Consumer complaint received 2023-04-21
Company: Cedars Business Services, LLC
State: GA
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Other debt
Issue: Written notification about debt
Sub-issue: Didn't receive notice of right to dispute

Complaint:
Cedar XXXX has committed a myriad of violations of FDCPA regulations. 
Cedar  XXXX first contacted me on XX/XX/XXXX regarding a purported balance at XXXX University. I had not been contacted regarding this balance until that point. I responded as such to Cedar 's representative on XX/XX/XXXX informing them that I had not received notice of this balance and asking for the amount purportedly owed. 
Cedar responded on XX/XX/XXXX that the outstanding balance was {$1200.00}. This is well beyond the 5-day requirement under the FDCPA. Furthermore, the FDCPA specifically requires a debt validation notice be provided within that time period ( 5 days ). As of XX/XX/XXXX, this still has not occurred. 
On first contact and within the first 30 days of outreach, Cedar did not inform me of my right to dispute the debt or my right to request detailed information regarding the debt such as a debt validation letter. In fact, Cedar has never done either of those two things. They also did not make me aware that they had purchased that debt from XXXX University or that they had legal right to pursue said debt. Concealment of this information, as well as their aforementioned duties under the FDCPA regulations, delayed discovery of these violations. 
To provide some background, I am an international student who attended XXXX University 's XXXX school in Fall of XXXX. At the end of the fall term, I withdrew from the university and no longer lived there afterwards. I never entered into a loan agreement of any kind with XXXX University and the entirety of my fees, tuition, room and board, etc. were paid through cash/e-check. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, I requested complete documentation regarding the exact amounts owed and for what purpose. On XX/XX/XXXX Cedar responded that they would produce an invoice, still not informing me of any of my rights to dispute said debt, clearly with the intent that the 30-day period would lapse. 
Eventually on XX/XX/XXXX, a statement of account was provided, but with limited and statutorily incomplete information. 

However, to date, no documentation regarding the purported liability for that balance beyond a simple account invoice was provided, no " loan '' contract or similar. No debt validation letter or similar disclosures were provided. During the time between XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, when they had not provided any documentation to prove the debt, Cedar continued to attempt to make contact via phone. To avoid he-said, she said, I communicated with them exclusively via email. 

The repeated calls, emails, collection posting on credit, have caused significant emotional distress. It's so regular that it is obviously being done with the intent to annoy. The behavior of Cedar XXXX is at best unethical and as shown through attached documentation, in violation of prevailing statutes. 

We have attached documentation of communication with Cedar ( we've recent examples of their regular automated outreach for the sake of brevity ), screen shots some recent of incessant calls, and the documentation they've provided for review.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation