Consumer complaint received 2020-03-03
Company: FREEDOM FINANCIAL NETWORK
State: FL
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit repair services
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
In XX/XX/2019 I signed up with Freedom Debt Relief ( FDR ) as I needed help managing my debt. I wanted to pay all my debt in a way that I could pay everything and still have money to live. When I first spoke to them they explained how the program worked, I asked several questions and I felt I could trust them. I guess I was wrong. To begin they said I had to make payments in the amount {$960.00} monthly which was still steep but I agreed as it was less of what I was paying monthly for everything I had. They explained that it will take some time to settle some debts but I should start seeing movement and results between 3 to 6 months. I also asked what would happen if for unforeseen circumstances I couldn't make a payment, they said that wasn't a problem. Well during the entire year I was with them, they only settled one account, didn't touch any of the other accounts, I got sued by one of the creditors, had to get XXXX XXXX XXXX involved which took over six months to come to an agreement, in the process I got sued again by another creditor which had to get XXXX XXXX XXXX involved again as they didn't attempt to settle that account before got to the legal action. I had some letters from creditors that wanted to settle the accounts, forwarded the information, asked them to do something and nothing absolutely nothing was done. 

Here is the bigger problem, not only they only worked on one account. When I got sued the first time and got the lawyers from XXXX involved, in order to settle the account I had to increase what I was already paying them monthly to {$1000.00}, so in reality there were of no much help. But I did it because all I'm interested is on paying my debt. By the time the settlement was signed and everything was processed we are in the month of XX/XX/2019 which unfortunately I was having a lot of hardship as I had recently moved and had unexpected expenses making that month very difficult. I called them to see if something could be done with that payment, if I could skip it or reduce it. After discussing with their advisor and making sure there were enough funds in the account to make the XXXX payment we reduced the payment 50 percent. So instead of paying the full {$1000.00} I paid {$530.00} giving me a little breathing space on that month. When discussing this with them they did notify me that there could be a risk that my settlements could be affected. But there were enough money in the account so that shouldn't be the case. They sent some text messages and emails saying that my settlements could be at risk, however we have already discussed that and shouldn't be a problem, they had money to pay. Well little did I know they chose to not make the payments for this new settlement, the one that I got sued. They didn't tell me they didn't make the payment, so they missed the payment for the months of XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX. I found out on XXXX because the lawyers are calling me because " I '' make the promised payments ; I was in shock. I told them that wasn't possible as FDR had the money. Then they went to inform me that I had to increase my monthly payments by {$47.00} more, which at this point they are making things really difficult for me. I'm upset because this shouldn't have happened and I couldn't understand why FDR didn't pay and didn't say anything to me. 

Once I called them, long story short, apparently when they say something could happen, for them it means that something will happen. Apparently for them the words " could '' and " will '' is exactly the same. After being with them on the phone trying to resolve the situation, they are accusing me because I changed the XXXX amount to half of the established amount after they told me and left me under the impression that it wasn't an issue. The thing is that regardless if the amount was changed on that month, the account had enough money to make the payment and they should've make a payment. If by any reason more money was needed at the end or the future that could've been arranged. If they would've notified me that they were not going to make the payment instead of repeating what I had already discussed with them on the phone in XXXX when making the temporary change, I would've taken action and figured something out. So what ended being the result of them not making the payment for three months without my knowledge, well the settlement fell through, got canceled, I am being sued again for non payment, and their lawyers decided they were not going to do anything because. All this because FDR feels it was my fault, they feel they told me it was going to happen when their words were " could '' instead of " will '' and they admitted to me over the phone that when they say something is at risk it means the same as they won't be making payments and the settlements will be affected. 

I'm sorry, but because something could happen doesn't mean it will actually happen. And I was under the impression based on our conversation over the phone in XXXX that because the account had money the payments were going to be covered. 

So they said, we are not going to do anything for you. The account had close to {$7000.00} dollars in it, they could've covered the three months of payments and they chose not to do so. 

They didn't deliver to what their promise and compromise was. They only worked on one account, I got sued on two that they should've have worked on. For a whole year I'm making monthly payments technically for nothing. I cancelled their services because I can't do business with a company that doesn't do what they promised their customer, I can't work with a company that waits for the customer to be sued which causes more stress, they ignore your messages about account settlements, they give you bogus answers about what's the status of your account. They pretended that I continued to pay over a XXXX dollars to them, while they weren't going to help with a situation they caused because of miscommunication and providing unclear information as they made up their own meaning of words. So technically for them I was supposed to pay them that for them to do no work on any of my accounts, the lawyers working on that second lawsuit, and left me to deal with the first lawsuit. I had to cancel their services and now I'm left in a worst situation because now I have to figure out two lawsuits and figure out what to do with the accounts that haven't been paid in a year because they were supposed to be settling this accounts. 

They deceived me, took the money for a year, and basically did nothing. I trusted them with my financial situation, I was only trying to be able to manage my debt in a smarter way and easier way and they just were dishonest. 

My frustration goes into the fact that all this could've been avoided if they would've been clear and straight forward. They should've said, we are not going to make a payment because of this. They failed to communicate that and their choice of words were the incorrect ones, to then put the fault on my and give me their back and say, oh well too bad, you figure it out. 

They are dishonest and shouldn't be on business.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation