Consumer complaint received 2020-03-20
Company: Southwest Recovery Services, Inc.
State: TX
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Problem with a credit reporting company's investigation into an existing problem
Sub-issue: Their investigation did not fix an error on your report

Complaint:
I retrieved a copy of my credit reports ( see attached ) and noticed that Southwest Collections had placed an entry on my credit reports. I have never conducted any business with this company, nor had I ever received anything from them in writing. More specifically, being that they placed this erroneous, inaccurate entry on my credit reports, they never communicated in writing to me regarding the alleged debt. Moreover, they violated my consumer rights by doing so. Consumer law provides a collection company must send a dunning letter to a consumer when alleging a debt is owed and grant 30 days for the consumer to dispute the validity of the debt. They were negligent and blatant in placing this entry on my reports as I was not notified. 

In XX/XX/2020, I communicated with the credit bureaus in writing ( see attached ) disputing the validity of the entry. I did not receive a timely response from XXXX. I communicated in writing to Southwest Collections, sending my dispute of validity to their entry/claim, certified mail, to the address reflected on my credit report ( see attached ). I did not receive any notification from them until XX/XX/2020. This is well over 30 days. In their response, see attached, they state that the letter was sent to the wrong address. This is untrue as they report their addresses to the credit bureaus with their subscription. My letter was mailed to the address reflected on my credit report at time of the dispute ( see attached ). 

How then did they receive the letter if it was not the correct address? Being that I sent it certified, why was the letter not undeliverable and returned to me? This is a mere stall tactic on their behalf for not responding in a timely manner as required per law. Additionally, they state that they will update the entry with the credit bureaus on XX/XX/2020 as disputed. This account should have been marked as disputed with the initial letter sent to the credit bureaus as this was my initial dispute. Being that XXXX  claimed that the account was verified by Southwest, it was the responsibility of Southwest to update the bureaus with the account marked as in dispute. Why was this entry not flagged as in dispute from my first dispute with XXXX  if XXXX  communicated with Southwest. Additionally, this dispute with XXXX would have alerted Southwest that I was indeed disputing this entry they placed on my report. So for Southwest to state, my dispute letter went to the wrong address, why didn't they communicate with me in writing once they were alerted by XXXX of the dispute and then they verified with XXXX  as per XXXX. It is not my responsibility as the consumer to send my dispute to any other address other than that which is reflected on my report. If they change their address, they must update it the bureaus and not penalize me as the consumer for what is reflected as their address on my report in order to communicate with them. This is yet another violation. 

In my first letter to Southwest, for which they failed to address in their response, I requested debt validation. I specifically requested : An agreement that states your authority to collect on this alleged debt ; Agreement with signature of the alleged debtor wherein he/she agreed to pay the creditor Alleged account number Date this alleged debt became payable Original delinquency date Verification that this debt was assigned or sold to collector Complete accounting of alleged debt Name and address of the bonding agent for collection agency in case legal action becomes necessary None of the above validation requests were answered in their response thereby prompting me to question the veracity of this entry being placed on my credit report. If Southwest Collections truly has evidence and documentation to support/justify their placing this inaccurate entry on my credit report, why have they not provided it? Too, they did not provide any documentation bearing my signature. Why, if they are stating the alleged debt is valid. Where is the account record for this entry? 

Lastly, Southwest is responding to my second communication to them. They did not respond to my first dispute sent to them. When they failed to respond within 30 days, my second request, sent certified was for them to cease collection efforts and remove the entry from my report since they were unable to validate their claims. That is my right. They had 30 days and did not respond, yet they want to continue to damage my creditworthiness with information that is unverifiable and inaccurate. I also sent a certified letter to XXXX   as well to delete the entry from my report given that Southwest did not provide a response in a timely manner. Why did they not provide me copies of all correspondence they should have sent to me prior to inserting this on my credit report? Again, this reflects the contradiction with Southwest communicating with the bureau, yet not with me. At any rate, this entry must be deleted from my credit report.

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