After starting the process of planning to purchase a home I secured copies of my credit report and credit score so that I could tie up any loose ends and make sure there wasn't anything out there that I needed to take care of. I saw a negative entry from Hunter Warfield on my account and decided to give them a call to get things straightened out. After waiting to speak with a representative I was told that he couldn't open the account and had to wait for a manager. After the manager was connected I was informed that the entry was in relation to an incident in 2004 when I had to break an apartment lease early.
I asked the man for a settlement and he informed me that they offered me a settlement in writing a few months after it had been turned over to them and that since I hadn't responded they are no longer able to grant me a settlement. I told the man that I had never spoken with anyone from Hunter Warfield and that I had no knowledge of the debt until I checked my credit report. I told him that there was no way that I had spoken with them previously because after I moved out from that apartment I was paying burial costs for my father and didn't secure phone service for nearly three months afterward. The conversation went south after that and the guy told me that it was to my advantage that I contacted them that day because they had already begun proceedings to prosecute me in court and they were going to garnish my wages if I didn't pay the debt immediately. He became very rude and threatening and I couldn't believe this was happening because I had no prior knowledge that I even owed this debt. I asked for written confirmation of the debt to be sent to me by mail and he continued being hostile and said that I would be served before he could mail a confirmation out to me.
Since I was already in the process of trying to purchase a home and had paid my down payment and spent almost all my savings trying to make sure I didn't have anything negative left on my credit I agreed to pay half the bill immediately, which amounted to everything I had left in my checking account. I arranged to pay the remainder at the end of the month because I had nothing left.in three weeks from June 6 to June 30 I paid them everything I could spare knocking the bill down from $958 to $215. They never even sent me a statement after I called and faxed them several times asking for a confirmation of the debt or itemized statement - anything they could send me as evidence of the debt. I never received anything from them and I'm still waiting.
I'm a single parent and my daughter and I ate ramen noodles everyday because I couldn't afford to buy groceries with the weight of gas prices, graduate school, rent, utilities and summer childcare exhausting my remaining income. These people could at least have the decency to send me a damn piece of paper in the mail as evidence that the debt even exists outside the entry on my credit report. I have worked hard to repair my credit and balance my finances so that I can become a homeowner and provide my daughter with the things that my parents were too poor to provide for me. Every time I have contacted these people to get this debt taken care of and clear it off my credit report, they were rude, threatening and uncooperative. If they behave this way towards people that are calling them to make a payment, I'd hate to think of what they are doing to the people that they have to contact to collect a debt.
The last time I spoke with a representative on July 1st they said that they would not send me anything until I paid the debt in full. When I asked why he said: "We don't provide confirmations of payment for people in your situation because if we send you anything in writing you won't pay the remainder of your debt." This made me very angry and I told him that they have all of my information and I've made payment arrangements and paid them early every time because I want to get this taken care of. All I'm asking for is a damn receipt or something besides my depleted bank account for evidence that I've tried to resolve this debt. He said that he was not allowed to send me anything until I pay the bill in full. I was incensed at this point and hung up on him.
I called back later and asked for a supervisor and told him how I was treated and although they are not allowed to send me a confirmation of any payments towards the debt, that he would see what he could do. I told him that I didn't appreciate how rude, condescending and threatening their customer service representatives behave. He apologized, then I thanked him and told him that I'll be anxiously waiting to receive correspondence from them. What kind of debt collection company won't even send somebody a damn bill? Something needs to be done about this company and I hope they end up with a class action suit against them. I'm confident that I'm not the only person they have treated this way.
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