Consumer complaint received 2016-03-15
Product: Debt collection — Other (i.e. phone, health club, etc.)
Issue: False statements or representation — Attempted to collect wrong amount
Company: Continental Central Credit, Inc. (CA)

Back in XXXX I communicated with a collection agency named Continental Central Credit. I spoke to them because they had a collection account in their office which they were reporting on my credit report. When I spoke with this collection agency, I spoke with an individual by the name of XXXX XXXX. 

XXXX XXXX was the collector who was in charge of this particular account. When I spoke with him, I explained my situation to him and we had agreed upon me paying an amount of {$700.00} as well as having the account removed from my credit report due to the unusual circumstances surrounding the nature of the debt. We agreed that I would post date a payment on the XXXX of XXXX because that is when I got paid for the month. I only get paid once a month. 

I thought the situation was taken care of until I received another notice saying that they will sue me if I do n't pay the amount of the post dated payment as well as a {$25.00} Non sufficient fund fee. At this point I had my representative step in and try to figure out what was going on because I know I had funds in my bank account. In fact, because of this entire ordeal, I was forced to go to my bank and provide them documentation about the non sufficient funds to figure out what was happening and I also printed out a statement which shows I had money in the bank at that time. 

After further review, my representative then noticed that the date the collection agency attempted to withdraw funds was listed the XXXX of XXXX and not the XXXX of XXXX as XXXX XXXX XXXX and I had agreed upon. My representative then spoke to the collection agency to ask why they were attempting to charge me non sufficient fund fees as well as threaten to sue me if they had attempted to withdraw funds on a date that was not agreed upon. The response that he received was truly exasperating. 

The collector XXXX stated that we had n't agreed upon the XXXX but the XXXX. He claimed that to have it in by the XXXX it had to be withdrawn then. That statement was a complete falsehood. Besides the obvious fact that the XXXX was days after XXXX therefore chances are I did n't have money to spend, but it 's also days before I get paid and therefore I would never agree to such a deal. Furthermore, when my representative attempted to play nice and chalk it up to a whole misunderstanding and to offer them the same amount as before which was the {$700.00}, the collector said he could n't do it because the funds had to be withdrawn before the XXXX of XXXX. He also made a statement that the settlement offer was no longer valid. At this point my representative asked for the Supervisor. 

The supervisor was named XXXX XXXX. he tried to explain to her the entire situation. He informed her that the funds withdrawal was according to their own documentation attempted on the wrong dates. He also informed her that I was willing to still pay the agreed upon amount. She would n't hear any of it. Although her tone was very cordial, she simply reiterated what the collector tried to tell me and instead of noticing that they had wronged me and were attempting to wrong me more, she tried to focus on why I was able to afford the full amount and therefore did not require a settlement. At this point they are being malicious and they have broken the law. 

They essentially pulled a bait and switch on me. They lied to me in order to collect more money than agreed upon, attempted to withdraw money when they were n't supposed to, and now they are attempting to extort illegal non sufficient fees and treble damages. 

At this point I am very upset and if they attempt to sue me for these ridiculous charges, I will counter sue. I ca n't believe a collection agency is allowed to operate like this. Please look into them as they should not be extorting people for money. Their job is to collect and not to try and con people out of thheir money