Consumer complaint received 2017-03-06
Company: CIT BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: GA
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Other (i.e. phone, health club, etc.)
Issue: Communication tactics
Sub-issue: Threatened to take legal action

Complaint:
ABOUT MY COMPANY XXXX has been in business for over 35 years. XXXX. About 70 % of our business occurs during XXXX through XXXX and we are approaching our busy time frame. 

BACKGROUND ON THE HARASSMENT CALL Today I received a phone call from XXXX ( representing their client who is CIT Group ) located in XXXX NY asking me to expedite a payment of over {$3600.00} by the end of this week ; as of today XXXX/XXXX/XXXX I now owe them about {$23000.00}. The original agreement I proposed to them on XXXX XXXX, XXXX was... 

- {$750.00} every 2 weeks thru XXXX - {$3500.00} every month XXXX thru XXXX Then I asked XXXX if I could reduce the first part of the payment from {$750.00} to a range of $ XXXX {$500.00} every 2 weeks. No one ever got back to me I have paid between {$300.00} and {$500.00} since XXXX ; they cashed all of the checks without telling me that those checks were not acceptable but by cashing the checks it led me to believe that XXXX, acting on behalf of their client, agreed to the payment plan that I was making. So I am thinking everything is fine with the payments until I get a call today that they wanted to step up the payments and need a check by this Friday XXXX XXXX, XXXX. The person I spoke to, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, threatened me with legal action if I do n't sign the payment plan by the end of today Monday XXXX XXXX, XXXX. I told them how can you call me and request an immediate payment by the end of the week and no one at the collection agency mentioned this to me WHEN THEY WERE CASHING THE CHECKS. They had more than enough time to call me in XXXX and XXXX XXXX to let me know those payments were not good enough. If I had known that they were going to do this I would have changed the timing of paying my other vendor bills. I told XXXX that if she filed legal action against my company I would go out of business because my credit would be ruined and all she said was if you do n't sign the payment agreement you will be sued because her client has to be paid ; I told her she was being very rude and she said I was yelling at her. AND THEN SHE TOLD ME IF I DON '' T STOP YELLING SHE WOULD HANG UP THE PHONE ON ME AND THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT SHE DID. Yes I did raise my voice and I told her what would you do if you are being threatened with legal action. I also asked XXXX why ca n't she wait until XXXX to start receiving the higher payments of {$3500.00} per month and she said 60 days is too long. Originally I wanted to start paying {$3500.00} in XXXX but XXXX would be more realistic for my company - I feel very comfortable with this payment plan. 

The other issue I explained to her is that my Bank XXXX XXXX has agreed to a 6 month payment deferral on my loan used to purchase the business in XXXX XXXX. They see the value in the business and have agreed to work with me to get out of this situation. XXXX did not want to hear anything about that. 

XXXX XXXX was very unprofessional especially when she threatened me with legal action. It is quite surprising that a company such as C I T GROUP COMMERCIAL would choose an unprofessional company like XXXX to represent them. 

HOW WE GOT BEHIND ON OUR BILLS I got into this situation because one of my XXXX in XXXX / XXXX XXXX which caused my company to lose over {$200000.00} in XXXX and lost business. We had nothing to do with the XXXX but that XXXX was not willing to make up for it by giving us discounts on what we owed him for the work that he did. Most of out vendors are working with us as we get through this obstacle that we have no control over. 

OUR BUSINESS FUNDAMENTALS ARE STRONG Despite this issue our business fundamentals are strong and we have not lost a single customer ; in addition to that we are picking up new customers almost daily.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation