Consumers have filed more than 1,400 complaints to the Better Business Bureau in the past year alleging two debt collection companies are going after them on behalf of now-bankrupt Hollywood Video to pay late fees they don’t owe, according to Stltoday.com. The two companies, West Bay and Universal Fidelity, are working on behalf of the trustee in charge of Hollywood Video’s bankruptcy, and, in most cases, they’ve stopped pursuing the debts once consumers disputed the claims.
Hollywood Video’s Debt Collectors Allegedly Demanding Bogus Late Fees
The next time you complain about Netflix raising its prices, remember that this is the ugly, annoying, consumer-hostile model they disrupted.
Hospital patients waiting in an emergency room or convalescing after surgery are being confronted by an unexpected visitor: A debt collector at bedside.Jessica Silver-Greenberg of The New York Times • In the lede of an article analyzing Minnesota attorney general Lori Swanson’s recent allegations that a debt collection firm has been stationing its employees in hospital emergency rooms. Employees for Minnesota-based Accretive Health would allegedly disguise themselves as hospital staff, request up-front payment from patients, and — if patients did not have a credit card on-hand — were instructed to reply, “If you have your checkbook in your car I will be happy to wait for you.” Accretive declined to comment on whether or not their practices were being investigated, but did release a short statement saying, “We have a great track record of helping hospitals enhance their quality of care.” source (via • follow)
At last count, Steven Katz owed $80,000 on his six credit cards, and he has no intention of paying any of it off. In fact, he’d like to show you how to be like him—a “credit terrorist” in open revolt against the banking system. Debtorboards.com (“Sue Your Creditor and Win!”), a five-year-old online forum where he’s collected countless tricks and tactics for evading and repelling persistent creditors. He’s written how-tos on shielding your assets from seizure, luring collection agencies into expensive lawsuits, and frustrating private investigators looking for debtors on the run. He’s even infiltrated the bill collectors’ forums, where he’s been tagged a “credit jihadist” and his site’s been called a “credit terrorist training camp,” a label he embraces. “Debtorboards is one of the biggest and most successful temper tantrums ever,” the 59-year-old Katz boasts. The site has more than 10,000 members—double what it had in 2009.50 Ways to Leave Your Banker: What Happened When One Man Just Refused to Pay $80,000 in Credit Card Debt | Occupy Wall Street | AlterNet (via alternet-working)
A pay-per-click marketer’s dream/nightmare: The Orlando Sentinel’s piece on the debt collector forced by a judge to stop contacting a debtor’s Facebook friends (a win for consumers, by the way) nonetheless ran head-first into Tribune Corp.’s propensity to load their archive articles with ads (which is fine, by the way). Which means if you need debt refinancing, click this link.
Debt collectors have hit Facebook. Florida resident Melanie Beacham recently sued debt collection agency MarkOne Financial LLC for harassment. Apparently, they decided to not only bug her, but her friends and family on Facebook, all in an attempt to get $362 in car payments. We’re seriously thinking of sending this friend request just to see what this jerk does. Should we? We’ll leave it up to you guys. source
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