Consumer complaint received 2019-03-05
Company: Kimball, Tirey & St. John LLP
State: IN
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Other debt
Issue: False statements or representation
Sub-issue: Attempted to collect wrong amount

Complaint:
I called Kimball, Tirey, & St. John, today on XX/XX/2019. They have lied to me on several occasions about my account and have done several unethical practices to get money out of me. First, they harassed me with letters during the period when I requested my validation of debt, but never received it. I reported that and afterwards, they finally sent me the letter. Then, they only sent me a letter stating that they would put this debt on my credit report, but was not harassing the other person involved and I believe this was a scare tactic because I have young credit, so they saw that as an opportunity to get me to pay this debt off quickly. They were only targeting me with this debt and not the person with a longer credit history. Once I got the letter, I immediately called to make a payment plan with a man who was over my case. I let him know that I was a college student and could not afford a lump sum or to make larger payments. I spoke to two men and I believe it was either in XXXX, XXXX or XXXX. But during those months I had been communicating with them. The first man lied to me in the middle of our conversation. He said once I made the {$250.00} payment plan, that he would take the eviction off of my record and by the end of the conversation he contracted that statement and said I would have to wait until I paid off of the debt. A month later, I called in to lower that payment to {$100.00} and the second man I spoke with told me that if I paid a lump sum of {$3000.00} that the debt wouldn't be put on my credit and that they would remove the debt from my record. These conversations were all recorded and can be used as evidence. He told me that once I come up with the lump sum that I could pay it off and that until then I would pay the {$100.00}. I stopped that plan once I reported to the CFPB that they were adding add fees to my account making my payments useless and then the debt became disputed. I have worked hard these months to come up with the {$3000.00} lump sum on my own, as a struggling college student. Today, I called to pay this debt off with the half amount we spoke about. I spoke with someone new who was on my case and she told me that the other guy no longer worked there and she had taken over my case. Again, I do not know if this is true or not, because they lied about everything today. Eventually, I spoke with the supervisor, XXXX, who was very abusive in her language towards me. She was very disrespectful and blatantly lied. She lied about the total of my debt and said we owed {$8000.00}. Now nowhere in my record does is it say I owe that much money and they have not sent me a single letter saying I owed that much. She said that the cost came from the apartment, but that was not true because we have court records of all the charges that came from XXXX Apartments and if it reached to {$8000.00} that is coming from this debt collection agency. She was not transparent about how much the debt collection agency was trying to profit off of my debt. She made it seem like I had no other option, but to pay the debt in full and from my previous conversations, I know that to be a lie. She said that they would not take this off of my credit and even with a partial payment they wouldn't, and from my previous conversations, I know that to be a lie. She also made up some random discount of 10 %, which is nothing. She said that she could speak to disrespectfully if she wanted to and could talk me to me however she pleased and I know that to also be lie due to FDA regulations. Throughout the whole conversation she was antagonizing me. She said I couldn't pay half, but would not give me an explanation as to why, which also makes me believe she was lying. According to the FDA, her behavior was illegal : falsely represent the amount you owe or the amount of compensation the collection agency will receive. She was not trying to collect a debt, only bullying, lying and verbally abusing me. She was forcing me to pay a higher amount than I knew I had to. All conversations are recorded and can be retrieved to show that I was offered to pay the {$3000.00} lump sum and I agreed.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation