to tell this guy "no"?

[TandB]

Very bizarre telephone call today.

Another firm contacted me in a rather rude letter (lots of references to "immediate response" and "urgent attention", underlined and bolded) demanding that I immediately provide my file on their client X.

X is not my client. X has never been my client or a client of my firm. We do not undertake the kind of work that X appears to be involved in. This is an error and absolutely nothing to do with us.

I called the firm back and explained this during a rather confused and unprofessional phonecall. The guy I was speaking to eventually got the message and then announced that I would "need" to send him a letter confirming this and set out a lengthy list of points that he needed me to cover. I told him I would not be needing to send him a letter as he had contacted us in error and a verbal response was perfectly adequate in the circumstances since all that a letter could say is "you have the wrong firm and therefore we can't answer any of your questions". He then said "Oh come on, you know how these things work". I pointed out that yes, I certainly did know how these things worked which was why I was quite comfortable that a phonecall to say "You have the wrong firm, sorry" was an acceptable response. He kept insisting that I put it in writing. I said no. He then said that he would simply keep writing to me until I did respond. I told him to do whatever he thought appropriate in the best interests of his client and ended the conversation.

Now I am fully aware of the irony of the fact that I could have typed the letter in the time that I have ranted on MN about this, but I am currently of the view that it will be over my dead body that this weird man gets a letter from me. Am I unreasonable in thinking that if you contact some entirely random professional body in error, you can't realistically expect them to take time to write to you explaining your mistake and that a phonecall is perfectly acceptable.

I might start writing to random accountants or doctors and insisting that they confirm in writing that they don't know me and set out lengthy reasons as to why they don't know me.

yanbu

and you know just to bin the letters, it's their stamps - if they're stupid enough to keep writing to you then that's their business. Twats.

I wouldn't even have graced him with a phone call. If he does keep writing you could always send him a letter mentioning harassment etc? Sounds a bit mad really.

Hell no YANBU

I would stick any further letters in an enveloped addressed back to them with out a stamp on . seriously lol

No stamps involved. He is faxing me. With it needing my IMMEDIATE URGENT ATTENTION and all that. He helpfully pointed out that we did have a fax machine so a faxed letter would be fine.

He may get a handwritten scrawl back on his next letter saying "Further to your very rude letter and equally rude response to my kind telephone call, we don't know who this person is. so bog off ""

Or he might not.

Just mark their correspondence return to sender

Ooh. Liking Wakeup's idea!

YANBU. The previous owners of this house ran up a lot of debt and I frequently have letters through the door demanding money, debt collectors on the doorstep etc. I do tell them that the people have moved away and I have no forwarding address but they frequently want a confirmation letter (postage at my expense) or to see my passport to prove who I am My answer is no so they keep coming but I have a point to prove :o

YANBU I wouldn?t be writing to him in your shoes.

Recently we?ve been getting letters from debt collectors for the previous owners of our house. Send them back hasn?t worked so I opened one and called them up (yes I know I shouldn?t open the letters but I didn?t much fancy dealing with people on my doorstep). I was told that I would need to write to them and provide original bills to prove of my identity. I told them to check the land registry and electoral roll as this call was a courtesy, I would not be writing to them and I certainly wouoldn?t be sending them 2 utility bills. They were snotty with me but I?ve heard nothing more.

He doesn't work for the Inland Revenue does he?

Kungfu, do you have some kind of nutter magnet?

what a twonk!

No, not IR. I could understand them being muppets!

It's another solicitor so I would have expected some professional sense. The only reason I engaged at all is that the client's name rang a very faint bell and I thought it might have been a lady whose carers have contacted me a couple of times over the last couple of years because she had my name and thought I was her solicitor. It turned out that she had my name as she had spoken to me years ago when I worked for another firm and she was put through to me in error and told we didn't do the work she was asking about.

This other firm's client had a similar name and I thought I better check it wasn't her as she was very sweet and confused. I am none the wiser after speaking to the other muppet solicitor as he didn't confirm or deny that this was/could be the same lady. However, I think it must be a different person as I can't possibly imagine that other lady needing work of this type done, or being able to instruct or pay a solicitor to do it.

Reception have been instructed to scrawl terse notes on any future correspondence and fax straight back.

Re the debt issues of previous posters. You should simply be able to tell them that the debtors don't live there and they should change their records. We had this problem when we took back a flat that we had rented out for years and seemed to have been a hotbed of debtors!

If they keep hassling then check your credit records and then ignore them if everything looks fine.

People who turn up at the door chasing a previous resident who owes money are a pain. It is sometimes best to

ask for their business card
tell them to wait
close the door
get your passport and driving licence
put the chain on the door
then open it
show them that you are indeed somebody other than the debtor

but keep your thumb over the numbers

so that they cannot be used for ID fraud.

Of course: no business card, no co-operation.

I would tell him that we charge x amount per hour, with a 2 hour minimum. He needs to send a purchase order to confirm that he authorises this charge for the letter he requires, and we would schedule the work to be done at some stage over the next few weeks.