NCO Debt validation – the story continues
Posted by noholdsbarred on January 10, 2007
NCO still hasn’t responded to my debt validation. It has been almost 30 days. All three credit bureaus acted with in days and removed the item. By law, is NCO required to respond to my DV request, or does just erasing the account satisfy their legal requirements?
I’ll wait a few more days and write another letter. I’d lke to get the addresses of some of the higher ups at NCO. I’m not satisfied with the accounts just being removed, I want to be sure that this debt will never come back to haunt me again. I want NCO to admit, in writing, that this was an error and not a valid debt. Do I have a chance of getting that? Thoughts?
I’m still contemplating what legal recourse I might have for the time period that my credit was damged. If I can indeed that the reporting error caused me some damages.
Christine Baker said
I’ve been unsuccessful getting collectors to admit that they made an error and to ensure that the account won’t show up again when I sued. My cancelled check and bank statement weren’t good enough for American Agencies. Verizon (original creditor not covered by the FDCPA) also argued in court that I owed the amount of their refund check which I had NOT cashed and the judge apparently bought that.
Had much better results when settling early in the litigation or prior to suing. If you put up a fight they CAN legally lie to the court (at least in Arizona) and they will most likely destroy you.
I give it 99.99% that the bureaus did NOT delete, but forwarded your disputes to NCO and then NCO quickly deleted in response to your disputes (as they so often do) and that’s all they have to do.
Chances are that they’ll sell the account and it might come back to haunt you or less likely, they actually have some documentation to send you later.
Contact your legislators and ask them for a change to the FDCPA, to require that disputed accounts cannot be sold or at least that the buyer has to be notified of the dispute and cannot collect and report on the credit until they validated.
Iconoclast said
It is unlikely that you will get any satisfactory response from NCO. It is likely that they were the ones who removed the notation from your credit reports. They will not want to send you the letter that you are asking for because it might be used in court someday against them.
NCO has a very poor record of customer service as indicated by the Better Business Report on them:
Customer Experience
Based on BBB files, this company has an unsatisfactory record with the Bureau due to unanswered complaint(s).
Customer Complaint Data
Number of complaints processed by the BBB over the last 36 months: 1432
Number of complaints processed by the BBB in the last 12 months: 457
See http://www.mybbb.org/codbrep.html?ID=80002360&wlcl=y
In my opinion, you should forget about receiving any satisfactory response from NCO. Their track record speaks for itself. It would be advisable just to check your credit report frequently to make sure there are no mistakes.
I would also advise writing a summary of your complaint to the following:
U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan
United States Attorney’s Office
615 Chestnut Street, Suite 1250
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106
Associate Director for Financial Practices
Federal Trade Commission
600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20580-0002
BBB of Metro Washington DC & Eastern Pennsylvania
1411 K St. NW, 10th Floor
Washington, DC 20005-3404
U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan is on the consumer’s side. As you noted in an earlier posting in your blog, it was his office that managed to get a $1.5 million judgment against NCO in 2004 for falsifying dates of credit delinquencies. The FTC address above is the one that is supposed to monitor NCO’s compliance with the ruling, so I suggest that you write to them.
As if the judgment in 2004 wasn’t enough, in January 2006, NCO again paid a $300,000 sum to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which was called “Assurance of Voluntary Compliance.” This fine was won by Attorney General Tom Corbett, whose complaint alleged the following:
Corbett said that the alleged violations included engaging in or using unfair or deceptive debt collection acts and/or practices, and engaging in or using false, deceptive, or misleading representations or means in connection with the collection of debts.
Corbett said that many consumer complaints involved claims that NCO Financial improperly contacted consumers at their place of employment, or called at unusual times or at times NCO Financial knew, or should have known, were inconvenient to the consumer, such as calling consumers before 8 a.m. and/or after 9 p.m.
Other consumer complaints alleged that representatives of NCO Financial used obscene or profane language and engaged in conduct to threaten, annoy, abuse, or harass consumers.
Corbett said there were also allegations that NCO Financial continued to communicate with consumers after the consumer had notified them in writing that the debt was in dispute or that the consumer wished the debt collector to stop calling.
My own experience with NCO has been, like yours, one of extreme frustration at seeing a company run roughshod over federal laws. I have personally experienced the abuse that Mr. Corbett describes above. I was called at my office in December 2006 concerning what the representative called “defaulted student loans.” I told him that I would not discuss the matter, did not want to be contacted again, and that I could not receive personal phone calls at work. According to federal law, that should have ended the phone calls. Not with NCO. They have called five more times since then, and even after my supervisor told them that I cannot receive personal phone calls at work, they still keep calling. In addition, it appears that they have used false names when they call. Two different reps have called, leaving messages with the same family name as mine. This is also a case of false misrepresentation, which is illegal.
One respondent to an earlier post of yours claimed that he worked for NCO and that NCO was compliant with federal law. In light of NCO’s continuing abuse of consumers and flaunting of federal law, his claim is downright laughable. On another posting, I saw where a different respondent, claiming to be an NCO employee, answered someone’s complaint against NCO in a similar vein. I wonder if NCO pays some employees to hunt down these negative remarks about NCO so that they can write a sympathetic response and thus soften the blow against the company.
I just sent a certified letter to NCO, asking them to cease and desist from all contact with me. I have also written the FTC and U.S. Attorney’s Office. It would help our cause against NCO if you could do the same.
Good luck with your case!
Mad_and_not_going_to_take_it said
I have just had a similar case come back to haunt me after 8 years. Back in 1999 a crooked hotel desk clerk stole my identity info & AmEx credit card number. These were quickly used to order thousands of dollars in computer goods, as well as ‘entertainment’ in Miami. About 6 months later, I got dunning notices from a collection agency named CBCS, trying to collect on an account that was supposedly set up with Bell Atlantic, now Verizon. After some correspondance – including a copy of the letter from the State’s attorney in Miami, CBCS eliminated the collection.
Now, in 2007, I’ve received a letter from Afni, Inc of Bloomington, Illinois seeking collection again on that debt. I’m trying to find the original info that was sent to CBCS. No, I shouldn’t have to do this – but it looks like I’m headed down this road again.
I have been a fan of minimal federal regulation, but when a “closed case” becomes reopened 8 years later, the law needs to be changed.
Bottom line: it will never go away.
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Maximus said
I would like to see a continuation of the topic
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paxxy said
NCO also will add more interest where interest has been added in the same time period. For example– if NCO buys the debt from the creditor 2 years later…and the debt has already incurred interest from another collection agency for the 2 year period of time ad was sent back to the creditor –NCO will also add on interest for the same 2 year period then claim the principal was the amount that already had interest from other 3rd party collectors not the original principal . They will state that when your last payment was made on the last payment date to the creditor it was the amount that had the interest already added onto it from the other companies that passed it around for a few years. Even the original creditor admitted this was illegal to do.
Shyam said
true… you know what they say…Always be a student, there is always someone smarter than you!
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