Daniels Silverman - Advice needed on them

[jojo75]

Hi Guys,

I am coming to you in the hopes that someone can offer me some guidance. I really don't know which way to turn.

We are a decorating contractor who have for the last 2 years, through no fault of our own taken 2 bad debts amounting to over £40k.

We had written these off for the sake of moving forward and trying to trade out of the situation... Anyway we were contacted by Daniels Silverman claiming that they could get our money bacl for us.

They have agreed to collect their fee of £1295 + Vat after collecting any monies and also they will charge a 15% fee upon collection.

Does this sound a good idea??? Does anyone have any horror stories about them as a company..

Thank you for any help you can offer..

A UK Business Forum newbie..

Jo

 

[Geoff T]

try a google search and look at entries 5 and 6... pro's and con's - etc...

 

[AerialSolutions]

I employed this company to help and assist with a customer who hadnt paid us.

They updated us when requested.

With little progress of debt collection:-

~Telling us that they had tried to contact the customer, the mobile was switched off, Court action may be the next course of action~ was about it for their fee!! - Never once had they contacted the customer and actually had a discussion about our debt.

Our customer is now paying us back (due to us going to court AGAIN - not Daniels Silverman) With a paltry sum which will take a year to pay back.

Daniels Silverman are now chasing US for 'their commission' for money paid back to us!

Needless to say they are still chasing!! Until I have some proof of them helping us with this debt they can go whistle!!

 

[maxine]

I suppose my question would be how much effort had you taken before you decided to write the debt off? Was there any hope or chance of you being paid?

If you had written this off as very unlikely to receive payment then what have you got to lose by passing it out to a firm like these as you had written it off anyway?

Perhaps because of the sums involved you could seek out services of a few similar companies before jumping straight in with the first one.

There may also be an opportunity for you to sell a debt on instead where you will get paid immediately although at a much lower rate than 85% of £40k

 

[Bloggs]

A warning to all Daniels Silverman have conned me out of over £700 in so called admin fees they are not debt collectors they make there money by a clever selling technique and then do nothing but make excuses I gave them lots of information about my debtor including place of work mobile phone number ni number and much more the only answer I get is "unable to trace" read the small print that's where the get out clauses are! Be warned a complete scam ...

 

[Truemanbrown]

Quite a few debt collections will pay on results only. So no recovery, no fee. One company I use is STA Graydon in Maidstone.

http://www.stagraydon.com/

 

[daniel.benson]

So did they want £1295 + Vat and 15% for collecting the debt?

 

[Geoff T]

Quite a few debt collections will pay on results only. So no recovery, no fee. One company I use is STA Graydon in Maidstone.

http://www.stagraydon.com/

[yuk]

For those in my profession - the question agains begs to be answered...

What was done to keep the "customer" from becoming a "£debtor"?

 

[geester]

Avoid this bunch as they have conned me too, telling me that their fees are added to the debt and the customer pays their fees, now they claim my customer has paid but is $300 short of the settlement and no indication of when we will get the payment.

We email and phone but no response - avoid this company.

 

[T7production]

I have to say we've used this lot successfully...

Basically the admin fee is a one off "joining fee" if you like. My understanding (and what happened in our case) was that the 15% is ON TOP of the debt. i.e they chased the debt, plus your 8.5%pa interest - and then stick another 15% on top for themselves. We certainly got back all we were owed.

The admin fee they wanted was £600 in advance, but with a bit of bargaining they agreed to take half up front and the rest on collection of the debt - which I thought fair.

The invoices they were collecting on were all fresh and straightforward - so I can't judge how they'd have coped with something more involved. But they did sort the problem for us - and I would use them again in a similar case

 

[Dawn Lane]

Hi Guys,

I am coming to you in the hopes that someone can offer me some guidance. I really don't know which way to turn.

We are a decorating contractor who have for the last 2 years, through no fault of our own taken 2 bad debts amounting to over £40k.

We had written these off for the sake of moving forward and trying to trade out of the situation... Anyway we were contacted by Daniels Silverman claiming that they could get our money bacl for us.

They have agreed to collect their fee of £1295 + Vat after collecting any monies and also they will charge a 15% fee upon collection.

Does this sound a good idea??? Does anyone have any horror stories about them as a company..

Thank you for any help you can offer..

A UK Business Forum newbie..

Jo

If you want to DM me I am happy to recommend a solicitor who do debt recovery for a small fee - nothing like you have been quoted.

Dawn

 

[fisicx]

I have to say we've used this lot successfully...e

Hmmm. A new member who in their very first post come to the support of a company whose reputation has been questioned.

Would be interesting to know what initiated this post...

 

[BDSDoncaster]

we collect consumer debts at present nothing large scale, I find that most debtors will come to an arrangement when they are presented with the inevitable options of court action.

I used to work for a loan company who has a so-called legal department in a little shed outside the main office it consists of two people who send letters in the name of a legal company to try an get results which often works.

If I were you I would try to recover it yourselves by looking into the legal ways your can recover debts and post a hand delivered letter to them stating your intentions to prosecute.

 

[T7production]

I was waiting for a response like that (fisicx)!

Quite simply we're potentially looking at a similar debt issue again... and I was googling around out of curiosity to see what sort of experience others had had with the company, seeing as we may be using them again.

So, whatever: that's our experience with them... take it or leave it. If we do use them again and they turn out to be rubbish this time, then rest assured I'll report back accordingly....

 

[T7production]

BDSDoncaster -

Definitely: In many cases a letter threatening action is the cost effective way to go: but we've found that especially with larger companies, they know the system and aren't phased at all by letters or CCJ's.

It's purely subjective, but from our experience, saying "In seven days we're going to start legal action" doesn't get the same results as saying "in seven days we're handing over to a debt recovery agency". A nasty letter they can cope with: but having someone being very, very unpleasant to them on the phone every day is different. We've issued that threat three or four times in the last year and it's proved sucessful each time.

Of course you can just ring up or write every day and give them hell yourself, but it's so much time and so much stress. Whatever the action taken though, from bitter and costly experience over the years, I'd say the important thing is to go in early, go in hard and leave them in no doubt at all that you'll follow through!

 

[kaido]

Hi Guys,

I am coming to you in the hopes that someone can offer me some guidance. I really don't know which way to turn.

We are a decorating contractor who have for the last 2 years, through no fault of our own taken 2 bad debts amounting to over £40k.

We had written these off for the sake of moving forward and trying to trade out of the situation... Anyway we were contacted by Daniels Silverman claiming that they could get our money bacl for us.

They have agreed to collect their fee of £1295 + Vat after collecting any monies and also they will charge a 15% fee upon collection.

Does this sound a good idea??? Does anyone have any horror stories about them as a company..

Thank you for any help you can offer..

A UK Business Forum newbie..

Jo

Hi
I had used them some time ago in 2008 and they did a good jobe for me.
my debts consisted of lots of small one, i.e 300,450, 800,1500, 1850.

I would say they had a success rate of 85% for debts I ahd written off!

so it was good, but i did have to pay 500 GBP to join. which i found strange...
but there service is far better than others i have used.

do spaek to other people since they may have chnaged hands since i last used them.
Good luck!

 

[kaido]

i also used his company ut my exprience was postive, yes i did pay 500GBP ad admin fee to join (too much if you ask me) but they manged to recover 85% of the money i was owed from several clients.

I thought their service was fair and didnt have ay issues

 

[geester]

They have made 4 posts, 3 of which are on the topic of Daniesl Silverman...

Possibly an employee of them, however none of this explains Daniels Silverman deceit and lies and inability to reply to my emails and phone calls.

Hmmm. A new member who in their very first post come to the support of a company whose reputation has been questioned.

Would be interesting to know what initiated this post...

 

[geester]

Umm, another one with 5 posts, 4 of which mention Daniels Silverman in a positive way - odd that everyone else who mentions DS has had a negative experience.

AVOID Daniels Silverman at all costs as they are totally unprofessional.

i also used his company ut my exprience was postive, yes i did pay 500GBP ad admin fee to join (too much if you ask me) but they manged to recover 85% of the money i was owed from several clients.

I thought their service was fair and didnt have ay issues

 

[T7production]

Ahhh... dammit...! You've rumbled me. There goes my bonus for the month....

 

[saxondale]

I have them been set on me this week for an invoice I paid months ago - should be fun

 

[elaine@cheapaccounting]

Now you see what happens - I had to Google the company that keeps being mentioned.

Exactly what they wanted us to do :redface:

Stop mentioning them

 

[Steve Thornbury]

Oh seems as this is going to number 1 with google can I add my pennies worth???

Never pay a joining fee, admin fee or in fact any fee!

 

[BDSDoncaster]

Oh seems as this is going to number 1 with google can I add my pennies worth???

Never pay a joining fee, admin fee or in fact any fee!

absolutly right you have to earn your pennies and you get paid for a service not for a promise!

 

[redninja.13]

I have (possibly a little too hasilty) just appointed them.

I will repost on here next week and inform you of what has happened...

 

[stclare]

I have tried firms like this to collect on what I call "proffessional non payers" without much success. In one instance this supposed firm tried to get me to sign forms that "they would fill in later" with costings etc, needles to say i refused.

Unfortunatley the only way I have found, is to do online court action. This does not take to much time or money but there are constraints (last time i looked) sometimes just receiving the court papers can open a dialogue with a customer who has remained silent untill then, allowing you to come to an arrangement.

 

[T7production]

Have you got any links you can share re that online option stclare? Sounds interesting

 

[stclare]

Have you got any links you can share re that online option stclare? Sounds interesting

As im still a newbie it will not let me inlcude links in my posts but, if you type "county court action on line" it will all come up (MCOL - money claim on line) the forms and guides are online.

Hope this helps.

 

[Geoff T]

I have tried firms like this to collect on what I call "proffessional non payers" without much success. In one instance this supposed firm tried to get me to sign forms that "they would fill in later" with costings etc, needles to say i refused.

Unfortunatley the only way I have found, is to do online court action. This does not take to much time or money but there are constraints (last time i looked) sometimes just receiving the court papers can open a dialogue with a customer who has remained silent untill then, allowing you to come to an arrangement.

Have you got any links you can share re that online option stclare? Sounds interesting

As im still a newbie it will not let me inlcude links in my posts but, if you type "county court action on line" it will all come up (MCOL - money claim on line) the forms and guides are online.

Hope this helps.

Sorry folks - but on behalf of those of us members who GET PEOPLE TALKING about payments for a living, I have to say... Neither DS - nor MCOL - should be the first step... no more "hints"!

 

[stclare]

Sorry folks - but on behalf of those of us members who GET PEOPLE TALKING about payments for a living, I have to say... Neither DS - nor MCOL - should be the first step... no more "hints"!

Of course it shouldn't be the first port of call. its always better to keep good relations with your customer even if they have, for what ever reason difficulty paying, im not sure what "hints" is about :| have i missed previous conversations or something :redface:

 

[Geoff T]

Of course it shouldn't be the first port of call. its always better to keep good relations with your customer even if they have, for what ever reason difficulty paying, im not sure what "hints" is about :| have i missed previous conversations or something :redface:

"hints" throughout the thread..

 

[Tom F]

On 31 Jan 2012 Daniels Silverman Ltd. emailed what it described as 'Final Demands' to customers of the Net66 (Net66 Web Services Ltd.) which also trades as The Social Media People.

Daniels Silverman Ltd. has already earned itself criticism from many people - as shown on various website forums.
So acting on behalf of the notorious company 'The Social Media People/Net66' just adds weight to long standing doubts and criticisms of Daniels Silverman.

Daniels Silverman Ltd.
210 Queens Dock Commercial Centre, Liverpool, L1 0BG,

Phone: 0151 7076061.