Consumer complaint received 2019-05-18
Company: Professional Debt Mediation, Inc.
State: TX
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Other debt
Issue: Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly
Sub-issue: Talked to a third-party about your debt

Complaint:
Summer XXXX, XXXX XXXX increased their kWh rates exorbitantly, resulting in $ 600+ energy bills two months in a row that I was unable to pay in a lump sum. XXXX XXXX refused to offer a payment plan and forwarded the {$1200.00} they determined I owed them to a debt collector. XX/XX/XXXX, I learned that Professional Debt Mediation ( PDM ) was the collector who purchased this debt. I learned this from my estranged, XXXX, out-of-state father, who PDM   contacted instead of me. This break in the deliberate absence of contact between my father and me was an emotionally distressing event that was in every way unnecessary. PDM  had received all of my contact information from XXXX XXXX, including the phone number I have had for many years and still have, to a phone that has had uninterrupted service for the entirety of assignment of my phone number to me. PDM  admitted to me in a recorded phone conversation on XX/XX/XXXX that they indeed received my valid, current phone number from XXXX XXXX when the account was sold to them. My father 's phone number has never been my phone number. I have never lived at his address, have never used his phone number, and have never listed his number anywhere as a reference or contact of any kind. No phone number was listed on my XXXX XXXX account besides my own, which PDM  did not use. PDM  did not make any attempt to contact me directly and instead sought to shame, humiliate, intimidate, and scare me into paying them by contacting an uninvolved third party about my debt. My phone records reflect that PDM did not call me at all before calling my father. 

Following their call to my father, I called PDM both to complain and to discuss the debt. No action was taken to remedy PDM  calling others before calling me. I set up a payment plan for the debt with PDM and made every scheduled payment in full on time as agreed on each subsequent payday of mine. At no time during or after the setup or any of my payments did PDM mail, email, or otherwise send any kind of written communication to me. I did not receive any written notification of the debt, login information to manage my account with them, list of scheduled payment amounts and dates, or confirmation of my processed payments. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, the day before the last payment ( payment 13 of 13 total payments ) was scheduled to autodraft, I missed an unsolicited phone call from PDM, with a voice mail from a PDM employee named XXXX stating it was important that I speak with her. I promptly returned the call and was transferred to XXXX, who spoke of the debt as though it was newly forwarded to PDM and attempted to collect the remaining balance, scheduled to autodraft the next day as usual, right then over the phone, a day early. When I explained that this account was not new, that I had been making payments every payday, and that my next payment was not due until the next day, XXXX had me authorize a payment agreement all over again for me to be allowed to make the scheduled payment, during which time she again attempted to set it up to be removed from my checking account a day early instead of on its originally scheduled date and I again had to request that it be set to deduct on the date it was supposed to be paid. 

XXXX accidentally admitted to me during this conversation that PDM   policy dictates that I be sent a paybook listing my payment information. XXXX was promptly steered away from acknowledging that she said that, elaborating on paybooks, or addressing why I did not receive one by her supervisor, who could be heard telling her what to say in the background for the remainder of the conversation. After receiving recorded verbal authorization from me for my payment to be deduced the next day, XXXX asked if there was anything else she could help with and I inquired about 1 ) my never having received any written communication from PDM about this debt at any point in my period of business with them and 2 ) PDM contacting my estranged father instead of me to make notification about this debt. XXXX refused to answer either of these questions, instead telling me not to worry about it, at one point actually attempting to convince me that my email server deleted an email from PDM without my knowledge or consent, attempting repeatedly to end the phone conversation without addressing these issues at all, and changing the subject more than once by asking me if I wanted to revoke the authorization for the next day 's scheduled payment ( to which I replied each time that I did not and was made to unnecessarily verbally reauthorize the unrelated payment ). 

XXXX eventually transferred me to this supervisor, a PDM  employee named XXXX. XXXX also refused to answer either of these questions and also repeatedly deflected with subject changes, but additionally told me PDM  contacting my father did not happen, attempted at one point to convince me that I had listed my father 's number ( which has never been listed on anything associated with me ) on my XXXX XXXX account, threatened to revoke the payment I had scheduled for the next day without my consent and to incorrectly note that I defaulted on the debt, repeatedly refused to provide me with any contact information for any kind of PDM office with which I could file a complaint despite multiple requests from me for these details, mocked me more than once via statements that I did not understand how debt collection works, and eventually stated she was going to transfer me to a different supervisor but instead hung up on me. 

To say that this company 's practices are unprofessional, deceptive, rude, and ridiculous is an understatement. PDM 's employees have engaged in behavior that is harassing, coercive, abusive, predatory, dishonest, retaliatory, and without accountability.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation