Consumer complaint received 2021-07-09
Company: FEDChex Recovery, LLC
State: CO
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Other debt
Issue: Written notification about debt
Sub-issue: Didn't receive notice of right to dispute

Complaint:
For the first time, I had rented a car from XXXX from an individual who operates under their platform. I will never be using this company again because of how this situation was handled. I received notification from XXXX that a cleaning fee of {$50.00} had been added to my rental that took place in XXXX. After receiving this notification, I immediately responded that I wanted to dispute this cleaning fee. The cleaning fee in itself was completely inappropriate and was not warranted by the owner of the vehicle. I requested proof of the " excessive cleaning '' that was needed, because I find it completely inappropriate for owners of vehicles to charge these excessive cleaning fees without proving these costs were actually incurred, and believe that is a completely appropriate request. I did not hear back from XXXX for 4 days after requesting this, and was out of town when they responded. Within 2 days of their response, I received a text that this " debt '' had been transferred to a collection company. I immediately reached out to XXXX and requested further information on this situation, and was told that I needed to reach out to the Collection Company because this had already been transferred. XXXX 's responsiveness to this issue was very limited and they were very quick to transfer this fee to a collection company ... .that in itself is an issue. Especially when something as small as this can have such a large impact on someone's credit scores. After a few weeks, I was contacted by this collection company and I really hope they record their phone calls because the representative from the Collection Company flat out lied to me on the phone. I told the representative from this collection company that I wanted to dispute this record and that I would be contacting the CFPB if any negative remarks were sent to the credit bureaus. Multiple times, the representative ensured me that they worked with XXXX and that nothing negative would happen with this fee. Yesterday, I received notification that my credit score dropped by XXXX points, so I would have to say that the representative lied to me. He also stated that he was going to be sending me an email that could allow for me to dispute this ridiculous cleaning fee, that they would then forward/work with XXXX on, and I never receive anything and I have not heard anything from this collection company since. I also have never received anything in the mail nor have I received applicable communication from XXXX or this Collection Company on how we can resolve this. There has been no direction by either company on how to resolve this, outside of paying the fee. I have requested proof of the fee that was acquired by the owner of the vehicle, which I believe is a completely appropriate request since owners should not be able to pile on unnecessary fees on their own accord, and have received nothing but the filing of this collection. I am requesting the CFPB reach out to these companies to confirm on this debt that I do not believe should have to be paid by myself. I will also be filing a complaint against both with the XXXX  and would like to have this negative remark immediately removed from my credit report, since they have refused to address the dispute that should have been handled before this transfer took place. If anything further is needed from myself, I can be reached at XXXX or XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation