Legal dispute opinions please:)

Hi all.

I know we have some clever and knowledgeable people here, so I wonder if I could have your opinions please before I get on at somebody. I'm 99% sure I'm right, but there's that 1% doubt that makes want a second opinion before I climb aboard my high horse please.

Basically, what's happened is, more than 2 years ago I ended a contract with Virgin Mobile. I gave the contractual one month's notice, then stopped using that phone immediately and simply waited for the contract to expire.

I received a number of text messages from Virgin Mobile, but no written correspondence. The text messages appeared to confirm that not only were they cancelling the contract as I'd requested, but also that they owed me money which they would credit back to me. I read and then ignored those messages as it all seemed to be going right. Then a few weeks later I received a call from a debt collection agency, saying I owed £33. I told them (politely) to go back to their client to double check, as I have text messages confirming the cancellation of the contract, and one stating that they owe me £7.71. I heard no more after that so I assumed there'd been a bit of an admin error and having checked it they were happy. I've since had reason to check my credit record on line. All a beautiful green colour showing me to be Mr Perfect, except for one red box, which is an unsettled default from Virgin Mobile for £33.

I'm convinced (well, 99% so) that they have no right to do that. Here's the text messages I got from them around the time.

So we can see it starts with them whining about me having told the bank to deny their direct debit, because I didn't trust them to stop it on time, but I was paid up, as shown (in my interpretation) in the text on 12/01/2011 at 8:04.

So, what do we reckon? I intend to get on to both Virgin Mobile and the credit reference agency to tell them to get rid of the default. I also intend to tell them that I'm not paying the £33 because I don't owe it, and I want the default removed, not marked as settled. Will I end up looking silly if I take that stance?

 

I'd stick with it. They've said you'll be credited with the amount, not debited, so they still owe you not the other way around. I wouldn't accept the credit score blip. In all honesty, you're not the first person who has had trouble when leaving Virgin; both my mum and mother-in-law had long-running battles with billing, ie they kept billing them when they'd left as customers months before. I'd never touch Virgin with a barge pole. Good luck!

 

I dont think they try it on as such.

I just think most companies in these kind of business are just totally incompetent, its as simple as that.
Everything follows a set procedure, all automated, staff are mostly foreign, have poor understanding of English.
So its impossible to actually talk sense to anyone.

 

Well, I'm going to contact Virgin Media, which I believe is the company that swallowed up Virgin Mobile since I sacked them. I'm going to be nice though. I'm going to allow them 7 days to either remove the default (not mark it as settled), OR explain in writing why they think it's correct, complete with evidence. If they can't or wont, then I'm going to tell the Information Commissioners Office about the misuse of data, and the Financial Services ombudsman about the unfair and unjustified default.

I think 7 days is enough time for them to correct their error.