DIRTBAG collection agency attorneys!!!!

[KLAchemist]

Just as I am writing my goodwill letter, my husband was contacted at work by someone at work claiming to be an attorney saying he was going to sue him for his debt with ATT Universal card. I don't know whether he was related to the collection agency that contacted us back in november, but:

1.) The debt has NOT been charged off and despite collection activites, ATT universal has continued to accept payments on the account

2.) The account is current

3.) We were contacted by National Financial Systems in November but they "disappeared" when we DV'd them and neither sent us validation nor a mini maranda letter

4.) We just sent a fax to Universal including our "goodwill" leter (see post below)

5.) Now the dirtbag "attourney" with a 1-800 number just called my husband and said he is suing us for 2600 and will serve the papers to my husband at work and that he has to do nothing for us; we have received NOTHING from said "attorney" in the mail

So if anyone has ANY advice it would be appreciated, including any answers to the following:

Is there anything illegal about these threats? Is this guy just bluffing with empty threats? How do you respond to them? (DH said to put anything he has in writing to us) Would you recommend that we consult an attorney? Should we DV any correspondence we get from him? It is illegal to sue without DV right?

THANK YOU FOR ANY AND ALL HELP.

-Kristi

[strumpeace]

He's not supposed to threaten to sue you unless he actually intends to do so. And the thing to know is this: More than likely, the person calling you is NOT an attorney. Rather, he is one of dozens or hundreds of people working in cubicles for a collection agency owned by an attorney. If he says he's an attorney and he's not, then he has misrepresented himself, and he's not supposed to do that, either.

It doesn't happen to be Cambece or Zwicker, does it? I can't stand those guys.

Anyway, if you just want them off your back, send them a C&D letter. If you're making payments to the OC, contact the OC and find out why the heck they have these goons calling you.

[retmar]

You need to find out if this Attorney is with the same outfit you DV'd. If so, big violation. All you need to do is look at your past info to see if the phone number matches. At the same time, their calling him at work is a violation as they have your home address. Therefore, if you do not have any contact address for this current one, I would call the number he gave to see who it is and where they are located. Then create a new DV, reminding of other, be sure and enclose a copy of letter and signed card. Include the threats made over the phone, along with the date, time, and name of the person. Cite all applicable laws. You can search for an Attorney if you want as it wouldn't hurt, but, I do not think you really need one at this time. You have enough resources here to do it yourself. Stand up to this ADUB.

Remember, if by chance they did sue, you would have fun with this. File a Defendants Claim for the violations and go to town. For this reason, I would sit down and create an outline of everything that has happend to date, including the call at work and all threats made, etc. You get the idea. Even if you didn't go to court, you would still have your weapon to fight them.

[KLAchemist]

Thanks for your responses. I don't have a name for these jerks yet, but I will find out when DH gets home this evening. Looks like we have more letters to write, so better get busy. Thanks again.

-Kristi

[ghacorp]

AT&T Universal is a Citibank card, correct? I would contact the OC to determine why the account has been referred to collection while it's still current. It just doesn't add up!

[KLAchemist]

The account had been late previously but not more than 90 days and was on a payment plan over a period of a year when DH was unemployed. At the same time we made a payment after the payment plan was over in order to make the account current (it was not reaged), it was referred to National Financial Systems. AT&T accepted the payment, however, and the account was then listed as current on credit report. They have continued to accept our payments but have not sent statements since.

We DV'd National Financial Systems in late November after the catchup payment was made and accepted. However we never heard back, and rightfully so because we could have easily countersued them for several FRCA violations including failure to notify us in writing w/ mini miranda statement. I am guessing they closed and returned the account to AT&T.

The account is only listed as "collections", not charged off. Hence we want to right this with AT&T. We sent the goodwill letter (see previous post) in order to let them know that DH wanted to pay the account in full. We faxed this in today and sent copies via cert mail.

We get nowhere with AT&T customer service. I don't know who the appropriate contact for this is, but calls we make are referred to internal collections who then claim they cannot access the account and refer us to dirtbag law/ collections firm. So phone calls are getting us nowhere.

I guess the only other thing we can do at this point is send another letter of appeal to them (unfortunately don't have a high up contact) and say, look, we want to pay it, the lawsuit isn't necessary. I guess we will have to wait and see what the response is.

I suppose all the attorney/ CA knows is that they work for AT&T. They have been extremely nasty, saying they "owe us nothing" (maybe thinking we would ask them for a payment plan, which we didn't), they don't work for us, and that AT&T is suing us and they will serve my husband with the papers at work (mostly threats, I assume, if they intended to just sue, why would they call first). I just want them off our backs.

Perhaps even ATT is confused at this point. I am hoping the letter we sent today and the one we are drafting this evening will clear things up since we can't do so over the phone and all we can do is wait.