[creighton foyle]

got an email from the ncca today threatning me with debt collection agency if i do'nt pay up for next years membership. I did send a letter for the required two months notice but it would seem they did not get it. I know i
am not the only member to get this mail today.

If i do not have insurance for items being worked on does that not conflict with their requirement that to be a member you must have this insurance?

[Paul Clapham]

I am not a member , but I bet they are in the right to send you the letter , have you read the T&C , did you send the letter via speial delivery or recorded ? also you say you have no insurance , WHY NOT ? Thats crazy !

[COLIN BRIGHT]

i binned the NCCA after 9 years, ive done all the training and somehow they still want a yearly fee for doing...well as far as i can see naff all...... TACCA is a much nicer chap!.....and why the hell is it that dispite all the training they still insist on payment to use the logo..when i scrapped it does that mean in their eyes i am no longer qualified or fit to do the job...id like some opinions on this

[Simon Gerrard]

got an email from the ncca today threatning me with debt collection agency if i do'nt pay up for next years membership. I did send a letter for the required two months notice but it would seem they did not get it. I know i
am not the only member to get this mail today.

If i do not have insurance for items being worked on does that not conflict with their requirement that to be a member you must have this insurance?

Tell them you sent them the notice letter two months ago and it is there problem if they've lost, or ignored it. Check the t&c's to see if you have to send the letter recorded delivery or not. If not, they are on a hiding to nothing trying to pursue you for your money.
Plus, this can't be good for publicity for them, smacks of desperation.
Well done TACCA 

[mark_roberts]

I dont think it smacks of desperation at all.

If you want to be in the NCCA and benefit from membership and display logos etc why cant you just pay the £200 odd when everyone else does? 

If theres a clause re your letter then wires have been crossed but hardly warrents a second thought.

Mark

[Craigp]

What puzzles me is if I were to have received this email I would have called them straight away, like normal people do.

Why have you not called them to explain and find out your position?

[Craigp]

Colin, good a point.

I would like to see membership fee come down, I think it's around £260 ? With VAT

If it was just under £200 with VAT they might bring in more members and retain more.

I've been tempted not to bother the last few years and will be next year, if it was less I would not be thinking of jacking it.

[creighton foyle]

I am not a member , but I bet they are in the right to send you the letter , have you read the T&C , did you send the letter via speial delivery or recorded ? also you say you have no insurance , WHY NOT ? Thats crazy !

i have had insurance since i started but i will cancel it this month if they force me to buy another years membership.

[creighton foyle]

What puzzles me is if I were to have received this email I would have called them straight away, like normal people do.

Why have you not called them to explain and find out your position?

this email went to my spam mail so i did'nt read it until tonight but in any case i object to its tone and the underlying threat to get me blacklisted by reporting me to a debt collection agency. so why would i want to phone them they are taking a very high handed attitude and to threaten to sue someone for leaving your organisation smacks of either greed or desperation

i had an email off them last month telling me they were removing my link from their website as i had not renewed my membership, was i not entitled to think they HAD recieved my letter ?.

two years ago when i mentioned publicly on this forum (whilst a new member of the ncca) that i thought they were taking liberties making people give two months notice, i had a private email off one of the directors telling me that whilst it would be a common courtesy to give the two months notice nobody would be penalised for not doing so. and it was me raising this subject that forced them to print in the following months newsletter that they would consider letting people pay over a few months if they were suffering finacially.

[Neil Williams]

What a bunch of clowns, the sooner the last person leaves and the lights are switched off the better.
There are some really knowledgable clever people within the NCCA but as a collective organisation?  :
So they don't acknowledge a written letter used by the Queen's mail system but think it's ok to send 'threats of legal action' by e-mail.

Derek, if TACCA isn't the main force within the British carpet cleaning world within 12-24 months then that'll say that carpet cleaners don't want any organisation.  

[creighton foyle]

I dont think it smacks of desperation at all.

If you want to be in the NCCA and benefit from membership and display logos etc why cant you just pay the £200 odd when everyone else does? 

If theres a clause re your letter then wires have been crossed but hardly warrents a second thought.

Mark

mark when i wanted to be an ncca member and use their logo's i did pay the membership, i no longer want their logo's or membership and have removed all trace of them from my website so why should i pay the £200 odd pounds.

and as for letters being crossed hardly warranting a second thought well if as a result a debt collection agency registers a default with credit reference agencies the problem can become huge and take months to resolve resulting in a huge inconvenience to the person involved to the point where they may not even be able to renew a mobile phone contract.

[creighton foyle]

forgot to say i am a proud member of tacca and one of the reasons i have not renewed my ncca membership was that i feel my membership money would be better spent on my tacca membership when the subscriptions start to get collected.

[Neil Williams]

, i had a private email off one of the directors telling me that whilst it would be a common courtesy to give the two months notice nobody would be penalised for not doing so.

If you've still got that e-mail or can retrieve it off your server, I'd wing it back to the NCCA threatening legal action against them if they persue the matter as one of their directors has stated the situation.

[creighton foyle]

i did keep the email and i have forwarded it to the ncca

[Simon Gerrard]

Creighton,
Be careful that you remove ALL NCCA logos from all of your advertising material. When I was a member years ago I had the NCCA logo on letterheads, cards, all the usual stuff and when I left they managed to find a business card with the NCCA logo on and sent the Trading Standards round to me who interviewed me under PACE (the Police and Criminal Evidence Act) presumably to make a criminal case of it. I told the Trading Standards I had thousands of cards and leaflets, etc out in circulation and it may be years before the last one got thrown in the bin, so how is that offence when they were distributed quite legitimately when I was a member? They agreed and left. It seems the NCCA have got time to pursue stupid causes, but no time to represent the industry, which is what they are paid to do.

Simon

[Griffus]

Sounds a bit heavy handed in the first instance, unless there previous didn't reach you?

[Paul Clapham]

@ the end of the day you have signed a CONTRACT with the NCCA with all its T&Cs, and, as with most of these types of organisation's, you and they are run by the T&Cs, of the CONTRACT, its the only way that they can be run with so many members.

I have had some experience with these types of contracts and organisations within the photographic industry, and its the same , you have to follow the T&Cs to the letter to get out of them, once they get their hooks into you they do not want to let you ( and your money ) leave.

You must read ALL T&Cs, and understand them, before you sign anything ! That is the view of all judges etc , if you signed it , you understood the contract, or you took advice and understood the advice before signing.

[creighton foyle]

the only way they can sue me is if the t & c's state notice to leave should be sent recorded / registered post otherwise they can no more prove i did not send it than i can prove they recieved it.

 the point i am trying to make is a reputable organisations does'nt chase cash like that, if you go to m & s you get quality and good customer service because even when they know some customers are abusing their goodwill they hold their reputation for customer service above all else whereas if you went to a sunday market and bought something off a market stall run by our colonial cousins you know full well your getting cheap tat and you will definately not get any sort of customer service. the ncca is behaving no better than the latter.

as i said in a previous post i know of another guy who has had the same email and no i do not know if he sent them two months notice or not but if you join an organisation for a year that should be it, i am sure there are a lot of people who do'nt even think about their membership renewal in february so to me its a sneaky clause meant to catch people out . imagine if gymnasiums and golf clubs started doing that there would be people being sued all over the country.

[Paul Clapham]

Creighton, that's the point Gyms have done that, the guy From Dragons Den has done it 1000s of time , because he says "a contract is a contract is a contract " once you sign it you are bound by the T&Cs, unless you and the other party agree to a change .


Have you not read the T&Cs yet about the route your letter should have taken ? do you get proof of postage ?

[creighton foyle]

paul i have'nt checked th t & c's and if i have no choice but to continue my membership for another year rather than get a debt collection agency blacklist me i will but i will cancel my insurance and make sure i get a confirmation from the ncca that they are allowing me to rejoin knowing i am not insured.