Consumer complaint received 2017-06-05
Company: PORTFOLIO RECOVERY ASSOCIATES INC
State: NY
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Credit card debt
Issue: Written notification about debt
Sub-issue: Didn't receive notice of right to dispute

Complaint:
This complaint is in regards to an alleged account in my name t placed wit h PORTFOLIO RECOVERY ASSOCIATES, on  behalf of  XXXX   XXXX . The stated balance of this alleged account placed wit h PORTFOLIO RECOVERY ASSOCIATES w as {$270.00}. I was completely unaware of this account being transferred to  PORTFOLIO RECOVERY ASSOCIATES, un til I pulled my own credit report on   XXXX   XXXX   XXXX    , and noted the odd discrepancy on my report. The account number with this company is  XXXX . I had not once received any notification of this debt owed via   XXXX   XXXX   XXXX   XXXX  , or been notified by this company of the alleged debt via telephone.  <P/> Upon this, I immediately emailed the Disputes department with  PORTFOLIO RECOVERY ASSOCIATES,  as well as the company executives and  Quality Management  team, and received absolutely no response from any of these people or departments via phone or email, as requested. I disputed this debt as possibly invalid, and requested immediate removal of this account from my credit files ; again, I received no responses from the company 's Dispute or Quality Management team, or the CEO,  XXXX   XXXX . Ultimately, I received account information from  XXXX   XXXX , and as an act of good faith, offered to pay the account with PORTFOLIO RECOVERY in full to alleviate the situation, and have the collection account with PORTFOLIO RECOVERY removed from my credit bureaus. This account was then paid in full via phone on Monday,    XXXX   XXXX   XXXX     .  <P/> Upon phoning in and speaking to several rude, condescending representatives with PORTFOLIO RECOVERY, I was told that if I had paid this account in full, I would be able to have the account removed from my credit reports or " dispute the account off of my credit files '', and that PORTFOLIO RECOVERY would not fight me on this. Then, another representative countered this by stating that she would not assist in the removal of said account even though the account was now paid in full, and I was given misinformation from multiple representatives prior. This remains to be  one  of the major issues with this collection agency -- every time that you phone in or email, you are either ignored outright, or are given a different story upon each contact attempt.  <P/> Overall, this experience with PORTFOLIO RECOVERY has been extremely poor -- both providing me a great deal of misinformation, misguiding me as a consumer, and being completely and outright ignored after attempts to contact executive level management, and the  Quality Management  department ( whom, on their website, it states to contact should you need any assistance or have been treated poorly by staff ). It is unacceptable to provide the consumer whom you are attempting to collect an alleged debt from, misinformation, in order to get an account satisfied in full. I am unsure where the breakdown of communication occurred, but given the gross negligence and disservice on behalf of  PORTFOLIO RECOVERY ASSOCIATES , I am requesting immediate removal of this paid in full account from all three major credit bureaus --  XXXX ,  XXXX  and  XXXX .

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation