Consumer complaint received 2016-04-11
Company: McCullough Payne & Haan, LLC
State: GA
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Credit card
Issue: Disclosure verification of debt
Sub-issue: Right to dispute notice not received

Complaint:
On Friday XXXX XXXX, 2016 at XXXX PM I was contacted by my HR representative that a garnishment had been sent to my company and my pay status had been frozen by McCullogh, Payne and XXXX pertaining to a XXXX XXXX credit card I had that was over due on payment. I was never sent any documentation regarding this debt other than what was scanned to me by my HR dept. Upon notification by my HR I tried to contact the collection dept starting at XXXX XXXX, I was greeted with : All of the collection dept was with other callers please hold '', I waited 1/2 on the line and was constantly reminded that I was to hold on and someone would be with me shortly. I decided to leave a message so they could call me back, I received the following message, " The mailbox is full and can not accept any messages please call back ''. So I called back, this went on for another hour, as I was getting close to their closing time I tried their name directory thinking I could get a random collection agent who could help me, I tried XXXX agents who I randomly chose off of their name directory. All went right to voice mail??? I was so frustrated as obviously they could care less about helping me and with the weekend coming up I knew it would not be resolved until at least Monday XX/XX/XXXX. I believe this company purposefully sent that notice at XXXX on a Friday to cause as much grief as possible, knowing full well I would not be able to resolve this issue before the weekend thus causing me financial hardship of being unable to receive my paycheck. Upon calling this morning XXXX XXXX at XXXX am I was told I had to speak with XXXX XXXX who was not at her desk and would return my call as soon as she could. When I asked to speak to someone else regarding my problem I was told " XXXX XXXX will call you back '', i explained the need to resolve the matter and was to ; d she will call you back in the order she received my call. Again showing no responsibility for their action and no respect for helping to resolve my issue. I believe I should have received notice from them regarding this issue before any action, such as they took could have been taken. Then I believe that they when sending these notices out should be available to answer calls to try and resolve the matter, rather than inflicting financial hardship upon an individual who has no recourse, other than waiting on them for when they " Have Time '' to call you back. I accept my responsibility to pay this debt so I am not trying to get out of paying, my objection is the way the entire situation took place and their intentional timing and lack of response to my inquiries, and their lack of taking care of their end of the deal. This law firm obviously makes their money by collecting debts which I find no fault in, what I do object to is that they seem to feel they are above any being held to any type of accountability and that all people who owe money are bad people who are trying to shirk their responsibility of paying so all have to be treated as if you are not going to work with them. I am not looking to be coddled or to be treated differently, they could just find a way to be more human in their handling of each individual on a case by case basis. There should also be rules as to when a Garnishment can be issued and enforced, being sure to give the person being served a chance to respond and resolve the matter without the collection agent being able to send it and walk away without being able to be contacted for several days, thus creating a further financial hardship rather than try and help so as not to put a person into further debt which would just create a vicious circle that someone might never recover from.

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