Well my situation started like this. I had a Cingular Wireless bill of $385.00 for early cancellation in November. I'm in the navy stationed in Virginia, but had my Cingular bill going to my home in North Carolina. Well, Christmas time, December I go home and find a bill that Cingular sent and also two letters from NCO Financial stating I owed them instead of cingular that im in collections.
So I call in January and try to work some kind of payment arrangement but the person on the phone keeps telling me that they can only accept a payment in full, and i tell the NCO Rep that I cant pay the whole thing due to my finances right now. She's says thats all she can accept and i tell her thats crazy I've had debts before and i've always managed to work something out. Shes says that I have no other option but to pay in full or they'll take me to court and have it garnished from my paycheck. So I hang up on her. Three months later in April I call her up and shes like oh i've been trying to contact you. I'm like is ther anyway i can try to get rid of this debt. So she says yeah, that i can make 3 payments over three months. So i'm like ok. She says she can only do check by phone and dumb me, i actually was like ok and gave her my bank acc. # and routing #. I say i can pay $150.00 now so she goes ahead and takes it out my account (paid $150.00 on April 15).
Then she says what day in May do I want another $150 to come out, I say May 16. Then she asks in june and I say June 31. Well, on April 31, I call and tell her to cancel the autopay thing for may 16 and she says ok and says why am i stop-ping, and i say i have no money. We argue and she says ok i can offer a settlement for $145 i say i still dont have any money to pat that. She tells me to borrow it from someone. So i think to myself ok I'll just borrow from one of my friends. Then she says she needs the money by May 31. I say OK I'll call when I got the money in my account. May 9th comes and i get a letter from my bank saying a check bounced for $145 on the 18th. Im like that dang NCO just screwde me over. So i' call the NCO Reps personal 1-877 number and she doesn't answer. I called about ten more times in the next few days and leave a few messages on her voicemail to call me back. Then on May 24th I get another letter from my bank saying they tried to pull $145 again on the 23rd. I keep calling NCO, nobody answers or returns my calls.
Finally May 31st NCO calls my house and I talk to the Rep that I've been too before. She says my check bounced and how do I plan to pay my bill. I ask her why they tried to pull money from my account when told her not to take anything from my account and that it bounced and what did she plan to do about the $20 each time it bounced. She said she didn't know whaT i WAS TALKING ABOUT. She said she never talked to me about stopping payments and that she has no record of me even calling her to stop the payments. Then she calls me a liar. I tell her I want to talk to her supervisor. She says sure and hangs up. Then on June 2nd another Rep calls me and I tell her the situation and she says there's no record of it and tells me how do i plan to pay for the balance of $285. I tell her what happened to the $145 offer and she said it's to late that May is over. I tell her thats messed up.
Finally another lady just clicks onto the phone, and tells the other Rep she'll handle this. It sounds like her Supervisor. This lady is real nice and calm and asks if I can pay anything on the bill. I say Yeah. I got $75 I can pay on it. She the asks how i plan to pay. I say take it out of my checking account like the 1st payment i did. She says she can't do that anymore because it bounced. Then i tell her i just got paid on the 1st and I'm sure ther's money in there. She says OK. I asked then why did you guys try to pull the money out of my account twice. She shes No, NCO only tried to pull it once and if it bounces then then it again. I tell her thats not true, I got proof from the bank. I got two letters from the bank of it bouncing on the 18th and the 23rd. She says I need to send proof and that it can only be a bank statement from the bank. I say ok and to give me a week. She gives me the address to send the copys of my bank statement and hangs up. I call my bank and tell them that those bounced checks were unauthorized. They said NCO printed out the checks that i did over the phone and tried to cash them. I said how is this possible without my signature. Bank rep said NCO put "authorized over phone" in place of my signature. I tell the bank rep the whole situation. She told me there's nothing she can do because I gave them my bank informationand it's pretty hard to prove that I called to cancel the payments. But nevertheless, the Bank Rep is real nice and tells me she'll credit my account for them bounced check fee's this on time and to be careful and if I don't want them to try to pull it, then its best to close my checking account and open up a new one. I tell her thats a pretty good idea. I ask if she can send me a copy of the bounced checks and she said OK.
I'm thinking about SUEING NCO for all this mental anguish and run-around i'm doing. Not to mention the broke the FCDPA law
#2 (never got anything in writing) and #4
808. Unfair practices [15 USC 1692f]
A debt collector may not use unfair or unconscionable means to collect or attempt to collect any debt. Without limiting the general application of the foregoing, the following conduct is a violation of this section:
(1) The collection of any amount (including any interest, fee, charge, or expense incidental to the principal obligation) unless such amount is expressly authorized by the agreement creating the debt or permitted by law.
(2) The acceptance by a debt collector from any person of a check or other payment instrument postdated by more than five days unless such person is notified in writing of the debt collector's intent to deposit such check or instrument not more than ten nor less than three business days prior to such deposit.
(3) The solicitation by a debt collector of any postdated check or other postdated payment instrument for the purpose of threatening or instituting criminal prosecution.
(4) Depositing or threatening to deposit any postdated check or other postdated payment instrument prior to the date on such check or instrument.
Do you think it would be a good idea for me to SUE NCO. Please give me some advice. Thanks
Reall Helpful Websites
Http://www.attorneygeneral. Gov/ppd/bcp/compform/cmplnt. Cfm
Https://rn. Ftc. Gov/pls/dod/wsolcq$. Startup? Z_ORG_CODE=PU01
Http://complaint. BBB.org/
Jesse
Newport News, Virginia
U.S.A.
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