Consumer complaint received 2023-01-14
Product: Debt collection — Other debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed — Debt was paid
Company: SUNRISE CREDIT SERVICES, INC (CA)

I submitted a complaint a week ago through your portal, but I'm not sure if I did it right because I haven't received any notifications or confirmations about the complaint. If this is a duplicate complaint, I apologize. If not, I then I hope this time it gets done right because I really need your help. 

There is a collection agency that is affecting my credit report illegally. Sunrise Credit Services. They are collecting for an XXXX, XXXX, XXXX account. They started reporting it in XXXX of XXXX. It is for {$76.00}. The problem is that this bill is not owed. 

Back in XXXX of XXXX, I received multiple calls from phone numbers I don't recognize or showed up as potential spam risks. I don't answer those normally. One time however, I decided to answer a call and it was Sunrise Credit telling me about this bill. I told them I was disputing this bill and that I was going to call XXXX to get this matter straightened out because I know for a fact I pay all my bills on time which includes XXXX. I went ahead and called XXXX and was told by them I did not owe them any money. Due to this, I decided to let this matter rest as I believed whoever called me was trying to scam me. 

In XXXX, I received another call asking me to pay an XXXX collection to which I said to the person who called me that I didn't owe any money, I spoke with XXXX and they said I didn't owe any money, and I actually checked all my bank statements just in case, and I saw that there was payments made to XXXX consecutively from XX/XX/XXXX all the way until XXXX of XXXX. On a side note, this complaint will also be against XXXX because as I told the collector who I spoke with on the phone about this account, I cancelled XXXX in XXXX of XXXX, and XXXX kept charging me money monthly for several months afterwards. The XX/XX/XXXX payment I understood as there is usually a left-over charge from when the services are cancelled and the billing periods, but when XXXX charged me in XXXX of XXXX, I was upset. I was told that was my last monthly payment, so I paid it even though I was skeptical about it. But when XXXX charged me again in XXXX of XXXX, I was really upset. I did some chewing out to XXXX, but in the end, I still paid them what they asked for. I did warn them that if I received another bill, I would escalate this matter for fraudulent charges. XXXX stopped billing me at that point. Now, back to the collector. 

When the collector called me about this debt the second time, I told them I had my bank statements which proved this account was paid every month without fail from XX/XX/XXXX, up until XX/XX/XXXX which was well after services were cancelled. I once again disputed this account with the collector, but that seemed to do nothing. When I finally get a call on XX/XX/XXXX of XXXX, I once again dispute the account with the collector, and I once again remind them that I have all my bank statements proving I have made every single payment to XXXX. The collector tells me to send them an e-mail to XXXX proving it. I went ahead and did so. On XX/XX/XXXX of XXXX, I get yet another call from Sunrise Credit and again they are hounding and harassing me about this account. I once again dispute this account, and I tell them to look at the bank statement I submitted so they can stop collecting this account and credit reporting it as it is lowering my score illegally and it is hindering my ability to financing a home. Sunrise credit states they never received the statement, so I once again e-mail it to the same e-mail I was provided with of XXXX. 

Since we are now in XXXX of XXXX, and I don't seem to be getting anywhere with this collector after three months, I finally decided to go to local credit experts for assistance. I went to XXXX XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX of XXXX, I explained the situation to them, and they decided to try and help me with this on the spot. We made a conference call with Sunrise Credit, and sure enough, my concerns and plight with this collector were proven right. I don't remember every exact detail of the conversation, but my assistant too notes of the call as it was happening to help me file this complaint. I will try to describe what happened in the call in a chronological manner. 

The first person who we spoke to was XXXX XXXX. The spelling of her name might be wrong. My representative explained to XXXX exactly what I have written to you already. That I have made every payment to XXXX for XXXX consecutive months. That I did so even though I cancelled my account in XXXX of XXXX, yet I kept getting billed all the way until XX/XX/XXXX. That I have submitted the proof twice to them. That this account needed to be cancelled back to XXXX and removed from my credit report since it is clearly a billing error. And the part which I learned in that phone call was that failure to do so post haste would then hold them liable because it is a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The big ones are Validation of debts as it is impossible for Sunrise Credit to validate a debt which they have proof it has been paid for before it was even sent to collections, and False or Misleading Representations. I will describe that one more in a bit. And to be clear, if this debt is not valid, it is uncollectable, and therefore any credit reporting that I owe this bill would be frivolous and a violation of credit reporting laws. 

As to why they are making false and misleading representations, during the phone call with my assistant, XXXX refused to remove this from my credit report and said they will do so once XXXX decides to have it removed. When my representative asked her how long that would take, XXXX said it would take up to 45 days. My representative was quick to point out that the collection rules say validation period is 30 days and not 45. Furthermore, he pointed out that this bill has been disputed since the first call in XXXX of XXXX, and to this day I still have not received a single notice in writing from Sunrise Credit Services. They can't say they have a wrong address either because I have been living in my home for well over a decade. At this point XXXX decided to transfer us to a manager named XXXX XXXX. 

When XXXX XXXX got on the phone, the conversation got even worse. XXXX started speaking in a " matter of fact tone, '' and I felt like she was just trying to overpower the conversation with her statements and company policies. She basically was trying to say that they just barely received proof of the payments I made to XXXX the day before, and they were just now submitting it to XXXX, and they had to wait for XXXX to decide whether they wanted it removed from my credit report or not. Once my representative started speaking and pointing out to her the various disputes and the previous e-mail to their company with proof of payment back on XX/XX/XXXX of XXXX, XXXX got very defensive very fast. She started saying that there was no dispute in their notes in their original phone call to me back in XXXX of XXXX. She also said Sunrise was following all the collection rules in my country and they had barely received documentation from me. She was also trying to speak over my representative and bully her point across. I could tell my representative was a professional and very well informed because he shut her down quickly. 

He informed her that her statements were simply not true and according to the " rules of my country, '' Sunrise Credit needed to send validating documents to me before they can begin to collect on this debt. To this day I have yet to receive a single letter or written notice of any kind regarding this debt. I've only received phone calls and a negative entry on my credit report. XXXX interjected and said I had received various e-mails and claimed they were opened. This is not true, but she claimed it anyways. The claim that I never disputed this account until recently is also not true. My representative informed XXXX that we are well past the validation point and Sunrise continued to credit report. At one point she even claimed that it wasn't Sunrise 's decision to remove this from my credit report as they weren't the one reporting it. ( This last sentence may be incorrect as it is possible this was XXXX who said this instead of XXXX. I can't fully remember which of the two said it since it was a week ago since the phone call took place. ) My representative also pointed out to them this was another false statement as it was Sunrise credit reporting a negative entry on the report and not XXXX. Sunrise has the ability to remove an erroneous account from the credit report at its own discretion, and not simply at the whim of their client. 

I would love to keep going as to how much more this company has broken the law and is causing me harm illegally, but I am getting tired. More so since this is the second time I have had to write this complaint. I believe you get the point however, and I am hoping you can do something about Sunrise Credit and XXXX as well for having the audacity to do this to me.