Consumer complaint received 2019-05-03
Company: CREDIT BUREAU OF NAPA COUNTY, INC.
State: OH
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Medical debt
Issue: Communication tactics
Sub-issue: Frequent or repeated calls

Complaint:
Called Chase Receivables at XXXX on XX/XX/19 to discuss their balance because the original creditor had written off 25 % of the balance for charity. The collector ( I believe her name was XXXX XXXX ) was rude and refused to correct their balance or reach out to their client to get corrected and kept trying to get me to pay more than was owed. I refused to do that, and advised I would call the original creditor again to inquire about why the change in balance had not been communicated. 

Upon speaking with the original creditor, they advised they would email the collection agency again to have them adjust their balance. 

The following week, on XX/XX/19, I called Chase Receivables once again to discuss my account. The representative that had been rude previously was unavailable and the person that answered my call originally assisted me. I confirmed the balance adjustment had been done, and asked if they were able to do a settlement on the account to resolve the account. They offered a 20 % reduction and advised I could pay in 2 payments. I agreed to pay this, and set up a payment for half that day, and the remaining half a month later, provided my payment information and completed the payment. We ended the call pleasantly with no issues. The payment processed through my bank account and I received confirmation of such immediately. 

In the 40 minutes following the call, I received FOUR phone calls from Chase Receivables over and over with no messages being left. Frustrated with the interruptions to my work, I finally answered the 4th call. It was the rude representative I unfortunately had to deal with on XX/XX/19. I immediately advised I had already made a payment to resolve this account and she told me I had not made a payment, and that the settlement offered to me was not valid and started rattling off amounts that I would have to pay. Extremely irritated from the harassing phone calls and her rudeness basically telling me I was lying ( again, like she had with the balance issue originally ), I just plainly told her I was not doing that ( making these other payment amounts ). Immediately she put me on hold muttering something about her supervisor. 

Moments later, her manager ( XXXX XXXX ) got on the call and apologized for the confusion with the settlement and advised they were going to honor the original agreement. I inquired why the rep was harassing me by phone, advising it was against the FDCPA to do so. He confirmed it was a violation of the FDCPA and stated he did not know other calls were made. He advised no one would call unless my payment in XXXX for the second half of the settlement did not go through. 

This collector is out of line on how she is treating people that are making an effort to resolve their accounts. But more importantly, there is clearly a breakdown missing if the collector does not know that phone harassment is illegal, and the company does nothing to prevent this from happening. I was not trying to avoid paying my bill, in fact it was the opposite and she made it so frustrating and difficult.

Company public response: Company believes complaint represents an opportunity for improvement to better serve consumers
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation