Payne6771
Racine,#2Author of original report
Tue, May 19, 2009
After careful consideration and definite paper-trail proof that my accounts were not paid on-time for the second time since signing on with UFS I decided to terminate my agreement with them and secured arrangements with my creditors on my own. I decided to do this to avoid and futher late payments. I always paid my debts on time and could not risk having UFS make anymore late payments and thus possibly damaging my credit score. After the payments were made late after only the 2nd month on the program (i signed up in Dec. of 2008) I was assured that this would not be repeated. I am in full agreement that UFS made an acceptable attempt to rectify my situation during the first occurrance which is why I chose to stay with the program at that time. When it happened a second time in April of this month, my confidence and comfort level in the program became very low. Having 2 of the 3 creditors paid late twice in 4 months is not the standard I am satisfied with, especially when I know the money was provided to them from my bank account 3 weeks prior to the due date. I wish UFS the best and hope that they can get the kinks out of this program as I believe it COULD be a great program. Do I truly believe that this is a scam? I would have to say No. I just believe that there appears to be an issue internally with the processing and sending of these payments on-time, which is something I cannot risk at this time.
Erica
Davie,#3UPDATE Employee
Mon, May 18, 2009
While UFS would love to say that we have had opportunity to address any and all concerns of this client, we are unable to, due to the clients actions on the accounts she enrolled on our program. As of last week, we are no longer able to obtain ANY information about her account as she has removed herself from our Program, and placed herself on creditors internal programs. Furthermore, we have been instructed by the client to have no further contact with her. We are confused as to how exactly she would like for us to proceed, but can only say that we have taken extra ordinary steps with the management of her accounts and can honestly say that we did everything possible to keep her happy. There were no problems with her accounts, and all monies debited from her account for payment to creditors have been posted to those enrolled accounts. Our customer service department tried on numerous occasions to contact the client, and failed to get a response from her. Now, based upon her latest correspondence, we can no longer contact her at all. Since this is our only forum for correspondence with her, please call our General Counsel so that we may address your concerns and issues.
Payne6771
Racine,#4Author of original report
Tue, May 05, 2009
As promised I am continuing to update this. So UFS fixed the problem as promised in March. They even made an extra payment at a cost to them as a "good faith" measurement to assure me that the previous late payment issues were truly an accident and not a regular manner for which they do business. I was promised my account would be personally looked after by the owner and manager. I saw the March payment fixes come through as promised and was started to truly feel I have overreacted previously.......but did I? I arrive home from work late last week only to receive a phone call from one of the creditors for which I have included in my Debt Management Plan. They are calling me to find out why my payment has not been made. It was due over a week ago. Well I am greatly confused at this point because my understanding is that my account is getting very special attention at UFS and I know that UFS took the money to pay this and the other debts they are managing for me from my account over 3 weeks ago. To further confuse me I received another call from yet another one of these creditors. What is going on? Now two creditors are calling me. How can they both be wrong? I call the creditors and both of them are positively telling me that it is not possible that the payment had been sent to them as they did not receive it. They also agree that this is becoming odd as I always had a great payment history when I paid them on my own. I am pretty sure that these two different creditors did not make the same mistake and misplace the payments, so...........I call UFS and go through all the being put on hold for long periods of time. Finally, I snap! I call the main number and tell the operator that if I am not allowed to talk to the owner I will file a BBB report. Magically-- I get the right person. Why do I have to make this threat to get a real response? I really don't like having to do that. After talking to what I hope are the right people, they act as if they want to resolve this. I want to believe them, but why does this keep happening? I always made electronic payments on my own in the past. Never did the creditor receive them late and never did it take more than 3 days to transmit. Is something broken at UFS? Why does it take more than 3 weeks to transmit from UFS? I don't like sounding accusatory, but this doesn't feel right and is definitely not what I intended or expected when signing up for this service. It was communicated to me when I signed up that my payments would be made timely provided I gave them their payment on time (3 weeks in advance) and the correct creditor account information. I have kept my end of the contract, so I should expect to receive the same, no? To their defense, they are telling me that are working with me, but we will have to see. Last time this happened I was told they cut checks to send the payments and this time I was told they are sent ach. Another thing I should probably add......shouldn't I get monthly statements from UFS as a standard practice showing the receipt of my payment and when and how they dispurse the payments? Why do I have to ask for it? I did ask and as soon as I can get to my email account I will see if it came through as promised. Do I think that UFS is doing this on purpose to gain use of my money ahead of time for other purposes? I don't know. I want to believe that this is just some bump in their procedures due to ineffieciencies etc., but even if that is the case, I hope that they work diligently to fix this process for myself and all of the customers that work with them. People go to UFS and others like them to work at getting their debt manageable so that they do not have to resort to bankruptcy or other methods. Having late payments on their records will not only boot them out of the programs for which UFS assists them to secure, but also can and will affect their overall credit. If UFS is reading this I would say admit to your wrong doing and work to fix it. Please don't treat me like and idiot and provide excuses to me on the phone. I work in the banking industry. I know all about drafts and ach etc. I know the payments were not sent as they should. If you want me to trust and believe you are going to take care of it for good, then tell the story that should be told to me--"We are sorry maam, but you are correct in that the payments were not submitted as agreed." Then fix the problem so it does not reoccur. You are correct when you tell me this is a great program. If you get the bumps out it truly could and would be, but right now there are some issues. I will "honestly" update this so not to mislead anyone and to continue to be fair to UFS. Hopefully I will be able to give you a positive resolution soon. By the way, I was doing my homework and did you know you do not need to use a debt management service to negotiate better terms on your credit cards? Even if you are not behind and have always made your payments on time (like myself - until these issues with some of the payments made through UFS). You can even get just as good and in some cases even a better negotiation on your own. I would recommend that everyone try to do that first so that you are able to manage things on your own. I suppose that is what I should have done. I trust myself the most and it probably would have been easier for me.
Payne6771
Racine,#5Author of original report
Tue, May 05, 2009
As promised I am continuing to update this. So UFS fixed the problem as promised in March. They even made an extra payment at a cost to them as a "good faith" measurement to assure me that the previous late payment issues were truly an accident and not a regular manner for which they do business. I was promised my account would be personally looked after by the owner and manager. I saw the March payment fixes come through as promised and was started to truly feel I have overreacted previously.......but did I? I arrive home from work late last week only to receive a phone call from one of the creditors for which I have included in my Debt Management Plan. They are calling me to find out why my payment has not been made. It was due over a week ago. Well I am greatly confused at this point because my understanding is that my account is getting very special attention at UFS and I know that UFS took the money to pay this and the other debts they are managing for me from my account over 3 weeks ago. To further confuse me I received another call from yet another one of these creditors. What is going on? Now two creditors are calling me. How can they both be wrong? I call the creditors and both of them are positively telling me that it is not possible that the payment had been sent to them as they did not receive it. They also agree that this is becoming odd as I always had a great payment history when I paid them on my own. I am pretty sure that these two different creditors did not make the same mistake and misplace the payments, so...........I call UFS and go through all the being put on hold for long periods of time. Finally, I snap! I call the main number and tell the operator that if I am not allowed to talk to the owner I will file a BBB report. Magically-- I get the right person. Why do I have to make this threat to get a real response? I really don't like having to do that. After talking to what I hope are the right people, they act as if they want to resolve this. I want to believe them, but why does this keep happening? I always made electronic payments on my own in the past. Never did the creditor receive them late and never did it take more than 3 days to transmit. Is something broken at UFS? Why does it take more than 3 weeks to transmit from UFS? I don't like sounding accusatory, but this doesn't feel right and is definitely not what I intended or expected when signing up for this service. It was communicated to me when I signed up that my payments would be made timely provided I gave them their payment on time (3 weeks in advance) and the correct creditor account information. I have kept my end of the contract, so I should expect to receive the same, no? To their defense, they are telling me that are working with me, but we will have to see. Last time this happened I was told they cut checks to send the payments and this time I was told they are sent ach. Another thing I should probably add......shouldn't I get monthly statements from UFS as a standard practice showing the receipt of my payment and when and how they dispurse the payments? Why do I have to ask for it? I did ask and as soon as I can get to my email account I will see if it came through as promised. Do I think that UFS is doing this on purpose to gain use of my money ahead of time for other purposes? I don't know. I want to believe that this is just some bump in their procedures due to ineffieciencies etc., but even if that is the case, I hope that they work diligently to fix this process for myself and all of the customers that work with them. People go to UFS and others like them to work at getting their debt manageable so that they do not have to resort to bankruptcy or other methods. Having late payments on their records will not only boot them out of the programs for which UFS assists them to secure, but also can and will affect their overall credit. If UFS is reading this I would say admit to your wrong doing and work to fix it. Please don't treat me like and idiot and provide excuses to me on the phone. I work in the banking industry. I know all about drafts and ach etc. I know the payments were not sent as they should. If you want me to trust and believe you are going to take care of it for good, then tell the story that should be told to me--"We are sorry maam, but you are correct in that the payments were not submitted as agreed." Then fix the problem so it does not reoccur. You are correct when you tell me this is a great program. If you get the bumps out it truly could and would be, but right now there are some issues. I will "honestly" update this so not to mislead anyone and to continue to be fair to UFS. Hopefully I will be able to give you a positive resolution soon. By the way, I was doing my homework and did you know you do not need to use a debt management service to negotiate better terms on your credit cards? Even if you are not behind and have always made your payments on time (like myself - until these issues with some of the payments made through UFS). You can even get just as good and in some cases even a better negotiation on your own. I would recommend that everyone try to do that first so that you are able to manage things on your own. I suppose that is what I should have done. I trust myself the most and it probably would have been easier for me.
Payne6771
Racine,#6Author of original report
Tue, May 05, 2009
As promised I am continuing to update this. So UFS fixed the problem as promised in March. They even made an extra payment at a cost to them as a "good faith" measurement to assure me that the previous late payment issues were truly an accident and not a regular manner for which they do business. I was promised my account would be personally looked after by the owner and manager. I saw the March payment fixes come through as promised and was started to truly feel I have overreacted previously.......but did I? I arrive home from work late last week only to receive a phone call from one of the creditors for which I have included in my Debt Management Plan. They are calling me to find out why my payment has not been made. It was due over a week ago. Well I am greatly confused at this point because my understanding is that my account is getting very special attention at UFS and I know that UFS took the money to pay this and the other debts they are managing for me from my account over 3 weeks ago. To further confuse me I received another call from yet another one of these creditors. What is going on? Now two creditors are calling me. How can they both be wrong? I call the creditors and both of them are positively telling me that it is not possible that the payment had been sent to them as they did not receive it. They also agree that this is becoming odd as I always had a great payment history when I paid them on my own. I am pretty sure that these two different creditors did not make the same mistake and misplace the payments, so...........I call UFS and go through all the being put on hold for long periods of time. Finally, I snap! I call the main number and tell the operator that if I am not allowed to talk to the owner I will file a BBB report. Magically-- I get the right person. Why do I have to make this threat to get a real response? I really don't like having to do that. After talking to what I hope are the right people, they act as if they want to resolve this. I want to believe them, but why does this keep happening? I always made electronic payments on my own in the past. Never did the creditor receive them late and never did it take more than 3 days to transmit. Is something broken at UFS? Why does it take more than 3 weeks to transmit from UFS? I don't like sounding accusatory, but this doesn't feel right and is definitely not what I intended or expected when signing up for this service. It was communicated to me when I signed up that my payments would be made timely provided I gave them their payment on time (3 weeks in advance) and the correct creditor account information. I have kept my end of the contract, so I should expect to receive the same, no? To their defense, they are telling me that are working with me, but we will have to see. Last time this happened I was told they cut checks to send the payments and this time I was told they are sent ach. Another thing I should probably add......shouldn't I get monthly statements from UFS as a standard practice showing the receipt of my payment and when and how they dispurse the payments? Why do I have to ask for it? I did ask and as soon as I can get to my email account I will see if it came through as promised. Do I think that UFS is doing this on purpose to gain use of my money ahead of time for other purposes? I don't know. I want to believe that this is just some bump in their procedures due to ineffieciencies etc., but even if that is the case, I hope that they work diligently to fix this process for myself and all of the customers that work with them. People go to UFS and others like them to work at getting their debt manageable so that they do not have to resort to bankruptcy or other methods. Having late payments on their records will not only boot them out of the programs for which UFS assists them to secure, but also can and will affect their overall credit. If UFS is reading this I would say admit to your wrong doing and work to fix it. Please don't treat me like and idiot and provide excuses to me on the phone. I work in the banking industry. I know all about drafts and ach etc. I know the payments were not sent as they should. If you want me to trust and believe you are going to take care of it for good, then tell the story that should be told to me--"We are sorry maam, but you are correct in that the payments were not submitted as agreed." Then fix the problem so it does not reoccur. You are correct when you tell me this is a great program. If you get the bumps out it truly could and would be, but right now there are some issues. I will "honestly" update this so not to mislead anyone and to continue to be fair to UFS. Hopefully I will be able to give you a positive resolution soon. By the way, I was doing my homework and did you know you do not need to use a debt management service to negotiate better terms on your credit cards? Even if you are not behind and have always made your payments on time (like myself - until these issues with some of the payments made through UFS). You can even get just as good and in some cases even a better negotiation on your own. I would recommend that everyone try to do that first so that you are able to manage things on your own. I suppose that is what I should have done. I trust myself the most and it probably would have been easier for me.
Payne6771
Racine,#7Author of original report
Thu, March 05, 2009
After many conversations with UFS today (as I updated earlier they did not avoid my calls and seemed to be making serious attempts to clear situation up) I have decided not to leave them and to update this report accordingly. They have taken serious steps to resolve the situation and stand by their initial position that they did submit the payments timely. They have provided me with enough information that I am inclined to believe that the mistake may not have been theirs. I hope that the previous employee was not putting their comments out there just to cause problems for this company as it also causes panic for additional customers when there may be no need. UFS has promised to pay special attention to my account to allow me to feel "safe" again. At this time I believe they are going to do so and will update this blog over the next couple of months to document the situation.
Payne6771
Racine,#8Author of original report
Thu, March 05, 2009
After many conversations with UFS today (as I updated earlier they did not avoid my calls and seemed to be making serious attempts to clear situation up) I have decided not to leave them and to update this report accordingly. They have taken serious steps to resolve the situation and stand by their initial position that they did submit the payments timely. They have provided me with enough information that I am inclined to believe that the mistake may not have been theirs. I hope that the previous employee was not putting their comments out there just to cause problems for this company as it also causes panic for additional customers when there may be no need. UFS has promised to pay special attention to my account to allow me to feel "safe" again. At this time I believe they are going to do so and will update this blog over the next couple of months to document the situation.
Payne6771
Racine,#9Author of original report
Thu, March 05, 2009
After many conversations with UFS today (as I updated earlier they did not avoid my calls and seemed to be making serious attempts to clear situation up) I have decided not to leave them and to update this report accordingly. They have taken serious steps to resolve the situation and stand by their initial position that they did submit the payments timely. They have provided me with enough information that I am inclined to believe that the mistake may not have been theirs. I hope that the previous employee was not putting their comments out there just to cause problems for this company as it also causes panic for additional customers when there may be no need. UFS has promised to pay special attention to my account to allow me to feel "safe" again. At this time I believe they are going to do so and will update this blog over the next couple of months to document the situation.
Payne6771
Racine,#10Author of original report
Thu, March 05, 2009
I have been talking with UFS today regarding my displeasure with my account. To their defense, they have not been avoiding me. They insist that both payments were sent on time and that one of the creditors posted the payments late and that the other was returned to them. The creditors tell me that opposite. At this point I don't really know what the story is I am really just becoming confused. My hope is that I am wrong and that UFS is on the up and up. They have agreed to release me from the program. Today I sent them written request to be taken off the program and to be refunded the payments they are holding for March. They have told me they would refund my deposit when they receive my request. To be fair to UFS I will post updates to this as my situation is corrected.