by RoseFlorida
Mon Sep 26, 2016 10:51 am
Someone in our company made the mistake of filling out a form from the :European Company Network" for a listing in a directory that he though was for free, but we did not want if it cost money. Sure enough there was a price.
We sent a message immediately when we recognized what was wrong, requested cancellation. Ever since we have received invoices, penalties on invoices, and threats to send matter to debt collection agencies.
What we have done so far:
1) Initially sent, and subsequently repeated, a message that we were not interested in the service.
2) Polite email responses to emailed invoices in which we thanked ECN for its consideration in voiding our invoice. Some of these emails had links to fraud alerts for their information.
3) Thinking that they were obviously very busy we supplied them with a draft copy of the invoice with the word
VOID written across it, for their convenience. Subsequently we send them the void copies without the word "draft" in the file title.
4) We have managed to irritate the woman who is communicating with us, but there has been no let up in the threat to turn the matter over to debt collection.
5) We have continued to send polite responses in which we thank the person for her consideration in voiding the invoice, thank the person for her interest in our company, and express our willingness to provide products and services to solve problems she or her organization may have.
6) We have no idea whether our approach will be successful at eventually getting them to give up on trying to collect, but they certainly are far more experienced at dealing with businesses such as ours than we are dealing with scams such as theirs. We presume they have a set program of threatening letters and escalating demands for payment of interest and penalties. I am not sure of their strategy - maybe they think that if they run up the bill enough that eventually a company might settle for the original amount (in the $1000 Euro range) just to get the matter dispensed with.
7) I will try to update this periodically. Would like to know how anybody else has handled this or similar scams.
We sent a message immediately when we recognized what was wrong, requested cancellation. Ever since we have received invoices, penalties on invoices, and threats to send matter to debt collection agencies.
What we have done so far:
1) Initially sent, and subsequently repeated, a message that we were not interested in the service.
2) Polite email responses to emailed invoices in which we thanked ECN for its consideration in voiding our invoice. Some of these emails had links to fraud alerts for their information.
3) Thinking that they were obviously very busy we supplied them with a draft copy of the invoice with the word
VOID written across it, for their convenience. Subsequently we send them the void copies without the word "draft" in the file title.
4) We have managed to irritate the woman who is communicating with us, but there has been no let up in the threat to turn the matter over to debt collection.
5) We have continued to send polite responses in which we thank the person for her consideration in voiding the invoice, thank the person for her interest in our company, and express our willingness to provide products and services to solve problems she or her organization may have.
6) We have no idea whether our approach will be successful at eventually getting them to give up on trying to collect, but they certainly are far more experienced at dealing with businesses such as ours than we are dealing with scams such as theirs. We presume they have a set program of threatening letters and escalating demands for payment of interest and penalties. I am not sure of their strategy - maybe they think that if they run up the bill enough that eventually a company might settle for the original amount (in the $1000 Euro range) just to get the matter dispensed with.
7) I will try to update this periodically. Would like to know how anybody else has handled this or similar scams.