Hi all, I am at a crossroads and i don't know what my next step should be. A little background: Winter 2000 chargeoff (for under $500) with AT&T wireless (due to miscommunication). A few months ago, I sent them a planetfeedback letter, received an email to call an #800 number. Called the number customer service rep said they no longer handle it i need to deal with the collection agency. told them havent heard from the collection agency (some place in long island). Next thing you know I received a letter from NCO telling me they have taken over the account and I have 30days to respond about how I will resolve this. The day after I received the letter, the calls started. The NCO rep apparently thought I was a ninny for he tried to pressure me into making payments, etc. I told him according to their letter I had 30 days to decide. I still received calls and letters from NCO. I sent a validation and C&D letter with certified return receipt. i also sent a letter to AT&T wireless with a restrictive endorsement letter offering to pay in full in exchange for removal of negative info on credit report. Get this: on the same day I received the green receipt back, i received a letter from NCO stating that they had the okay to negotiate this and for me to call. at&t called and left a message asking where/who did they want my letter to go to (it was addressed to the president). as it stands, at&t notified the chargeoff with the cra's. what should my next step be? sorry this is long but it seems that i am at a critical step and i don't want to shoot myself in the foot. thanks in advance.
Ledo: While everything you posted prior to where I started quoting most assuredly is interesting and enlightening, it really has no other value. It seems unclear to me whether you sent the validation letter to NCO or to AT&T. Would you please clarify that point for me? It does appear that you sent it to the president of AT&T and if so, it is no wonder they came back wanting to know who you wanted the letter sent to. Clarify my questions and let's take it from there.
bill thanks for the response. validation letter sent to NCO and restrictive endorsement letter sent to AT&T. ledo
OK Ledo: Let's start over. For your information, NCO is a very large multinational corporation whose stock is traded on the stock exchange. NCO is considered by the big banks and financial institutions as being the bellweather of the collections industry. So goes NCO, so goes the industry. NCO had revenues of $183 million during the 2nd quarter of 2001.Their net income, however was down to a paltry 4 million from 11 milion in the 2nd quarter of 2000. Seems that's deemed to be "minor slippage" in the world of high finance. With that kind of income, one would think that they were somehow giants in the bill collecting business, easily able to leap tall buildings with a single bound and outrun speeding bullets. Personal experience with them has proven them quite incapable of chewing gum and walking at the same time. They are indeed inept and bungling in their debt collection methods when faced with sophisticated methods of defense. They lose every time. I am pleased that you were sufficiently knowledgeable in the law to respond to the following as you did. Good for you! But what you should have told him was that you do not discuss such matters over the phone and that anything he wished to discuss with you would have to be handled by mail and simply hanged up on him. One should never allow a collector to harass him in the manner you describe above. You stated that you got the green card and that same day NCO called you on the phone. I would have to see a copy of the validation letter that you sent them. If the letter you sent them was properly drafted, you would then have one violation of law that could help your case. Be that as it may, you still have the violation committed when they contacted you absent demanded validation. If you had your tape recorder hooked up so that you could prove the call having been made, you would then have had another violation of law. If you have no recorder hooked up and working, it's your word against theirs under most normal circumstances. However, you still need to have the call logged with date and time and caller ID info. The point can be proven from that. The next point is the date on the green card. If it has now been 30 plus days, then you should proceed to the next step with no further ado. Where are we at on that green card date?
