# Cabot Financial Three Ireland bill



## Quandry (6 Sep 2016)

Hi.  A few months ago I received a letter from Cabot financial requesting outstanding payment on behalf of Three for the amount of €145.37.

Some time previous to that I had a phonecall from Three requesting the same amount for a mobile phone account.  I explained that I had never had a phone account with Three but told them that I did have the mobile broadband a/c.  The lady insisted that it was for a phone and said whe would get back to me.  She never did.

It's about 2 years since I had an account with Three, which was for mobile broadband. I wasn't in contract, had to give a months notice and cancelled the account.  The reason I cancelled was because I had recieved a bill which was way over my montly payment an for an amount of data that I didn't use.  The account was paid by direct debit, which I never cancelled.  I don't remember if the final bill was taken out of my account or not but why would they not just have taken any final monies owing to them at that time?  I can't imagine that they didn't! 

Anyway -the  last time I heard from cabot it was a phonecall, I went through the details with them again and they said they'd check with three.  Didn't hear from them fror months but had specified that they should contact me in writing, I didn't want to get that call at work!  They called again last week and the first thing they wanted to do was for me to confirm my details. I wouldn't.  I had asked them to contact me in writing and they were calling again, besides, they were calling me?!  Today I received a letter from Belgard solicitors, pay the amount within 7 days or they'll issue proceedings.  

What should I do here?  I really don't think I owe three any money.   And if I do, why did't they take it out of my bank account when I closed the mobile broadband account with them?

Thanks in advance.


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## vandriver (6 Sep 2016)

Just to let you know that Cabot and Belgard are the same company.


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## demoivre (6 Sep 2016)

Quandry said:


> What should I do here?



Ignore them until / if you receive a claim notice which is highly unlikely. The chances of litigation over €145 is nil imo.


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## demoivre (6 Sep 2016)

vandriver said:


> Just to let you know that Cabot and Belgard are the same company.



They are not the same company but they do work closely together and are both based in Tallaght. Do a search in [broken link removed] and you will see Belgard solicitors acting in cases.


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## no_moolah (6 Sep 2016)

Ask them for a copy of the account opening form which shows that you opened the account.

A friend of mine had a similar issue with a utility company trying to pursue him for €2k. The debt had nothing to do with him. He kept asking for the account opening form and they eventually responded that they didn't have one. They pushed on with a court date but cancelled it a week before the hearing. I presume because they had no evidence.


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## vandriver (6 Sep 2016)

Belgard share office space with Cabot.
I'll rephrase that they are are just slightly removed from in-house.


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## vandriver (6 Sep 2016)

demoivre said:


> They are not the same company but they do work closely together and are both based in Tallaght. Do a search in [broken link removed] and you will see Belgard solicitors acting in cases.


I assume you mean courts.ie ?
The Law Society only lists 2 solicitors amongst it's 60 odd staff.


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## Quandry (6 Sep 2016)

Thanks for your replies.  So I'm all for ignoring the letter, however - what are your opinions on the debt in the first place?  If Three had my direct debit why would they decide not to remove funds from that when the account closed?  And if it was a mix up on their part i.e. if they had somehow mixed up my account from mobile broadband to mobile phone and this somehow meant that they couldn't withdraw funds where would I stand then?  I'm a bit annoyed about it, receiving a bill that I didn't know existed almost two years after the fact.  If I'm in the right here, I think I'd prefer to contact them (but who) and get it sorted out?  Thanks again for taking the time to reply, much appreciated.


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## Gerry Canning (7 Sep 2016)

Quandry,
There are umpteen threads on Cabot, they are trying to squeeze funds, whether due or not ! and hope some twats will pay up.
In short = ignore and please don,t waste your time on making or taking phone calls and definitely. NEVER identify yourself when some one rings and asks for your Date of Birth etc.


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## Quandry (7 Sep 2016)

Hi Gerry, I think the reason that I've received the solicitor's letter is that I wouldn't give them my name, address and DOB the last time they called. I don't think anyone should be expected to give that information when they receive a call.  Fine when you've called someone but other than that, no.


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## trasneoir (8 Sep 2016)

Quandry said:


> If I'm in the right here, I think I'd prefer to contact them (but who) and get it sorted out?


Sorry OP, but I think there's 0 chance of having a reasonable conversation with a human with a brain and authority to fix this.

I've never seen any signs of intelligent life at three. They have moved on, closed your account and sold your "debt". The only response you'll get from them is "computer says no".
As for Cabot, you're just a (small) number in a database to them. Their computers will print increasingly hysterical letters (and get agents to call you), but you're not worth the time of anybody who can actually make a decision. If you don't take the bait (ie give them nothing, reply to all questions with demands for evidence - which they won't have), the computer will eventually give up on you as not worth the price of stamps.


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## Quandry (8 Sep 2016)

Thanks for your reply trasneoir, I think ignoring them is the route I'll likely take but I'm still mildly irritated because of the fact that I actually believe they're wrong. I agree with what you say about three. They were a nightmare to deal with while I was a paying customer, just imagine what they would be like now. Annoying situation all the same.


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