Consumer complaint received 2021-05-24
Company: FAIR COLLECTIONS & OUTSOURCING, INC.
State: MD
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Other debt
Issue: Written notification about debt
Sub-issue: Didn't receive notice of right to dispute

Complaint:
I had recently found out that a collections amount of {$680.00} was added onto my wifes & I credit report this past Saturday. This was new to us ; as we did not have any knowledge of the debt owed and we were not provided with any sort of written notice or telephone call stating that we owed money from the original collector or the Fair Collections and Outsourcing. We moved out of the apartment building in question ( XXXX ; XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX in XXXX of XXXX. How are we just now being notified and why did the collections company not receive the request until XXXX XXXX? Then how come the XXXX did not notify us of debt owed until placing the debt onto our credit report? Something does not add up here I called the XXXX this afternoon and was told that the XXXX sent out two pieces of mail notifying us of debt owed. The original piece of mail was sent out on XX/XX/XXXX. I have a forwarding address set up with the United States Postal Service that began on XX/XX/XXXX. Any pieces of mail sent to us would have been forwarded to my new address. I also set up an Informed Delivery request with USPS to get digital pictures of my mail. 

As you can see from the picture titled XXXX ; no pieces of mail were sent to me on Wednesday, XX/XX/XXXX I checked all of the informed delivery emails ( XX/XX/XXXX ; XX/XX/XXXX ; XX/XX/XXXX ; XX/XX/XXXX ) and there were no pieces of mail notifying me of a collections balance The agent from the XXXX said that the 2nd piece of mail was sent out on XX/XX/XXXX. Again, as you can see from screenshots taken from every single informed delivery email, no pieces of mail from the XXXX was ever sent to us. To reiterate, I set up an change of address with the post office & every single piece of mail going to my old apartment would have been forwarded to my new address and there would be records of it within Informed Delivery Emails. 

Nothing ever came suggesting fraud and dishonesty. 

The XXXX also did not reach out to me or my wife via telephone. If they had, we would not be in this situation. We only owe {$640.00}. That is not a large balance. 

So, the XXXX then placed a judgment of {$680.00} on our credit reports and that is how I found out about the debt. Two years later after moving out of the apartment building We're trying to get our credit fixed, because we have no issue paying a debt we owe. The issue is we were never notified of the debt until our credit report came out. No pieces of mail were ever sent out by the XXXX and we did not receive any sort of notification that debt was owed. Saying that two pieces of mail were sent out when they were not is fraud and dishonest. It is a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. 

We also have an email between the apartment manager stating we need to see a bill. She wrote she would not send it to collections until we received a bill. As you can see in the email, we thanked her and never got a response until we got a notice from our credit report that there was an issue. She never sent us anything like she said she would in the email. I have attached screen shots of that correspondence. 

I have no issues with paying the money to get this taken care of. I do not want or need any drama. Please Help us!

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation