- Report: #324268
Complaint Review: Discount Debt Solutions - West Palm Beach Florida
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Author Confirmed
Why?
Discount Debt Solutions
1645 Palm Beach Lakes Blvd., Ste 490 West Palm Beach, 33401 Florida, U.S.A.
Phone:
800-913-0121
Web:
N/A
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Discount Debt Solutions Make their payments late so then in return I get late fee charges! West Palm Beach Florida
I signed on with DDS to help me to pay off my credit card. This was in April of 2004. I signed a contract with them and they were to get a contract with my credit card. The payments were automatically withdrawn from my checking acct. so they would NOT be late. Everything seemed to be going fine all this time.
Recently, my husband and I decided we should get the the card paid off and cancel the DDS. I hadn't really taken notice of my statements from the credit card, I "ASSUMED" since I had a contract with DDS, I really shouldn't have to worry. Boy was I wrong, I noticed since last October (2007), I was receiving past due fees. The date due on the credit card was always at the end of the month, DDS would withdrawal on the 20th of every month, if the 20th did not fall on a weekend they would take it the next business day, but they weren't making the payment till after the due date, approx 10 days after they withdrew my money.
According to their website, payment should be made 3-5 business days after they get their money. It was an electronic transfer so they had the money as soon as it came out of my account. I contacted the credit card company and they stated they no longer had a contract with DDS as it was dropped due to a late payment. So the late fee is not the credit card company's fault but DDS. I called DDS again to try to set things straight. The CSR "Stacey Smith" I spoke with states I should have contacted them when I got the first late fee, and that they don't receive statements or know the due dates. I reminded her if DDS has a contract they should know everything about the contract and if there is a contract there should be no late fees. She continued to tell me I should never assume and it is not DDS fault for the late fees even though they withdrew the money from my account 10 days before the due date. I tried to tell her that the Oct payment was due on the 30 and DDS paid it on the 31, but they took my money on 10/22 so 3-5 business days would be the 25-27. If paid as per their own web site it shouldn't have been late whether they knew the due date or not.
According to the credit card company once a debt counseling co. is late they are then "kicked off the contract". The DDS CSR states they are not informed of this so even though DDS was making a monthly payment to my credit card it was late for the past 5 months totally $195. DDS did get a new contract with the credit card company and they would only waive the last late fee which would have been added to the $195. If they would have paid on time I would have this credit card paid off by now, yes it will be paid off in the next month, but I could have saved my self some money, one less payment. I will be closing my account with DDS they e-mailed me a termination agreement. The CSR stated since I will be terminating my agreement the the credit card company can change my interest rate.
I will be contacting the credit card company again and advising them of DDS's poor customer service and failure to provide the service that was agreed upon. I hope that the credit card company takes this seriously and does not do business with DDS in the future. There are many people in the country who are in financial distress, and with the economy as it is today, I fear that this number will only increase and more people will need true help, not DDS help. When I received the termination agreement, I found it amusing that several clauses where in the termination agreement. The first of which is "RELEASE.
Each party one to the other promises and releases the other party from any and all legal claims which may exist between the parties as a result of occurrences or transactions occurring from the beginning of time until the time that this release becomes effective." To me this seems to say, even if we screw up, you have to sign this to stop us from taking your money and then you can't do anything about us screwing up.
Roxanne
Confluence, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.
Recently, my husband and I decided we should get the the card paid off and cancel the DDS. I hadn't really taken notice of my statements from the credit card, I "ASSUMED" since I had a contract with DDS, I really shouldn't have to worry. Boy was I wrong, I noticed since last October (2007), I was receiving past due fees. The date due on the credit card was always at the end of the month, DDS would withdrawal on the 20th of every month, if the 20th did not fall on a weekend they would take it the next business day, but they weren't making the payment till after the due date, approx 10 days after they withdrew my money.
According to their website, payment should be made 3-5 business days after they get their money. It was an electronic transfer so they had the money as soon as it came out of my account. I contacted the credit card company and they stated they no longer had a contract with DDS as it was dropped due to a late payment. So the late fee is not the credit card company's fault but DDS. I called DDS again to try to set things straight. The CSR "Stacey Smith" I spoke with states I should have contacted them when I got the first late fee, and that they don't receive statements or know the due dates. I reminded her if DDS has a contract they should know everything about the contract and if there is a contract there should be no late fees. She continued to tell me I should never assume and it is not DDS fault for the late fees even though they withdrew the money from my account 10 days before the due date. I tried to tell her that the Oct payment was due on the 30 and DDS paid it on the 31, but they took my money on 10/22 so 3-5 business days would be the 25-27. If paid as per their own web site it shouldn't have been late whether they knew the due date or not.
According to the credit card company once a debt counseling co. is late they are then "kicked off the contract". The DDS CSR states they are not informed of this so even though DDS was making a monthly payment to my credit card it was late for the past 5 months totally $195. DDS did get a new contract with the credit card company and they would only waive the last late fee which would have been added to the $195. If they would have paid on time I would have this credit card paid off by now, yes it will be paid off in the next month, but I could have saved my self some money, one less payment. I will be closing my account with DDS they e-mailed me a termination agreement. The CSR stated since I will be terminating my agreement the the credit card company can change my interest rate.
I will be contacting the credit card company again and advising them of DDS's poor customer service and failure to provide the service that was agreed upon. I hope that the credit card company takes this seriously and does not do business with DDS in the future. There are many people in the country who are in financial distress, and with the economy as it is today, I fear that this number will only increase and more people will need true help, not DDS help. When I received the termination agreement, I found it amusing that several clauses where in the termination agreement. The first of which is "RELEASE.
Each party one to the other promises and releases the other party from any and all legal claims which may exist between the parties as a result of occurrences or transactions occurring from the beginning of time until the time that this release becomes effective." To me this seems to say, even if we screw up, you have to sign this to stop us from taking your money and then you can't do anything about us screwing up.
Roxanne
Confluence, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Customer Service
West Palm Beach,Florida,
U.S.A.
I'm sorry this response took so long
#2UPDATE Employee
Thu, September 25, 2008
Sept 25, 2008 I just found out that this complaint had been posted . I am sorry that it took so long to respond. I would like to point out that we have over 4,000 active clients that are working their way to becoming debt free and thousand more that have completed our program. First, I think it is important that people understand what we do and how we do it. When a client enters our program, we begin negotiations with their creditors. We attempt to get the creditors to lower interest rates, stop over limit and late fees; and cease collection efforts. Because of our relationship with creditors, we are normally successful in getting benefits for our clients at a more affordable monthly payment. We collect funds from most clients monthly by automatic bank draft. It takes most banks 2 to3 business days to report to us whether on not a draft has been paid. We forward funds to the creditors within the next 3 business days-most are sent electronically. It is then up to the creditor to post the payment. This time element is why we suggest to clients that they allow 15 days between their payment date and the date that the creditor can be expected to show receipt of the payment. As to the complaint by Roxi5, I was able to locate her account and review it. According to her complaint, there were no late fees from April of 2004 until October of 2007. Evidently, we had done something right. She also states that she did not look at her statements. We constantly remind clients that we do not get their statements and that they must review them. Had Roxi5 done so, we would have asked her to contact the creditor and move the due date (only the debtor can make this request). This would have solved the payment date issue and we could have had her account reinstated to the previous benefits. I will repeat what our representative told her-She should have read her creditor's statements when they were sent to her and contacted us with questions or problems. The fault was hers, not ours. .
