Marston Holdings Avis 

I received a hostile and intimidating letter about a council tax debt of £342, threatening me with bailiffs.
I have sent payments when I could afford to, but I've had to reduce my working hours due to ill health.
I tried calling them but couldn't get through. Horrible company

Disgusting. I made a £100 payment and then they doubled what I owed. Said I hadn't formally set up a payment plan which I hadn't understood I had to do because the website let me just choose an amount. Just to double what you owe in a matter of days without reaching out or offering any help. They told me they couldn't help and had to speak to the agent in charge, then the agent said he can't help. Not willing to help anyone and doubling fees at a time like this when I had started my payments is cruel.

I really believe that one day all Marston And others companies like that will pay double price for everything, Guys please use a GPT Chat and follow your right for all information what they can’t do as they are absolutely annoying, do not be scare when this an educated people will try to clamp your car and put 250£ on top and try to take from your money even if you pay for your Parking fine or parking fine wasn’t yours . They are absolutely disgusting and get your right to the court don’t pay them even one penny. They are worse than 0000 with 0000 education. Absolutely joke at Alll .

This company is disgraceful. I was in correspondence with them to assist my 86 year old Mum with an outstanding fine that she had forgotten to pay. The other morning they sent bailiffs and bullied her into paying several times the original fine. No humanity just money grabbing goons. Revolting

⭐☆☆☆☆

My experience with Marston Holdings can best be described as a catalogue of avoidable errors, poor customer service and an unnecessarily difficult complaints process.

It started with SMS messages that appeared to be little more than a link to a payment website, with very little context. In an age where phishing and text message scams are commonplace, I quite reasonably questioned whether the messages were genuine and telephoned Marston instead.

My first call was excellent. The adviser was polite, professional and explained the situation clearly.

Unfortunately, my second call was the complete opposite. Whilst trying to explain why I was concerned about the SMS messages, I was repeatedly interrupted and felt the only priority was obtaining payment rather than listening to a legitimate customer concern.

After making payment, I asked for a receipt. I was told Marston “don’t do receipts” and that the best they could provide was a six-digit authorisation code by text message. Even more surprisingly, the adviser refused to remain on the line while I checked I had actually received it. When I challenged this, the call was simply ended.

Only after making a further call did another adviser acknowledge my concerns and arrange for a proper receipt.

I genuinely thought that was the end of the matter.

It wasn’t.

Following a complaint, Manchester City Council instructed Marston Holdings to refund a £75 compliance fee.r Instead of correctly closing the case, Marston’s systems generated a fresh enforcement demand.

Completely out of the blue, I received a demand for £75 on a Sunday warning that further enforcement fees could be added if I failed to pay.

For anyone who has never experienced enforcement action, it is difficult to explain the anxiety this causes. I spent the remainder of the weekend feeling physically sick, with little appetite, wondering whether enforcement agents were about to attend my property. To make matters worse, Marston also held an address that I had previously advised was no longer correct, leaving me worried that enforcement officers might attend a property where I no longer lived.

When I finally spoke to Marston the following Monday, I was initially told there was an active debt of £75 that needed to be paid that day to avoid further enforcement action, including an additional £235 fee. Only after the matter was escalated internally did a team leader acknowledge that the fees should be reversed.

What followed was more than a month of complaints, emails and repeated requests simply to obtain written confirmation that I owed nothing and that the case had been closed.

To Marston’s credit, they eventually upheld my complaint, apologised, and agreed to issue a formal signed letter confirming that the case was closed and no balance remained outstanding.

However, it should never have required that level of persistence.

Marston Holdings states that it has “an ethical approach to delivering court order enforcement and corporate debt recovery services whilst treating people fairly.”

Based on my experience, that statement simply did not reflect the service I received.

Administrative mistakes happen in every organisation. The true measure of a company is how it responds when those mistakes occur. In my case, those mistakes escalated into incorrect enforcement action, poor communication, unnecessary distress and a complaints process that took over a month to reach a satisfactory conclusion.

I sincerely hope Marston learns from this experience, because nobody should have to go through what I did because of a series of avoidable administrative failures.

Absolutely disgusting behaviour! Tried contact me this morning saying that I have debt that needs to be paid. Called them so they could provide me with and explanation on what this debt is about to which they were unable to do and then for them to end the call abruptly. Had to call again for them again to send a demand for them to take my account off of their accounts as there is no reasoning on why my details should be on there. If anyone gets a call from this company just ignore them, not worth your time. And best part of this is I guarantee they will either try to talk reviews down off or here or will just ignore them.

Marston Holdings knowingly act unlawfully, because they still send their collection agents round to collect their fees, even after the debt has been paid to whichever company are representing.

If representatives of Marston holdings have not actually visited your premises, and you have paid your debt to the company they represent, they absolutely CANNOT
Ask for any fees from you, because it is unlawful to do so. If this is a case, tell them you’ll be reporting them for harassment if they continue.

These like disgusting people, who like to scam people who already in financial difficulty and in distress.

Poor or zero communication after my complaint. Marston (fraudulently) took £2400 from my debit card without permission even though there was no debt. I contacted them twice and by message with no response. Anyone working for this awful company should be ashamed. My advice is to avoid them or at the very least record every conversation as they will not respond otherwise.

Absolute shame I can’t leave a 0 star review. Disgusting establishment. No respect, understanding or care for people. Completely understand that they are an enforcement agency, but no understanding for the fact people have ended up having to use this system for a reason!!! Rude, arrogant and down right nasty human beings. I failed to make a payment due to having little money (life circumstances) and they gave no understanding, no care; said I had to make the payment or it would be taken further - no negotiation or acceptance of extending the agreement by a month - I said I’d pay as normal after this month! Vile, horrible agency - I hope nobody ever has to deal with them.

The debt didn’t belong to myself, ( my husband sold a van and the new owner didn’t change the log book, we trusted the new owner but he ran up parking tickets, we informed the local council and marstons and they promised it was sorted)however I was told if I didn’t pay it the bailiff would add £110 to the bill and continue to add £110 every day that the debt wasn’t cleared, I felt pressured into paying, so I did, I later learned after taking legal advice that I should never of payed it. The experience left me feeling coerced into paying, the bailiff was very abrupt and aggressive over the phone. The bailiff said “this matter has been to the high court and I can access your property and take goods away as I have the power to do so if you don’t pay” after gaining legal advise this is definitely not true, the company is a disgrace and this bailiff is in my option a bully who used intimidation on myself.

I’m not surprised to see so many one Star rating for this company. It’s an absolute joke of a company stay away from this company at all cost I just wished I read the review before I got involved with this company. I instructed them to recover money and it ended up costing me more money then I was hoping to recover!!!!!
Any responsible company would look at these poor reviews and make a positive change to better company's reputation BUT not Marston they are a class of Thier own
Shame on you I hope you become bankrupt and disappear overnight

My experience with Marston has been deeply concerning.

What began as a simple request for information turned into months of chasing for answers, incomplete disclosures, and contradictory records.

Following a Subject Access Request, I discovered that key information referenced within Marston's own records was missing from the disclosure provided. Internal notes referred to photographs and other evidence, yet these were not supplied. When I requested the missing information and sought clarification, communication became increasingly difficult and, in some cases, appeared to stop altogether.

The records disclosed also raised serious questions regarding the handling of enforcement activity. Case notes indicated that instructions had been issued by the client to cease collections and return the matter, yet the chronology of events and payment records left significant unanswered questions about what happened afterwards.

I was also informed that body-worn camera footage, photographs, and other records either could not be provided or were not held, despite references to such material elsewhere in the case history. For an enforcement company dealing with vulnerable individuals and serious legal matters, this was extremely disappointing.

The overall impression was one of poor record keeping, inadequate communication, and a lack of transparency. I spent far more time trying to obtain basic information than should ever have been necessary.

Whatever the outcome of the underlying dispute, I believe customers are entitled to complete records, clear answers, and consistent communication. Unfortunately, that was not my experience.

Marston Holdings is an interesting company, basically a legal racket, masquerading as a genuine company but in reality an extortion operation. They stick to FCA guidelines so they are allowed to operate by - for example - having a ‘Welfare Department’ but in reality this department is there to tick the regulatory boxes so that the company can continue its nefarious activities. What is happening here is small charges that are missed or can not be paid are being escalated, added to, increased, so that the disadvantaged are forced to pay double, triple, or more, a £60 parking ticket escalated by (in my case but I am sure there are worse examples) 500 percent. Poor people, disabled people, ordinary people, struggling workers, we are all being squeezed for the profit margins of some soulless people, people who have no trouble looking in the mirror, no trouble sleeping at night, because they are moral vacuums and nothing concerns them except their own greedy drive to obtain and consume more, more, more, distracting themselves from the dead eyed path they have chosen in life so they never have to examine what they have done, who they have hurt. I am loathe to criticise people like N Richards in the so called welfare team - low level employees of this company might be struggling like you and me, afraid of the rocky economic conditions of this country, desperate to hang on to any job they can get; they might have young children like I do, they might be trying to feed and clothe them and keep a roof over their heads and they can justify what they do, to themselves at least. But who owns this company, who are the Directors? Look them up on companies house with their paid for company addresses, hiding behind anonymity. We are being squeezed in this country by this suited class of extortionists preying on the most vulnerable in society. They hide behind respectability but this is not a respectable path. I have had enough, we are all reaching our limit with these type of grubby companies squeezing us for what we don’t have. Now is the time to say enough is enough, I’m angry and I’m not going to take it anymore. There are ways to fight back, information to utilise, people to contact, ways to make our voices heard. We can name names, let people feel shame for the bad they do, like I felt shame when this burly aggressive man started banging my door and my young kids came running excited to see who was there, excited standing behind me until they heard what they heard and saw what they saw. These companies era doing what they do without consequence should be over, people have had enough and we will not be intimidated into silence anymore.

Trying to set a payment plan with this delightful company. They want you to get into more debt to pay their debt. It's completely backwards. 3 phone calls today, spoken too like a small child who skipped the dinner queue. I was spoken over, patronised and threatened. Hung up on when I asked questions that he couldn't answer. No resolution made and told that if the bailiffs turn up then another 200 will be added on ( even after trying to sort a plan out with them ) completely out of order !!!!!

I owed the courts 160 pound they took 300 now this lot are saying I owe 480 I ain't paying 780 pound for 160 which I paid a year ago

My father in law of 88 years has never to date received any form of ticket, yet today , he received a fine for £250 from
Marston , we rang the customer service and was disgusted in how I was spoken to and the sheer lack of empathy and I can homes say that I have never had such an arrogant response from what was meant to be “customer service” it turned out that they have been sending the letters to the wrong address so not only do we expect the fine to reverted to day one price but a full apology to my father who has been stricken with concern as he is the most law abiding citizen you could wish to meet and pays every bill on full and nine.

Absolute scum, they have been told to stop sending letters to my mother's address shes a vulnerable adult and dosent need you lot pestering her every week, perhaps do your job and check the dvla, I sold the car 5 years ago

Wow - these people are the lowest of the low. You agree you owe them money and try to set up a reasonable amount that you can afford every month as well as keeping up to date with your utilities and living payments. They refuse any help and expect you to live way beyond your means and get into more debt! How is this legal and Lisa was a disgrace and so arrogant!!!

They constantly chased a company that was struck off, had they done a simple google search they would have seen it struck off much earlier. If they cant do the basics then it makes us and their clients wonder -do they know what they doing.

After paying £10K despite no help from anyone. The staff doesn’t know how to speak. So rude and threatening. You should be reframing your phone automated message to , treat clients with respect and not treat our staff with respect. Rubbish and pathetic