I sank about $915 into a debt settlement company until i realized they were just going to get me into trouble. I was just wondering if anyoe had any ideas as to how or if i can recover my money? Im currently writing the president of the company a letter, but im not sure that will do a bit of good.
Have they had any complaints with BBB? Is there any indication they had no intention of paying any creditors, such as complaints from other customers, that might get a state AG, or local DA interested? Do they have any settlement agreements with either state AGs or FTC? In other words, if they entered into a contract with you in bad faith, or they were being run as a scam, that is both reason to sue civilly and file complaints that might result in regulatory or criminal action. Were they visible enough that there are other consumer complaints, or ex-employee complaints, findable by search?
they had one complaint but i couldt read what it was. It just said 1 complaint and it was resolved. I myself took some time and filed a complaint against them. Hopefully it will yeild some results.
Go to the FTC site and search on their name. You may find if they were slapped for misrepresentations in their advertising or sales pitch. Go to ripoffreport.com, and search on their name. You may find if they performed as they claimed for others. Go to your state AG's site. Some are searchable.
Not doing it will do nothing, but there are no guarantees. If they are already accumulating a lot of unhappy customers, it starts to look like whatever they are claiming to do for their customers is not being done, which starts to make their claims appear deceptive. Doing it will produce a complaint to them that they at least know will be publicly visible, possibly affecting future business, unlike any private complaint to them. Whether they respond to this, perhaps by some partial refund, depends on whether they value appearing legitimate in an "industry" of questionable legitimacy. To some degree, too much negative attention is not a good thing, and settling with the occasional squeeky wheel is safer. They don't really want on-going regulatory attention, even if no single complaint is likely to be worth prosecuting.
BBB complaints don't seem to make companies do right if they don't intend to, but if you look at BBB reports in an industry, companies tend to cluster into those that resolve their complaints, and those that don't. It is a way to get a complaint past the usual CSR barrier to someone at least concerned about a company's image.
well i noticed they did only have one complaint and it was settled. weather a refund was involved i dont know, but i was hoping that that was a good sign. but like the other poster said, its better than doing nothing.
thanks for the great article! it only validates, once again, why i pulled out of that program. it really has rocked my life, closing a checking accoutn losing money and ruining my credit all in a few months!
