Complaint Review: Alton Davis and Associates - Ontario California

About 3 weeks ago, Private number contacted me initially to contact another phone number with a reference number in regards to seeing when I will be home to serve me papers for a court date I had the following Wednesday. I researched the name the law firm they gave me, Alton, Davis, and Associates and the phone number and only found one complaint with the phone number. It was a lawyer that had a similar call and did his due diligence, and the lawyer did not even exist. At the time, he said they were based out of Texas.

I blew it off til he called the next day and urged me to call again. I did not and he called everyday to the point I was getting calls from my mother-in-law, brother-in-law's parents, among other random family members that they received the same call trying to get ahold of me. The following Monday,  the person that handles payroll at the place of my employment informed she recieved a call. I took it serious then and called the number. I was transferred to a Michael Ellis that sounded legit and professional in everything he was saying. Said I had an old collection notice that is in their department from this hospital in an area I used to live in.  They again said I had a court date the next day which was the following Wednesday.

He said I can propose a settlement and that if it was approved, they can go to the court appearance and said it was handled out of court. The total was $3,500, so I said $1,000. While I was waiting on hold and eventually hung up, I did my own research. I looked up both last names and firm name in the California Bar website. No search results.

They called back and said they would do $1500. I did not say anything to the point of I agreed. They said they would send me a digisign form by email to fill out and send with my credit card info. I asked that they send the original debt paperwork as well. I also asked if they could provide me information on the law firm because I could not find anything. They said they have a website which was a one page, very generic webpage.

I thought about it afterwards and I had never even been to the hospital they brought up!

For whatever reason, I wanted to see the building that they were for legitamacy. I used the address on the documents as well on the website and it took me to a P.O. box in a UPS store in a plaza! I also printed out the digisign documents for my records and saw a way to print out "other documents". The originator document had a different address, again, in a plaza and the spot is for lease!

I am still avoiding the calls but they are continuously calling, even the General manager. They told him I had a court appearance this past Monday. Evidently I missed it even though both "court appearances", my name was never on the docket at my courthouse which they mentioned.

My first red flag when they called was it was never said "This is a recorded call from a collection agency. Any information obtained will be used to obtain the debt" and they used my non-legal name everytime.

I filed a complaint with the FTC if that will ever do anything. Hopefully, it does get investigated because they are very convincing. I do not want other people to go through what I am still going through and possibly lose a substantial amount of money as well as their credibility inside their workplace.