Consumer complaint received 2024-05-08
Product: Debt or credit management — Debt settlement
Issue: Confusing or misleading advertising or marketing — 
Company: Palisade Legal Group, PLLC (CO)

This company misled their debt settlement processes when I signed up in XXXX of XXXX and led me to believe that any accounts that were delinquent due to discussions with their specialty departments would be made current and that payments being drafted from my account were going to pay the debts for the accounts I had included in the program. Late last year I was contacted by XXXX XXXX XXXX stating I was a perfect candidate for their debt consolidation program and that my credit would be pulled to qualify. I was denied from that program because of a system error made by XXXX XXXX XXXX due to a system glitch that did not draft XXXX of my program payments in a timely manner. I called XXXX times to discuss the issue with them and they were unable to tell me why the payment wasn't drafted or why they believed I would be a candidate for debt consolidation, requiring a hard credit check, if they knew I would not qualify. At the inception of my enrollment in the program, several representatives tried to get me to electronically sign a document for someone else who was co-signed on a loan that I was trying to get enrolled in the program until I pointed out that was illegal, I was transferred to a XXXX who advised me " they would take care of it ''. when I asked if I could remove the creditor from the program I was advised that they were unable to do that and contacted the co-signer, who was also mislead, to sign program documents. Emails to them by both my co-signer and myself went unanswered and resolution to any issues were either ignored or not provided after asking numerous times. 

I was not advised that my accounts would remain in a delinquent status ( until XX/XX/XXXX ), effectively tanking my credit score for over a year, when I was advised in numerous recorded telephone conversations with various representatives that my credit score would only be effected for a couple of months while they worked out details with my creditors and that my debts would be paid from the money being drafted from my account every month. There were times that I asked questions about e-signing documents were representatives stayed on the phone with me to " walk me through the process '' and I was told exactly what to say on the form or to the next party in the enrollment process. I even advised them that I worked in a field that required a background check, as XXXX of their questions was " Does your job require a security clearance '' and I was told to tell the department that I was being transferred to that I did not have a clearance. I had questions about the initial enrollment forms and was told " that's okay if that box is checked/unchecked we know what your answers are, that is just a glitch in our system. '' I was even advised by representatives and in documents sent to me that I needed to update my phone number and email to their company 's email/phone number and to ignore all communication from my creditors. 

When I had an issue with them that I needed an answer for, I was either dropped from calls, told that the department wasn't available, a request would be put in with someone contacting me with more information ( I was not called back ), or that they were experiencing technical difficulties and were unable to transfer me to the correct department ( unless I threatening filing a complaint, then the department and technical difficulties disappeared ). I was given false hope countless times throughout my enrollment in the program and was told that " things would be taken care of. '' When I tried to cancel my enrollment XXXX days in a row, I was told that the representatives that I was speaking with were experiencing technical difficulties and could not transfer me to the correct department and that they would put in a request to have said department contact me. It was only when I wished to make a complaint during the third conversation that I was transferred to the right department. The person cancelling my enrollment even tried to threaten that I would be sued by creditors enrolled in their program if I left in an effort to get me to scare me into staying.