Complaint Review: Luebke Baker An Associates - CRC Of Tennesee - Peoria Illinois

I did not work for CRC directly. I worked for Periodical Publishers Service Bureau, Inc. in Sandusky Ohio as a bill collector. I worked for the company 3 times over a 4 year period, and I noticed that over time, the customers who I was trying to collect from grew more and more oblivious to the account I was talking about. CRC of Peoria contained a lot of accounts where the person had no idea what I was talking about, and there were several scam methods which telemarketers reportedly used. Many customers reported the same methods. CRC of Virginia was by far the worst in this regard. We, as bill collectors, were given a lot of liberty in our collection methods. I am not proud to say that I was very aggressive and mean in my calls, and for that I did very well. We frequently used smoke screens and legal threats to get payments. I frequently used illegal forms of skip tracing (finding the customer) such as misrepresenting myself to family at alternate numbers, calling the post office and DMV for information, and even reporting soldier's debts to their commanding officers. (the UCMJ mandates that military personnel must pay their debts) My supervisor knew of these extreme and illegal tactics and allowed them. We were allowed to say more or less what we wanted, but if anybody threatened us with the BBB or Attorney General, we had to place the customer on hold and immediately transfer the call to our supervisor, who pretty much terminated the account immediately. I did so well that I was eventually given all of the accounts which were soon to be sent to our Attorneys (Luebke Baker And Associates). I was allowed to be brutal and aggressive with these people. If it was a Monday, I would tell them that their account would go to Luebke Baker And Associates on Tuesday if they didn't give me their credit card information to pay in full that day. If It was a Friday, it was the same story; only I said Monday instead of Tuesday. Looking back, I feel horrible that I collected large amounts of money from these people (often in excess of $1000) while they were still insisting that they never agreed to anything (often these people would claim that they never even heard of CRC until collections started). I would simply tell them that they would be sued for the full amount plus legal fees and court costs later if they failed to settle with me today. Many people caved to that kind of intimidation. I would tell them that we have a taped verbal contract on file where they agreed to this. Of course, since the account was about to be sent to Luebke Baker And Associates to file the lawsuit, I would inform the customer that it takes 2 days to pull the tape (from another location of course) and their account was being sent tomorrow, so of course this was impossible. As a note, prior to taking the accounts which were to be sent to Luebke Baker And Associates, I frequently alluded to this taped verbal contract in my collection attempts. Very often, customers would insist that they told the telemarketer "no" to the magazine subscriptions, and that in fact the huge magazine order was an attempt for the telemarketer to "upsell" on a much smaller purchase that the customer had agreed to. The customers insisted that they agreed to the small purchase but refused the magazine purchase. My suspicion is that CRC charged the magazines to their card against the customers' wishes and set up the account anyway. Often when customers would demand to hear the audio contract, I would file the request for that to be done. I often called them back in the future to continue collections attempts. I never spoke with a customer who confirmed that they had in fact heard the taped conversation between them and the telemarketer. In closing, there are several CRC locations, and I am convinced that they are all a scam. There are some legitimate accounts which I collected on, but they were few and far between, and rarely did I ever speak with anyone who understood the total dollar amount on their balance. I will do whatever I can to help anyone who has been unfortunate enough to deal with this company.

I find it very odd that Cynthia123, who is singing the praises of Luebke Baker, happens to be from Peoria, IL. That's where Luebke Baker is based. Food for thought.

I just want to let everybody know that after doing research the LBA is not a scam. These are real accounts and they are in good-standing with the BBB. The people who have filed reports on this site are just disgruntled people who got caught up with for not paying their bill. And as far as the people who said money was taken out of their account without authorization....Why would you give them your banking information if you did not do this........They dont or cant get your account number and if they do you need to talk to your bank for giving it out. They are a legitimate business.

I just want to let everybody know that after doing research the LBA is not a scam. These are real accounts and they are in good-standing with the BBB. The people who have filed reports on this site are just disgruntled people who got caught up with for not paying their bill. And as far as the people who said money was taken out of their account without authorization....Why would you give them your banking information if you did not do this........They dont or cant get your account number and if they do you need to talk to your bank for giving it out. They are a legitimate business.

I just want to let everybody know that after doing research the LBA is not a scam. These are real accounts and they are in good-standing with the BBB. The people who have filed reports on this site are just disgruntled people who got caught up with for not paying their bill. And as far as the people who said money was taken out of their account without authorization....Why would you give them your banking information if you did not do this........They dont or cant get your account number and if they do you need to talk to your bank for giving it out. They are a legitimate business.

I'm an "insider" as I used to work for this company. I'll first state that I do not like them and there are a few things that they do that are ripoffs and in a way scams. The actual collecting isn't a scam unless it was a scam committed by the actual magazine company. They are hired to collect and have nothing to do with the orders hence "collection agency". I'll give you a few tips and also want to make clear that I am NOT an attorney and I am NOT giving legal advice however I do have quite a bit of knowledge. A. they can not and will not sue you for these magazine accounts. B. they can not and will not report the magazine collection to your credit report. So my advice would be to not pay it at all unless you really know that you are liable for it and feel that you want to live up to your end of the deal with the original magazine company and write a CEASE & DESIST LETTER so that they are no longer allowed to contact you. However as for them running the payment early let me guess "Pre-Authorized Draft" (check by phone).....They always run those early......its not an accident they do it all the time and purposely. I don't think it would take much for you to get an attorney and sue them for violating your rights when they ran that early. Yes they can easily be sued for it and doing it as much as they do will someday ultimately lead to a class action lawsuit however they havent been at this point and they usually settle out of court. When they run these checks like this normally by refunding the overdraft fee people are satisfied for the most part and don't worry about contacting an attorney however they will more than likely do it again unless they "tagged" your info so that they won't do it twice. I have seen in done to that same person multiple times though. My only thought with this rambling is that it may be worth the 20 minutes for a free consultation with an attorney regarding this and it may get you a quick $1000.00. But this is all just my opinion. Best of luck.