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CCJ from Orange
Hi all,
I’m hoping to get your advice on a CCJ made against me. I have arrears of £300 owed to EE (formerly Orange). EE was my mobile phone provider from 2013 to 2014. My contract included both line rental and the mobile phone.
I moved to East Sussex in 2012, my contract with EE started in January 2013 and I started having issues with my phone service, I didn’t have any phone signal inside my house or the surrounding area of where I lived in East Sussex this meant I could not receive or send any texts or calls (unless I was far from home). I informed EE of the issues I was facing from September 2013 to January 2014, they tried to resolve these issues but were unable to due to my location being in a ‘black spot’ (lack of phone masts).
As a result, I agreed with EE to cancel my contract, we went back and forth and finally agreed in March 2014 that I would be able to end the contract with no penalty or early termination. This was not confirmed in writing. However, I moved my phone number over to Giff Gaff shortly after.
From 2018 to 2020 I received letters from Lowell regarding this debt. I ignored their letters as I assumed they were an automated mistake until 2020 when I received a letter from the debt collection agency (Lowells) that court action would be taken against me if I didn’t respond. After I received this letter, I called Lowells and explained why I didn’t owe any money to them, but they refused to accept this information from me and would only speak to EE to halt this debt.
When I contacted EE in January 2020, they did not know about my situation initially, and they had to investigate it further. They (a manager and a call agent) finally explained that there was an issue with their IT system which meant that my services were not disconnected as I had requested. They apologised and assured me that they would get in touch with the debt collection agencies/credit reference agencies. This was not confirmed in writing even though I requested it.
Thinking this was resolved, a couple months later I noticed I received a CCJ checking through my Experian account - I had at that point not received any letters from the courts, just from Lowell.
I’ve gone back to EE requesting data/ records of the discussions we had about my account and where they explained how this issue occurred (I had no idea they had an IT issue until they told me). So far, EE have stated that my records/account have been deleted consequently they can’t confirm or deny any of the issues I’ve raised . What should I do in this instance? They’ve stated I can complain to their data protection team about how they’ve handled my personal data but I’m unsure of what to write to get this issue resolved. EE mentioned customer account data is deleted 6 years after closure of an account. But am I right in thinking that EE should have retained records of our engagement for much longer given they hold sold this debt on and it was clearly still a live issue?
I'm making token payments (£5) to Overdale Solicitors who are now managing this debt on behalf of Lowell.
Thanks for your help on this.
I’m hoping to get your advice on a CCJ made against me. I have arrears of £300 owed to EE (formerly Orange). EE was my mobile phone provider from 2013 to 2014. My contract included both line rental and the mobile phone.
I moved to East Sussex in 2012, my contract with EE started in January 2013 and I started having issues with my phone service, I didn’t have any phone signal inside my house or the surrounding area of where I lived in East Sussex this meant I could not receive or send any texts or calls (unless I was far from home). I informed EE of the issues I was facing from September 2013 to January 2014, they tried to resolve these issues but were unable to due to my location being in a ‘black spot’ (lack of phone masts).
As a result, I agreed with EE to cancel my contract, we went back and forth and finally agreed in March 2014 that I would be able to end the contract with no penalty or early termination. This was not confirmed in writing. However, I moved my phone number over to Giff Gaff shortly after.
From 2018 to 2020 I received letters from Lowell regarding this debt. I ignored their letters as I assumed they were an automated mistake until 2020 when I received a letter from the debt collection agency (Lowells) that court action would be taken against me if I didn’t respond. After I received this letter, I called Lowells and explained why I didn’t owe any money to them, but they refused to accept this information from me and would only speak to EE to halt this debt.
When I contacted EE in January 2020, they did not know about my situation initially, and they had to investigate it further. They (a manager and a call agent) finally explained that there was an issue with their IT system which meant that my services were not disconnected as I had requested. They apologised and assured me that they would get in touch with the debt collection agencies/credit reference agencies. This was not confirmed in writing even though I requested it.
Thinking this was resolved, a couple months later I noticed I received a CCJ checking through my Experian account - I had at that point not received any letters from the courts, just from Lowell.
I’ve gone back to EE requesting data/ records of the discussions we had about my account and where they explained how this issue occurred (I had no idea they had an IT issue until they told me). So far, EE have stated that my records/account have been deleted consequently they can’t confirm or deny any of the issues I’ve raised . What should I do in this instance? They’ve stated I can complain to their data protection team about how they’ve handled my personal data but I’m unsure of what to write to get this issue resolved. EE mentioned customer account data is deleted 6 years after closure of an account. But am I right in thinking that EE should have retained records of our engagement for much longer given they hold sold this debt on and it was clearly still a live issue?
I'm making token payments (£5) to Overdale Solicitors who are now managing this debt on behalf of Lowell.
Thanks for your help on this.
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