ACCT MGMT TECH IN Canoga PArk CA.... Looks like it is run out of a house, purchased a Univ Phoenix student loan debt. I stopped classes and they charged me $1200 for the next class that I did not go to. Sent a cease and desist, with confirmation and just received another letter. Do I send a second with a copy of the 1st? I se they have looked at my credit report last week Any advice.....
I'm with Joshua - why did you jump straight to the nuclear option and fire off a C&D? You generally don't want to do this right off the bat, as it can trigger a lawsuit.
If she canceled her enrollment and did not attend the classes, then the debt is invalid regardless of what the collection agency claims. Hopefull, she has proof of this, such as a printout from her student account showing that the class(es) were dropped, or never signed up for in the first place. In any case, sending a C & D letter is the right thing to do if you truly believe the debt is invalid and don't want the CA harassing you anymore. The fact that they have ignored the C & D letter and are still calling her pretty much proves that the CA knows it doesn't have a snowball's chance in Hell of winning in court, so it isn't going to pursue a lawsuit that it cannot win.
I disagree. A C&D doesn't make the debt (valid or not) go away. It just puts up a communications barrier between you and the CA. It will force the CA to either file a lawsuit or sell the debt to another CA (where the process begins again). In either case, the debt will still most likely get reported on your credit report. The fact that the CA called after the fact is by no means "proof" that the debt is invalid. This is the kind of rash assumption-making that gets people in serious hot water when trying to deal with their credit. A better approach would be to DV the CA and ask for proof of the debt. This will halt collection efforts until the debt is validated, and will give you a chance to find out exactly what the heck is going on. I would also contact the school to find out exactly what the deal is. This is not necessarily true. This gets into a matter of contract law between OP and the school. The school might argue, for example, that the proper cancellation procedure was not followed, or that the classes were not cancelled far enough in advance, or that the school's policy does not provide for refunds, or who knows. Colleges (especially for-profit colleges) can be notoriously difficult and complex in their refund / cancellation procedures. A C&D should rarely be used, and should NEVER be a front-line defense. A far more sensible approach would be: 1) Send a DV to the CA via CMRR 2) Contact the school in writing to find out what's going on 3) If the debt is legit (such as described above), work out a payment arrangement with the school or CA IF the debt is bogus, AND IF the school says this to you in writing, THEN and ONLY THEN would I consider a C&D to the CA -- and I'd consider following up with a lawsuit if they kept contacting me.
Well, the school is obviously not going to send a letter saying that the debt is invalid. After all, who do you think hired the collection agency to hound OP for the payment of this alleged debt? In any case, just because the school (which is a private, for-profit corporation) says that the debt is owed doesn't make it so. Only a court of law can make the determination that the debt is legitimate and validly owed.
I've seen tuition billing errors end up in collections A LOT. Often, it's a mistake at the school that no one cares about enough to catch until it's too late. Students often get really confused by the cutoff dates too, so they think they stopped classes but really they missed the cutoff and the school has the right to charge them. I think sparq's suggestion to follow up with the school too is a good one. If you legitimately don't owe the tuition and never attended the class/dropped it in time, there's probably a good reason for why this has happened. They should be willing to help you look into it and find out what went wrong.
I agree. But I also know that UoP (and many other schools) require you to drop the class in writing BEFORE the first class. It doesn't matter if you attended or not. You registered, and if you didn't follow the drop procedure then technically you could fail the class for not attending.
That's how the DV works. It's not likely (though it is possible) that the school will say "whoops, our mistake". If they don't send back some affirmation of the debt, then the CA is legally barred from attempting to collect (though they may sell the debt to another CA, in which case the process starts over). Should the CA continue to collect without this validation, then the OP may be entitled to damages under the FDCPA. If they do affirm the debt, and the debt is invalid, then the OP will need to take matters into his or her own hands against the university. It's not the first time that an OC has kept shoddy paperwork. However, at that point, it really goes beyond the scope of what this forum can handle. If they do affirm the debt, and the debt is valid, then the OP is liable for the debt. This is the point I was making on 3/8. IMHO, the root issue here isn't the action of the CA, but the relationship between the OP and the OC. Specifically, whether the OP followed the established procedures to drop the class or not. Very true.
