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OSI Portfolio Services Dba Palisade Collections ripoff fraudulent entry on credit report of unverifiable 9 yr old unpaid AT&T bill on paid in full, closed account Duluth Georgia
Received no notice of this alleged bill for 9 years after moving from the Washington, DC address it is charged to, I get notice from American Express they they're lowering my credit line based on an Experian Credit Report.
Subscribing to a credit monitoring service and knowing my credit should be in good to great shape I pulled up my free Experian report online and saw this "Potentially Damaging" entry from Palisade Collection, of an unpaid bill owed AT&T - with whom I have had no phone service for years.
I immediately called Experian to file a protest. Experian gave me contact info for OSI Portfolio Services, dba - doing business as Pallisade Collections, whom I called and got a very courteous phone operator who could only tell me that it was from AT&T for a claim of $51.52, but had no records as to what for, only that it was from a Lamont Street address in Washington, DC. I have not lived at that address in roughly 9 years. I called AT&T which did show a balance due - of $41, but they were unable to tell me what for - as I had Bell Atlantic local phone services and their records showed that my account had been zero'd out - paid in full, and the service rep could not understand or tell what the amount was supposed to be for.
I also called up Pallisade Collections on google.com and found 64 similar complaints on ripoffreports.com concerning AT&T charges being placed on credit reports without warning by Pallisade, and 360 complaints against them in the past 36 months and an unsatisfactory rating by the BBB. I have already filed a protest with Experian, and intend to file complaints with the Arizona Attorney General's office, the BBB, local media consumer fraud report lines, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and if they are a publically traded company, the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). Free Martha - go after some crooks.
John
Phoenix, Arizona
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
John
Phoenix,Arizona,
U.S.A.
Received apology, notice of correction from Palisade
#2Author of original report
Wed, March 31, 2004
Thanks in no small part to guidance received here, borrowing heavily from the demand letter you provided, and maybe a little due to the complaints filed with the Arizona and Georgia Attorney Generals, the Georgia Governor's Office of Consumer Affairs, the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance and Arizona State Banking Department (which regulate collection agencies), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and yes, the BBB of both Georgia and Arizona, as well as the SEC for failure to disclose the extent, number, and nature of consumer complaints against the company in its last SEC 10k filing - and/or the threat of those filings, I received a miniscule but satisfying form note of apology stating they were marking the account closed and the information would be removed from my credit report at their next reporting cycle.
As I got into this, I find that at the very least, Palisade violated Section 623 of the FCRA, Fair Credit Reporting Act, by taking old receivables marked as uncollectable, and giving them new dates to make them appear more recent to get around provisions of the Act that specify information older than 7 years may not be reported.
PS - If I thought I owed the $41 claimed, I would pay it regardless of age. I "pays" my debts. But neither Palisade nor AT&T can tell me what it's supposedly for and I do not believe it's a valid debt.
I encourage everyone similarly afflicted by Palisades tactics to complain to every appropriate governing body, and especially to file a complaint with the FTC regarding violations of Sec. 623 of the FCRA as noted above - Several other collection agencies have been forced to pay million dollar fines and to accept "consent agreements" whereby they agree to desist from these particular tactics of making old receivables new again and other actions identical to what Palisade has done with these ancient debts marked as uncollectable by AT&T (which hasn't exactly endeared itself to me either in this matter).