Portfolio Recovery Associates Harrassed me at home & at job - rude & big liars - refused to answer questions - Asking everyone to join me in a national group effort to get this company investigated Norfolk Virginia
If you are reading this, then you probably have had an encounter with someone from Portfolio Recovery and you are feeling angry, insulted, humiliated, demeaned and frustrated.
This company's bad business practices must be stopped. If those of us who have been abused by this company fail to speak up then no one with the authority to stop this company is ever going to pay attention or seek to investigate because we sit by and are quiet.
I am writing to say to everyone that we MUST take the time to record statements against this company here on this site, and also on as many Internet sites or blogs or discussion groups as we can each find.
You don't have to write a long statement when you post but you need to at least document in several different places on the Internet that you had a negative experience.
Even if your encounter was several years ago, but you still carry the emotion inside yourself from how the encounter makes you feel years later then you too need to take the time to record your complaint.
If enough of us will stand up and begin to document on this company, then eventually some responsible entity is going to realize that this company is out of control and needs to be stopped.
My hope is that some local or national television news program which is searching for an investigative piece will choose to expose this company but that can only happen if we will each take the time to write our experiences down and post on the Internet so that the negative PR against this company can no longer be ignored.
If you are just beginning to enter a situation with this company then you should know that everything you read on this site and other complaint sites regarding this company is true. You cannot believe anything they tell you because they lie, lie, lie! And they will harass you at home and on your job, plus they will do all the things that we are told as consumers that collection agencies cannot do. They will ignore you when you ask them questions or refuse to listen when you notify them in writing to no longer call you on your job. They will disclose your personal business on voice mail messages where others can hear what is being said. They will literally yell at you on the telephone when they call. They will say horrible things to you and accuse of things when you cannot pay.
These are heartless people who will say anything and do anything they can to get money. They are rude and will not hesitate to attack you verbally when talking to you. They are giving collection agencies a very bad name. They will make arrangements and then change their mind without any notice.
Their so-called litigation department is a disgrace and if they really are lawyers (which I don't believe most of them are) then they should be disbarred for inappropriate and unprofessional actions. They will try to come after you about debt even after you consult a lawyer which says they are too late. They will report false debt to your credit reports. They will issue judgments against you with increased dollar amounts beyond the debt amount. I've not experienced all of these things personally but I know people who are dealing and coping just as I am with these crazy people.
This company needs to be shut down and their employees need to be hit hard by our national Internet campaign to warn others about them and to speak up about how they behave.
Most of us who have dealt with any other collection agencies know that this particular company is the very worst of the bad ones.
Please join me in an effort to get this company exposed for how they operate. EVERY time they call you and harass you, post a complaint somewhere on the Internet EVERY time! Don't let them continue to do this to you or to anyone else.
Writing to the Better Business Bureau does no good because they will just turn it all around in their rebuttal so that's a waste of time. Instead we need to publicly humiliate them in the same way they do us each time they make contact.
If you are willing, send a letter to the Attorney General for your state telling them about your bad experience with this company.
Stop the madness. Let's all work together to put in writing enough documentation that will enable a state or national agency to finally put these guys out of business!!! Please share the link to this site so others can learn of my call to action against this company.
Not going to take it any more
Arlington, Virginia
U.S.A.
10 Updates & Rebuttals
Cinci
Cincinnati,Ohio,
USA
Shut 'em down!
#11Consumer Comment
Mon, October 19, 2009
People at PRS continue to call me to collect a debt from someone with a similar, but not exact name as I. The residence history is different too. When I tell them this, they accuse me of lying. Very aggressive, threatening and interrogate like the KGB. After checking them out on the internet, it is apparent that they are predators that prey on poorer and unsophisticated people that can't fight back. Wealthy people have attorneys to deal with this stuff. They need to be shut down! Since it operates across state lines, it is a Federal thing. Contact your Senator and Congressman and demand action! Obama is for the little guy so send emails to the Whitehouse too. Let get it done!
Daniel
Christiansburg,Virginia,
USA
Portfolio Recovery Associates violates Federal and State laws
#11UPDATE EX-employee responds
Tue, October 13, 2009
As a former employe of this company I stand with the american public and inform anyone that this company is a total RIP OFF. When 3 business men all friends thought up the idea of buying bad debt they invested their collective savings into it. They now own a major industrial site in Norfolk, Virginia and employe over a thousand employees. The company goes to all the major corporations and buys credit paper and loans for and average of 3 cents on the dollar. The company then imputs the information into a main frame computer system. Then in their most famous words state "let the games begin."
It doesn't matter if the loan is valid or not all that matters is if they can get the consumer to pay it. Loans and charges that may have been fraudulent are of no matter to these people. You can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that whatever they are calling you about is not valid it does not matter. I was employed at the time that after making millions the company began to buy auto loan paper. This company violates the FDCPA thousands of times a day. Each violation is worth 1000.00 dollars to the consumer harmed by these violations. However, no one is really going after them. Say you did have an auto loan and the car was repoed and you still owed money on it. The owner of the loan then writes the loan off to save on taxes then in turn still attempts to collect..After a short period of time money from the resell of the auto is collected and the loan is completely written off. FOR SEVEN YEARS this can be reported on your credit file then by law it has to be removed. However, Portfolio Recovery Associates buys the paper and now owns the loan and rereports it to the credit reporting agencies under a new name and it pops back up on your credit. This can go on for 30 years.
I have seen people be denied home loans or have their checks garnished. There is no end to the dirty deeds this company will employe. After an intensive class on how to be the most uptight a*****e you are given the opportunity to help the dirty three to continue to ripoff your fellow americans.
You want to hear a real scream? As an employee you are promised a commission on any account you collect. There is a control room in the center of the building in Norfolk with high tech equipment and computers where the owners sit day and night amd monitor EVERY CALL. I personally collected an 80,000 eighty thousand dollar account.My commission was supposed to be 10%. Eight thousand dollars. after I received account information to collect the money my call was busted in on and I was written up for violation of the FDCPA and stripped of the commission and my base salary and was fined by the company a thousand dollars. Come to find out the debt was from a deceased man and was over twenty years old and had been settled 18 years before. The widow of the man was selling her home to go into a retirment home and the sell was not allowed because the company that owned the loan in the beginning forgot to write it off as paid and sold the loan to Portfolio Recovery Associates by mistake.The widow not knowing any better paid Portfolio Recovery Associates again. Before anyone could step in a help this person she up and died of a heart attack. Portfolio Recovery Associates kept the money fired me when I took them to court. So not only are they ripping consumers off they rip off their own employees.
You cannot belive anything and I mean anything this company tells you. When they call and inform you that they are here to help you resolve whatever debt they claim you owe thell them you have resolved it. YOU HAVE RESOLVED NOT TO PAY THEM ANY AMOUNT OF MONEY WHATSOEVER!! When you are threatened with legal action tell them to BRING IT ON!! Trust me they won't. For one thing they must bring every written correspondence, phone conversation and all legal papers proving the debt and validity of such. 9.999999999999999999% of the time it can't be done. And by the way no one can threaten you with legal action unless they are prepared to follow through. Go online and download a free copy of the Fair Debt Collections Practice Act. FDCPA. When they yell at you yell right back...
In my uncles famous words tell to to go pound salt up their asses and hang up on them. THe only way these three are making money is through fear and ignorance. Once I found out, and that was within two weeks of being on the main floor and after collecting the necessary information for an eighty thousand dollar collection, I went to sue them.They then fired me, hell I wasn't going back anyway. It breaks my heart, I swore to defend this nation aganist all enemies and I failed this poor soul against a major enemy of the American consumer, Portfolio Recovery Associates.
Portfolio Recovery Associates are nothing more then THUGS. Stand up for yourselves people. GOD BLESS YOU and Semper FI. USMC Christiansburg, Virginia.
Dravendebtcollect
USAThis may seem rude
#11General Comment
Mon, October 05, 2009
BUT IF YOU ARE WANTING THESE AGENCIES TO LEAVE YOU ALONE, FILE A WRITTEN DISPUTE AND PROVE YOUR DISPUTE OR PAY THE BILL. WHEN MONEY IS OWED TO A COMPANY THEY HAVE A LEGAL RIGHT TO CALL TO COLLECT IT. YOU GUYS SAY HARRASSMENT. BUT YOU DO NOT EVEN UNDERSTAND THE TERM.
CALLING ONCE A DAY OR 3 TIMES A WEEK TO SPEAK TO SOMEONE TO GET A REASON WHY THE BILL HAS NOT BEEN PAID OR IS NOT BEING PAID IS NOT HARRASSMENT. I THINK IT IS UP TO YOU TO FIGURE IT OUT.
ACCORDING TO FEDERAL LAW, I, AS A DEBT COLLECTOR, CAN HAVE CONTACT WITH YOU ONCE A DAY, UNLESS ARRANGEMENTS ARE MADE FOR A SECOND CALL. SOME CITIES AND STATES HAVE A BIT STRICTER LAWS, BUT CALLING TO ASK YOU WHAT YOUR STORY IS, IS NOT HARRASSMENT. THESE COMPANIES YOU MENTION ARE LEGIT COMPANIES, THEY MAY CALL YOU, BUT CHANGE YOUR ATTITUDE TOWARD THE COLLECTOR AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS.
tailer
Poulsbo,Washington,
USA
We all need to fight back
#11Consumer Comment
Sun, October 04, 2009
I have not had any personal contact with this low life company, but I have had contact with others. I found an attorney who fights these people and I am in the process of setting a settlement. It is not much but at least it is a ding in their bank account. And if more and more people do this, then maybe it will someday hurt them enough financially. Portfolio needs to be shut down along with NCO, Creditors Interchange, CollectCorp or at least given hefty fines.
Dh
albany,New York,
U.S.A.
Portfolio Recovery services
#11
Sat, September 19, 2009
Anybody starting a class action suit against this group please contact me at (((Redacted))). I am with you 10 million percent. I hate dirt bags who scam innocent people. I am fighting to get a bill off my credit report that is not mine being collected by portfolio recovery associates. It takes up so much time. They should all be sent to jail for abusing consumers the way they do.
CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.
Bob
Somerset,New Jersey,
U.S.A.
DO NOT IGNORE THEM!
#11Consumer Comment
Sun, April 19, 2009
They will only "go away" if you make them. I reported them with my own story and experience on this site as well as on others like it. I have contacted an attorney who makes them PAY! My case has been filed and the persons at Portfolio Recovery are required to pay damages and lawyer fees. They will also be required to remove the inquiry they made on my credit report and may also have to pay damages to my parents, who they called and harassed repeatedly before I got involved.
You CAN NOT ignore them, they will not go away on their own and they will not stop trying to get you to relent. Use the internet to find a lawyer who does this sort of thing. Everything they have been reported doing is ILLEGAL! Regardless of whether or not the debt was yours to begin with.
Laurie
Haslet,Texas,
U.S.A.
Robert is correct - THE OP Needs to READ THE FAIR DEBT COLLECTION PRACTICE ACT
#11Consumer Comment
Thu, April 09, 2009
This is Federal laws that collection agencies are required to follow - unfortunately CA's like this one don't give a d**n.
If the OP had read this report on right here on ROR - he would know the BBB is absolutely worthless and why you cannot count on them to fix anything!
Better Business Bureau or Buyer Better Beware? BBB ............Nationwide Alert! ........... THE FOX GUARDING THE HEN HOUSE
*UPDATE Ex-Employee responds ..The Better Business Bureau is a fraud
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/001/ripoff0001343.htm
Also if the OP had bothered with a quick internet search - he would find hundreds of complaints already filed as well as sites like www.budhibbs.com - that would have helped him.
If ROR removes the link SEARCH THE INTERNET ON BUD HIBBS.
When on this site - view the Dateline Videos - about bad debt collectors. What is very interesting is the ACA says they do their best to get rid of bad debt collection companies. yeah- right - they are not doing anything at all.
Neither is our government!
Fdcpaviolationswinner
Lockport,New York,
U.S.A.
Ways to entrap these scumbags for continued POE calls
#11Consumer Comment
Thu, April 09, 2009
When it comes to place of employment, if the agency knows that personal calls are not permitted, calls must stop.Otherwise, it's an FDCPA violation if calls continue. This request doesn't have to be in writing either. A great trick i tell debtors in this predicament is to have another employee call back the agency if they leave a voice mail or have them pick up in live contact and tell the agency "Joe Debtor cannot receive these calls at POE." Do you know how many collectors either don't know or dare to test you on the fact that Joe Debtor doesn't have to personally state "no calls allowed at POE" ? Especially if your company records all incoming and outgoing calls, these violations will be easy to track. Otherwise, make sure you have live witnesses that can confirm the continued calls and document date,time and witness signatures who observed the calls in writing. Take them to court and personally throw a few bucks afterwards towards "your witnesses" after you get your check for FDCPA violations. More often than not, agencies will settle out of court to avoid civil exposure under these circumstances.
Steph
Minor Hill,Tennessee,
U.S.A.
A Bill collector has no right to call you at work
#11Consumer Comment
Mon, April 06, 2009
A bill collector has no right to call you at work and harrass you about a debt.It is against the law for them to call you at work. I had a couple ask me for mywork# and I refused to give it 1 even asked me for my bank imformation I also refused to give it. The next time they call you at work put them on hold for a long time
Robert
Buffalo,New York,
U.S.A.
You forgot the most effective action.
#11Consumer Suggestion
Sat, April 04, 2009
The most effective direct action a consumer can take is to SUE them in district court.
You should go to the FTC website, www.ftc.gov and download the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and the Fair Credit Billing Act and then SUE them for any violations they commit.
Also, you should write to your representatives in Congress to INCREASE the statutory damages for FDCPA violations (the law was written in 1977) to reflect today's economy and create a real deterrent of FDCPA and FCRA violations.