ALL: Before anyone gets the wrong idea, this post isnâ??t strictly about criticizing Bill Bauer (even though I believe him to be a public menace). Be that as it may, I have filed a complaint with my state AGâ??s Office (as a friend of the court) against Mr. Bauer and supplied supporting evidence and facts. The reason being (again, just so no one gets the wrong idea) is because Bauer is violating precepts of the Consumer Protection Act, by offering consumers erroneous and misleading credit repair advice for a fee. An investigation is sure to follow so Iâ??ll leave Bauerâ??s fate in the hands of authorities, who may or may not take aggressive action immediately (or at all for that matter). But there is a silver lining to all this, which you may find helpful (eventually). Speaking with a chum up north this morning, she asked why I didnâ??t do something constructive with this issue. Since I couldnâ??t see any reason not to I listened to her ideas, the basis of which had already crossed my mind. In any case, she outlined a method to counter the Bauerâ??s of the credit-world (those with good intentions but lacking necessary skills/knowledge): offer the consumer an alternative to fly-by-night methods, in the interim of our CreditDefenses project launch. Hummm, what a concept! [;-) So hereâ??s what I intended to doâ?¦ Develop materials with my staff based on close to 40 years of combined collections experience, aimed squarely for the distressed consumer facing debt recovery issues. This should only take about three (3) or four (4) months to put together (Iâ??m guessing, please donâ??t hold me to this), and will most likely be offered FREE (at least in part). Yes I hate switching gears (even if only a bit), yet these materials can easily compliment the upcoming CD system â?? so what the heck! As far as Bauer and I are concerned please understand I donâ??t dislike the man, only his methods and bents toward profit at the expense of others while lacking an ability to support his contentions. But not to worry, from here on Iâ??ll be ignoring Bauer as is appropriate given the pending investigation. Lastly. For those whoâ??ve been annoyed by this thing between Bauer and I, please accept my sincere apologies. With that also understand that sometimes being a consumer advocate means taking action, measures that (while you may not agree are necessary) server a greater good. Because I assure you, were there any other way to effectively deal with the matter I would have explored it. Thanks for your time and understanding, both individually and as a community.
Anthony, Come what may,you will ALWAYS be a well respected loved one here & NOTHING can change that. Your valued insight has meant much to many of us here(I was a reader mostly & can only answer things when it applied to me so my output has not matched my input;regardless, I have LEARNED much more). Good luck w/your pursuit & we will wait for the outcome. Sister Girl
Sister Girl: Tiz a thing most wonderful to be flattered by oneâ??s peer. (BLUSH) That is one of the most thoughtful statements Iâ??ve had the pleasure of receiving here; under the circumstances it means allot, thank you! Yes Iâ??ll keep all posted as to our progress regarding the supplement material (my staff LOVES the idea, and are pretty charged)!
Anthony, I enjoy getting information here on creditnet. I am very interested in the consumer issues that are posted here. Since I have benefited from the thoughts and ideas of both you and Bill. I am not sure where exactly you are going with the "Bill and menace" juxtaposition. You have expressed your wish to use your abilities as a consumer advocate to alleviate this problem. What exactly has Mr. Bauer done in regards to violating the law? Can he actually be held accountable as a "Credit Repair Company"? You seem very concerned that he is input is somehow a public menace. If you are totally in disagreement with his practices, wouldn't speaking to him in private be a better form of resolution? Perhaps you could have related to his sensible side and come to some type of amicable terms. (if you have already attempted this I do apologize) I don't belive that Mr. Bauer would purposefully engage in illegal tactics and then incriminate himself on a public forum, unless of course he was completely unaware of his situation. Please understand that I am not trying to stir up any controversy, I am just concerned with the ramifications of the situation at hand. I would hope that we could all be informed in detail of the alleged problem....
Daddy-O: You know it truly isnâ??t appropriate for me to comment in detail regarding this matterâ?¦ Yet the following may suffice to address your concerns, which I believe are valid all be they misplaced. Foremost I donâ??t do something, anything usually, without a degree of certainty of success. Meaning I would not take a certain action, if my ducks werenâ??t in-line and on steady ground. Secondly. As far as Iâ??m concerned the matter you reference is over; out of my hands! And frankly itâ??s tiresome now, I stated what I stated and did exactly as promised! Although you have my word as a gent, there were ample grounds for every action taken. Besides I have far better tasks to occupy my time than continuing a melodrama, which should (hopefully) now end. [;-)
Anthony, I respect your wishes. My concern is to give everyone a fair chance, especially those who may not be aware that they are doing something wrong. I agree with ending the melodrama and hope that "Everyone" including Bill, will somehow benifit from those " certain action" that you have washed your hands of.
GoDaddyO His problem is that he runs a collection agency and anyone who has any ideas whatsoever that might hamper his efforts as a bill collector present a menace. I am fairly certain that if you stop to think about it, you will remember that he never did attack Lizard King and his validation letter. I feel at least reasonably comfortable with the possibility that he did not consider that to be much of a threat even though LK claimed to have had great success with it which I do not doubt in the slightest although John Gliha's letter was much "cleaner" than LK's was and so should be much better. However, which one is better is totally irrelevent since quite a few people claim to have had success with both. What was it then that got one of our resident collection agency posters all steamed up? Well, I'm sure it was not one single thing, What he saw was a pattern developing where someone actually figured out what could be done to improve the validation letter, make it more efficient and then start talking about how to actually apply it in a way that just might have a chance of doing a number on a collection agency and that possibility got him steamed up. He can deny that if he wishes to, but it's awful funny then why his DNS numbers showed up on my webpage that was/is an actual reproduction of a letter from a collection agency who had attempted to collect a bill and ended up "forgiving" the debt which meant that since they had actually bought the debt, they paid the debt out of their own pocket. Collection agencies are not in the habit of paying the debtors bill in full without good reason, now are they? And then one of their clerks made the grave error of posting it with all three of the credit bureaus as a paid off collection. When I jumped them about their little error, they sent me a letter of apology by FEDEX overnight express and at the same time sent letters to the 3 credit bureaus demanding that the report be deleted immediately and they sent their demands by FEDEX overnight as well. I just happen to have the FEDEX tracking numbers for those letters to prove my point. I posted all that information on this forum at the time it happened, so our resident bill collector had a good chance to read that post too. And that's just about the time his vendetta started. Strange how one can make collection agencies either forgive the bill entirely and send FEDEX overnight express letters demanding removal from one' credit history, publicly admit their errors in that fashion, call me up on Sunday morning at 10:00 A.M. and apologize for their action and promise that it will never happen again and still be a menace to those who pay for his advice, isn't it? What I am is a menace to him and his ilk, that's what I am a menace to, and although he will deny that vehemently, the proof is there for all to see. As far as his complaint to the attorney general is concerned, he or anyone else has a perfect right to file complaints with attorney's generals. That's what they are there for, to listen to the public's complaints and see what can be done to alleviate them if indeed they have merit. If the attorney general feels that the complaint has merit, he will then contact the "offending" party and demand a reply as to how the offender will reply. If the complaintant is happy or can at least accept the answer provided him, the matter is usually all over with and forgotten about, unless of course, some really serious violation of law is in progress such as 35 year old men trying to meet 13 year old girls for immoral purposes in chat rooms or other such serious activities are going on. Then it is turned over to actual police authorities for appropriate investigation and action. If the attorney general has many complaints about the activities of an individual or company then it becomes a different matter entirely. The attorney general will usually demand a personal appearance in his office to discuss the issue. The offender may very well be ordered verbally to immediately cease and desist and additionally be forced to sign a cease and desist agreement. The attorney general may also demand that the offender return any and all moneys accepted from those who have filed complaints against the offender. Those are just a few of the actions that the attorney's generals are empowered to employ. There are much more serious things that can be done depending upon the severity of the infraction. Those "greater" actions are normally only employed when the offender defies the attorney general or the amount of damage done to the public is extremely severe or in high profile situations where the attorney general has an opportunity to gain a great deal of political advantage for himself, such as in the case of the infamous tobacco settlements where more than $280 billion dollars was at stake, almost all if not all of it going into the pockets of the politicians to do with as they pleased. Things like that will almost always guarantee the re-election of the attorney general in his state. Now that you and others have at least a partial understanding of how the AGs work, I think you can evaluate the probable outcome of Anthony's complaint for yourselves. He owns a collection agency and plans to put out his own credit repair manuals so there is competition involved there. Companies don't usually get very far filing complaints against their competitors in the same field. Attorney's Generals know very well that if they were allowed to be used by someone to put their competitors out of business, there would or might be a huge financial benefit which would accrue to the company that filed the complaint if they could get the AG to go out stamping out all their competition for them. In the case of the bill collector, collection agency putting out a book about how to repair one's credit, we have all seen plenty of that already. We see the same pap put out by the credit bureaus, the debt consolidation companies, and the FTC and the radio stations and the TV stations and the Attorney's Generals and heaven only knows who else ad infinitium, ad nauseum. I can just imagine a collection agency telling those from whom they are trying to collect how to go about avoiding the actions of the collection agency. Yeah Right! Yet that is precisely what this collection agency proposes to do????? It hasn't been all that long ago by any stretch of the imagination that I and a couple of other people told you all that the credit bureaus and the collection agencies and the credit repair firms were all hanging out on these message boards for the sole purpose of gleaning as much information as possible about the latest tactics in credit repair. Now we have the proof of the pudding. This one even admits it publicly. Now then, who is it that you all are fighting with besides the credit bureaus? Seems like I've seen more than a few posts in here hollering about how collection agencies screw people around, have I not? And now I see posts where people are expressing their love for a collection agency??? Is there some confusion around here or something?? Is there something magical about sheep's clothing that keeps us from identifying the wolves under them?
Geezers, Buddy, make me feel like Pontius Pilot staring down at Calvary why donâ??t ya! [;-) (Just kidding!)
Well, no, I don't think it's anything to do with Calvary. More like Judas Goats or Trojan Horses, Mr.Problem debts turned from red to black collection agency. Or how about the Fox telling the Farmer he will guard the chicken house. Why are we in this handbasket and where are we going??
Bill, I think Anthony is confusing a cavalry with Calvary. Somehow, though, guns and heaven don't mix very well. Randy
Do you think that there is a miniscule possibility that bill collectors are much like lawyers are said to be when it comes to such matters? I've heard some stories about that, and they usually end up with the lawyer going downstairs to spend eternity. Of course, those stories usually end up with gales of laughter, so how could one actually judge their veracity??? But it very well might be cause for at least some reflection. Can you just imagine the scenario at the judgement day of a bill collector when the Almighty asked the bill collector what he ever did to deserve to spend eternity in heaven? Maybe it might go something like this: Lord: "What have you done that you should receive the rewards of heaven?" Bill Collector after giving the matter much deep thought: "Lord, I gave this poor bum on the street a quarter the other day" The Lord looks over at St. Peter and asks: "Is that right, Peter?" Peter looks at the good book and replies: "Yes Lord, it shows right here that he did do that" Lord: "What else have you to offer us as an incentive? What other good deeds did you ever do while on earth?" Bill Collector after another almost interminable amount of reflection: "Oh yes, Lord! Just two weeks before that I saw this poor orphan kid on the street corner and I gave him a quarter" Lord: "Is that also correct, Peter?" St. Peter: "Yes Lord, it says so right here" Lord: "Well Peter, what do you think we ought to do with this guy??" St. Peter: "Well Master, I think we ought to just give him back his four bits and tell him to go to hell"
