Complaint Review: Ram Financial Services - Phoenix Arizona

The purpose behind me writing this rebuttal is that I work for a small business and know what things like this can do to a company, regardless of size. I am also currently a customer of Ram Financial Services' and have seen the complaints that this other customer is making. I must say that I'm truly shocked because I haven't experienced anything dishonest about this company so far and feel it is unfair that a company like this is being misrepresented, so I thought I'd share my experiences so far with Ram.

I started the program on 1/17/09 (around the same time as the other customer, coincidentally).  I had made contact with the company in late 2008, because I heard them on the radio. Anyway, before I started,a representative of their company contacted me to go through the details of the program. The program itself was clearly explained, and I understood it. They also sent me a welcome packet with a copy of my enrollment forms, program details, and a set of instructions about how to deal with creditors, which I was told to expect within a week or two. It actually arrived 3 days before my start date.

In my copy of the agreement, it doesn't say that I have to pay all of my fee before they will begin settling accounts:

"Client will pay RFS the sum of 14.9% (14.9 percent) of the total debt reflected in exhibit 1 (which is where wrote down my creditors) as a charge for performing the service.  The payments are to be made in 12 (twelve) monthly installments during the initial 12 (twelve) months of RFS' services. If, during the initial 12 months of the program, a debt is settled, the 14.9% fee CORRESPONDING TO THE DEBT will be immediately due and owing. The monies paid for that fee will be deducted from the end of the 12-month payment schedule. In the event that RFS is unable to obtain a bona fide settlement offer on any certain debt listed on exhibit 1, there will be no compensation earned earned by RFS for that specific debt. However, should client elect to terminate this agreement for any reason, RFS will be entitled to all payments received from Client prior to date of termination."

This paragraph in the agreement didn't lead me to believe anything about Ram negotiating early or late. If anything, I see that I can make payments towards my fee. Try asking an attorney for a year to repay a fee when filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy, or divorce, or a lot of things. From what I've concluded from my research, you will probably be laughed at.

When I began research about different companies, I came across several websites that explained how the process worked. Credit card companies aren't going to take 50% of what you owe in monthly payments! They either want money upfront as a concrete way of accepting a settlement or they want their regular monthly minimums. This is clearly explained in the agreement and the other stuff they sent in my welcome packet. I know that if I were going to pay $20,000 for a program, which my fee is about half of this client's fee, I would not be so misinformed. I used general info off the internet and wasn't as confused as this client.

As far as the payment itself, Ram doesn't 100% of it upfront, as indicated in the report. My payment is actually split up, were I see some money left in my account to accumulate for the creditors. They based my payment off of what I could afford, and I was actually given instructions to save more money so I can get out of debt faster. They actually have a program that if I finish my program before my 12 month schedule, I will receive a discount.

I am local to Ram and have actually met with some of their staff personally. I can testify that i haven't received the same treatment - far from it. I've actually settled some of my accounts, even though I won't finish paying my fees until 12/17/09. I think that refutes this customers statement that they won't do anything before they receive their fee in full. From what I saw on the news, this client has a nice home and must be good at what they do and seemingly educated enough to have buy what they have. The same research should have been done when spending such a significant amount of money, especially if you are 8-9 months into a program. I have far less debt than this customer, and i did the research - there is too much information out there to really be misinformed anymore; at least that's my opinion.

I hope that this doesn't negatively affect Ram, because I like the people there. They are seemingly good people and I don't want to see their business ruined due to 1 customer's bad words. Best of luck to you, Ram!

Another paragraph from Rams Debt Settlement documentation states During the entire program, your Negotiator at RAM Financial Services will be keeping your accounts at bay, communicating with your First Party Creditor or Debt Collector, reporting illegal acts to FDCPA, constantly sending out Power of Attorneys to divert calls, and of course settling your debts to the lowest possible penny.

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING

As one of the Managing Partners of RAM Financial Services I would like to thank ripoffreport.com for the opportunity to address Mrs. Rosie Stewarts issues with my firm.  As a business owner and a consumer I frequently refer clients as well as friends and family to ripoffs forum as I believe it to be a useful tool.  So when the complaint was brought to my attention, I felt the need to personally respond as this complaint from Mrs. Stewart as her issues with my company are unfounded and completely false.  You might also wonder how I know who the anonymous person is that wrote this outrageous claim that is very simple. Mrs. Stewart is the only current or past client that we have had an issue with.

The statements which are false and slanderous and my response to them are as follows:

In January 2009 we went to Ram Financial Services in Phoenix for assistance in resolving our credit card debt.  They told us a big line of BS and said for almost $2000 a month they could solve our problems.  We started paying the fee in February to Ram.  In their contract it clearly states If, during the initial 12 months of the program, a debt is settle, the xx% fee corresponding to the debt will be immediately due and owing. The monies paid for that fee will be deducted from the end of the 12-month payment schedule.  Doesnt this verbiage make it appear they are going to start negotiations on your card immediately, when in fact they were not going to start until the end of the 12 month period, if ever?  Everyone knows the longer one waits to contact the banks for a settlement, the more likely you will have them coming after you with charge-offs and then judgments which will damage your credit further!

The above statement is quotation is false and slanderous.  Mrs. Stewart actually enrolled in our program on February 10^th 2009 through on of our affiliates.  The program was explained in detail by the affiliate that enrolled her.  Each and every client enrolled in our program goes thru a triple verification process to ensure that they understand the good, bad, and the ugly of the debt settlement process.  Mrs. Stewart references that she was paying almost $2000 a month to RAM Financial when in fact she was paying herself the monthly fee into her own personal bank account on the 10^th of every month for 48months.  For the first 12 months on the 10^th RAM would be taking a small portion to go towards servicing her account.  The remaining monies stayed in her personal banking account to go towards her settlements.  Settlements can occur as soon as the 3^rd or 4^th month of the program, assuming the client has been saving their money and we are able to reach a fair and reasonable settlement with the creditor.  In July 2009 Mrs. Stewart was so extremely pleased with our program that she not only added additional debts to her existing debts, but she also sent us a client survey with excellent marks across the board and praised the affiliate that enrolled her stating the following:

Geoff welcomed me in the program and explained everything with much detailhe is a GOD sent. Thank you

-Rosie Stewart.

On August 15^th, one of our credit card companies (Citibank) served us with papers and they are now taking us to court to obtain a judgment.  After being rammed out of almost $12,000, the credit card companies are now going to ram it to us in a very ugly way with a judgment through the court system and ruin our credit even more.

The above statement in quotation is false and slanderous.  As part of the triple verification process that every client goes through, Mrs. Stewart was fully aware of how the program would work, the break down of the fees and savings to pay her creditors, and what to expect with regards to her creditors calling, collecting agencies calling, and the possibility of getting sued-more importantly that all correspondence from her creditors/collections agencies be passed on the RAM Financial.  Unfortunately RAM was not forwarded the correspondence from her creditors/collections agencies and RAM was not aware of the fact that Mrs. Stewart has been served with any paperwork.   It should also be known that RAM has Mrs. Stewart on a recorded call stating she threw away paperwork she received.  This program is a two-way street and we require the cooperation of the client as well as an open line of communication. Upon finally hearing of the potential judgment, Mrs. Stewarts negotiator at RAM was able to negotiate a stipulated agreement with the creditor to which Mrs. Stewart declined.

We called Citibank accusing them of acting in bad faith because we thought there was an agreement made with Ram.  We found out they had not received any money or had not been contacted by Ram Financial yet.  So we called Ram and they told us that until they receive a lump sum amount of $20,000 up front, they will not pay a penny towards our credit card debt nor would they work on our credit card problems at all. We never dreamed they would be so low class as to take $20,000 from us before they even started to work on the credit card problems.  This is not what we understood and not what we were told verbally either.  Nor would we have agreed to this if we would have understood it. 

The above statement in quotations is false and slanderous.  Mrs. Stewart states that Citibank claims they never heard from RAM Financial.  Creditors and Collections agencies often tell the clients they have not been contacted by a settlement company as this is a normal tactic they use to get debtors to pay their credit card bills.  Mrs. Stewart references Citibank not receiving any monies from RAM.  This in fact is a true statement because RAM is a settlement company, we do not pay the creditors monthly payments, nor do we pay the settlements when they are agreed upon by the clients.  Once the client agrees to a settlement that RAM has negotiated on the clients behalf, the client in turns pays the creditor directly.  It should be noted that RAM did not take anything from Mrs. Stewart.  What RAM did do is ACH the agreed upon payment  every month from her start date of Feb 10^th until July 10^th of 2009 to cover the cost of servicing her account with RAM.  As a settlement company we do not pay the creditor directly, the client does.  And we can only negotiate a settlement for the client when the client has enough funds to settle.  RAM is not a consumer credit counselor.

Apparently RAM has been pocketing almost $2000 a month that we have been paying.  We have asked for all our money back because they have not spent any time on this but they refuse to give us a refund.  Even though they have not spent even 5 minutes on this, they will not refund our money!  We have contacted attorneys and for $4,000 to $5,000 they would go to work on our cards immediately and give us results within a matter of days, or a few weeks at most.

The above statement in quotations is false and slanderous as well as repetitive.  RAM has not been pocketing anything, the fees that are generated by our clients go towards paying the good people and their families that work for our clients every day.  Mrs. Stewart did in fact ask for a refund and we denied her that request as we did not do anything wrong.  We in good faith offered to work for free for Mrs. Stewart for the remainder of her program and waive the remaining 5 months of fees that was due and agreed upon.  When that wasnt enough Mrs. Stewart informed us that if we did not pay her  money back to her in double she would go to the media, an attorney, BBB, as well as ripoffreport.com to tell everyone she could that RAM stole her money.  We informed Mrs. Stewart that it was unfortunate that she felt she had to do something so heinous, but if that was what she wanted to do, then go ahead and do it.  Nobody likes bad publicity, but when the accusations are false and RAM has the documentation to prove it, we will not give in to extortion. 

The employees and associates of Ram Financial (Geoff Lewing at Pinnacle Peak Financial) told me it was alright to sign my husbands name without him having any knowledge of the contract.  I have since consulted attorneys and have been informed this may be considered fraud and is definitely unethical.

The above statement in quotations is false and slanderous.  I can not speak for Pinnacle Financial, but the employees of RAM Financial would never and did not tell Mrs. Stewart to sign her husbands name on any documentation whatsoever.  The only basis for her making this outlandish claim would be that perhaps her spouse does not know of her enrolling their debt into settlement program.  We can only assume that the spouse did in fact sign the paperwork as that is how we received them from the affiliate that enrolled her. 

Dont let this company ram you out of money and put you further in debt and ruin your credit even more.  Say no to getting rammed! And I would recommend no up front money be paid to companies like Ram.

The above statement in quotations is false and slanderous.  RAM did not put Mrs. Stewart further in debt.  Mrs. Stewart did that voluntarily, and furthermore, RAM does not take any money upfront.  We do not charge any application or upfront enrollment fees period.  We begin working for the client from their start date on and we can only settle debts for clients as they have the funds available to do so. 

We called Citibank accusing them of acting in bad faith because we thought there was an agreement made with Ram.  We found out they had not received any money or had not been contacted by Ram Financial yet.  So we called Ram and they told us that until they receive a lump sum amount of $20,000 up front, they will not pay a penny towards our credit card debt nor would they work on credit card problems at all.  I am now of the opinion Im facing a judgment because Ram failed to negotiate and work with Citibank back in February when I first started paying them.  Because of this judgment from Citibank I feel Ram is financially obligated to me for damages, over and above my $12,000 to pay for this judgment.

The above statement in quotation is false and slanderous as well as repetitive.  Mr. Stewart states that Citibank claims they never heard from RAM financial. Creditors and Collections agencies often tell the clients that they have not been contact by a settlement company as this is a normal tactic they use to get debtors to pay their credit cards bills.  Mrs. Stewart references Citibank not receiving any monies from RAM.  This in fact is a true statement because RAM is a settlement company, we do not pay the creditors monthly payments, nor do we pay the settlements when they are agreed upon by the clients behalf, the client in turns pays the creditor directly.  It should be noted that RAM did not take anything from Mrs. Stewart.  What RAM did do is ACH the agreed upon payment every month from her start date Feb 10^th until July 10^th of 2009.  As a settlement company we do not pay the creditor directly, the client does.  And we can only negotiate a settlement for the client when the client has enough funds to settle.  RAM is not a consumer credit counselor.  In regards to the Citibank judgment, RAM was never informed of the judgment until it was practically too late to assist her with it due to the fact that she received the paperwork regarding the judgment and threw it away.  With that said, once we found out about it, RAM was able to negotiate a stipulated agreement with Citibank to assist Mrs. Stewart.  It should be noted that Mrs. Stewart did not accept the agreement with Citibank.

I spoke with the AZ Department of Financial Institutions, and they informed me they do not regulate companies such as Ram.  They advised me, with these types of businesses, you never know who youre dealing with and you could be working some very unsavory and unethical individuals.  Also the credit card companies I have been talking to are now starting to refuse to work with many of these debt reduction companies.

The above statement and quotation is false and slanderous.  The statement according to her by the AZ Department of Financial Institution is half true.  The AZDFI does in fact have a license for the Debt Settlement companies in the State of Arizona if in fact the settlement company collects the settlement funds from the client and in turns pays the creditor directly.  This is not a business tactic that RAM believes in and does not practice.  It goes against our beliefs which are to empower the client and teach better money managing habits thru our financial coaching plan,  Debt to Prosperity which every client that is enrolled in our program is enrolled in that program as well at RAMs financials expense.

We never dreamed Ram would be so low class as to take $20,000 from us before they even start to work on our credit card problems.  This is not what we understood up front and not what we were told verbally either.  Nor would we have agreed to this if we would have understood it. 

The above statement and quotation is false and slanderous and once again quite repetitive.  RAM Financial did not take anything from Mrs. Stewart.  What we were trying to do was help her out of a very bad financial situation.  According to public records Mrs. Stewart has quite a history of not paying her debts and seems to blame everyone else for the financial situation thats she has created.

This is truly an unfortunate situation that we have tried to resolve in the most amicable manner.  Mrs. Stewart did file a complaint with the BBB that has been resolved.  She also contacted the news media, we have issued a similar written statement to them as well.  And last, but not least ripoffreport.com.  My hopes are that when the consumer reads this rebuttal that they will see that Mrs. Stewart claims are false and unfounded as we have complete written and signed documentation, three separate verifications with the client as well as recorded calls with her to verify that yes in fact we did what we said we would do.  And finally it should be noted that we did in fact offer her a partial refund of the fees that have been paid to date.  This seems like a very fair and generous offer to someone when we as a company did nothing wrong.  To date, Mrs. Stewart has not contacted us to accept the refund. 

With Respect,

Travis Collins

Managing Partner

In January 2009 we went to Ram Financial Services in Phoenix for assistance in resolving our credit card debt. They told us a big line of BS and said for almost $2000 a month they could solve our problems. We started paying the fee in February to Ram.  In their contract it clearly states "If, during the initial 12 months of the program, a debt is settled, the xx% fee corresponding to the debt will be immediately due and owing.  The monies paid for that fee will be deducted from the end of the 12-month payment schedule."   Doesn't this verbiage make it appear they are going to start negotiations on your cards immediately?   However, in fact, they were not going to start negotiations until the end of the 12 month period, if ever.  Everyone knows the longer one waits to contact the banks for a settlement, the more likely you will have them coming after you with charge-offs and then judgments which will damage your credit further!  On August 15th, one of our credit card companies (Citibank) served us with papers and they are now taking us to court to obtain a judgment. After being rammed out of almost $12,000, the credit card companies are now going to ram it to us in a very ugly way with a judgment through the court system and ruin our credit even more. We called Citibank accusing them of acting in bad faith because we thought there was an agreement made with Ram. We found out they had not received any money or had not been contacted by Ram Financial yet! So we called Ram and they told us that until they receive a lump sum amount of $20,000 up front, they will not pay a penny towards our credit card debt nor would they work on our credit card problems at all. I am now of the opinion Im facing a judgment because Ram failed to negotiate and work with Citibank back in February when I first started paying them.   Because of this judgment from Citibank I feel Ram is financially obligated to me for damages, over and above my $12,000, to pay for this judgment.   Apparently Ram has been pocketing almost $2000 a month that we have been paying. We have asked for all our money back because they have not spent any time on this but they refuse to give us a refund. Even though they have not spent even 5 minutes on this, they will not refund our money!  We have contacted attorneys and for $4,000 to $5,000 they would go to work on our cards immediately and give us results within a matter of days, or a few weeks at most. The employees and associates of Ram Financial (Geoff Lewelling at Pinnacle Peak Financial) told me it was alright to sign my husbands name without him having any knowledge of the contract. I have since consulted attorneys and have been informed this may be considered fraud and is definitely unethical. I spoke with the AZ Department of Financial Institutions, and they informed me they do not regulate companies such as Ram.   They advised me, with these types of businesses, you never know who youre dealing with and you could be working with some very unsavory and unethical individuals.   Also the credit card companies I have been talking to are now starting to refuse to work with many of these debt reduction companies.   We never dreamed Ram would be so low class as to take $20,000 from us before they even started to work on our credit card problems . This is not what we understood up front and not what we were told verbally either. Nor would we have agreed to this if we would have understood it.