Consumer complaint received 2025-11-19 00:00:00
Product: Debt collection — Credit card debt
Issue: Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly — Talked to a third-party about your debt
Company: Weltman, Weinberg & Reis Co., L.P.A.
State: IL

Complaint narrative:
I enrolled the XXXX account at issue into a debt-resolution program with XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX, and under that agreement Advantage Law was granted Power of Attorney to communicate on my behalf. Over the following year, I received no substantive updates about the status of negotiations for this account. Whenever I contacted XXXX, I was told only that the matter was in negotiations, that the account was assigned to Weltman , Weinberg & Reis Co., and that accumulated funds in my dedicated savings account would help facilitate a future settlement. 

In early XX/XX/XXXX, based on these statements, I voluntarily increased my bi-weekly program deposits from the contractual {$230.00} to {$980.00} and continued making these higher payments for several months. This resulted in a significant surplus in my dedicated account, yet XXXX continued to provide no concrete progress and repeated only that the account was still pending negotiation. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, my mother contacted me after receiving a debt-collection notice addressed to me at her home in XXXX. I have never lived at that address and have lived at my current residence for nearly XXXX years. This was the first written notice I became aware of regarding this account, and it constituted an unauthorized third-party disclosure of my personal debt information, prohibited by 15 U.S.C. 1692c ( b ). 

In early XX/XX/XXXX, I again contacted XXXX because the elevated payment amount had become unsustainable. When I attempted to reduce my contributions back to the contractual amount, I was toldincorrectlythat reducing my payment could jeopardize my other enrolled accounts and halt any pending settlement efforts. After repeated attempts, the reduction was finally processed. The next morning, I received a settlement offer from Advantage Law concerning this same XXXX account, despite their prior statements that reducing my payment amount would cause the supposed pending settlement negotiations to cease. 

Later that day, I contacted Weltman, Weinberg & Reis directly. I was informed they could not speak with me because a Power of Attorney was on file. When I asked why a notice had been sent to my mother instead of to me, I was told they had not received the Power of Attorney until on or around XX/XX/XXXX, when it was transmitted multiple times on that date. They confirmed that no prior communications had been received from Advantage Law. I then emailed Advantage Law stating that I wished to resolve this account directly with the collector and mailed a letter to Weltmans XXXX office requesting updated information, correction of my mailing address, and an accurate account balance. I followed up again when no response was received. 

Throughout this time, my credit was negatively affected due to prolonged non-payment reporting while this account remained unresolved. My mailing address in Weltmans records remains incorrect, and they have not updated it despite my requests. The dedicated account still holds funds accumulated based on repeated assurances that increased payments would expedite settlement. 

In conclusion, my experience as a consumer attempting to resolve this debt in good faith reflects, in my view, multiple violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and a pattern of behavior consistent with unfair or deceptive collection practices that I believe warrants review.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation