Consumer complaint received 2023-06-23 00:00:00
Product: Debt collection — Other debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed — Debt is not yours
Company: ProCollect, Inc.
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
Back on XX/XX/XXXX, I filed a complaint against Procollect Inc because I had been trying to get a hold of them to dispute a collection that wasn't mine. I let you guys know that I had disputed multiple times with the credit bureaus as well as with Procollect. Not once did I ever receive any notification, or any paperwork on this supposedly owed bill. 

I spent a good year trying to get them to validate this debt. Not only did they never validate this debt, but when I and a representative of mine tried calling them, they refused to speak with us. I filed a complaint through your portal against them, and they simply responded by saying I owed {$260.00} and that they had supposedly mailed me proof back on XX/XX/XXXX. I never received any paperwork from Procollect and that is why I spent a whole year trying to fight them and to get them to provide me proof. I even received a response via your portal that I could contact XXXX XXXX, directly @ XXXX ext XXXX. 

I went ahead and tried numerous times over several months back in XXXX. I was never able to get a hold of this supposed XXXX, and she never returned my calls after XXXX months. By XX/XX/XXXX, I went back to my representative who tried helping me the first time, and we attempted to contact Procollect once more. He submitted a power of attorney to fax # XXXX that same day. By XX/XX/XXXX, they tried reaching Procollect once more, and this time they reached a Procollect rep who said they needed to contact XXXX XXXX via email at XXXX because their collectors could not open up this account. By XX/XX/XXXX, no response had ever been received by my representatives, so they reached out to Procollect again by phone. Procollect said once more that they could not open up the account. 

After a few more tries, I decided to re-dispute the account with the credit bureaus. If Procollect can't open up the account, can't speak to us about it, and still has not provided any paperwork on this, then how can they legitimately claim I owe them money? Furthermore, this XXXX either doesn't exist, or is purposefully ignoring my communication attempts. How can they simply state in their response to my complaint through your portal that this debt is valid and to contact them but then still never provide any proof or address me when I call them at the numbers they provided? 

I had given up on this account since I was getting nowhere with it and even if I wanted to pay it, which I didn't, I couldn't because Procollect couldn't even find the XXXX thing or open up the account to speak to me about it. I waited for about a year, but sure enough, in the back of my head this was still bothering me. On XX/XX/XXXX of XXXX, I decided to try and call Procollect to see if they would be willing to remove the account from my report due to it's highly disputed nature once I paid it, but even that ran into a brick wall. That same day, a collector said they wanted me to send an email to XXXX XXXX for account no. XXXX. I demanded to just be able to speak to a collector who could accept payment for a deletion, but they hung up on me. I tried calling again, but again, they hung up on me when I tried to get them to simply accept a payment as they were adamant I had to contact XXXX XXXX. I went ahead and sent an e-mail to XXXX XXXX asking to pay for deletion the account. 

A month later, and still no response from XXXX XXXX. I finally had enough, and I tried disputing the account once more with the XXXX credit bureaus on XXXX. As of this day, the account is still on my credit report, and there is a comment saying it's been verified, but it never has been. A simple response saying I owe money without any actual itemized validation or verification is not proof of anything especially when I have been requesting this document for years. No contract, no account ledger, no itemized statement, no invoice, no proof I ever received a collection notice, no anything. I am filing this complaint to you again, because I need you to know what Procollect is doing. On top of lying to you in their response to me, they are still treating me unfairly and attempting to collect a debt which is not owed. XXXX never answered or returned my calls, XXXX XXXX never answered or returned my e-mails, the collectors can't talk to me, they can't even open up the account, they hang up on me, they don't accept my payments. What else am I supposed to do? This is beyond insane and meanwhile I am the one who is suffering credit consequences and damages to my credit. 

I really would like for you to point your scope at this collection agency as you now know that they don't even do what they say they will do in their responses to complaints via your portal. They are still acting shamelessly, and if they are doing this to me, who else are they doing this to?

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation