Ultimately, IMO, people just don't have the time to fight. But if provided with a free recourse system that was made abundantly clear from the offset, with the option of triage to weed out the no hopes, and if that was regulated to make sure it was clear on every single PCN, that's the only way more would be encouraged.
Sadly this is true, especially in the case of private invoices. If I add up the time used to bring a recent DCBL saga to a close it's along the lines of:
- Informal appeal 30m
- POPLA appeal 60m
- Filing and ignoring 8 DCBL threats - 8m
- Initial response to court filing - 30m
- Understanding , drafting and filing full defence - 180m
- Being on hold to CNBC - 45m
- Tidying up (confirmation of discontinuance, removal of data request) - 20m
Total: almost 5 hours
If I consider the original invoice was for £40, I am effectively working for about £8 an hour. I would do better to pay the invoice and do a half day shift at McDonald's.
There really should be some kind of financial jeopardy for the PPC/agent.
Personally for me the principle is worth more than the time/money, so I will always fight. But if I was more pragmatic, as most normal people are, I would probably have to conclude that it's not worth fighting the whole way.
