Consumer complaint received 2018-03-16
Company: ZWICKER & ASSOCIATES
State: CT
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Credit card debt
Issue: Took or threatened to take negative or legal action
Sub-issue: Collected or attempted to collect exempt funds

Complaint:
Zwicker has repeatedly tried to contact me at my in-laws even though I havent lived there since XXXX, the business involved in this debt was never registered there, and XXXX had my current address and contact info on file before sending me into collections with Zwicker and Associates. More recently, they said they had tried to called me repeatedly but they never left a voicemail even though, once after they called and left a message with father-in-law, I did call them back, gave them my proper number, and gave them permission to leave messages, and also made sure they have my current address. 

I had to ask 3 times ( twice on the phone and once in writing ) that they stop contacting my in-laws. My mother in-law also spoke to them at least twice and told them I didnt live there. Y father-in-law spoke to them too. When Zwicker decided to sue me, they tried to deliver the court summons to my in-laws instead of me. When Zwickers representative later came to my house with it, he just threw it at the end of the driveway where I didnt even see it when I got home. Instead, my husband found it we had no idea how long it had been there. 

Over the phone, I agreed to pay {$250.00} a month and they started taking monthly payments out of the account. Said they would take two to begin with and then more after I returned the court paperwork. I returned the court paperwork on time and then they stopped taking the payments wed agreed upon. There was no information in the agreement saying what constituted default or that the balance being due immediately meant that they would try to take it from my checking account. To my knowledge, the did not try to contact me before filing paperwork to levy my bank account. 

The money in my checking account was from a federal student loan and so is not eligible for garnishment. I called them to discuss the issue and was then told that I the money had been taken because I hadnt paid since XXXX, which I had not been aware of. I thought payments were being taken as agreed since I hadnt heard anything from them. The lawyer kept telling me to hang up and call the collections department and the collections department kept telling me to hang up and call the lawyer and I got nowhere with them. Eventually, even though they had just frozen {$2000.00} of my checking account money, I was told I still needed to give them a payment ASAP. When I asked if they were going to continue to take money out of my account on a daily basis if I didnt give them a payment, they couldnt say. When I asked how the {$2000.00} didnt count as a payment, they said, Because we had to take it. You didnt give it to us willingly. I told them not to contact me again until after XX/XX/XXXX since I had no idea where I was going to find money for them. They started calling me again less than a week later on XX/XX/XXXX. 

Over the next week, I had to borrow money from my mother to cover my mortgage. I also borrowed money from sister to pay them {$250.00} for XXXX. After my husband and I got paid again, I sent them {$500.00} to make up for the missed months of XXXX and XXXX. As mentioned above, they called me again on XX/XX/XXXX. They didnt leave a message. They called again on XX/XX/XXXX. I answered and they asked me to pay the balance in full. I told the woman that I had a court judgement and that Id already sent them {$750.00} and that the {$2000.00} was still being held and that I had no more money for them. She said she had no record of any of that. I had to explain the entire court settlement/bank levy situation to her and then she had to go look for the checks I had sent. Thankfully she did eventually find them. She asked me if I was willing to set up a new payment plan. I told her I wanted to stick to the court judgement. She confirmed that my account is now up to date in accordance to that agreement, and that as long as I continued to pay on time, no more action would be taken. She also said that if I missed a payment by more than 30 days, it would be considered in default again. I asked her to confirm this 30-day policy and she twice confirmed that they dont take action until an account is 30 days past due. Of important note here, when Zwicker and Associates filed the paperwork to levy my bank account, it was only 28 days passed the payment due date.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief