Complaint Review: Zenith Acquisition Corp

In an attempt to qualify to buy a home, I became aware of a collection on my credit report from Zenith Acquisition Corp. I was familiar with the original creditor and didn't deny that I owed the bill, but I needed to be able to negotiate with the 3rd party collector (Zenith). After a couple phone calls I realized that I was getting conflicting information each time I called. Finally, I printed out a copy of the FDCPA and made a final call which I recorded. As expected, the "acct mgr" that I spoke with, flagrantly violated the FDCPA 5 times. When I ended the call, I called the FTC & filed a report which started an immediate investigation (FTC is awesome!). Then I composed a letter to Zenith listing the 5 violations and MY offer to settle the account for the agreed 50% "discount". I informed Zenith that I had reported our conversation to the FTC & provided the claim number. I advised Zenith in my final letter to them that I would agree to pay the agreed amount only if they agreed to uphold their verbal promises to me. I gave them 10 days to respond. On the 9th day, I received a faxed offer letter from their atty's office with satisfactory terms and an offer of deletion on my credit report @ all 3 bureaus. Among the FDCPA violations was Zenith's admission that they never attempted to validate the debt, refusal to issue an offer letter, and making false, deceptive statements. I paid the settlement amount before the deadline imposed by Zenith and emailed the proof to the agent whose name was on the offer letter. Today, I received a return email with a paid in full letter addressing the agreement to delete acct. from the bureaus along with a copy of the transmittal form to be sent to the bureaus requesting DELETION.
Moral to the story: If you are having problems trying to negotiate with a "bottom-feeder" 3rd party collector...
1)Become familiar with the FDCPA ...have a copy in front of you when you are talking to the co. rep... chances are the rep you are speaking with will break at least one rule in that document
2)Record your conversation...the collector will tell you they are recording the conversation, but you will never have access to it...so record it from your end
3)When you hang up, listen to the recording & compare it to the FDCPA. When you recognize a violation, call your local/regional FTC office. That person will be very helpful & initiate an investigation on your behalf immediately
4)Then compose a letter to the collector listing any/all violations and make your offer of compromise and give a time limit to respond. If you have an email addr or fax number and name you can send it that way...otherwise send Express or Priority Mail (ceritfied with return rect).
5) When you have received a response & it's to your liking, live up to your end of the deal & fax, or email proof of payment and always send the same copy of correspondence to the 3 bureaus (copy of offer letter & payment rect)
6)Then finally, continue to follow up with the bureaus to verify that the 3rd party collector did what they promised.

It sounds like a lot of work, but it in the end it will be worth it. Now I am just sitting back waiting for the credit report update and a higher credit score.

Arh
mansfield, Texas
U.S.A.