Court Mediation Services (CMS) review: Scam 1

Court Mediation Services (CMS) operated by Brad Daley advertises as a debt solution that can legally erase all of your debt within 6 months & restore your credit rating in an additional 6 months. The fees vary depending on the number of accounts you have & the amounts of the monthly minimum payments. It is not a debt consolidation company or a bankruptcy service.

I was first contacted by a CMS rep named Stephen P. Hunt from Foresthill, CA via phone in November 2008. I had been struggling since August 2006 due to a lay-off from a 20 year career followed by a divorce in April 2008. As the economy worsened the stage was set. On February 20, 2009 I enrolled in the CMS Program & paid the fees of $6, 073.00 to Stephen P. Hunt through PayPal. My credit card debt had reached approximately $81, 000.00 between 13 accounts & I was unemployed with my home in foreclosure & no job in site.

When I enrolled in the CMS Program I knew my career outlook & I knew there was no way I could pay the debts without a job, bankruptcy was the only other choice. Stephen convinced me the CMS Program was a proved, legal means to erase debt AND restore my credit within one year.

I wasted no time, I immediately gathered all the required account information, had the notaries done & sent everything off to Stephen P. Hunt. Stephen explained that everything would need to channel through him as his "partner", Brad, was extremely busy helping people overcome their debts.

I was told the credit card statements would soon stop coming to me & instead be routed to CMS as they were now acting on my behalf. I was told I could still follow them online to see how the activity was going. I was told to ignore any collection calls if they eventually began.

A few months went by, no payments had been made & the statements kept coming to me along with a bombardment of collections phone calls & letters. I asked Stephen what was going on, he said to be patient & soon I would see some activity. In the beginning he told me it was best to start the program before the accounts were charged-off or in collections. I was not happy that I had turned everything over long before collection activity started yet CMS hadn't started anything & now most accounts were at the point of collections. I asked Stephen about this & he had no answer, he said the program would still work & not to worry.

By August I was more than impatient. It had been 6 months, the same time Stephen told me it would take to erase the debt & begin cleaning up my credit report. Once again I contacted Stephen to express my concerns that it had been 6 months, not a single initial payment had been made to any of my accounts & I was still receiving all of my statements. Stephen seemed concerned & stated such & the fact that he would get with Brad Daley & clear it up. I told him nothing had been done in 6 months & I wanted my money back so I could use it to hire an attorney & file bankruptcy. He said he would find out what was going on & get back to me. A few days later Stephen contacted me to tell me that Brad Daley had some problems in Alabama & his bank account was seized along with all his paperwork including my personal & financial information & that he was being investigated. He said Brad would get everything back once the investigation was over. Stephen said he would get me my money back, that was August 2009. He said Brad would do the best he could but was limited since his account was seized. I asked if I would get payments, when it would start & if it would come from Brad himself? Stephen didn't know how or when but he did say it would go to him & he would then pay me. Stephen went as far to say that if I couldn't wait for Brad to get back on his feet he would pay me himself & collect it from Brad at a later date, although he was limited & didn't have much to work with because times are tough. I stayed in touch with Stephen during September & October 2009 pressing on about my refund & all he could say is he would try & reach Brad. For the past month he has dropped out of site not returning my phone calls or emails.

I paid, I turned over every document requested within days & waited 6 months all while they never even made the initial payment or changed the address on a single one of my accounts.

This week I will be contacting my local FBI Office, the California Attorney General, the Alabama Attorney General, the National Fraud Center, the Federal Trade Commission & the Better Business Bureau as well as file a lawsuit in the Superior Court of California - County of Sacramento against Stephen P. Hunt of 21821 Powerline Rd., Foresthill, CA 95631.

This is a definite scam. If it isn't, I would be refunded my payment in full. The non-responsibility/no guarantee has nothing to do with me, they never started me in the program. I paid, they collected my money, did nothing & later admitted it. The only answer I received was that I would receive a full refund. So, where is it? It isn't & that is what constitutes a SCAM!