An employee of RPM Receivables Performance Management contacted me on a Sunday evening stating that I had a deliquent account and that I needed to pay or be reported to collection agencies. The employees of this company are very rude and accusatory.
I told him that I don't have a Sprint PCS phone and that I didn't have one at the time that he alleged I had a deliquent account in 2003. I explained to him that I had my personal information stolen a couple of years ago and that someone was using it to create fraudulent accounts. I also explained that I had a fraud block with the major credit agencies and if Sprint had checked, it would not have issued the account. I asked for the account number, balance outstanding, and the address, which he gave me. As I told him, the address was the same bogus address that this person had used previously.
He said that I was not telling the truth because someone had paid on this account 3 years before it became deliquent. I told it that the account is not mine and if they would run my credit, they would see the fraud block and the special information for contacting me. He would also see that the address that he has was not my address in 2003 or ever.
He made it clear that he didn't believe anything that I said and told me that I had until June 15, to pay or be reported. I told him that my dad just died and I have to go out of town, so I needed longer to clear this. He absolutely refused and told me that I had to clear this with Sprint only, which is not true.
Once an affidavit has been given to the collection agency, they must stop collections immediately. Additionally, they cannot harass you by calling you frequently and by treating you in an accusatory and rude manner.
Therefore, I told him that I wanted to speak to his supervisor, but he responded that I could not. I continued to repeatedly ask for his supervisor. Finally, I spoke to a supervisor and he was equally rude and treating me very disrespectfully. He continued to state that I had 30 days from when they received the account from Sprint to pay this debt.By the time RPM had contacted me, two weeks had already passed.
I asked him how he got my unlisted home phone number and he said that they traced it. I told him that if he would have checked my credit history he would have noticed a fraud block on the account. He continued to say that I have until June 15 to pay the debt.
I continuously asked for his supervisor, but he said that he could not give me a supervisor, which I disputed. He also told me that I needed to pay or contact Sprint to have them stop the collections. I continued to ask for a supervisor and finally he said that I had until June 25 to take care of this account.
This collection agency is violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act. I wonder if there is a lawsuit against them because RPM needs to be sued to stop its harassing practices. Sprint needs to responsibly pick their collection agencies. Before that, Sprint also needs to thoroughly verify information before selling phones to people who could easily be shown to be using fraudulent information by accessing credit histories and verifing addresses and other information.
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