KE70
Member
Today (4th March 2019), I received a debt recovery letter from Quick Collect, stating they have been asked by Supanet to recover outstanding balance on my account with them. The amount is £960.
I have NOT used Supanet since November 2012. This is 6 years 4 months ago. I have since moved home twice, and also from England to Scotland.
I did use Supanet, when living in England, for home broadband & phone from 2008 to 2012. The service was very poor, i.e. several times every year the phone line went dead & no internet. When I would call their customer service team, every time they appeared enthusiastic saying 'yes we'll find out what the problem is, and we'll call you back'. Each time they did nothing. Several occasions I had no service for days, once it was for over a week. Then the phone/internet came back on - but with no explanation from Supanet. A lame excuse on one occasion was 'BT are replacing their phone lines'. I never received any compensation or reduction in payments due to no service.
On one of my last calls to Supanet re: no service again - they said 'good news, we're reducing the price of your monthly payment'. What they FAILED to tell me was they were also putting me on a new 18 month contract - this wasn't mentioned over the phone and I never received any confirmation of the 'new' contract in any way - e.g. no letter or email. I only found out about this AFTER leaving Supanet.
So after 4 years of bad service, I decided I'd had enough. I looked online at the Citizens Advice Bureau website. That stated that you can ask an ISP to rescind their contract if they are not providing the standard of service expected. So I signed up with Tesco for broadband/phone, this went live on 5th November 2012. I could tell that day that the tone on the phone line was different, so the change over had gone through.
I then rang Supanet, stating I was asking them to rescind my contract as they were not providing a satisfactory service. They said I couldn't do that, I had just agreed to a new 18 month contract and owed them over £600 if I left (as mentioned earlier, they just reduced my monthly payment with no mention of contracts). In the same phone call, Supanet claimed I was still using their service, but paying Tesco, and they wouldn't have let the transfer go through. A phone call to Tesco quickly confirmed these were false accusations by Supanet.
I then had battles with Supanet until January 2013. I had cancelled their direct debit so they tried to take their monthly payment off my debit card. I only resolved this when my bank gave me a new debit card. Then I heard nothing again until now, at least 6 years 2 months later.
Obviously I have no intention of paying out for poor service just because a debt recovery agency sends me a threatening letter over 6 years later.
I spoke to a solicitor today, who said it's no use replying to Quick Collect. He reckons this is not enforceable in court as it's over 6 years ago since I had both left Supanet and had no further communication with them regarding so called 'outstanding arrears'. He did say Quick Collect would have bought the debt from Supanet for a nominal figure, and are just interested in recovering the money, and not in additional actions and expenses, so they might not pursue this in court.
I assume that Supanet would not want to get involved in this, as they would just tell me to communicate with Quick Collect?
So is the best course of action now to keep the letter received, do nothing until a court summons is received, then seek help from a solicitor?
I would be very grateful for any suggestions in how to resolve this matter.
I have NOT used Supanet since November 2012. This is 6 years 4 months ago. I have since moved home twice, and also from England to Scotland.
I did use Supanet, when living in England, for home broadband & phone from 2008 to 2012. The service was very poor, i.e. several times every year the phone line went dead & no internet. When I would call their customer service team, every time they appeared enthusiastic saying 'yes we'll find out what the problem is, and we'll call you back'. Each time they did nothing. Several occasions I had no service for days, once it was for over a week. Then the phone/internet came back on - but with no explanation from Supanet. A lame excuse on one occasion was 'BT are replacing their phone lines'. I never received any compensation or reduction in payments due to no service.
On one of my last calls to Supanet re: no service again - they said 'good news, we're reducing the price of your monthly payment'. What they FAILED to tell me was they were also putting me on a new 18 month contract - this wasn't mentioned over the phone and I never received any confirmation of the 'new' contract in any way - e.g. no letter or email. I only found out about this AFTER leaving Supanet.
So after 4 years of bad service, I decided I'd had enough. I looked online at the Citizens Advice Bureau website. That stated that you can ask an ISP to rescind their contract if they are not providing the standard of service expected. So I signed up with Tesco for broadband/phone, this went live on 5th November 2012. I could tell that day that the tone on the phone line was different, so the change over had gone through.
I then rang Supanet, stating I was asking them to rescind my contract as they were not providing a satisfactory service. They said I couldn't do that, I had just agreed to a new 18 month contract and owed them over £600 if I left (as mentioned earlier, they just reduced my monthly payment with no mention of contracts). In the same phone call, Supanet claimed I was still using their service, but paying Tesco, and they wouldn't have let the transfer go through. A phone call to Tesco quickly confirmed these were false accusations by Supanet.
I then had battles with Supanet until January 2013. I had cancelled their direct debit so they tried to take their monthly payment off my debit card. I only resolved this when my bank gave me a new debit card. Then I heard nothing again until now, at least 6 years 2 months later.
Obviously I have no intention of paying out for poor service just because a debt recovery agency sends me a threatening letter over 6 years later.
I spoke to a solicitor today, who said it's no use replying to Quick Collect. He reckons this is not enforceable in court as it's over 6 years ago since I had both left Supanet and had no further communication with them regarding so called 'outstanding arrears'. He did say Quick Collect would have bought the debt from Supanet for a nominal figure, and are just interested in recovering the money, and not in additional actions and expenses, so they might not pursue this in court.
I assume that Supanet would not want to get involved in this, as they would just tell me to communicate with Quick Collect?
So is the best course of action now to keep the letter received, do nothing until a court summons is received, then seek help from a solicitor?
I would be very grateful for any suggestions in how to resolve this matter.
