American Express review: manager's unprofessional way of conducting business 11

I have dealt with this company now for way too long. They called me 5 or more times a day, would hang up on my husband if he answered the phone, etc. When they finally did reach me, I was told that I had a $2000 bill and "how would you like to pay that today?". I was stunned..I had no idea that this account went into collections in the first place. My husband was laid off last winter and we were doing our best to make the minimum payments on everything and had done fairly well with that, up to that point, so I was shocked to hear that I was getting calls from a collection agency. I mentioned that I was happy to set up payments with them, as I couldn't afford a $2000 payment to get them paid off. (In hindsight...I would have rather sold a limb and paid them then dealt with them for so long!) The woman I spoke with on the phone got irrate and said, "I bet you paid for your house and your car this month.". My mouth dropped to the floor! I said, "Yes, I have to have a place to live and a car to get to work to make the money to pay my bills." She then had the nerve to say, "You know, you could call the mortgage company you have your house through and file forbearance for a couple of months and then you could pay us!" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. When has it EVER been ok to NOT pay for your mortage (a need) in order to pay a credit card bill off in full. It was ridiculous. I told her that I was not willing to do that and then she said, "Well, you better get it from somewhere or we'll call your employer and set up garnishment for the payment." The whole conversation was absolutely awful, the first of many to come.
Most recently, I settled for a lower payment with them and paid off the debt in full last month. 40 days later, today, they took out my automatic payment that I had set up with them. AFTER I had paid them in FULL. I owe them NOTHING. I was furious! I called and talked to someone right away in the morning and she was fairly cooperative, but then I asked to speak with her manager. This is where it all went wrong. His name is Bob Procopio...and wow...don't ever talk to this guy. Someone peed in his wheaties! I told him, "I would like my money back in my account tomorrow by the end of business day as I owe you nothing, so I want it refunded. I expect it tomorrow EOB." He said harshly, "You can't demand when you want your money back. We'll get it to you when we get it to you!" Can they really do this? Is this even legal. Then he told me it would be a week before I would get a refund. I was again stunned! A WEEK? Wow, took a day to take it and a week to get it back...amazing! I then told him that if they don't stop those payments, I was going to call the Better Business Bureau and have them take care of it. He snapped, "Go right ahead." It infuriates me that this company acts this way and gets away with it! It is so wrong! I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one going through this. Maybe if we all report it, we can put them out of business!

I received a call at work from someone claiming to be Mr. Bays last week. He let me know he was calling from the legal department for Capitol One, and was letting me know I was about to have my wages garnisheed. I told him I was at work and wasn't allowed personal calls. I asked for his phone number and was told I"d better call him back or else.I thanked him and told him not to contact me at work.

I googled the number and discovered it was for TCR. I planned on calling Mr Bays back the next day, but before I got the chance I received another call from him at work. I told him I couldn't talk and woulld call him back. I asked him again not to call me at work. He told me I had until the end of day to call him back or my HR department would be hearing from him.

I called him back the next day and left 2 messages. He called me today, at work and at home and let me know I had until end of business to show up and pay the full amount owing.

I called Mr Bays back and let him know I didn't have $1200 extra dollars to drop off. He let me know that he was willing to settle with me for $800. I told him I didn't have that either, but was willing to work out payments.

He told me that was the best he could do, it was out of his hands...
I told him this was pretty unreasonable since this was the first I was hearing of the debt. He told me he had records showing they'd been contacting me. When I asked him to give me dates he told me he didn't have time to discuss this with me.

He told my I'd btter go and find someone to loan me the money or my HR department would be getting a garnishee request tomorrow.

I let him know I was familiar with how garnishee works and he wasn't allowed by law to do that. He fed me some line about Capitol One being a US company and he was allowed to do so.
I told him to do what he had to do and to have a nice day.

I couldn't believe this guy!

Who do they think they are. I am aware that I owe money, but my circumstances aren't allowing me to pay in full, but I do want to work with them to make payments.

I have received the same treatment from American Express and their henchmen called Total credit recovery out of Canada. They have broken the law at least twice and I will be reporting it to all the necessary organisations. Never get American Express.

I also had a bad experience with TCR. My story is I owed on an overdraft account with TD and when tD first contacted me to say I had to pay it off, I begain making payments. Withing 2 wks I paid $75% of the debt, and the day I was goint to deposit the rest, I got a letter from TCR. I spoke with a Mrs Fournier, from TCR, who was extrememly rude, and did not believe that I had made the last payment, saying she was on the same system as them. When I told her I just got off the phone with TD and they confirmed the payment, she began yelling, saying ' you have 48 hours to repay the full amount, OR ELSE, and good luck to you' and hung up on me. I was dumbfounded. I called back 3 times in a row and she would not answer. I then called TD back and told them this and told them I would rather deal with them and I just want to get this over with and I have cash in my hands. They tell me I must deal with TCR. I told them I was making one last attempt, after this, they aren't getting one more black penny out of me. So I called TCR back, and when this Mrs Fournier picked up, I politely said, please do not yell and hang up on me, I am trying to settle this. I asked for an address to send payment, she would not answer me, she would just repeat that I have to pay the full amount, and that I lied about making a payment. After being yelled at for another 3 minutes, I told her never to contact me again, and hung up.

Then, I looked this company up online, and sent a complaint to their HR department (hr@totalcrediting.com). This was around 6 p.m. on Wedneday. Thursday morning, 9:30 a.m., I got a call from the President, Mr. Jim McFarlane. He told me how sorry he was, and he told me the case was turned over to their Montreal manager, a Mr. Joe Scapelli. I am waiting for a call from him, but still have Mr.McFarlane's direct line. I also made a complaint to the FTC, and BBB, and TD.

I hope something comes out of this

American Express must own or operate Total Credit Recovery. American Express will not talk to you, to try and work out any type of payment arrangements but refer you to Total Credit Recovery, but when a payment is sent out to Total Credit Recovery, American Express records the receipt of the payment, continue to charge interest and late charges. Seems to me they are double dipping and using the most awful people of the face of the earth to do their dirty work. American Express is just as bad as Total Credit Recovery. After sending a letter advising not to telephone the work place or home they still continue to call only they are not leaving the nasty messages just hanging up. This is still a form of harrassment by calling the home 3-4 times every evening.

Does anyone have a phone number for these people? I have left message after message with no response.

Have recieved several harassing telephone calls at home and work place. When asked to stop calling, is when the yelling starts. They have threatened to charge interest. Complained to American Express, who really does not care. American Express even sent a letter stating that if I paid off the Total Credit Recovery they would issue a new cared (yeah like I would ever use AMEX again.) I'm sure AMEX knows exactly the type of people they have hired to collect. From the supervisor down to the people who answer the telephone, they are rude, have an attitude and think they can get whatever they want by harrassment. Complaints have been filed with the Attorney General as well as the Fair Debt Collection Org.

i have just received 3 extremely harassing within phone calls from a person who claimed to be Kevin Dee. I asked for cease and resist from this person but he refused. The telephone number and name of this company did not appear on the caller ID as it is supposed to. This is all regarding an account that is in my dead grandmother's account of which I am an authorized card holder. I am not legally responsible for the bill. We asked for documentation and have not received it as of yet. He went through the usually degrading comments about responsibility. He had all the polish of a 100 year old shoe. My sister has been in collections for several years and this person has violated at least 2 separate laws for consumer collections. The next move is to report it to the proper government agency. The funny thing is I want to pay it but will find myself hard pressed to send this guy a dime now. I will cut my nose off to spite my face as far as my credit is concerned just to make sure this company suffers financially.

We were treated the same way through this collection agency for a Capital One credit card. They accused my husband of spending all his money at the bar-he doesn't drink!- and that we must live in the projects and he sounds like a 'hood rat'. They never sent us a bill for this debt and refused to do so when we asked for one. They demanded the money over the phone. I think that this company is bad for everyone who hires them. For this reason alone we are not sending them there money.