I too was defrauded out of money by Hess Kennedy company. I had signed an agreement with the company, even though to this day I still do not know how they obtained my email address and phone number. I think that for one that was an invasion of my privacy. And when I first signed with the company they did not have a webdsite address also. So now that makes me very suspicious of how they got my information. But, at that time when I was researching dozens of other debt consolidation/settlement firms and I was basically not thinking clearly. I was thinking about filing bankruptcy instead of debt settlement, etc.
Anyways, a representative named Carlos from Hess Kennedy sent me an agreeement and I spoke to him over the phone. He rushed me to sign the agreement and I told him I had to look it over first. I read throught it, but now that I think about it I should have taken the agreement to a lawyer. Carlos informed me that I would pay $98.50 a month for a certain length of time, while they would contact my creditors. So I started making payments and doing follow ups. I called my creditors to make sure that Hess Kennedy was sending faxes and calling them as they said they would. All of my creditors each told me no, and each said that they had only received inbound calls from me and no faxes from Hess Kennedy. I informed Hess Kennedy of this and they told me my creditors were lying. I got real suspicious because one of my creditors was quite helpful and told me to investigate the practices of this company.
What I found out made me stop sending them payments, and also at this point it had been 60 days that I was on the program and they had not contacted any of my creditors. Which in my view started to look like a breach of contract on their end. I called Hess Kennedy and told Carlos that I wanted my money back he informed me that the money went straight to attorney fees and that it could not be refunded. I told him that by not contacting my creditors Hess Kennedy breached contract, and that because of that I was entitled to my money back. And he nastily told me that it was in the contract as to why I could not get my money back. So, I did an investigation on the company and found that when you googled them, their name did not pop up. They are not listed in the yellow or white pages, and they have a tendency to use other companies' telephone numbers and bogus addresses. I then found an article in the billings gazette by Jan Falsted from Jan 23 titled: "Deeper in debt: Shady credit counseling do more harm than good."
Here is the website address
billingsgazette.net / articles/01/23/business/export190663. Txt
Even more recently one of my creditors when out their way to contact this company and they told my creditor that they do not represent me. I have proceeded to file complaints against them with the FTC, Florida Attorney General, Illinois Attorney General, FBI, DOACS, the local police, and BBB. If this is what it takes to ensure that this company never steal from people again, this is what you have to do. The fact that this company can still operate and was reported to be fraudulent in January is an absolute disgrace. And it is a shame that there are not any real agencies that regulate the practices of debt settlement or consolidation firms. The BBB is doing an update on this company's information also. And the Florida Attorney General office informed me that they had received other complaints regarding this company. Please make sure that you file complaints against this company through all the necessary agencies, and contact a lawyer to file criminal charges against them. I am doing the same. If you want to contact me my name is Crystal and my number is 773-436-8966. It is our duty to make sure this never happens to anyone again.
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