GC Services Limited Partnership ripoff, harrassing, fraudulant billing, oppressive ripoff American Express Houston Texas
On 11/05/03 Mr. Cruz of GC services contacted me and advised me for the first time of a debt owed to American Express. No bills were received for over 8 months and a payment of $1,000 was made in August, 2003 to American Express. I advised Mr. Cruz I would look into it.
On 11/11/03 I recieved a letter from GC services and a bill from American Express with two different amounts and at an address of a family member. No request had been made for a change of adress to American Express and it was the first bill received in over 8 months.
On 11/12/03 Mr. Cruz called me at work and told me he would garnish my wages if I did not pay right away, speaking to me in a menacing manner. I questioned the amount charged since my wife and I estimated the amount way under what was being claimed. I asked to speak to a supervisor and was passed to Iris Alvarez who informed me I had to pay the full amount like I promised on 11/05/03. I advised her that I made no such statement and she insisted that I did and then stated that I had received all the bills and had them in my possesion. She said that she would not send me any listing of charges. She also stated that after she got through with my account I would not be able to get a loan from a second rate lender to pay off the American Express debt. I felt this was a very unprofessional and oppressive statement. This was said as if she would go out of her way to damage my credit.
On 11/12/03 complaints and dispute letters were sent to 3 credit reporting agencies and GC services with a formal request for a listing of charges from GC services (no listing has been received as of yet).
On 11/27/03 after receiving a preliminary approval during the morning from a local bank it was disapproved by the afternoon due to a statement made by GC services. The bank reported to my wife that GC services had made numerous calls demanding that payment be made immediately. GC services was provided the bank telephone and fax number, in good faith, in order to verify the amount due. The bank manager did not appreciate the calls and rejected the loan. GC services made good on their threat of oppression.
Even though I did not receive a listing of charges from GC services I was attempting to protect my credit by paying the amount due with intentions of continuing the dispute. What GC services did was outright malicious and an unfair practice. But I guess it business as usual for American Express and GC services.
Jose
Rio Piedras
Puerto Rico
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2 Updates & Rebuttals
Jessica
Miami,Florida,
U.S.A.
help with debt collectors
#3UPDATE Employee
Mon, March 29, 2004
Send this collection company a certified letter asking them to cease and desist all further communication via phone and (and if you want via mail also). After this, it will be against the law for them to make further contact with you. Also, tell them you will see them in court if they want to garnish your wages. That is the only way they can force you to do anything is to take you to court. If they further continue to call you after you send the certified letter, you can sue them for harassment. Its amazing how the phone calls immediately stop! Also, you should send amex a certified letter asking for copies of all of your statements for the period you requested. They can be provided. You also might want to start checking out your account online to make sure this doesn't happen again in the future.
Miguel
Ft. Lauderdale,Florida,
U.S.A.
American Express does not endorse or condone bad practices
#3UPDATE Employee
Thu, December 11, 2003
From your letter I deduce that you had a debt with American Express that was not paid and after trying to collect unsuccessfully, Amex sent your account to a collection agency.
You can not call American Express to try to make payment arrangements anymore but you are certainly welcome to call them to request copies of the statements that you have doubts about.
It is only when you try to talk about payment that they will shut the door and refer you to talk to the collection agency because the agent will not have online access to that part of your account anymore.
American Express does not endorse or condone bad practices to collect and you can ask for the address for the Legal Dpt. in New York where you can write to advise of any illegal schemes the collection agency is using to try to collect. American Express collects this data and uses it to determine if it should continue doing business with that type of agencies.