as per their client's charges) for no payment attached to boot.

As coroners' have said what price a human life?

They usually just slink off (slither??) into the nearest woodworm hole. As for Wescot, they are a bit more persistent but the second letter I send either to them or their tame toothless tigers Nelson Guest and Partners has graded letters starting normal and then increasing in size and boldness to "JACK & JILL" size on the second page, pointing out that they clearly have a problem with reading and writing to primary school standard, now they have no excuse.

regards
Garlok

[5corpio]

Re: Westcot and Compensation

All the best Casper

[swanfan]

Re: Westcot and Compensation

Good luck caspar.

[caspar]

Re: Westcot and Compensation

And best of luck from me as well Casp. Perhaps its just me but any response made like the one you have quoted I always take a hard line and it is an admission of liability and guilt. No grey area. If there is no categorical denial then they have admitted liability in full.

Led Barclaycard into a lot of trouble with us and don't screw around with small amounts either, DCAs get threatened with 5 and 6 figure sums from me as I have a heart condition with interest liability (as per their client's charges) for no payment attached to boot.

As coroners' have said what price a human life?

Regards
Garlok

Thanks for the advice Garlok. I took exactly that attitude in my final paragraph when mentioning the compensation. I mentioned in detail (and with attached evidence) the effect their letters had had on my health and then said any compensation offer that was below a four figure sum would be immediately rejected and so they should not make a derisory offer.

I doubt I'll get that, but if you don't try......

[PlanB]

Re: Westcot and Compensation

Thanks for the advice Garlok. I took exactly that attitude in my final paragraph when mentioning the compensation. I mentioned in detail (and with attached evidence) the effect their letters had had on my health and then said any compensation offer that was below a four figure sum would be immediately rejected and so they should not make a derisory offer.

I doubt I'll get that, but if you don't try......

My take on this is that you DESERVE compensation for your genuine suffering. This isn't a bluff. It hurt. End of (as David Brent would say). This whole bullying thing is beginning to prompt me to well 'do stuff'. I'm a journalist by trade (not with the late News of the World I should say) but there has to be some movement to stop these bullies if the authorities (FSA, FOS, CSA, CRSA blah blah bah) are useless. I'm with Niddy on the super complaint approach.

[Angry Cat]

Re: Westcot and Compensation

Hi All,

I've had a constructive moring putting together another claim for compensation from Westcot. For a period of nearly 10 months they bombarded me with letters from both themselves and their solicitors, each getting increasingly threatening while still failing to respond to a Prove It letter sent on receipt of their second letter (I always ignore the first one from any DCA).

I asked for compensation, especially bearing in mind at times I suffer from an illness which their letters exacerbated. I received a reply today three pages long referencing every letter they had written to me and denying any wrongdoing. Every single paragraph of today's letter contained more than one, and sometimes as many as four factual errors on their part (yes, in one paragraph!)

I have today replied again asking for compensation as their final paragraph bypassed the FOS and asked, if I was going to initiate litigation proceedings, would I write back and give them a chance to respond again (something I consider a rather strange request - possibly a veiled admission of guilt?)

So I have written back with some evidence of the effect of their actions on my illness and I now wait to hear what they say.

Watch this space!

And, the data that has been processed?

http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documen...mpensation.pdf

[pompeyfaith]

Re: Westcot and Compensation

Casper,

A big good luck with this m8, it is something I will be closely following and maybe following your lead.

As you may well know from my threads over on LB in March 2009 I had a heart attack now my hypertension is controlled by ramipril however I have no doubts that the added pressure of the threat letters I was recieving in there masses at this time contributed to that attack.

During this period I was also going through a PPI claim from my then bank the Co-operative and I literally have a briefcase full of there threats this was all due to there collections dept not communicating with there customer services dept who were handling the PPI Complaint that BTW was with the FOS.

It turned out that those threats from not only the bank but also two DCA's that they had passed it too was totally unfounded as the refund more than covered the outstanding debt I owed them.

Perhaps it is now time to compile all those letters together along with the letters I sent to them many times telling them they was wrong to be using such tactics and make a further complaint regarding there conduct and fairness

Regards

[garlok]

Re: Westcot and Compensation

Hi Guys and Girls,

I would think many of us have heard the radio news this morning about the increases in suicides since the collapse of the financial markets. Published in "The Lancet" no less which says that suicides have increased by 10% since 2007. At last someone has had the balls to say outright that this is only the tip of the iceberg and the damage to mental health across a broad spectrum seems to be boundless.

Compound that with the problems like heart conditions even terminal cancers that many suffer from and it tells you exactly what the financial sector is actually all about. Greed more greed and nothing else. In our own cases we have criminal allegations on the table which Barclaycard have never denied in over two years now. Bit late for them to start now and real trouble for them following the Harrison v Link/MBNA judgement.

regards
Garlok

[billypre]

Re: Westcot and Compensation

Good luck caspar.

[SaltnVinegar]

Re: Westcot and Compensation

Hi Casper

As someone who has successfully claimed against Amex (£1400) and British Gas (£2200 - very long story and an example of why you should always record telephone conversations as you would not believe the lies they spouted which were blown out of the water when they were sent my copies of telephone conversations!) I would recommend you take the following approach:

1) Keep everything factual not emotive. Difficult I know but what you are attempting to do is estabish a case for action which requires facts.

2) Establish that harrassment is endemic within the organization and its correspondance therefore they cannot blame a 'once off' or a 'member of staff needs retraining'.

Example - if they breach a section of OFT664 such as threatening to take legal action when they have no legal right to do so (no absolute assignment of the debt, only equitable or acting as an agent) then ensure that you demonstrate that they have threatened this in multiple letters and when. This establishes that the practice of misrepresenting their legal position is endemic within their correspondance and can be considered harrassment.

3) You will need to be able to demononstrate a corralation between their letters and your periods of illness, for example you experienced a period of illness x number of days after receiving a specific letter/letters. This is much more difficult to prove.

However did you inform them that you were suffering an illness and did they continue to send you malicious correspondance after being informed of this fact?

Another angle you can take.

What are the number of letters you received? If they have not responded to your simple prove it letter then you may want to refer then to the following:

http://www.e-sue.co.uk/docs/lowell_judgment.pdf

In this judgement the judge states:

"The more the letters are written the more likely it is on the balance of probability that the anxiety will increase and so by the very nature of the defendents persistence it seems to me legitimately it increases the level of the award of damages that there must be, as must the period of time over which the letters are written. We are not telling here of a few letters in a few days but a number of letters over months; Miss Prentice (sic:for Lowell) says at worst only five debt recovery letters. Well it is easy to say these words very quickly and perhaps not to realise what exactly is being said but at worst only five. Why there should be anywhere near five I simply fail to understand."

Not to mention the recent Harrison v Link case in which the judge was very scathing of the DCA's harrassment I think there is a mood in the courts against this sort of creditor behaviour.

Good luck in your claim!

SnV

[caspar]

Re: Westcot and Compensation

Th, never thanks all!

@ Angry Cat - thanks for the link - never thought about that as my file is so trashy even the dustmen avoid it!

@ SaltnVinegar - yes, I informed them of my illness. They even had the cheek in their refusal for compensation in the first letter to say I had not submitted an evidence form. As I said why would I when I didn't even acknowledge I owed them a penny and just wanted proof!

Being up shit creek and a lack of paddles springs to mind!