Consumer complaint received 2015-03-23
Company: Professional Receivables Network
State: AL
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Other (i.e. phone, health club, etc.)
Issue: Communication tactics
Sub-issue: Used obscene/profane/abusive language

Complaint:
I work as an admin assistant for a small church, and they decided the switch from XXXX to XXXX XXXX XXXX. XXXX at first tried really hard to keep us ; having several sales people offer discounts and such but when they realized we were not going to change our mind, their tone changed rather quickly and we were told that we were still under contract ; owing them several thousand dollars but get this, it would still take a few months to cancel the service! So we would have to pay our monthly bill for services that they were not providing AND pay this ridiculous amount for early termination and whatever other fees! This really did not make any sense, and calls were made to XXXX to get clarity on the matter. Their customer service and sales people however, give you different information, so you ca n't really trust that what person A is saying is really true because person B will tell you the opposite. Even though I was not the main contact for this process, as the admin, I receive all the mail and answer the phone so therefore I was able to see how fast this issue became an unnecessary problem. After receiving a few notices from XXXX in the mail, soon started the phone calls from collections. And how they called, over, and over, and over again. Even after I explained that they were calling a CHURCH, and that it was n't me personally that could solve the issue, they kept calling. I blocked at least XXXX different numbers : XXXX and XXXX. All while this is happening, we actually did have a representative from our church who was in communication with someone at XXXX trying to resolve the issue. Fast forward ; we got a pretty serious sounding letter from a debt collector that I gave to our guy, the first letter from a company other than XXXX. Since this letter our account has been almost completely resolved, but then we get another letter, from " Sage Capital Recovery '' to be specific, and this letter is completely unacceptable ; using degrading, belittling and threatening language and false information. I just can not accept that Sage Capital Recovery is using this kind of communication to bully people into paying debts that may or may not be accurate, as well as disregarding any attempts made by the customer to resolve the matter in the first place. The letter is written in a tone that is automatically accusing the addressee of neglectful handling of the matter and takes the assumption that they will continue in the same way. And then they write : " we have completed our due diligence and fully documented our efforts to cooperate with you '' ... .Really? You made copies of the XXXX letters you sent us? Wow, good for you. They did not even address our letter with our Church 's name - just our address saying " accounts payable ''. I have worked in debt collections before, and it absolutely kills me that companies like Sage Capital Recovery treat people who owe money like second class citizens. I understand that we all have a job to do, but there is such a thing as ethical and fair business practices. Recording how many letters you spit out on a daily basis does not mean you have done your " due diligence ''. Harassing people with automatic phone calls does not mean you have made " all efforts to reach a cooperative resolution ''. It just means that you make your money off of the back of broken people.

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