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jessica.simon
May 30, 2011
SCAMMERS!
My brother received a message saying only that as he was listed as my emergency contact he needed to contact Doug Thompson urgently; when he rang back (having been lead to believe that this was an EMERGENCY and that I was injured or worse) he was told that I was being sued and that there would be a warrant out for my arrest if I did not contact Doug Thompson in person within 24 hours. I am living in Australia and thanks to the time difference, had my panicked brother on the phone to me at 3am. When I rang Doug Thompson back to complain he informed me that "one of his representatives" had made the call and apologised for "any confusion". He then proceeded to tell me that I owed $5, 455.10 from a credit card in 2004 that had gone into collection and that I had 24 hours to settle or I would be taken to court. Being 8 months pregnant and a resident of Australia, I assured him that no court in the world was going to extradite me for anything short of murder. Still he insisted that this was my debt and I needed to take responsibility for it. I explained that if it was indeed my debt I would be more than happy to assume responsibility and asked to be sent documentation of the charges. Here he balked, saying that he had "a lot of experience with these big credit card companies" and that they wouldn't be willing to show me anything until I paid up, at which point the alarm bells started ringing - I know collections agents are sharks, but no one in their right mind would expect me to pay any sum of money to a complete stranger over the phone for an account I'd never heard of before. I flatly refused to offer anything and ended the call as I wasn't willing to spend any more on long-distance charges for something that was sounding increasingly fishy. I did leave him with my email address. Later that day I received a one-page "Affidavit" complete with grammatical errors from a "Jennifer Rogers" at GMAIL ADDRESS. Yeah, right. I am however concerned that they have somehow managed to acquire my social security number and who knows what other details; were I still residing in the US I would be quite concerned about this. Hopefully others are not actually falling for this scam.
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AngD
April 2, 2011
poor collection practices
I was contacted by Doug Thompson at First Continental Soltuions reguarding a balance on a debt I had settled with a previous company over 5 years ago. I was given 24 hours to come up with proof of this settlement or I would be taken to court for the balance plus interest which was over $5000. I scrambled and called ever person and company I could think of to get this information. Due to the time zone difference the deadline I was given was 1 hour before my bank opened!! I new I was close to getting the proof I needed but was pressured into settling the debt. I gave First Continental a $50 deposit. A little over an hour later when my bank opened and after a few phone calls I had the proof I needed. I contacted Doug and faxed over the proof. A week later I have still not received the refund of my $50 or a letter stating that my acct is cleared. Everytime I call I am given some lousy excuse. First it was "it will take 2 days for credit to post & I haven't seen the proof yet" then "we have to research why they sold the balance" now it's " we have to make sure the company you paid is legit and it will take 5 -7 days for the credit"
This company has very bad practices, they are rude. Basically called me a liar numerous times. After 5 years and just hearing about the acct not being cleared only given 24 hours to respond, that is crazy!! They just wanted me to buckle under and pay and now that they can't get payment from me they are being dishonest and crooked in keeping my money!! Very bad company!!!
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