This "law office" and I use the term lightly, is trying their best to collect on a debt that has been paid for over 8 years.
After my wife received their first phone call from Mike Maes in Oct 08, she explained to them then, there had been a mistake and this account is paid. The caller after explaining that is was such an old debt and was only $582 became rude, and laughed and said it may be paid but can we prove it was paid in full. Sure we can, we keep records. But wait this is over 8 years old - even the IRS says you don't have to keep records past 3 years.
She asked why and how are they trying to collect on something so old, Mike's response was that it was on my current credit report which he had right in front of him. She thought cool, because we have all 3 credit bureau reports we ran for ourselves in June. She asked him which agency, he replied Equifax. She asked him what page it was on he could not recite the page but gave me a description. But that entry was not on my June copy, anywhere. She told him She wanted to see his copy and to please fax it to me. He stated he could not - she would have to take his word for it. She asked to speak to a "supervisor"
(My wife is now telling the story) Supervisor Corey Jordan got on the phone and told me it was a Fleet Management account - I asked how he knew that he informed me that this is his job and he is very good at it. He is familiar with the account numbers and knows it is a Fleet Mgmt Acct. I said good then I know for sure this is not my account. I never had a Fleet Mgmt account. I had already confirmed with Mike that it was a Visa Account. Duh... He later came on the phone and said regardless of who the creditor is, I still owe the money. Wow, just because you say I owe means I am going to pay. Okay, Not. So I told him he had a responsibility as a debt collector to provide me the proof of the debt and I was requesting it now. According to him he does not have to provide proof and hung up on me.
I waited about 10 minutes and called back, after finding the phone number on Yellowpages.com because their letterhead did not provide any contact information, which is against the law I believe. After listening to the automated hold message, that says they are a company that prides themnselved to treating their clients with professionalism and respect, I couldn't just hang up now. I spoke with a very nice young lady (I forget her name) I asked to speak to Corey Jordan, she transfered me. Another female answered and asked me to identify myself, which I did, she literally put the phone down and I could hear everything. A male voice stated he was not taking the call.
So I'm waiting another 30 seconds and called back - spoke to the same young lady and told her it was ironic because the hold message states they are professionals and treat everyone with respect - I told her what happened she gave me to Nick Meshaw who was supposed to be another supervisor.
Nick told me it was not Equifax but Transunion that had the debt reported on it. I again asked him to fax me a copy of the report. I told him I had the June transunion report and there was no acct past due 8 years on it. Nothing for $582, not Fleet Mgmt, nothing. He put me on hold came back and said it was not Fleet Mgmt but Visa (which I already knew by the acct number). I told him this account was paid, he asked me to fax him the documents. Which I did.
I still got another letter stating I had 30 days to respond. I refaxed the credit reports (all 3) dating back to 1998 that show the debt as being paid July 1997 and then dropping off the report all together, because the 7 years reporting time expired.
The only response we got was another letter from them stating we were non responsive and of course another phone call from Frank stating we are choosing to ignore their request to get this bill paid. My husband got on the phone as asked him very plainly an simply to prove we own the bill - he told him they did not have to. It was our responsibility to prove the account was paid.
Mark and Brenda
Royal Palm beach, Florida
U.S.A.
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