Complaint Review: Credit Service Company

Another person reported issues with this company as well from what I had read. I'd like to chime in here - the people who work for Credit Service Company all appear to be heartless, soulless bloodsuckers. Before I go any further, I'm not denying that I have a debt to pay. I'm not denying that I have tried to pay them when I could. But in light of today, I have to lay it out there.

My story began in 2010 when I ended up taking a few trips to the emergency room at Memorial Hospital due to high levels of pain. The first time I would find out was directly connected to tooth issues that still flare up from time to time - the night I went to seek treatment, I was convinced that there was something else at work. The second time I visited Memorial's emergency room was after I had accidentally gouged open part of my arm in an accident. Given that I could see bits of tissue peeking out at me through the wound that I normally shouldn't see, I doubt anyone could blame me for doing so. In any case, both visits occurred during a point in my life where I had a very unstable living situation.

And seeing as how both times I was knocked up on painkillers to deal with the high amount of pain during both visits (around a 7 to an 8 by your average hospital's pain scale), I vaguely remembered the financial representative coming into my room, and the next thing I knew, I was out the door. My third visit in 2010 was shortly before finally getting a job of sorts for the first time since early 2007 - I ended up settling for a work study job, having had no luck (and still having none even today) with my job search both in Michigan and here in Colorado. I had also started college earlier that summer. Either way, this third visit was over a strained rotator cuff injury sustained while working outdoors. Again, I don't recall being told anything about any kind of indigent care programs for low income individuals, thanks in part to it being a hurried experience.

For the next two years, I put off trying to make any payments, as every dollar I was making while at my work study job went right back into my living expenses - rent, utilities, phone and bus pass to get around the city to my classes, work and whatever interviews came my way. It came to a head last fall - I finally got a raise after waiting for two years and got an increase to my hours, and was just a day out from calling Credit Service Company to begin payments when they hit me with a court summons. I ended up going to this court session last November - my original intent was to pay them at least $10 a month. Instead, I faced one of their employees in court, where I didn't get a voice with her.

This woman, after I told her I wasn't able to pay anything, then slapped me with a $500/month judgment over my protests. It still amazes me that their people, who aren't even judges or magistrates, are able to get away with making legal judgments without anyone even voting them in. I'm looking forward to helping fight to end that practice in the future. Anyways, back on track - I appealed and gave her several back copies of my pay stubs along with several copies of various bills I was also paying for. I was contacted by Kirsten Vigil, evidently the head of their legal department, and was able to settle on $50 a month - no more, no less by their dictations. And to top it off, this agreement was not provided to me at all in written format.

I didn't realize that it would hurt me that much, because right on the heels of this I find that the rest of my hospital bill had been sent to a separate company in Denver known as Wakefield & Associates. I ended up paying them an extra $30 a month. For much of January, February and part of March, I would be unable to pay - my work study job cut off in mid-December, and my paychecks did not recover until tax returns came in this past March. I indicated as much to them with what was going on, and I thought I was on the same page with Credit Service Company, and more specifically Kirsten. I was wrong.

Come this past May, I had to stop making payments again and haven't been able to try to resume at all until recently (this part comes shortly). I was laid off from work for several weeks beginning in early May due to some issues with my financial aid, during which time I frantically continued to search for anything that offered the promise of full-time work to no success. By the time summer semester began, my financial aid issues were straightened out, but for three of my paychecks in June and July, I didn't get much, what with me starting back in at work right in the middle of the pay period, and then losing several days to July 4th weekend. To make up for the losses, I

've spent the last few months doing plasma donations whenever I can, and having to do more direct deposit advances through my bank than I can even stomach. I was in full contact with Kirsten over at Credit Service Company during this time frame as to what was happening and when an estimated date of payment would start again, with the emphasis being that it would depend on how things were looking with my pay to begin with. Naturally, she didn't listen - I got hit first with a bank garnishment order last month and wasn't informed of it until a month after the fact, when I checked my account balance a few weeks ago to find that there was a $125 legal order process fee from my bank on top of what I owed them for the previous direct deposit advance.

I hit the roof, and I admit I called over there to their office and tore into the person who picked up over their tactics and their apparent inability to return any phone calls. I probably shouldn't have done that in retrospect, but given how this company has treated me (along with who knows how many other people), I suppose I can't be faulted for my reaction. This guy of course hung up on me, which did not help the situation. Regardless of that, the bank wasn't able to fork over the full amount demanded (by this point $3842, an increase from $3400 originally owed) because simply I had no money to my name whatsoever. I informed them that I could possibly start making payments again on the 6th of this month, and re-emphasized that this would depend on how much I got for pay - I was only expecting payment from my job for one entire meeting that lasted a few hours, and in the back of my mind I was wondering how I would get back and forth to work for two weeks without access to a ride or even a bus pass. In any case, it didn't happen - again, I got hit with more fees from my bank, and I had to request that the payment date start on the 20th - yesterday.

This is where it all really comes to a head. I called Kirsten at Credit Service Company yesterday to make a $25 payment and restart the process again. I finally had some money to get myself on an even financial footing, and was feeling good for once about being able to make the payment. Instead, I got directed to an office assistant named "Lisa", who informed me they will not accept my payment because they had filed for wage garnishment two days before I contacted them. Again, no notification of any kind from them in writing at all. Not even a telephone call. I hung up and stewed for several hours yesterday, and then called back over to Credit Service Company.

Now, because they choose to assume I have a good paying job and somehow don't want to be responsible and avoid paying them, I'm stuck with a 6 month wage garnishment order that is pending in the court - an order that takes 25% of what I make (which is in the neighborhood of $600 depending on the school's open and close dates for inclement weather, the periods between semesters and holidays, not to mention any illnesses that force me to take time off) - I'm currently making just barely over $600 a month with still no real job prospects outside of work study, with much of my money going into an apartment complex that is charging at least $620 to $630 per month (this includes utilities) - rent which, granted,

I split in half with my girlfriend of three years, but still is pretty d**n expensive at anywhere between $310 to $330 per month, a phone bill that right now is averaging $100 a month thanks to increased fees and rates, a $63 bus pass and $50 a month for internet service that both of us utilize for classes we take (keep in mind that not every course you take through a college is done in the classroom) as well as her job - which does have her work from home on numerous days throughout the semester, and the $30 extra I'm also paying to Wakefield & Associates. And Credit Service Company may have just cut into all of those bills with their incessant need to make them your top priority over every other single expense you have.

The point of this complaint is that this company parades around saying how they have an "ethics-centered philosophy". I do not believe for one second that they really have any ethics when they throw the book at debtors they are pursuing through every legal means they've legislated into law through all but buying our elected leaders out with campaign donations and endless lobbying. I don't believe they have any ethics when it is highly likely they play a major part into why El Paso County has so many suicides each year. I don't believe they have any ethics when they are playing an active role in putting people out on the streets by demanding exorbitant amounts from people they deal with without even displaying an ounce of empathy towards the financial situations of those who don't have stable jobs, or even those who have no jobs to fall back on in this wrecked economy of ours.

I don't think they have any ethics when their employees are allowed to make civil judgments in place of court officials who are supposed to make that kind of call - I'm sure that has to be a violation of some law out there. I don't believe they operate off of any kind of "ethical" philosophy when they cannot even return a phone call to you, let alone give you anything in writing while knowing that many people do not know their rights when it comes to dealing with bloodsuckers like this company. I don't believe they have any ethics when they cannot even agree to meet you in the middle while knowing times are tough for you. And to be brutally honest, anyone who works there, doing what they do to other people like myself who are hurting financially to no end in this royally screwed up economy without remorse, cannot be called a Christian in any form. They lack any sense of morality and ethics if they choose to engage in the collection of medical debts, and clearly do not care about what kind of effects their actions have on another person's emotional and physical well-being.

Hence, my final statement: Credit Service Company is a company that bends the very rules it helped create, is only pleasant in dealing with the places it buys debt from, and is not a company to deal with in any kind of setting. They engage in false representation simply by claiming that they have an "ethics-centered philosophy" when the truth is far from that. The truly sad part? The guys who have owned this company since the late 1990s are "former Army helicopter pilots", and in all due honesty, the moment someone from the armed services decides to jump into a business that causes pain and immense stress in the lives of other people is the moment they lose my respect, and furthermore it is the moment that I can safely say they betrayed their oath to serve their country in exchange for the pursuit of untold riches. This business sucks no matter which way you look at it, and I'm hoping that one day someone will make a principled stand and shut businesses like Credit Service Company down for good. When they do more harm then good, it's time for them to go. And to this person who has endured more than enough severe stress because of Credit Service Company, that time needs to come now.