Consumer complaint received 2018-10-10
Company: Army and Air Force Exchange Service
State: AP
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Credit card debt
Issue: Written notification about debt
Sub-issue: Didn't receive notice of right to dispute

Complaint:
My account had been wrongly defaulted by aafes collection department. 

I'd spoken with aafes collection department representative on end of XXXX after I'd received letter from aafes on my XXXX XXXX XXXX payment status. This whole situation occurred due to me moving to new duty location from an XXXX XXXX base to an XXXX base. The auto payment I thought I'd setup failed to work, and mails did not get forwarded to my new mail box properly. Duration of my membership lasted for about 10 years with aafes. I had a extremely great credit history, barring an isolated error or short series of late payments before this incident with few loans I had with XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX for 20 years and XXXX XXXX. 

After I'd spoken with aafes collection department representative, I'd submitted my 1st signed copy of notice of intention letter on XX/XX/XXXX XXXX time which was XX/XX/XXXX Central time to XXXX '. I'd followed the guidance given by aafes representative whom I'd spoken with over the phone at that time. The representative kindly told me to put name, account number, and signed copy of notice of intention letter in subject line. The suspense date written on the letter which I'd received was XXXX of XXXX. 

After I'd submitted my signed Voluntary Payment Program ( VPP ) to aafes, I'd spoken with representative at aafes collection department multiple times to follow up on the status, but each time I was told by representatives to wait and give collection department little more time since it would require some time for aafes collections department to process the signed copy of notice of intention letter ( VPP ). I was also advised to send it again to be on the safe side. So I'd followed the guidance and re-submitted my signed copy of VPP to XXXX ' on XXXX XXXX, XX/XX/2018 XXXX XXXX which was XXXX XXXX, XX/XX/2018 Central Time for the 2nd time. 

Then I'd submitted another signed copy of VPP to XXXX ' on XXXX XXXX, XX/XX/2018 XXXX Time which was XXXX XXXX, XX/XX/2018 Central Time for the 3rd time after I'd received another copy of VPP notice from after I'd spoken with another aafes collection department representative over the phone. 

Since I'd spoken with representative from aafes collections department on end of XXXX, I'd made 4 payments each month starting early XXXX. 

I'd called aafes collection department on XXXX XXXX to take care of the current balance and found out that my account had been defaulted. The phone call was transferred over to ( XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX, third party collection agency ). The representative at XXXX had informed that this had been reported to treasury department and lien was placed on my SSN. Since I'd submitted my signed copy of notice of intention letter on time and had been making payments, my account shouldn't have been defaulted. At that time I'd became terrified by the situation and had made a request to pay amount of {$7400.00} to take care of the remaining balance. The representative at XXXX explained to me that {$6200.00} was balance which was transferred from aafes and {$1100.00} was collection or default fee. XXXX representative also notified me that my account had been defaulted on XXXX XX/XX/2018 by aafes collection department. 

My account shouldn't have been defaulted since I had been responsibly taking care of the situation after realizing what had happened. Also, I had been wrongly over charged by aafes. Please refer to the amount listed below. 

Account Balance as of XX/XX/XXXX - {$9100.00} ( notified by AAFES ) {$240.00} paid on XX/XX/XXXX {$240.00} paid on XX/XX/XXXX {$240.00} paid on XX/XX/XXXX {$240.00} paid on XX/XX/XXXX - transaction was made by auto payment which was setup on XXXX {$2400.00} pulled from tax refund on mid XXXX ( XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX, third party collection agency ). representative informed me that {$15.00} was charged as processing fee ) {$7400.00} paid on XX/XX/XXXX Total amount paid to clear balance {$10000.00} {$1100.00} Amount informed as collection fee by a XXXX representative over the phone. 
{$10000.00} - {$1100.00} = {$9700.00} ( despite the collection fee which had occurred due to an error ) {$600.00} - invalid amount wrongly over charged barring a wrongly charged collection fee I understand that mistakes may occur. We all do as human being, but we can always go back and fix the wrong. However, when I'd contacted aafes collections department to fix the wrong, their managers had angrily responded to my inquiry with coercive and oppressive manner. First manager at aafes collection department whom I'd spoken with had told me they never had received my signed VPP. After I'd told her that I'd submitted my signed VPP 3 times and I have those emails as document of records, she'd told me that I probably had not dated those documents. I'd asked her to check their inbox or with department that takes care of the email, but she'd angrily refused to do so. The second manager at aafes collection department whom I'd spoken with had told me that they just don't process anything they'd received via email. I'd told her that I'd just followed the guidance given by representative at aafes collection department whom I'd spoken with, but she didn't want to listen nor talk to me about the situation. 

Would you please kindly review this matter and help?

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation