Telecheck contacted my husband and me about a check written to a car dealership in erly May and that was presented for payment at the end of May. We knew the check had been returned and were expecting to hear from someone. The dealership told us to wait. What we didn't expect was that the contact would come almost 3 months later in the form of a threat of a criminal suit!
After the initial contact, we called and called and got voicemail and called back. We finally talked to Mr. Brown and then Mr. Pittman. We advised Telecheck that we had received nothing in the mail; they would not take our new address to send us anything. We offered to make regular payments to pay off the check; they refused to accept anything but payment in full. We asked for their address to make payment; they refused to provide anything but information for making a payment by Western Union (at additional cost to us), and which they ultimately never did provide. Athough they claim to want to resolve the issue, they are making it impossible for us to repay them. The car dealership has been paid in full.
Telecheck stated that we have 3 days to send payment in full or they would pursue legal action against us. This is my take on it: 1) As guarantors of the check, it seems to me that Telecheck can not file criminal charges against us for writing a bad check to THEM, since we wrote the check to the car dealership and 2) Telecheck can not file charges at all since the check was held for 3 weeks before depositing (a definite violation of state law).
Anyone out there that can shed some light on this? Is my assessment accurate or is this as hopeless as Telecheck would have it seem? Given the circumstances above, can they file criminal charges against us, even though we are attempting to repay the check?
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