Consumer complaint received 2023-02-16
Product: Debt collection — Credit card debt
Issue: Written notification about debt — Didn't receive enough information to verify debt
Company: AVANTE (VA)

Nearly every month that I made my payment to XXXXXXXX XXXX  online, I would return the following month to find that I had been charged a late fee for non-payment. This did not happen at first, but it began to happen more and more consistently. Each time I would have to call customer service and tell them that the payment was made and that the late fee needed to be reversed. In every case, they were a huge help and the issue was resolved. 

After several months of doing this same process, I decided it was not worth the stress. So I decided to pay off the balance entirely and end it once and for all. To make sure everything went correctly, I called customer service first and verified my bank information and re-entered my information over the phone. There is no chance that an error was made in entering my bank information for the payment. 

That was XX/XX/XXXX that I spent over an hour on the phone with a very helpful customer service rep and got everything squared away. I received a confirmation email saying that my payment was received by XXXXXXXX XXXX That was the last I heard from XXXXXXXX XXXX 
Fast forward to XXXX of XXXX, I received a very vague email from someone claiming to be from XXXXXXXX XXXX saying that I must contact her immediately " about the business we share together. '' Speaking as someone that works in the digital products and data science industry, the email was very suspicious, so I disregarded it and marked it as spam. 

Then in mid XXXX I started receiving calls from someone claiming to be a debt collector on behalf of XXXXXXXX XXXX ( I will refer to this person as Person A ). I was shocked to hear this, but it made me think of that suspicious email I received. So I dug it up and responded to it. I never heard a word back. The calls continued and I eventually called back ( I have a strict personal policy about calls during work, so I often miss them ). The person on the other end ( I will call Person B ) had no record of my name or phone number, nor the person who left me messages -- this is where my panic sets in. There seems to be someone claiming to be a debt collector on behalf of XXXXXXXX XXXX calling and demanding money from me. 

I eventually was able to connect with Person A, who had no idea of who Person B was, nor the phone number I had been redirected to. After explaining my panic and skepticism, she claimed to have no license or certification or anything to give me to verify who she is. 

I escalated the situation to the president of the debt collection agency, Avante USA, and had a long conversation and was eventually able to receive an email from him. I was happy to receive something in writing. 

We resolved the issue and I made the payment once I confirmed that this system error ( because the payment had originally been made in XX/XX/XXXX ) was not going to be reported to any credit bureaus. To add a cherry on top, when I made the final payment, the person on the phone failed to identify himself as a debt collector, nor did he state the name of the firm he was calling from until I asked directly. 

The people at Avante USA were pleasant enough to deal with and they understood my concerns, but their practices seemed sketchy and haphazard. When someone calls me asking for my credit card information to make a payment, I expect something more substantive to accompany it than a simple " trust me. ''