This company is probably the worst debt collector I've personally ever dealt with. Although it wasn't my debt, they put me and my family through hell during two long months. It was such hell that under NO circumstances would we EVER pay money to these people.
My son was unable to work for several months. He lived with us in order to find work and try to catch up on things. He admittedly got behind on his bills and tried to work payment plans with his creditors. Some were obliging, some were not. He did the best he could but ended up getting behind on his Sprint bill. Unfortunately, Sprint won't do payment plans.
Instead, when Sprint decided that they couldn't do a payment plan, they cancelled his phones and charged him two early termination fees at $150 each. This, along with late fees and interest, jumped his bill from about $200 to over $600. He was still attempting to work this out with them when they turned this account over to RPM.
RPM called dozens of times each and every day. They began calling at 7:50 A.M. And usually didn't stop until after 10:30 P.M. Holidays, Sundays, it didn't matter... They called and called and called. Nothing stopped the non-stop calls. They started swearing at us, calling us "deadbeats" for not teaching our son to pay his bills, they laughed when I asked for an address so that I could send a cease and desist letter, and so were verbally abusive to whoever picked up the phone, that we finally installed caller ID so that we wouldn't have to deal with these people.
I finally called my son, made him come to our house, and wait for the next call. When RPM called again, we asked for four things: an address so that we could send them a C&D letter; the name of the person calling; a phone number we could call; and when they wouldn't provide any of this information, we requested to speak to a supervisor.
I was on the phone with my son and after the filth that came out of the person's mouth (includng using the ultimate insult word to a woman), we told them that all future calls should be made to to our attorney. He laughed again and told me that "Sprint" would be scared now! He then did one of those "parrot" conversations when you say something and they say the exact same thing, made him seem like an idiot, but I was secretly glad. We were obviously getting to him! We were polite, calm, and reasonable. He was irate, vulgar, and unreasonable.
We researched the caller ID phone number and found a name, address, and several entries for similar problems. So, we drafted the C&D and had it sent from our attorney's office.
After they got the C&D, (which we sent certified and via fax), they continued to call. We informed them at the beginning of each call that we were taping it. They refused to allow us to do so. We told them we would not speak to them any more without a recording. They swore at us and hung up. They called 11 more times during the next 2 days, until we told them that we had installed caller ID and that all calls were being logged. They FINALLY, after 346 calls in less than 2 months, gave up!
When we sent the C&D letter we copied our state's Attorney General, the ACA and Sprint. We informed Sprint that we were holding them responsible for this harassment by their debt collection agency. We filed complaints in our state against RPM and Sprint for violations of the FDCA.
While other creditors and collection agencies left messages and phone numbers for my son so that he could call them back, RPM would never leave a message.instead, they insisted on playing games, wouldn't validate the debt, and wouldn't send us anything in writing (stating that we'd received a notice several months before). After the phone calls started, it got really nasty.
It'll be interesting to see what happens. The ironic part is, that all of the other accounts in collections have now been paid, simply because the agencies were civil and didn't insist on a "predated telephonic check" As if after all the abuse, we'd give these jackasses access to a bank account!
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