In April I won a small claims case judgment in the amount of $1606.24. Naturally the court won't help collect the money, so after several months of trying to find the debtor, I turned the case over to a judgment collection agency In Sacramento that worked on a contingency basis. They too were unsuccessful in finding the person in question and they released the case back to me with no money out of my pocket.
In April, Joseph Steven and Ass. Contacted me asking if I had any outstanding uncollected accounts. I still had this one judgment that seemed to be going nowhere so I figured what the heck. They faxed over their contract stating a 22% recovery fee. "No Recovery - No Fee" was handwritten by Al Hunter and was confirmed by Ron Firestone. I in turn faxed over the signed contract and a copy of the "Notice of Entry of Judgment" from the court. Al assured me that JSA would find the debtor and I would receive a check probably within 2 to 3 months. He even told me he had found her record while we were talking on the phone.
About a week ago, I found a California Dept of Motor Vehicles (DMV) form that would attach to the debtor's driver license and suspend it for the unsatisfed judgment. I hadn't thought about this matter for some time, but this rattled my brain so I decided to call JSA as they had not contacted me for nearly 9 months. I called yesterday, January 18th. A woman answered the phone and didn't know who I was and put me on hold for several minutes while she "searched" for my account. After she came back on the line, I asked to speak to Al Hunter or Ron Firestone. Al Hunter was no longer employed there and Ron Firestone had "moved to the Seattle branch."
After being put on hold (ignore) for several more minutes, a man who identified himself as Ed Pummel got on the line. Ed stated that he had been working my account and he had many recorded conversations with the debtor. "She was the type of person that knew she didn't need to pay for things." Ed said NO MONEY had been collected on my behalf and the debtor told him that she had "PAID WITH SEX". I told Ed that this was a rdiculous allegation. Ed put me on hold again while he faxed over another paper that said he needed me to fax a check over in the amount of $650 to retain an attorney. This was to file a "Writ of Execution" to put a hold on her bank accounts. He assured me that the attorney fees would be returned to me along with the debt owed once the attorneys had finished their work less their commission.
At this point, I expressed my disappointment that I hadn't been contacted for any type of update. Ed said the phone number they had on file for me had been disconnected. The number he read to me was transposed. I then stated that I found it hard to believe that he COULD find someone that was in hiding and know how much money was in her bank account, yet he COULDN'T locate me, a legitimite business owner listed in the Yellow Pages and on the internet. He did however still have my correct fax number.
I ended the conversation stating that I would be contacting my attorney to investigate JSA and their questionable tactics. I did not send any money and told Ed I would get back to him next week. I don't know if they collected any funds "on my behalf", but if they did, they sent NO money to me.
Bottom line... After reading all the reports here, I can see that Joseph Steven and Ass. Is a true scamming company. I will be contacting my attorney and the DA of Ventura County. Hopefully we can nail these thieves.
Do yourself a favor and don't watch the spinning tie of these dishonest people. They are truly worse than the people who screwed you out of the money to begin with.
0 comments