Consumer complaint received 2022-10-12
Company: Glasser and Glasser, PLC
State: VA
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Credit card debt
Issue: Took or threatened to take negative or legal action
Sub-issue: Sued you without properly notifying you of lawsuit

Complaint:
In XX/XX/XXXX I received a summons, and my wages were garnished until XXXX. The debts at that time was around {$7500.00} In XXXX I contact Glasser and Glasser and spoke to a representative about setting up a payment plan. She told me to wait until a few days after the court case. 
In XXXX I attended the court hearing. I was told by the Glasser and Glasser lawyer to contact the representative again after about 5 days. {$1000.00} was garnished in total from XXXX to XXXX. 
After 5 days I contacted the same representative as before. She stated that the court had not returned the garnishment to Glasser and Glasser yet so we couldn't start a payment plan, and that she would contact me when the funds had cleared. 
A couple of weeks later I received a voicemail from the representative and for several months I called back and it went straight to voicemail, and I left several. The representative would occasionally call me back and when I would miss the call and call her back right away it would go straight to voicemail. At one point I left a message asking for my case to be moved to someone with better availability due to the difficulty in making contact. 
Eventually, in XX/XX/XXXX, I went to the Glasser and Glasser website to leave a message there to please have someone contact me so I could pay the debt. I expressed at that time that it seemed as though the company was attempting to ignore me so that they could sue me again. The same representative and I finally made contact on XX/XX/XXXX, and I expressed to her that I would like to pay a lump sum of {$4000.00} on this debt and for an agreement that it would be paid off at that point. She stated that she would push the information up to her supervisors for a decision and I would typically hear back in XXXX hours. At that time I was not notified that my wages were being garnished yet again. 
On XX/XX/XXXX ( 6 days after requesting the lump sum payment option ) the representative called me, and I was unable to respond, so I called her back on XX/XX/XXXX. She asked me to provide my two most recent bank statements and my two most recent pay stubs. She also notified me that she couldn't process anything because my wages were again being garnished. 
I expressed that no one had told me the wages were being garnished and that it was the fault of Glasser and Glasser that I was not able to make contact to start a payment plan. I sent her the requested email. On XX/XX/XXXX she contacted me and told me that her supervisors had decided that they would accept {$4000.00} to cancel my garnishment, and that I would still owe the remaining {$2500.00}. 
I expressed to the representative and I am expressing here that this appears to be an act of extortion. The garnishment is a result of Glasser and Glasser 's repeated failure to respond to my attempts to pay. As they are now asking for {$4000.00} to remove the garnishment that they themselves caused, it appears to be premeditated. {$4000.00} is the number I chose to start negotiations to close the debt and clearly not a standard amount or percentage of any pre-existing agreements to avoid a lawsuit or wage garnishment. 
I requested by email to speak to the supervisors that the representative referenced. I did not receive a response. I called the representative and was sent to voicemail. 
It appears to me that Glasser and Glasser has created a situation in which repayment is impossible ( by ignoring all attempts to contact them ) in order to force another lawsuit and extort unreasonable amounts of money for the debtor to avoid garnishment or court.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation