Consumer complaint received 2018-12-27
Company: The CBE Group, Inc.
State: IA
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Other debt
Issue: Written notification about debt
Sub-issue: Didn't receive notice of right to dispute

Complaint:
In XX/XX/2018 I received a phone call from XXXX XXXX XXXX out of XXXX Iowa. When they contacted me, I answered the phone, and a lady said " Hello, my name is blank and I have a {$9000.00} account in your name that XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX College  sent over to have us collect ''. I asked her if XXXX sold them my debt. She said, No. I then proceeded to ask, " If XXXX did not sell you the debt, how can you legally contact me and collect for an account you do not own ''. She said something about how they partner with businesses to collect debts not sold. I know a brief amount about the Fair Trade Commission. However, I am under the understanding, A collection company can not call and collect on a debt that they legally do not own. Anyway, I went to my college and asked the Supervisor of Student Accounts about my account. Long story short. I have received little to no information from both, my college as well as this collection company. What I do know however, is I went in and spoke with the Supervisor of Student Accounts on Thursday, XX/XX/XXXX at around XXXX in the afternoon. I walked out of that meeting that day with nothing but a printout saying " account balance equals XXXX '' I want it to be known, The Supervisor of Student Accounts told me this : " since the debt is over 2 years old, we have it in our bad debt account its a book keeping thing '' I replied with, " okay, well, can I obtain a copy ''? The Supervisor of Student Accounts said : " Unfortunately, no, If I give you your account I will have to give you the account information of every student in our bad debt account ''. As soon as I left that meeting, the Supervisor of Student Accounts had emailed CBE requesting they close and return the account. The follow Tuesday, XX/XX/18 I received an email from the Director of Financial Aid. Saying my {$9000.00} account has been paid in full by XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX College. Which is great, however, I never to this day have gotten an answer, Why? I believe, I have found the answer. I believe, I have enough evidence to prove my previous institution has committed the following : Fraud, Extortion, Abuse, Manipulation, Harassment as well as, irresponsible use of Federal Funding. I believe, the collection agency, CBE is involved with my previous institutions " Scam ''. I believe, I have enough evidence to show the allegations that, I am making toward XXXX and CBE Group. Yesterday, ( XX/XX/18 ) I called CBE Group. Because, again, to this day I, have still not received any information concerning me or this account. I want it to be known, Yesterday ( XX/XX/18 ) when I contacted CBE Group. I spoke with a Representative, because I was needing information about my account. As soon as she pulled up my account and I began explaining what I believe is going on. I was immediately, put on hold and transferred to the Director of Operations he had no answers to give me. He was tripping over his words a lot. As if, he knew something was going on. I then proceeded to ask for my account number of this account. The account number that the Director of Operations gave me was my Student ID number from when I attended college. I believe what has happened here, is this : My school made an error by incorrectly confirming my status. They did not catch their error until the next year, during their routine Financial Aid Audit. When they did, by Federal Regulation, they were required to return all of the federal money. They did that, however, turned around and opened an in-house account in my name telling me this was my error, my mistake, I have to eat this. I have the evidence that I believe confirms this was all a scam. And, I believe the college and CBE are working together as a " scare tactic '' to put people in positions where they feel as though they have to pay it or else. Because, ( and you can listen to every recorded phone conversation ) they called me, and said " you have until the end of XXXX to pay this account in full. Or else, we will report to your Credit ''.

-However, how can they Legally report to my Credit, if they never owned my debt? 
-How can they Legally call me when, I never received a letter from either my school or the collection agency? 
-How is it this account was " legit ''. Yet, I asked one question and XXXX decides to do a " good '' and pay my {$9000.00} " account ''. 

I apologize if this complaint is long and kind of everywhere, you have absolutely no idea how big a burden, this has been on me for the last three years. I had to quit college. I had to literally re-invent where I was going to go with my life without a college degree. So with that said, my complaint is this : Fraud, Extortion, Abuse, Financial Harassment, Manipulation I also want to remind to whomever is reviewing my complaint, I have received absolutely nothing from this Collection Agency.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation