Complaint Review: Cavalry Portfolio Services - Sprint PCS

Back in 2000 we were wowed by all the free minutes Sprint PCS was giving away, even free phones! With my husband often away on business, this seemed like a golden opportunity to stay in touch and not have to worry about high phone bills.

Boy were we mistaken! Immediately, calls started showing up that we had not made. I immediately called Sprint about the calls and they told us they had removed them from the bill. This was not the case. After several months of fighting with them, we discontinued the service. I continued to fight with them over the now $774.95 phone bill, when all we had used were the "free" minutes.

Sprint said it was over and done with, however, we never received anything in the mail saying so. They stopped receiving my phone calls after that. A short time later, we started receiving letters in the mail and phone calls, even at work, regarding Sprint and Cavalry Portfolio Services. We kindly told them it was a mistake and told them to leave us alone.

In January of 2004, four years later, we received a couple of letters in the mail at the same time from a Salvatore Spinelli. Esq. attorney at law, regarding this Sprint Nonsense requesting $889.39. In a panic, we called them up, only to learn that it was Cavalry Portfolio Services trying to cash in. We talked to our legal advisor, who called them and arranged a settlement, and it would say that we had "paid as agreed." The caveat was that it had to be in their office, halfway across the country in 10 days.
We sent the money by way of money order, certified mail, and even arrived in their office days before the deadline. We thought, once again, the matter to be resolved. They had even sent us, in writing, the amount that we had agreed to pay them in order to get them to leave us alone.

The first call came the day after they received the money order. The account Representative, fumed at us for not sending them a personal check with our account information on it. Then she became very hostile and announced that the amount we had sent it was only a third of what we owed, and the amount we had in writing was a typo.

Our legal counsel took over at this point and started sending letters for them to leave us alone. That first letter was sent in February of 2004. This specter has haunted our credit and our family since 2000.

Every month or so since the first letter was sent, we have received a letter from Cavalry Portfolio Services claiming that they are determined to help you pay off your outstanding debt. Which is a lofty and noble goal, unless the debt is not legitimate and they will not leave you alone.

We are now receiving phone calls at home, again, even after I filed a complaint with the FTC. To this day, it is still on our credit reports. At what point are my consumer rights, my right to peace and tranquility going to be stomped on enough for someone to stop them and do the right thing because it is the right thing?

Frustrated
the Bay Area, California
U.S.A.