December 27
Dennis & Gisela Alter-CEO
7111 SHEAFF LN,
FORT WASHINGTON, PA 19034
Re: Advanta Bank Card
-Accts ending in xxxx
Dear Mr. And Mrs. Alter:
We are directing this letter to you since dealing with your staff has been frustrating and extremely stressful. We fear for our lives not knowing who these thugs are that you employ. The pain and suffering we have endured by your staff's questionable (and probably illegal actions) have made us rethink litigation. We have always rejected a culture where litigation is the only way to resolve things, but it seems suing IS the only way to keep your staff legit and insure they follow California Fair Debt Collection Practices-Title 1.6C. Your staff has even gone so far as to tell us we are in Utah and do not have to follow California Law. That is not correct and is a deliberate attempt to mislead the consumer. You most certainly DO have to follow the law in California as well as every state where you do business.
My husband and I have always had stellar credit. Being responsible, educated people we always paid our bills on time. Due to the Nationwide and perhaps World Wide economic crisis, our business has slipped. We were less than 24 hours late paying our bill with your bank and our interest rate went from 7.99 to a whopping 35.99 in addition to your upping our interest, we were hit with outrages late fees. All this made it impossible to make even our minimum monthly payment let alone ever be able to fully pay off the balance.
We were then turned over to your aggressive collection department who refuse to work with us in finding any rational pay back program. We are called constantly at our small store by your abusive, hostile Collection Manager. Our staff has been told derogatory things about us by your collection managers even insinuating to our employees that there may not be any job for them once Advanta goes after the business. We have been threatened with lawsuits, negative remarks on our credit history and verbal abusiveness to the point that we have to hang up on every one of your staff who calls us.
Additionally, your staff fails to obtain our permission to record our conversation, a direct violation of California law and can result in fines. Please check out the California Supreme Court summary as follows:
California Supreme Court Prohibits Recording Telephone Calls Made To or Received From California Without First Informing All Parties That the Conversation Is Being Recorded
Under a recent California Supreme Court ruling, those who record conversations with California residents without their knowledge will be subject to civil liability. If a business makes a routine practice of recording its calls with California customers without notice, it may be an easy target for a class action lawsuit
Specifically one employee, named Tony Morelli called us at our business and coerced us into payments of $1800 per month stating if we fail to pay, Advanta will come after your business. He refused to allow us any time to consider his offer and threatened us with a lawsuit if we did not agree to his terms right now at this time. We will not offer any other opportunity if you do not accept this offer today. We believe this tactic to be extremely questionable and unenforceable.
Your collector's tactics are clearly not in compliance with the Fair Debt Practices Acts and border on criminal intent. We are not comfortable knowing your staff has access to our personal information, our home address, our children's schools and we are extremely fearful of what that information can lead to in the hands of an overly zealous member of your staff who may have a criminal record or be mentally unbalanced.
If you have any integrity at all you should be concerned about what others are saying about Advanta. We suggest you google Advanta Bank or check out what others are saying on the complaint. You should be ashamed.
We urge you to come down from your smug high horse, clean house and run your bank with integrity and honesty. Actually live up to that motto Helping you is our first priority instead of helping yourself to the consumer's wallet.
Rb
Cc: Tony Morelli, Advanta Bank, POB 30715, Salt Lake City, Utah 84130-0715
Rebecca
redondo beach, California
U.S.A.
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