i am trying to deal with an old sears acct that went into default along time ago due to a divorce....what happened is this: i was current on my payment for years, i was so current when they would send me a bill it always said i had a 0 balance due towards my main payment, but i would always send money anyway to go towards the principle. i moved to another state and made a payment a month after i had moved. then the notices stopped coming. like an idiot i wasnt on top of it. about a month and a half later i called sears to tell them i wasnt receiving my bills and they said not to worry they would take care of it. well again like an idiot i left it alone. now all of the sudden, the last bill i received and paid was in april of 2002, i have this collection agency calling me. so i talk to this guy about the acct i tell him how i had been paying on it and how they quit sending me bills and he just keeps going on and on about how i need to pay back my debts and making me feel like crap. i tell him i have never received anything in the mail or any other phone calls prior to him calling and that i would like to receive something in the mail from them so i have a name, phone number, and address to refer to. he completely ignores me and keeps going on about how they are gonna sue me. he then tells me they will settle but i have to make a payment withing 5 hours. like i can come up with that kinda money so fast not to mention my credit is shot because of this and my banked pretty much laughed at me when i talked to them about a loan. so i dont talk to this collection agency for about a month. i get this call at 9 am this morning from the same guy. i am trying to explain to him that i still havent received anything in writing and i definately dont have the money to pay it off. he and i go round and round about the same thing. i am in mid sentence with him and next thing i know some lady comes on the line. the guy transferred me without even telling me or me knowing. the lady says they sent a letter out at the end of july and i shouldve gotten it. i tell her i hadnt. then she reads back my address which they had wrong. they had everything right except the city. i tell her that is why i never received the letter then she goes on to ask me why i gave them a false address. i tell her that is a lie i never did that. then she tells me i still shouldve received the letter despite. i say no that is not possible and she argues with me about that. so i call the post office after i got off the phone with her and they tell me that the letter wouldve been returned to the company as undeliverable. anyway, she continues on to tell me that the company will not take a payoff and they will not take payments that they want the whole amount due and what am i gonna do about it. i tell her about sears just quitting sending me the bills and she pretty much calls me a liar. i told her that i wasnt gonna tell her i could give them money when i didnt have it to give. so she tells me (and today is saturday mind you) that i have until 10am monday morning to come up with a plan to pay this money. i finally got a phone number outta her for the first time, but the first guy wouldnt give me one. i have talked to a bankrupcy attourney about this but i dont feel i am that far in debt to file for this. i tell the lady i talked to an attorney and she tells me that the attorney is obviously bsing me around (not in those specific words) and that i should seek a second opinion and that i should file for bankrucpy. this amount in my opinion isnt worth filing bankrupcy so i tell the lady i know that it is kinda far off but i would be receiving a good amount for my tax refund this next filing and that i would pay it then and she says that is to far away and they want the money now. so i told her to do what they have to do and if that is sue me then go for it. i dont work. i raise 2 children and my now husband is in the military. i am so tired of being harassed by these ppl and made to feel like i am nothing but crap because of the debt my ex husband put me in and left me in. is there anything i can do?
The advice I can give is dont waste your breath with those Collection Agencies, and only deal with the original creditor. If the collection agency calls you again tell them that you will only discuss this with the original creditor and hang up. Call Sears and try to deal with them on this situation. They are the original Creditor and they are the ones that put it in the collection agencies' hand so they are the people to deal with on this. I already heard something similar to this and Sears took back the acct from Collection Agency and dealt with the customer and made arrangements without the Collection Agency involved.
Star...you don't have to take harassment from a CA. 1) Send a Cease and Desist letter preventing the CA from calling you by CRRR mail-After the CA receives this, THEY ARE NOT ALLOWED TO CALL anymore. 2) If you provided the OC with your correct billing addy, and they erroneously billed you at an incorrect addy, then they MESSED UP! As Butch points out, know your Fair Credit Billing Act. Here is a quick link to review it: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/fcb.htm 3) If the OC didn't bill you properly, they should waive collection/penalty charges and DELETE the late notations reported to the CRA' and be willing to work out PAYMENT arrangements.
Not to mention the umpteen FDCPA violations this CA has already committed in their phone conversations to you. Send out a validation with a Cease and Desist from phone communication. Is this RMA?
What you are doing wrong is talking to them on the phone when you should be sending them a validation letter instead. Until you send them the letter and follow the VALIDATION PROCESS YOU CAN EXPECT MORE OF THE SAME HARASSMENT FROM THE CA THE END ** *** ** LB 59 """"```--~~~~~~~~~--```'""'''
The advice I can give is don't waste your breath with those Collection Agencies, and only deal with the original creditor. tryinhard ================ Some drawbacks to this advice: 1*Can't be done if CA owns the debt. 2*Have less consumer protection when dealing with an OC than you have when dealing with A CA. 3* Most likely it will cost you more money to deal with OC than CA. THE END ** *** ** LB 59 """"```--~~~~~~~~~--```'""'''
It helps to have a lot of documentation too. Who did you talk to at Sears originally? What date was it? Keep track of these things. I usually just jot them down on my bills. IF YOU ARE NOT DOING THIS STARTING NOW, the bills aren't the problem and your organization would be to blame. You cannot control the world, but you can start today on the path of taking control. One big thing that you should start doing now and for all time is, DO EVERYTHING IN WRITING. If you do happen to make a call, take notes, then write a letter BACK them stating, "based on our conversation today, this was what was said". Unless they correct you, in writing, you can basically have a nice big paper trail. This goes for your ex husband too. Everything must be in writing. What I do where a lot of people are saying "you must do CRRR" (certified return receipt requested) is do a regular stamped envelope (first class) and at the same time, do a CRRR. That way, if the person is smart and doesn't sign for the envelope, you at least have proof that you put in the mail on a certain date. You would put, above the person's address: "Sent via first class mail and certified, return receipt requested." Even there is no "proof" where they don't sign, you will have the quantum of evidence to support you. You will seem believable and you will seem that you know what you are talking about. There was a situation once where a credit card person accused me of lying about my phone number. It just so happened that I had 2 accounts with that credit card and one was correct and one wasn't. I totally felt that was their burden, they should have updated BOTH accounts. Boy, did that steam me up. The dude couldn't explain why one account was accurate and the other wasn't. I took notes from that call and believe me, I will use them when I dispute that they were negligent in causing me harm to my reputation.
thank you so much for the advice. i finally got a letter from the rude ppl and the company is pioneer credit recovery. they wont take payments of any kind they want the whole amount. so i guess they will be trying to get in touch with me for a loooong time lol.
thank you so much for the advice. i finally got a letter from the rude ppl and the company is pioneer credit recovery. they wont take payments of any kind they want the whole amount. so i guess they will be trying to get in touch with me for a loooong time lol.
