Complaint Review: Alicia Smith

Agreed. You are violating the law by posting the personal information of these people. Also, what proof do you have that these people are indeed the ones who "entered into a contract" with you? If I called and gave my neighbor's information, would you then post that personal information on a website?

Your correct course of action would have been to go through the civil court process, not go on the internet and post that information. You can sued and possibly lose your right to operate as a business. Be smart and use an attorney BEFORE you screw yourself by violating people's right to privacy.

I wonder what would happen if one of these so-called "deadbeats" realized your company has posted information about their supposed debt on a public message board.

While the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) generally applies to "debt collectors" (third-party collection agenices or anyone other than the "original creditor"), in certain situations the "original creditor" can be held liable for FDCPA violations.

The issue would be broadcasting information about their supposed debt to third-parties (all the readers of the board). The FDCPA is clear: You can't tell anyone else what the debt is concerning whatsoever, or even mention you are calling concerning a debt at all. You can only seek "locate information" from third-parties.

I have worked for several large companies and collection agenices as a collector/skip-tracer, and every creditor I've ever worked for/dealt with/heard of makes sure that all collection efforts strictly adhere to the FDCPA.

You may believe that posting such information publically is in your best interest, but one lawsuit could set you back THOUSANDS. Don't be so foolish to think it can't happen, because I've heard of such situations backfiring. Why take the chance?

Ask for a a credit card number before you take their order, and make sure they understand they will be responsible for the service if they don't cancel before you arrive. If they don't have a credit/debit card, maybe you should consider not responding to their call; and instead, have those customers to call the local police.

I do agree that the individual should have called to cancel the service to avoid charge. Your company should be up front about the trip charge if they leave up front. You cannot throw a person in jail for debt. What is the average time for most of your service or lack their of? Do you expect someone to wait several hours because you are too slow? I myself very seldom get locked out because I keep a spare key out side of the auto in a hidden area. If I travel through Tenn I'll make sure I will not use your business because it appears you do not have enough employees provide the service.

I do agree that the individual should have called to cancel the service to avoid charge. Your company should be up front about the trip charge if they leave up front. You cannot throw a person in jail for debt. What is the average time for most of your service or lack their of? Do you expect someone to wait several hours because you are too slow? I myself very seldom get locked out because I keep a spare key out side of the auto in a hidden area. If I travel through Tenn I'll make sure I will not use your business because it appears you do not have enough employees provide the service.

I do agree that the individual should have called to cancel the service to avoid charge. Your company should be up front about the trip charge if they leave up front. You cannot throw a person in jail for debt. What is the average time for most of your service or lack their of? Do you expect someone to wait several hours because you are too slow? I myself very seldom get locked out because I keep a spare key out side of the auto in a hidden area. If I travel through Tenn I'll make sure I will not use your business because it appears you do not have enough employees provide the service.

First, everyone should look at the invoice dates, they spread out, which would mean that all of the customers that called for our service in the mean time were very happy...... Yes, we have collected on a few of these DEADBEATS, but none of the ones listed. Over the past 3 years, we have only had 12 such cases as these. That has cost us ALOT of money and we want it back.....

Let me point out a few things..... In most states, including Tennessee, verbal agreements are legal contracts. When you pick up a phone and call a service business and request service to a certain location which will require that business to provide a vehicle to travel to your location and you provide your name and other information, you have just ENTERED into a LEGAL CONTRACT !!! No, we do not have to point out anything about you being charged if your not there, the customer is 100% responsible once he or she AGREES to the service and the amount. Yes we could charge them for the entire service if we wanted to and not just the trip charge.

Now if you want out of that contract, all you have to do is call that business back before they arrive and CANCEL ..... thats it. But once that service vehicle arrives as you requested, you are now committed to pay for the "Trip Charge". If you can spend 50 cents to get into that contract, 50 more can get you out. All of these problems are the fault of the customer from start to finish, and here's how......

1) That person should have been more RESPONSIBLE, paying ATTENTION and not locked their keys in the car to begain with ! But we're only human.....

2) That person took the time out to CALL US and ask for our help in solving this problem.

3) That person was either in such a big hurry or just wanted to crap out on the service tech before he got there, so they find another means to unlock the car and most of the time a FREE one at that. What ever happened to "Paying for your mistakes" ?

4) That person should have done the right thing and called the service back and cancelled the call, but instead caused that service company to bare an out-of-pocket EXPENSE......
Tell me when did vehicles, gas, oil and the tech's time become FREE ? .... In a sinse, you could say that THAT PERSON stole our money from us.... after all they spent it....

See the key word.... "That Person" !!!!!

Some point out about response time..... we handle all calls in the order that are received and the order of emergency. We are very good at what we do, so yes we are very busy as well. No, we're not just setting around just waiting for you to call us, no we're not going to drop what we're currently working on just to be unfair and move you to the top of the list and no, we're not going to race with another service just to see who gets there first. Most calls of a lock out nature can be handled within 35 to 45 minutes, if for some reason your in a BIG hurry or just can't WAIT that long, then do not ask us for service and CALL someone else, but most likely you'll get the same story. Now most of the people that complain about us going after these deadbeats are either the same type of person that "That Person" is, who thinks that the whole world should stop for them, or maybe that they are not in BUSINESS and have to bare the cost of running one, so of course it easy for them to cut us down cause you either have NO idea what it takes to run a GOOD business or your a cheater too....

One pointed out that it would cost thousands of dollars to collect $45..... once again, someone who has no idea how the system works..... so far, it has cost us NOTHING... ZERO dollars..... maybe alitte time, but so what. Here is how it's cost us nothing:

1) We handle all of our own billing. $0

2) The collection agency only gets paid if they collect. $0

3) No payment is required to file charges or a issue a warrent. $0

So, where are these thousands of dollars ? One even stated that he would obtain a credit card number before dispatch, I should point out that ALL credit card companies will allow their customer to "Charge Back" any charges
that they do not agree with, so where is the secure payment here ?

Some stated that these reports would cause us loss of business, well, if the only people that are going to call us are cheaters and deadbeats, then don't call us... great, we don't want them to call. Besides, we have plenty of honest, business people we do work for now and will last us for a very long time....

An all out Riot.....well it works great for us, cause "I DON"T CARE" how you feel about it, it's not your money. But how it works great for us is... We did what we stated we were going to do, we sent out the bill and made calls to collect, turned them over to collections, which made more calls to collect and placed the bill against that person's credit for 7 years, then we issue a warrent for their arrest, and put that person in jail, only to have a judge make them pay us anyway....... and you know whats best of all......

We get to cause "THAT PERSON" all of this trouble and we get to "WRITE" the whole thing OFF !!!

Have a Good Day !

It seems that there are a couple of problems that exist here. The first relates to communication. My perception is that A-Action's terms of service are not being clearly communicated by the business to the customer BEFORE dispatch. If enforcing payment is such a huge issue perhaps it might be wise as well for A-Action to obtain a credit card number or other payment arrangements from the customer PRIOR to dispatch.

Secondly, by the number of similar complaints made on this site by A-Action against customers under very similar circumstances it is likely that A-Action is not responding to calls in a timely manner. The fact the the customers not only had the time but in fact obtained services from others would lead me to believe that A-Action is telling the customer one thing and providing (or not providing, as the case may be)something quite different.

I agree with the writer who stated that this businesses complaints here will likely lead to lost business opportunities. Remember that one disatissfied customer will tell at least 10-15 others. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to extrapolate the potential damage and lost business that these complaints may cause. While I do understand that a business must get paid to be profitable in these cases it becomes obvious that A-Action did not provide service in a timely manner and thus has no right to expect to be paid for services not rendered. If A-Action improves the communication with its customers AND provides services in a timely manner the business will find that these problems will be few and far between.

Sorry, Paul and Joe, A-Action has a right to recoup their service call. It costs money to send out a truck and a locksmith. You have no way of knowing how long it took that truck to arrive.

Alicia should have called to cancel. It is Theft of Services.

Many doctors and dentists charge for unused appointments unless you call at least two hours ahead of time to cancel. Why? Because they have allotted that time to you and when you do not show up, it costs them money.

If you don't think these doctors and dentists will sue you or sic a collection agency on you for these fees, you are living in a dream world.

Yeah, it is only $45.00. Get about a hundred of these fee-skippers and it adds up to serious money.

Adjust your thinking...since it is "only" $45.00, Alicia should have paid it and this report would not be here.

Did the customer sign a contract with you? If not too bad. It is obvious you are TOO SLOW to show up for a stranded motorist. YOU DID NOT PROVIDE A SERVICE WHEN YOU SHOWED UP. If it was me I WOULD SUE YOU! Maybe you need to improve your service. So go get a straw and go SUCK IT UP!

OK, so this woman owes you $45, and instead of simply disregarding this negligible amount, you are going on an all-out riot trying to collect it. You are filing charges against her, which will likely cost YOU more than the $45 which you *might* get out of it. You are also disparaging your own business's name -- when someone comes across your report on the internet, they will see how you write slanderous reports about your customers, and they will likely never call on you for your services and warn all their friends not to use you too. So - as you can see, your $45 loss is now resulting in thousands and thousands of dollars of lost business and court fees.

I hope you are successful in getting your $45 back from the woman.