Consumer complaint received 2016-09-22
Product: Debt collection — Other (i.e. phone, health club, etc.)
Issue: Cont'd attempts collect debt not owed — Debt is not mine
Company: Diversified Consultants, Inc. (CA)

My husband and I have been looking at our credit reports over several months as we are preparing in making a home purchase XX/XX/2017. We wanted to make sure there was nothing preventing us from doing so. Over the last few months I have monitoring my credit with all XXXX bureaus to make sure that any accounts that are owed are paid off and anything that was incorrect was removed. 

When I received my full disclosures from XXXX a few weeks back I noticed that there was a new collection that appeared on my credit report for XXXX. Because I have n't had XXXX in a few years, and because when we last had them I left the account in good standing, I decided to call the collection agency to figure out what was going on. Unfortunately, I 'm very nervous when it comes to collectors so I asked my husband to make the call for me since he used to be a collector while I listened on speakerphone. 

My husband called Diversified Consultants. That is the collection agency that is collecting this account. When he spoke to their representative who went by the name of XXXX XXXX he asked her what this debt was for. She said she did n't know ... She then stated that she was just a collection agency and that if I wanted to know what the debt was for I would have to contact XXXX. When he informed her that he was a collector himself for many years and that he knew procedure and law of how collections are supposed to work and that she is supposed to know she stated " no we do n't. '' She stated she assumed that it was a final bill but again she did n't know. She even went as far as to say " sir the laws have changed for collections after all these years. I do n't know where you are getting your information from. '' Even after all that misinformation she was providing my husband, she went ahead and cut him off to transfer him to a supervisor. My husband then spoke with a XXXX who was a supervisor. During that conversation my husband found out that XXXX was billing for a supposed final billing cycle. They stated the account had been open for 3 years. When my husband asked why I was never notified or billed by either XXXX or Diversified Consultants the supervisor responded that they had. 

Because I know they have n't, my husband asked the supervisor for the address information and phone number information they had on file. The supervisor gave an old address but he did give a good phone number. He stated that his company had n't spoken with anyone about this debt. Also, because the address he had was an old one, I never received any notification about this debt. The supervisor then tried to say that it 's not XXXX nor their fault if I had n't updated them with a new address. 

That explanation of his is not relevant and is not a defense against improper billing and failing to validate debt. Because I had lived at the address they had on file for well over a year after services with XXXX were supposedly finished, XXXX had plenty of time to bill me or call me over this debt I supposedly owed. They did n't. It is not my responsibility to contact creditors whom I have had no contact in over a year to notify them of address changes. 

Regardless of anything the collection agency said, I have never been billed nor spoken to about this debt even though XXXX had the ability and obligation to do so. I have offered Diversified consultants the supposed due amount in exchange for the removal of this account from my credit report due to improper and non-existant collection attempts on this account. They refused to do so because they claimed it was my fault that I did n't tell XXXX that I had moved a year after I stopped service with them. 

Because I have played nice and offered a reasonable resolution only be told all this is my fault, I will now sue XXXX and Diversified consultants if you can not help me resolve their violation of the FDCPA and California XXXX FDCPA.