Consumer complaint received 2015-06-30
Company: FAIR COLLECTIONS & OUTSOURCING, INC.
State: IL
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Other (i.e. phone, health club, etc.)
Issue: False statements or representation
Sub-issue: Attempted to collect wrong amount

Complaint:
XXXX ( XXXX ) LP is attempting to collect {$320.00} from me when the actual amount should be {$0.00}. I received a letter from a Collection Agency, Fair Collections & Outsourcing on behalf of XXXX in regards to not placing trash in the appropriate space upon moving. This is not true. The XXXX is located in XXXX XXXX, IL. They are Town-houses. The representative initially told us upon moving into the our town-home that it is mandatory to purchase a garbage bin, or large garbage can for our approx. XXXX ft. back porch and that our garbage is to be maintained and held on our adjacent back porch because the garbage men will pick it from there once a week. We were told never to place any of our garbage anywhere else because there was no where else to put the garbage due to the fact that there is no alley or specific designated place to put the resident 's garbage. And if found out that we were placing our garbage any where else outside of our own back porch we would be penalized with a violation fee. So, I called XXXX after receiving the XXXX letter from XXXX office and spoke with XXXX of the representatives and asked her about the young couple who had moved out a few days before us. " Why was it alright for them to leave garbage on their back porch? The left behind materials and garbage they left behind stayed for a few days after leaving the residents and I witnessed the XXXX work men removing the recent couple 's garbage who just left. Why was it alright for them to do this and you 're trying to collect money from me for following your instruction upon moving in? '' The XXXX responded with, " Well that was my cousin. I told them I would take care of it. '' What? Where is the fairness in this nepotism. She never told me where we were to have placed the things we was not taking with us so all we knew to do was clean up the interior of the place and neatly as possible construct garbage in the rightful place of which we had been told to do. I believe the reason why XXXX is doing this is because we had to leave XXXX month early due to lost jobs and could n't afford to live there any longer. As soon as we had figured this out I immediately wrote XXXX a letter and walked it over to the XXXX residential office. The letter stated that we are sorry to inform them that we will have to leave due to the fact that I had lost my job and after the following month would simply not be able to afford the monthly {$1000.00} and they were going up on the rent with new lease. We just were not going to be able to keep up with the rent so instead of trying to struggle with making monthly rental payments and utilities we came forth with hopes that they would have some compassion seeing how we never gave them any trouble and paid rent on time every month. We also gave them notice in the letter that we would look for another renter, and that it would be alright to start showing the apartment for new tenants. They never sent anyone to view the apartment, and they never placed the apartment as open to new tenants. This is part of Illinois XXXX XXXX XXXX rights process, that if you have to move out early you must find another tenant and the landlord is obligated to seek another tenant as well during this time. But, I may be digressing. The point here is that I do n't owe XXXX any monies for removal of trash because I placed and left the no longer needed things where I was told to by their XXXX representatives. Unless someone else came and went through our garbage we left it where we were told to leave it.

Company public response: Company chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation