This has to be the most unscrupulous and fraudulent collection agency I have ever seen/heard of.
They have been attempting to collect a debt from me. On June 12, I spoke with Nathan and what it would take to settle this debt. He made an offer, I made a counter-offer. My counter-offer was "too low" for him, so we ended the call. He called me back 2 minutes later, said his supervisor authorized my counter-offer. Great. So he wanted payment today, and I wanted paperwork sent first, memorializing that we've made an agreement to settle this debt, for the amount he just agreed to.
Nathan explained that I would get a settlement letter in the mail after payment saying it was settled, and that they would clear this as well with the credit bureaus (I had trouble believing the latter claim, but that was minor, I could deal with that). He also said that the phone calls are being recorded, so the deal we're making is valid and there is proof of this. Okay. So... I'm not going to give them a telecheck or my checking account info, but give them a credit card to pay the settlement amount.
He runs the card, gives me a "confimation code" to reference that the debt is satisfied. Great.
Eight days later, I start seeing their phone number again on my caller ID. On the ninth day (June 21), I answer the call. A guy by the name of Mr. Mitchell is on the line to collect my debt. I explain that this is a mistake, it was all taken care of last week. He says "no, " there's no settlement deal notated on my account, only a payment. We argue for a few minutes, get nowhere, I hang up.
An hour later, another call, another person. I calmly explain there's a problem and if this new person wants to handle it, great, and if not, let's end the call now. He sends me over to the "escalations department" and I'm now on the phone with Phyllis. I calmly explain the entire story, she listens, then pipes up and says "we never would have accepted your offer for settlement." I say they did, listen to the phone recording from June 12. She ignores this and says a bunch of other BS, such as "you don't negotiate with us, we set the terms."
Well, I can see I'm not going to get anywhere with this complete b*tch, who clearly just wants to shoot down anything I have to say about what happened. I say again, "Why don't you pull the phone recordings from June 12, listen to them, and then phone me back?" She replies that there's only one that she can see. I say there has to be 2, because we didn't make any deal on the first call. We argue. We argue more. Finally she says, "Let me go speak with Nathan, hold on." So she supposedly goes to speak with Nathan, but doesn't put him on the phone with us.
She comes back and says Nathan said he didn't make a settlement deal with me. I tell her Nathan is lying, and her company is committing fraud by making a deal with me and collecting payment, then reneging on that deal. She objects of course, and I say (again) go listen to the phone recordings of June 12 and let's see who's lying.
After arguing more, I hang up. Clearly this b*tch didn't want to listen to the phone recordings, and this company has committed at least 2 or 3 violations of federal law. (Maybe more.) They also charged my credit card for MORE than the agreed upon amount, and that is of course illegal.
I will file a complaint with the Attorneys General in Washington State now, and perhaps initiate legal action against them. They are SCUM, and not worth anyone's time in trying to work with them. I only wish I'd looked them up on the internet first before trying to settle a debt with them.
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