Complaint Review: VKI - VALENTINE & KEBARTAS

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Fair Debt Collection The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Debt Collection Regulations, 940 CMR 7.00, prohibit many unfair debt collection practices by creditors. Regulations of the Massachusetts Division of Banks, 209 CMR 18.00, prohibit unfair debt collection practices by debt collection agencie

 quote above then tell your side

 when I worked there the General Manager (((REDACTED))). (((REDACTED))) This General Manager ran a company called Ellen Muffuci Collections. He made a fortune. 

To the the poster who wrote: " I currently work for VKI. I work in the Florida office. While the office is dirty and pest control nonexistant, the work is valid, we are FOTI compliant. Look it up!"

To quote you further: 

"I have the right to call you at home (the # dell, chase, ADT, US Cellular, Uhaul or any other company we collect for has on their file) You gave that # along with a cell, work or significant other's # when you SIGNED a contract. Think we won't call. We will. If you don't answer we call other #'s. If you refuse to answer, hang up on us or lie to us about not being the person we are calling for and trust me WE KNOW you do it. We will call family, neighbors and bosses until we are told 1) this is not a @ to reach them at 2) do not call this # again or 3) it is a non working #."

Clearly your "college education" didn't bolster your intelligence.  You cannot legally call a consumer's boss or neighbor if you know it is not the number of the consumer that you are trying to reach.  Of course you can say you don't know its their number until they tell you to stop calling, BUT THAT IS HARASSMENT. And you just admitted to doing so above. You don't know the law.   Additionally your attitude toward the consumers who may owe debts is clearly callous at best.  Do you really think your attitude is professional?

Furthermore, assuming that anyone who owes a debt is a "d****e" or a deadbeat is ridiculous.  In this day and age there are so many consumers being ripped off by the likes of AT&T, Verizon, ADT and other large companies that offer little recourse to a consumer that is trying to pay a bill or fix an issue with billing.  I personally have gone to the FCC and filed suit with attorneys over bills that were rather small in amount, but were not my responsibility to pay because I did not receive the services in that Contract you so love to reference.  A contract works both ways.  If the services are not rendered than the consumer should not have to pay the bill.  Where is the service standing up for the consumer?  The BBB?  The Attorney General.  What a joke.

Come down off your high horse and get a grip.  Your cavalier attitude is pathetic and it is rather evident that you feel you are well above anyone who might fall victim to a bottom feeder like VKI.  Are you even aware that there are companies that buy lists of consumer names and submit them to bill collectors to for debts that were never incurred?  You are rather naive and arrogant - a bad combination!

They are not at all legit. They cuss and threaten people to get what they want. If they don't get what they want they go around the law and obtain the information anyways and get garnishments by lying.. It is true that they are a office full of ex convicts and serious drug addicts , or high school drop outs including the management staff. I left because of their unfair practices. 

I currently work for VKI. I work in the Florida office. While the office is dirty and pest control nonexistant, the work is valid, we are FOTI compliant. Look it up!



I have the right to call you at home (the # dell, chase, ADT, US Cellular, Uhaul or any other company we collect for has on their file) You gave that # along with a cell, work or significant other's # when you SIGNED a contract. Think we won't call. We will. If you don't answer we call other #'s. If you refuse to answer, hang up on us or lie to us about not being the person we are calling for and trust me WE KNOW you do it. We will call family, neighbors and bosses until we are told 1) this is not a @ to reach them at 2) do not call this # again or 3) it is a non working #.



This is the law, we follow it. It isn't concidered harassing. What I think is a shame is that you would think it is harassing that someone would want to collect on money or property you used. How can you people use 4 thousand dollars worth and think that you don't have to pay. And threatening us with lawyers doesn't work b/c we want that lawyers # b/c chances are when you threaten it is just that a threat. You don't have a lawyer. What lawyer will take someone who refuses to pay their debts.



Yes, there are a few ppl who are really bad on the phone. I can give names but won't. They are the absolute few not the rule.



I personally, am the nicest person on the phone. Polite and respectful, I don't collect too much money, just enough to not get fired. I ain't getting rich on this job. I barely make ends meet b/c ppl don't want to pay their bills. Losers. I would much prefer to drive to their house with a lawyer and tell then we lied, debtors prison is real and I am there to tell them they have one last chance to pay before they get hauled away. Unfortunately debtors prison was banned in the mid 1800's in this country and in 1970's in other countries.



It's too bad b/c maybe people would be more responsible and PAY THEIR DEBTS. You used the money, now pay it back, d****e.



And as a final note, I am college educated but was laid off due to downsizing. I don't want to have to work as a colector but it is the only job I can find right now. Florida is dying. I am not the only person who is college educated that works for VKI. There are people who I wonder why they work there b/c they are so intelligent and could get another job but to them the money is good, they get good bonuses. They have also been there 5+ years. We HAD ONE convict, he didn't last long and now there is no one in the office, that I know of that has done prison time. This office has some of the best and brightest people working there. It is the debtors who are stupid. Really? you don't want to pay a debt that is obviously yours and you know it is yours. You argue and fight and threaten me. You yell at me and cuss b/c you are not smart enough to use better words. Really? Go somewhere private and do something very difficult.

VKI engage in unfair debt collection practices. They harass consumers, threaten law suits, seemingly make up the amounts they claim owed; refuse to properly very debts despite demand.
My telephone rings from VKI at least 6 times a day about a disputed debt. Sometimes as much as 9 times. I filed a complaint with the FTC.

Valentine & Kabartas is probably the most unprofessional company I have ever had the misfortune of dealing with.  The Original report is accurate in its description and quite conservative in its description.  Let me tell you about some of the behavior they engage in:

1. Profanity while on the call

2. Threats of legal action

3. Use of devices that don't allow you to disconnect your call from them

4. Disregard for legal requests to cease calling

5. Third party disclosure

6. Probably posed as "happy customers" on this Rip Off report to make themselves look better, that is the kind of operation they run.

And much more.  I am glad if they cleaned up their act but my experience was horrible.  If I were ever to be contacted by them again, I would immediately turn over the matter to my attorney.

The advice from the Original Report is great advice and what I would recommend anyone who is contacted by this company follow.  They are not professional and they are not compliant with the law. 

Do a search and you will see that they have multiple lawsuits pending in state and federal courts.  Your best bet is to simply ignore them and refer the matter to an attorney for proper legal advice and possible financial sanctions against them. Yes, you can sue them for violating FDCA along with other laws regarding telephone harrassment.   If you must contact them, journal everything you discuss in your own handwriting.  A journal will hold up in court.

1st off i would like to apoligize to all of you for taking the time out of your busy day to wright about vki i worked with them acouple times yes i know i dont handle my money the greatest but they never frightend me when i spoke with them in fact they helped me out very well and God forbid i went into debt again i would have no problem dealing with valintine and kebartas. alot of people on here are just angry that they have a bill and someone just happens to remind them about it sorry you should have been focused.

This company is not professional Denis.

I had a woman from V & K tell me that I would be 1) sued, and 2) my laptop repossessed by skip tracers and they were coming to my house. By the way, the laptop is 5 years old and falling apart.

She was quite nasty to me and I hung up on her a couple of times. I didn't hear from her after a while. Maybe it was because I had my cell phone disconnected.

Man, if I knew then what I know now about collection agencies, I would have sued THEM.

In response to the OBVIOUSLY disgruntled ex employee of VKI, I would like to say that I have worked for one of the owners at 3 different companies, VKI being the last of the 3. During my tenure at each of these companies, the owner has maintained the absolute HIGHEST regard for collection compliance on both state and federal levels.

He would not and DOES not condone any type of unfair or deceptive practices from anyone within his company and I have personally known him to terminate employees for even the slightest infraction of the fair Debt Collection Practices Act 95-109.

It is my opinion that the author of the initial Rip Off report on VKI is not only disgruntled, but if he has actually been in the industry for over 13 years as he claims, then he should have known to bring any infraction to management AT THE VERY LEAST. It sounds to me like the author of the Rip Off report may be very culpable of his allegations, in layman's terms, he himself was terminated for the very violations he is accusing VKI of. And I find it even more odd that he didn't have the courage to put his name on the complaint.

In response to the OBVIOUSLY disgruntled ex employee of VKI, I would like to say that I have worked for one of the owners at 3 different companies, VKI being the last of the 3. During my tenure at each of these companies, the owner has maintained the absolute HIGHEST regard for collection compliance on both state and federal levels.

He would not and DOES not condone any type of unfair or deceptive practices from anyone within his company and I have personally known him to terminate employees for even the slightest infraction of the fair Debt Collection Practices Act 95-109.

It is my opinion that the author of the initial Rip Off report on VKI is not only disgruntled, but if he has actually been in the industry for over 13 years as he claims, then he should have known to bring any infraction to management AT THE VERY LEAST. It sounds to me like the author of the Rip Off report may be very culpable of his allegations, in layman's terms, he himself was terminated for the very violations he is accusing VKI of. And I find it even more odd that he didn't have the courage to put his name on the complaint.

In response to the OBVIOUSLY disgruntled ex employee of VKI, I would like to say that I have worked for one of the owners at 3 different companies, VKI being the last of the 3. During my tenure at each of these companies, the owner has maintained the absolute HIGHEST regard for collection compliance on both state and federal levels.

He would not and DOES not condone any type of unfair or deceptive practices from anyone within his company and I have personally known him to terminate employees for even the slightest infraction of the fair Debt Collection Practices Act 95-109.

It is my opinion that the author of the initial Rip Off report on VKI is not only disgruntled, but if he has actually been in the industry for over 13 years as he claims, then he should have known to bring any infraction to management AT THE VERY LEAST. It sounds to me like the author of the Rip Off report may be very culpable of his allegations, in layman's terms, he himself was terminated for the very violations he is accusing VKI of. And I find it even more odd that he didn't have the courage to put his name on the complaint.

In response to the OBVIOUSLY disgruntled ex employee of VKI, I would like to say that I have worked for one of the owners at 3 different companies, VKI being the last of the 3. During my tenure at each of these companies, the owner has maintained the absolute HIGHEST regard for collection compliance on both state and federal levels.

He would not and DOES not condone any type of unfair or deceptive practices from anyone within his company and I have personally known him to terminate employees for even the slightest infraction of the fair Debt Collection Practices Act 95-109.

It is my opinion that the author of the initial Rip Off report on VKI is not only disgruntled, but if he has actually been in the industry for over 13 years as he claims, then he should have known to bring any infraction to management AT THE VERY LEAST. It sounds to me like the author of the Rip Off report may be very culpable of his allegations, in layman's terms, he himself was terminated for the very violations he is accusing VKI of. And I find it even more odd that he didn't have the courage to put his name on the complaint.

I can appreciate that a company is usually filled with good employees with others that are less than good. I sit, however, reading in disbelief what appears to be a fairy tale. If this is truly a real experience I would love to hear more. PLEASE send me an email to confirm this somehow.

Thanks

I bought two lap-tops for my grandchildren in January of 2005. I made the mistake of sending the bill to their home, out of state, hoping they would pay the bill as we had agreed upon. I wanted to order a personal computer for my home and i called dell.....i was transfered over seas to a dell rep who spoke very little english. I didnt understand anything the man was saying besides "i needed to pay my bill".

Confused, i call my daughter and asked if everything was ok, and to find out if they were still making payments on the laptops. My daughter assured me that they were....and i didnt think anything about it ....about a month went by,and i returned a call to dell to order the computer. I was transfered but this time to a very well spoken women who said she could assist me and redirected my call. A man answered and said "Valentine and Kebartas may i help you?" i said "yes, is this dell financial services?" The man said "no", and said my account may be resting in the office. He asked my name, and asked me to verify my billing address and last four of my social security number. I didnt understand so i asked him how could this happen? He informed me that i was in collections and there hasnt been a payment in nearly 8 months. I didnt know what to do because i owed them the money, I ordered the laptops.

The bill was over 3000 dollars. I started to cry and the man asked me if i was ok? and if i needed time to calm down and relax and offered his number with direct extension so i could call back. I ask what are my options to resolve this, he stated that we would need to establish an arrangement to pay off the balance that was owed. I expressed to him, all i wanted to do was buy another computer, I asked if he had a number that would connect me to dell, with haste he provided a number to call. When i spoke with dell they told me that the balance was owed and before i could purchase anything else i would need to clear up my account. Dell told me that i could make payment to Valentine and Kebartas and that they were in possession of my account. I asked what did i owe? Dell told me i owed more the the collection agency said i owed.

I called back to the collector i had spoken with the previous day and told him i would like to pay my account off. He said sure, asked if i was feeling any better, at this point i felt the concern he had for me. He then told me of my options and that all the information he asked me would be used solely for the collection and for that purpose only. I told him that dell said i owed a different amount and he told me that he had discounted the price and asked if dell said i owed more ? i told him "yes" and he told me he discounted the price.( without me asking ) Dell said i owed 700 dollars more than what they charged me. The gentleman told me the safest way to purchase a computer free of interest and late fees is to purchase out right at once. I must say my experience with Valentine and Kebartas was as pleasant as could be.