Allied Interstate - IRMC.com Ripoff, abusive, harrassing, sickening, and disgusting collection tactics practiced by people who will hopefully be returned to hell sooner than later!!! Minneapolis Minnesota
All Allied contact info that I can find is listed at the bottom of this post:
I am sick from the BS that I've had to deal with from Allied over the past few weeks. Lately they have been calling my wife in excess of 15 times a day, when she answers they hang up. First of all my wife has a student loan that we can only afford to pay $20/month on at this time. I have a 2 year old son and we prefer for her to stay at home with him during this crucial developmental phase in his life. I work 60+ hours per week at an environmental lab in Florida.
Last week I received a call from Cathy (888-301-0053 ext. 4221) I explained to her that all we could send was $20, she said that would not be enough, perhaps I should look into getting a second job. I was then asked what I did for work and why my Wife was not working. I politely proceeded to explain my situation to her. After that I was asked for my bank account information so she could automatically deduct the money from my checking account.
I told her that I do not have a bank account. I was then asked why I did not have a bank account and told that if I did not make an effort to pay this that they could garnish my wages (which will leave me virtually homeless-I assume $20 was not a good enough effort). After agreeing to send her $40 I realized exactly how unprofesional that entire conversation was, not to mention that she had now wasted 10 minutes of my time at work and I finally had to hang up on her. I chose to not send the money.
After doing this I called Allied to let them know what I thought of their disgraceful practices. I spoke to a man named Troy when I called. Initially when I mentioned Cathy's name I was told that no Cathy worked there. After Troy realized that I had done a little further reasearch into the company before I called he quickly remembered who Cathy was. Troy said he had placed a note on the account to not call, which doesn't mean anything until I send the cease and desist letter to their office.
Today my wife received a few calls where someone hung up on her. I told her to give me the number. I called the number back and spoke to Bill (952-595-2266 (this is his direct line, feel free to harass him all you want)) This is where it gets good. I was told by Bill "Why don't you just have your wife call me or do you have to do everything for her." My reply "Why don't you speak to her like a man when she answers the phone Bill? and why do you call 20 times a day and hang up, that's not very professional." Bill's response "We do what we have to do."
Right there Bill has admitted an FDCPA violation: Sec. 806 [15 USC 1692D] part (5)"Causing a telephone to ring or engaging any person in telephone conversation repeatedly or continuously with the intent to annoy, abuse, or harass any person at the called number." Just by causing the telephone to ring and then hanging up, Bill has violated the FDCPA.
Continuing on with Bill, he asked me what I did for a living (none of his business, but I told him I work at an environmental lab) He immediately berates my and says "oh, so you sweep the streets and pick up trash?"
After explaining the difference between an Environmental Laboratory and a city Sanitation department I was then told that my $20 per month was an "insult", that I must be "uneducated", "perhaps the salt in the Florida air has gotten to my brain", or even better "why don't you sell your trailer and start paying this loan"
After this I was extremely angry with Mr. Bill, of course he would not tell me his last name. I proceeded to tell him that since my $20 effort was such an insult perhaps I would just save my $20 and get a plane ticket to Minneapolis. Bill then proceeded to say "I'll put you in the ground if you come up here". I then threatened to kick his a*s.
He then said "are you threatening me? If so, this call is being recorded." I said "Yes, if it's being recorded let's rewind 3 minutes and here that death threat again, if that's what you meant by putting me in the ground? Maybe you could just go ahead and send me a copy along with the other harassing phone calls I've had from you." I basically put him in his place after about 25 minutes on the phone.
The whole intimidation aspect of this is ridiculous and I knew he just wanted to make me mad so I would hang up. Anyway, I will be paying the student loan back, but only to the State of Florida. I will never send any money to Allied Interstate or any of it's bogus subsidiaries. That's about enough for me, my blood pressure is through the roof just thinking about this.
Here's some contact info, hope it helps. The email address I've given is for media relations, the only one that I can find published. cdorval@irmc.com--Although I would assume that most are in the same format i.e. first initial/last name @irmc.com. have fun, try multiple combinations. Here's the management info, below this is the office addresses. Have fun!!!!
Vikas Kapoor
President and CEO
Randy Christofferson
Chairman of the Board
Sarah Davies
Chief Analytics Officer
Christopher Dorval
Chief Marketing Officer
Barry Grant
Chief Technology Officer
George Huyler
Chief Personnel Officer
Stephen Kent
Executive Vice President, Customer Recovery Operations
Rakesh Kumar
Chief Operations Officer, Global Solutions
Paul Mackin
Group Managing Director, United Kingdom
Norman Merritt
Chief Financial Officer
Gary Praznik
Chief Client Officer
Graeme Stirrett
General Manager, Canada
office addresses:
Financial
Jamie Wallace, Senior Vice President
IRMC
3000 Corporate Exchange Drive
Columbus, OH 43231
Student Loans/Government
Michael Kendall, Senior Vice President
Allied Interstate, Inc.
800 Interchange West
435 Ford Road
Minneapolis, MN 55426
Communications
Mark Littrell, Senior Vice President
IRMC
3200 Northline Avenue, Suite 135
Greensboro, NC 27408
Healthcare
Danny Turano, Senior Vice President
IRMC
100 Park Avenue, 9th Floor
New York, NY 10017
Direct Marketing
Danny Turano, Senior Vice President
IRMC
100 Park Avenue, 9th Floor
New York, NY 10017
Commercial
Danny Turano, Senior Vice President
IRMC
100 Park Avenue, 9th Floor
New York, NY 10017
Utilities
Michael Kendall, Senior Vice President
Allied Interstate, Inc.
800 Interchange West
435 Ford Road
Minneapolis, MN 55426
United Kingdom
John Ricketts, Group Sales & Marketing Director
Legal & Trade Financial Services Ltd
33-34 Winckley Square
Preston, Lancashire, England PR1 3EL
United Kingdom
Canada
Victor Sawision, Senior Vice President
CBCL
1210 Sheppard Avenue E, Suite 700
Toronto, Ontario M2K 3C4
Canada
Alright Bill, or any one of you hellbound bastards bring on the rebuttal!!!!!!
Randy
Orlando, Florida
U.S.A.
Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Allied Interstate
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Steve
Bradenton,Florida,
U.S.A.
Education for April, the Allied Interstate collector
#3Consumer Suggestion
Mon, November 13, 2006
April,
Debt collectors do not HELP the debtor. How exactly do you feel that you are helping a debtor?
As soon as they make a payment to a third party debt collector, they actually hurt their credit score, as the old collection account is now a more recent negative item.
And, making a payment or agreement to pay a third party debt collector validates the debt, where as it may have been legally uncollectable prior to doing so.
There is no valid reason to EVER speak to ANY third party debt collector. It will never do anything positive for the debtor, and will in almost every case make things worse.
So, how exactly does a debt collector HELP the debtor? Please elaborate. Let me read some of that brainwashed debt collector drivel.
April
Queen Creek,Arizona,
U.S.A.
I am not "h**l bound" but I suppose some may be from the sounds of it...
#3UPDATE EX-employee responds
Fri, November 10, 2006
I am an ex employee of Allied interstate, and to be honest, this is the first legit report I've read on this site! Granted I have only read and rebuttled to 2 previous to this, but I will read on.
First, I want to say that as a previous employee of Allied Interstate, I was fully re-trained on the FDCPA. We spent 2 weeks in training. I myself have done collections for 3 years, and have left the industry to find a more rewarding job in the Medical industry. Though, I can say their training is acurate, and you must take tests, and pass, to even be put on the phone.
I found myself as the collector who would call people such as yourself, who were very upset, or had recieved a call such as you did. Sometime it would have to go to my supervisor, because the party did NOT want to speak to me...I understood.
Those who did infact speak to me, after I had explained our motives, as well as the law, and appologized for something I had no done, did find some relief and confidence in what I had to say.
Yes, there are "ill mannered" collectors who do not follow the FDCPA. As far as the phone calls with hang up's, We operated on a dialer, and it is a machine, NO ONE is personally dialing numbers constantly. We are aloud ONE contact with the DEBTOR, depending on what state you are in within a certain amount of days.
As far as your personal life situation with work and your spouse, and child, I can understand, as my fiance and I will do the same for the first few months of our childs life. You have to remember it is not our (collectors) fault that you chose that as your living situation. If previous attempts to resolve the debt have not been reconciled then why should we belive that a debtor would commit to $20.00 a month, when you could have sent this before?
I understand your frustration, though you must understand ours. I worked out of the Office in Arizona, so these names mean nothing to me, though I have heard the same complaint before. You must truely be a collector to understand what it is that we go through daily, and to understand that we speak to several people who wish to remain debtors and not take care of their own bills.
As I've previously mentioned, your complaint is the only one I've read that is somewhat legit. CONGRADULATIONS! Most debtors dont know their rights. I encourage you to pay your debt, as you've stated you would, but remember that one or a few persons should not condemn ALL collectors. It's not our fault or decision to keep your wife at home, nor our choice to have you working 60+ hours a week.
A collectors job is to find out the personal situation so we may asses the situation, as the mini miranda states; "This is an attempt to collect a debt, and any information obtained will be used for that purpose..." How can we come up with suggestions to help you, the debtor, if we do not understand your situation?
No one wants to be in debt, or have the calls from collectors. I could go on forever, though I have one last comment which I hope makes you realize something. I was a collector, I did the job and I did it by the book. In my training class there were people who had never done collections, and who I felt were, well, idiots. I cannot speak positively of all the people I have worked with either. Though, in any profession, there is ALWAYS someone who makes it bad for the rest of us!