DH's had a letter from a debt collector about money owed to Britannia Music Club

[petunia]

DH's had this letter today saying he owes £16.64. DH thinks it's for a DVD he didn't want and he returned it, but it's been lost in the confusion of Britannia Music going into administration. The letter doesn't say what the DVD is and he hasn't had an invoice saying that he owed anything, so this is the first he's heard about it.

DH's been on MoneySavingExpert and several people say they've had letters too, even though in some cases, it's been years since they had anything to do with Britannia.

What should he do? He's going to ring up this debt collector tonight. He's rather reluctant to cough up £16 but can also see it's their word against his.

Did he order it or was it sent to him on spec. If it was an unasked for sample you can treat it as a gift.

No, he didn't order it. It was one of those DVDs that gets sent automatically if you don't reply within a time limit (think it was 10 days in Britannia's case). He's pretty certain he sent it back and it was about 4 months ago.

I'm not sure then. There's some case law about a company that send out samples of tights then threatens the recipients for payment. I'm not sure this falls into that category. You may need to look at the terms and conditions.

try here

Just write back saying you have no record of this and can they please send the relevant paperwork (invoice, contract, whatever they are basing their claim on)

Would do it in writing tbh, dc tend to just try to bully you on the phone. Chances are they won't bother to pursue any further if they actually have to do some work and if they do then you've got a clean paper trail of your query (keep copies)

Thanks for your help. I'll get him to write and ask for further details.

I think ib is correct.

The law on unsolicited samples does not apply as joining a music club means you've agreed to receive their CD of the month. If dh returned it, that should be fine - just get them to provide the paperwork.

I don't suppose dh kept any record of returning it, though, did he? Would make things a lot easier.

don't pay dispute it they will drop it

No, I don't think he does have a record of returning it. We'll see if they can provide the paperwork showing that he does owe them money.

Do you know who's chasing for the money?

Is it Britannia, Simply Media or DDHE? All the same company, kind of. Britannia and DDHE are bust, Simply Media are still trading. They bought assets and rights of the other two companies.

What's probably happened is the administrators have gone through all outstanding invoices looking to recoup as much money as they can.

Ask them to prove what you owe the money for. It'll take so long for them to get their act together that they'll probably write it off as a bad debt - and that's if they can prove you still have it, which they can't if you don't.

£16.64 is a bit of an odd amount for a DVD too. They're normally £x.99 - possibly it's a postage charge, but why 64p?

Don't ask me how I know this...but I do!

I think it's Britannia but the debt collector is a company called Intrum Justitia. They themselves seem to be operating just inside the law. Dh rang up and they said that the DVD was "Hot Fuzz". DH's certain he sent it back 4 months ago, but thinks that in all the confusion of Britannia going under, no one made note of it on his account. The debt collector then said that DH owed another £7.50 for late payment! DH got quite stroppy because he only got the letter today and it's dated 1st November! So he thinks the debt collector was trying to pull a fast one.

Dont pay. Intrum Injustica! - they dealth with the £10 I owed SW water (which I did not know about until II informed me) They dont actually know anything other than the information they have been given by Britannia themselves.

I paid the debt via SW water, a few weeks later, I got a letter from II saying I must not contact SW Water again as the debt is now with them. Two weeks later I got another letter from them saying they had passed my account back to SWW!! they dont know their ass from their elbows.

And in fact. Technically, they wont do anything. Send them £1 and ask for a Subject Access Requirement - all the info on your DH - bet they dont have much relating to his account anyway - esp if Britannia gone bust.

They wont chase this for long.

Pavlov- DH paid it last night; he thought it would be less hassle. But he (along with a few others on MoneySavingExpert), have contacted Watchdog. The view is that something dodgy is going on.