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Debt collectors gone wild?
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Grumblings abound in Washington at the moment. At the center of these complaints lies a particular collection agency which partners with local governments to take control of a great majority of debts and fines that are not immediately paid off. Now, it is far from uncommon for people to be sore over debts. No one enjoys taking money out of their paychecks and getting nothing in return, hence a general distaste for the IRS, and those forced to fork over such sums of cash do on occasion take their frustrations out on the debt collector. However, in the case of Alliance One, it is not the debts themselves that seem to be the problem, but rather the questionable methods which seem to be used in order to obtain payment of these debts.
Aside from those I spoke with directly about their debts to Alliance One, the internet is also rife with stories of this company’s alleged malpractice, by way of intimidation and harassment. While there may be a few complainers who are simply angered at the idea of having to pay a fine, sites such as Rip Off Report have hundreds of similar complaints regarding this particular collection agency, which in my opinion, warrants at least some further inquiry into their practices.
Take for instance, the story of Michael Hayes*, a Marine whose wife tragically passed away before he had to ship out again to Iraq. While serving his country abroad he says he was endlessly hounded by Alliance One regarding a debt his wife had to pay. According to Hayes, they not only called him, but also phoned his superiors, giving them information regarding his debts and telling them that he was an irresponsible liar who was probably only pretending to be in the military to avoid them.
Gina Smith* said that she had her information given to her abusive ex-husband by Alliance One. At the time, she and her children were in hiding, so the collection agency allegedly looked up his address – despite the fact that he was not responsible for any bills and his name was on no accounts – and purportedly told him where she was and that he should leave her a note and tell her to pay them or they would begin harassing him. Needless to say the frightened woman has since had to relocate.
Another man in Seattle claimed that both his daughter and wife were harassed and sworn at on the telephone because he was not home to take the call from Alliance One when it came in. Instances of such gripes with Alliance One are unfortunately not rare.
One might find it strange that a collection agency would ask someone other than the person in debt to take responsibility for said debt. However, there have been multiple instances of the neighbors and relatives of those in debt complaining about Alliance One harassment. One woman said that she was given personal information regarding a neighbor she did not know and told to put a note at the neighbor’s doorstep telling her to pay her bills. When she explained that she was not on a first name basis with all of her neighbors, the woman was called a liar and belittled by the Alliance One agent. In the same vein, a young man, the son of someone in debt, said that he was phoned and berated at his workplace regarding his mother. And yet another Alliance One agent allegedly found it necessary to call a woman’s in laws to get to her.
If true, these cases would be in direct violation of the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act .According to Section 804 of the Act: “Any debt collector communicating with any person other than the consumer for the purpose of acquiring location infor¬mation about the consumer shall not state that such consumer owes any debt; and not communicate with any such person more than once unless requested to do so by such person or unless the debt collector reasonably believes that the earlier response of such person is erroneous or incomplete and that such person now has correct or complete location information”.
Similarly, Section 805 states: “COMMUNICATION WITH THE CONSUMER GENER¬ALLY. Without the prior consent of the consumer given directly to the debt collector or the express permission of a court of competent jurisdiction, a debt collector may not communicate with a consumer in connection with the col¬lection of any debt— at any unusual time or place or a time or place known or which should be known to be inconvenient to the consumer. In the absence of knowledge of circumstanc¬es to the contrary, a debt collector shall assume that the convenient time for communicating with a consumer is after 8 o’clock antemeridian and before 9 o’clock postmeridian, local time at the consumer’s location; or at the consumer’s place of employment if the debt col¬lector knows or has reason to know that the consumer’s employer prohibits the consumer from receiving such communication.”
And; “COMMUNICATION WITH THIRD PARTIES. Except as provided in section 804, without the prior consent of the consumer given directly to the debt collector, or the ex¬press permission of a court of competent jurisdiction, or as reasonably necessary to effectuate a post judgment judicial remedy, a debt collector may not communicate, in connec¬tion with the collection of any debt, with any person other than a consumer, his attorney, a consumer reporting agency if otherwise permitted by law, the creditor, the attorney of the creditor, or the attorney of the debt collector.”
Furthermore, Section 806 reads: “A debt collector may not engage in any conduct the natu¬ral consequence of which is to harass, oppress, or abuse any person in connection with the collection of a debt. Without limiting the general application of the foregoing, the following conduct is a violation of this section: The use or threat of use of violence or other criminal means to harm the physical person, reputation, or prop¬erty of any person. Or the use of obscene or profane language or language the natural consequence of which is to abuse the hearer or reader. Or causing a telephone to ring or engaging any person in telephone conversation repeatedly or continuously with intent to annoy, abuse, or harass any person at the called number.”
Alliance One would appear to not only be guilty of these particularly disturbing violations, as multiple people in Washington I spoke with regarding their debts reported another common problem. They would pay Alliance One, despite their various objections to its practices, and a little while later, Alliance One would call them and tell them that they had not paid and must pay again. When one man in Belfair had to pay the debt of a traffic ticket to Alliance One with interest, he went down to the DOL to see what he had to do in order to get his license re-instated. The woman at the DOL took one look at who was in charge of his debt and warned him to keep records of every payment he made to Alliance One, as her daughter had her debt handled by them and two years after she had paid off the final debt, they called to inform her that she still owed them more money. The man heeded this advice, and it is a good thing he did, because sure enough, after making a payment plan with them for $75 a month until the debt was paid off, someone from Alliance One called him claiming he had missed a payment (he had not) and would have to pay all of his debt immediately or face the consequences.
Sarah Plume* was one of the women I spoke with from Seattle who has lost multiple job opportunities because of her dealings with Alliance One. They said that she could pay in installments, then had her driver’s license revoked because she would not pay one lump sum. They informed her that they never agreed to installments and would hold her license hostage until such a time that she would pay them all of the $6000 plus interest she owed.
Laura Jones* told me of her experience with the debt collectors; “I am not a lawyer, but in my opinion there is a lot of illegal activity going on through Alliance One Collections. Approximately two years ago, I signed up with Alliance-One under their "PIA" plan. I was told by the Department of Licensing I had two infractions that were suspending my driving privilege, so Alliance had me sign a payment agreement for these two unpaid tickets. After paying $50.00 every month, I notified Alliance One to verify that my payments with them were coming to a close. At such time, a phone representative informed me that I still owed thousands for old accounts that were sent to them for collections. They proceeded to tell me that the payments I had been sending to them were being credited to those old accounts and only after those accounts were paid in-full would any of my payments would be credited to the accounts that I had originally contracted with them to pay. I was never informed upfront that I even had any outstanding accounts, nor did I sign any agreement for my payments to be credited to these old accounts. I signed an agreement to pay only the accounts that would release my suspended driver’s license Upon my written request on two separate occasions to Alliance-One for a copy of the original agreement signed by myself, I was told that they no longer have that original agreement. I then requested a payment history. I wanted to know what account each payment had been credited to. I was told that I would need to send a copy of each payment I had ever made and in turn they would only verify that the payments were received. I am furious. This seems to be very illegal. Obviously I can’t afford an attorney to pursue this or I would not be in the predicament I am in.”
Why would Alliance One be able to buck responsibility for violating the regulations applicable to their business practices? It may be because Alliance One is the agency which local governments and courts use to sell the debts of citizens to. For example, should you get a traffic ticket and be unable to pay for it, the courts will sell your debt to Alliance One, who will then add interest to the debt and begin to charge you for it themselves. Should you not pay them, your driver’s license and credit rating will be held hostage.
Perhaps, as John Harper* of Seattle advised, they should simply be more closely monitored and held accountable for their actions; “These people have destroyed my credit score over unpaid traffic tickets from the 1990s. They itemize every single debt, so no matter if it's a 20 dollar ticket, it shows up as an individual collection--even when I negotiated a payment schedule as a single account and paid it in full in 2005. The City of Seattle for the longest time, in alliance with this agent, refused to negotiate payments, and so for years I was unable to pay it. That is why the debt carried over so such a long time. Because they had destroyed my credit, I was unable to get a loan to pay it. As a result of that, I didn't have a driver's license for several years (and since I needed transportation for work, that created new problems) It was only when I finally got a job with a good wage, and when Seattle decided to open a "window" for people to get their licenses back with a repayment schedule, was I able to pay them off. With "interest" and "fees" it came out to about $4,000. I had to send a letter to their HR department and to their finance controller just to get a payment history on my account, after numerous failures to respond to regular letters with my checks and phone calls. It's my feeling the state need to regulate the hell out of these people.” As one can see from Mr. Harper’s story, not all the gripes with Alliance One are legal or ethical practices issues. Some people would just appreciate the company working in tandem with its clients and trying to help them, rather than hurt them. Usually, this is the way that most businesses work by default, but that is because if they do not their customers will go elsewhere. Those indebted to Alliance One do not have that option. The government seems to take no issue when it comes to regulating their citizens rather than preserving our liberties, there is no reason they should not apply this standard to the businesses they work with.
Those who are in debt, especially these days, are not a dime a dozen. They are not “bad” people; they are ordinary citizens like you and me who fell on hard times. In my opinion, they do not deserve to have their lives ruined by a monopoly-like enterprise that allegedly takes some sort of maniacal pleasure in mocking, degrading, abusing and harassing its clients – purportedly bankrupting them and occasionally even putting their lives in danger. These people have to be held accountable just like everyone else. Whether they work in conjuncture with the government and justice system or not, no one is above the law. If Alliance One breaks the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act, as they have been accused of doing, there should be consequences. At the very least, the courts should not hand over more victims to what would appear to be a company run and operated by megalomaniacs.
*names have been changed
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