Any advice is appreciated: I recently sent a certified letter, return receipt to a collection agent. The letter was an offer to negoiate a 3 year old obligation. I just want it off my report, it is the last derog and I can't stand it anymore. Nonetheless, if they won't accept my letters is there anything I can do? I feel like I could send this to the CRA's and say "look, they won't even take my mail, how can they verify this???" Any advice. Thanks a lot.
Creditwrench is starting to run into a little of that too. We've burned some of them so many times they are afraid to get another certified because they end up getting burned every time we or one of our customers sends them a certified. After they have been burned a few times, they seem to figure that if they accept it, they will just get burned again, so they won't accept certifieds any more. This just started happening, so we don't really know what to do about it yet. Could be we can figure out a way to burn them for not acceptiing our certified demand for validation or whatever the letter might contain. Bet we come up with some way to fight that smart%$$ move too.
Thanks for the responses. It seems to me that if a collection agency refuses to accept mail sent via USPS to verify an account than that should constitute that item as being un-verifiable, as it technical is to me. A CRA should not be allowed to verify information to a CRA and then refuse my mail requesting the same information.
Maybe not, but you can bet they will do it. Also, I've heard of some of the collection agencies refusing to accept certifieds from people who send them the same validation letter time and time again. They just get sick and tired of getting the same garbage over and over again because it's obvious that the sender has no more idea than the man in the moon as to why he is sending them or what they are for. I've seen maybe on or two examples of that where the person just kept sending the same validation letter over and over again. Naturally, they would get sick of that pretty soon. In that kind of a situation, couldn't blame them much.
I'm going to call my state AG office tomorrow morning and find out what I can do legally. My state has extremely tough credit laws and I'd be surprised if there weren't some kind of recourse. I'll post any information I find out. Thanks
Georges's comment got me thinking. I'm sure you frequently get those letters with the window (that has your address) and it looks like a check. When you open it (and you will because it looks like a check), it is some BS promotion. You then trash it. Office Max has a lot of good, inexpensive speciality paper, some of which could pass as a check. Buy some, get a window envelope, and then type above the address "pay to the order of" so it shows when inserted in the envelope. Use this to send your complaint. Would they fall for it? I think their greed will get the best of them. The other thing I have done is to send two letters, one certified and one regular mail. Put on both copies that you have done this. Even if they return the certified, they will likely reply to your regular mail letter because they know you will have proof that they returned your certified letter. It has worked well for me.
I would also back up the letter sent regular mail with postal form #3817 "Certificate of Mailing", cost 75 cents.
