Consumer complaint received 2022-01-09
Company: Advantage Collection Professionals, Inc.
State: MN
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Other debt
Issue: Written notification about debt
Sub-issue: Didn't receive notice of right to dispute

Complaint:
I received the attached collection notice from Advantage Collection Professionals on XXXX, XXXX XXXX, XXXX, for a debt I owed to XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, in the amount of {$310.00}. Please note that the collection notice intentionally does not have the date the notice was mailed to me. 

This was the first time that Advantage Collection had ever made any contact with me regarding this debt ; I had not received any notification of this debt from Advantage Collection prior to XXXX XXXX. As a result, I was not given any opportunity to dispute this debt, pay this debt in full or otherwise exercise my consumer rights under applicable debt collection laws, to avoid this collection account from being placed on my credit bureau reports. 

On XXXX XXXX, XXXX, I attempted to pay this debt in full via the website given in the collection notice : www.acpi-pay.com. The website charged a {$5.00} fee and did not offer any way to make a payment without incurring a payment processing fee. This practice was entirely dishonest, deceiving and abusive -- the website only allowed me to make a payment with a {$5.00} processing fee attached to any payment method used on this website, whether it was ACH or credit card. 

Since Advantage Collection knowingly and intentionally did not offer and did not provide information on free-of-charge ways to pay the debt, I e-mailed Advantage Collection on XXXX XXXX in the attached e-mail to advise them I was mailing a check that same day to pay the debt in full. I also requested my account with their office be updated accordingly and a paid in full letter sent to me once my payment had been processed. I did not receive any reply to or acknowledgment of this communication to Advantage Collection. 

As you will note in the attached copy of the cancelled check, Advantage Collection processed my payment, and they endorsed the check as well. The check was processed by my bank on XXXX XXXX. This is proof that my payment was received and processed, despite Advantage Collection knowingly and intentionally not responding to my e-mail mentioned above. 

On XXXX XXXX, I received notice from my XXXX and XXXX XXXX credit monitoring tools that my account with Advantage Collection was placed on my XXXX and XXXX credit bureau reports, and Advantage Collection had knowingly, deliberately and intentionally reported that the account was unpaid and had a {$310.00} balance. Advantage Collection knowingly and intentionally reported dishonest and inaccurate account data for this collection item with their office. Screen shots of my credit files reflecting this are attached. 

Advantage Collection did not adhere to lawful debt collection practices when it reported the inaccurate and dishonest account data to the credit bureaus. They also did not adhere to lawful debt collection practices -- but instead engaged in deceptive and abusive practices -- when the first and only contact I had with them regarding this debt was on XXXX XXXX, not even XXXX full week prior to when I e-mailed them and mailed my payment, and when Advantage Collection cashed my check. Advantage Collection also offered no option on their payment website to submit a free-of-charge payment, intentionally and knowingly engaging in dishonest and abusive debt collection practices to charge and collect extra fees, and not offering any information on how to submit payments that did not cost fees. 

After cashing my check, Advantage Collection knowingly used dishonest and deceptive practices to report my account as an unpaid collection item, when in fact it had been paid ; they were notified of the payment fee issue on their payment processing website, and they were notified I was sending in payment. At no time did Advantage Collection contact me or respond to my communication.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation