Barkley Financial Services
H&K Collections

I am the former Vice President for the Vita-Rich/Vita-Milk Company. Vita-Rich/Vita-Milk supplied Dairy products to School Districts, independent contractors, and grocery markets in the greater Seattle area and regionally throughout Washington State.

In 2004 we decided to assign our non-paying accounts receivable to a collection agency based in Lynnwood, WA. We placed over a million dollars worth in principal based debt with this agency.

Initially, all seemed well. The person that we met from the company seemed, for all appearances sake, to be a well articulated, financial expert and professional the collection/financial field.in our conversations over the phone and in person, I tested his knowledge and aptitude numerous times until I was completely confident in their abilities and comfortable with releasing our documents and account information to this company. He was impressive on many levels and lacked the trademark flaws and insincerity found in most salesman. His card identified him as Craig??? The Director of Marketing. For all I know though, he could have been the owner. He was very refreshing from what we had seen from other companies over the years.

Soon after our placement of accounts to Barkley Financial Services, we began to have problems. Our independent contractors began calling us and notifying us that they had paid the collection agency, thus were in 'good standing' and wanted to continue business relations. Though, with every phone call that came in, we were unable to validate the payment with the company. The company would tell us that our contractors and other debtors had NOT paid.

So, we took the agency at their word. Until the contractors began to furnish receipts, bank records, transaction records and the like, showing that they had in fact paid the debt to the collection agency. We then presented this information to the collection agency and they denied ever receiving payment or even negotiating payment arrangements with the contractors (our delinquent payers).

Over the next few weeks the conversations between our company and theirs became more heated. I called the company on several occasions to speak to Ed Borus who was allegedly the Vice-President. Though, time and time again, he refused to speak with me or my colleagues. The man that we met with and had originally been dealing with was either not allowed to transfer the call to him or pretended that he couldn't. Either way, it was infuriating.

The last two days of our business dealings with this company were spent on the phone attempting to reach the ownership and the companies VP Ed Borus. We were unsuccessful with every attempt. The only person that ever communicated with us was this Craig guy, who remarkably, in light of the situation, seemed to be on the up and up.

We terminated our business arrangement with this company at that point. We demanded all of the accounts be sent back to the company. We never received the accounts. They kept the physical accounts. They kept the information. They kept the money that they had already collected.

I submit this information to this public forum in the hopes that it will serve as a road marker signifying a bright *WARNING* sign for companies in the future that may be considering using this collection agency. Take heed. Their are too many other agencies out there to ever risk loosing your financial information, customer information and money.

Consider yourself warned.

Sincerely,

S.M.E.

Company: Barkley Financial Services
Country: USA
State: Washington
City: Lynnwood
Address: 5700 188th Street SW
Phone: 4256723711

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