In March I signed a contract with a debt management company, Awaken Without Debt (AWD) authorizing them to begin debt management efforts on my behalf. I authorized them to make an automatic withdrawal from my checking account on the 16th of each month, which was to be redistributed to the various creditors placed within the repayment program. Upon successful completion of the program, I would receive a "Program Completion Award" which was to be of equal value as my 1st month payment ($1,471.00).
Since that date, I was constantly being notified by my creditors of late/missing payments and notification that I was being dropped from the repayment program (sometimes bimonthly, if not every month). When I would contact AWD about the missing payments, I was told that they would investigate the check and would get back with me. After weeks of communication with AWD, the payments were always eventually credited to my accounts (be it extremely late and requiring AWD to reissue a request for proposal to the creditors to put me back on the program).
Throughout those 2 and a half years, I worked with various management levels, ranging from Customer Service Reps to Assistant Managers to the General Manager. Beginning in July I started dealing exclusively with someone in their Accounting department.
On April 16, AWD withdrew funds from my account ($1,221.00 for the month of April). I monitored my various accounts to see when the payments were posted to my accounts, however the payments were not being credited to any of them. On May 10th, I started questioning my contact as to the status of my April 16th payment. She sent me an email which listed the supposed check numbers, issue date and payment amounts that were supposedly mailed out.
On May 17th, AWD once again made their scheduled monthly withdrawal from my checking account for $1,221.00. On May 20th, I again started contacting them (both via email and phone) to let her know that my creditors still had yet to receive payment from April and was told that she was checking into my accounts and would get back with me no later then June 4th. I also noticed that at that point, no one was answering the phones anymoreall calls were being disconnected and I was unable to contact anyone other then by email. When I asked if they were having phone problems, I was told "you don't want to knowthis new company is really bad." That's when I started having a bad feeling about the whole situation.
It wasn't until June 11th that my contact finally said that she didn't know why my payments weren't posting to my accounts (at this point, both April and May) and that in order to avoid my accounts falling even further behind, she recommended I make the June payments directly to my creditors and that she would cancel the automatic withdrawal from my checking account for the month of June. She said that once they got all of my accounts straightened out, we'd talk to see how we should proceed for the July payment. At that point, she sent me the addresses of all of my creditors and I sent in my own payments to each of them.
From that conversation on, I made several attempts to reach my contact (or anyone for that matter) for a payment update, only to discover that their phones were no longer working and I was receiving no more responses to my numerous email requests. She finally returned my call on June 22nd stating that she had spoken with her manager and that they agreed if they couldn't get the situation resolved by end of day June 25th, she would send me a check for the missing payments directly to my house. I never heard from her on the 25th so I drafted yet another email to them stating the dollar amounts that I expected them to refund me (2 months of payments plus with the $1,470 "Program Completion Award" I was to receive upon completion of the program. Since AWD was not able to hold up their end of our legal contract, I should have been eligible for a complete refund of this award.
She responded to this email and said she would have the information ready for me by the next morning, June 29th. She called my house on June 29th and left me a message stating that she needed a fax number to send the release forms to. The following morning, when I picked up the message, I sent her an email with my fax number.
That was the very last communication I had with Awaken Without Debt. Their phones are now disconnected and all emails are being kicked back due to their email addresses no longer being valid. They have basically disappeared with 2 months of my money, leaving me in the lurch with all of my creditors. All of my accounts are now 2 months in the rears and I have had to contact each of my creditors to request that they allow me change debt management companies and remain on the debt repayment program.
At this point, I have hired another debt management company and they are in the process of submitting proposals to all of my creditors to see if they will accept me on the program again. I am awaiting answers at this point from several of the creditors, however 2 of them have already declined my proposal due to their policy not allowing me to apply for the program through more than one company every 5 years.
I have also since filed a report with the Florida Attorney General and now awaiting an update from them.
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