I also cancelled the SMC membership within the 30 day period. I did not receive the refund promptly so I filed a dispute via my credit card company. The credit card company resolved the dispute and I received the refund. About 4 months after receiving the refund I received a collection notice. I contacted the collection agency, CPS Security (Check Plus Systems). They would not provide, what I consider resanable info, about the collection notice or sufficient info for me to research the collection agency. THEY ONLY THREATENED ME WITH A LAWSUIT AND HUNG UP ON ME WHEN I TRIED TO PROVIDE INFO TO RESOLVE THE MATTER OR WHEN I ASKED FOR A DETAILED BREAKDOWN OF DEBITS AND CREDITS SMC PROCESSED TO MY CREDIT CARD.
After doing some research this info may be helpful if you've been contacted by a collection agency working for smc. It's important to report both the collection agency and smc to the proper authorities if you believe that they've done something wrong!!! Also, send a certified letter to them as explained from the websites listed below. It may also be a good tracking method to send copies of certified letters to their email address (listed below) as a secondary way that would enable the authorities to investigate and verify communications. You may also want to check if it's legal in your state to record your phone conversations with them.
Note 1: do not let the collection agency fool you by telling you that you need to resolve the issue with smc. You must respond to the collection agency in wrting too (send it certified return receipt).
Use this form letter at this website:
Debt-n-credit-letters.com/Debt-Dispute/debt-dispute-letter-1.html
Per the federal trade commission, the collection agency should notify you in their letter that you have 30 days to send a written letter to refute the debt. Cps securities has no such wording in their letter. This way they can just keep threatening you since you never refuted the collection notice in writing. Worse yet, they can sell your info to another collection agency and you'll have to go through the process again or file a lawsuit against you since you didn't respond properly.
If the collection agency doesn't respond, send a follow-up letter. A sample form letter is at this web site.
Debt-n-credit-letters.com/Debt-Dispute/debt-dispute-letter-2.html
Remember - your dispute is as much and possibly more so with the collection agency than with smc. Read the info on the websites below.
Fair-debt-collection.com/rules/collection-calls-5.html
Fair-debt-collection.com/ODFaq/index.php? P=default&cat=3#a18
Http://www.occc. State. Tx.Us/pages/consumer/education/DebtColl.htm
Note 2: the collection agency seems to use various alias names. The one that contacted me used the name cps securities. Here's what i found out.
Real name: check plus systems
address 1:9901 ih 10 west, suite 665, san antonio texas, 78230
phone nos: 877-882-5153,210-641-1110,877-277-7271 (sales), fax 210-641-1894
EMAIL ADDRESS: [email protected]
Address 2: this is only a virtual sales office address. No physical office. 1 cupshaw drive, ringwood, nj 07456
phone no. 973-962-0289
WEB SITE: checkplus.Biz/Home/tabid/116/Default. Aspx
Places to file a complaint against the collection agency and smc:
Occc. State. Tx.Us/pages/consumer/education/DebtColl.htm
oag. State. Tx.Us/consumer/brochure/debt. Shtml
ftc. Gov
welcome. BBB.org
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