Harassing Phone Calls
Complaint
Gloria Engle
Country: United States
We have been receiving unwanted phone calls from Northland Group since 5/18/2007. They call from 1-866-380-8783 every day and ask for a person whose name I've never heard before.
It seems as someone used our address and phone number in their loan application, and Northland Group is trying to collect the debt.
For some reason people from Northland Group refuse to believe that the person they are looking for is not leaving with us, and continue their harassing calls.
I submitted my complaint to FTC, but I thought I should also let know here about this issue.
Northland Group
7831 Glenroy Road
Suite 110
Edina, Mn. 55439
800-800-8191
www.northlandgroup.com
It seems as someone used our address and phone number in their loan application, and Northland Group is trying to collect the debt.
For some reason people from Northland Group refuse to believe that the person they are looking for is not leaving with us, and continue their harassing calls.
I submitted my complaint to FTC, but I thought I should also let know here about this issue.
Northland Group
7831 Glenroy Road
Suite 110
Edina, Mn. 55439
800-800-8191
www.northlandgroup.com
Comments
Northland Gropu, Inc. Lawsuits:
MCMAHON v. NORTHLAND GROUP, INC. Case No.1:2007cv01203
Sylvester v. Northland Group, Inc. et al Case No. 3:2007cv01687
Loeffler v. Northland Group, Inc. Case No. 2:2007cv02419
Yarbrough v. Northland Group Inc. Case No. 0:2007cv61216
Buhrow et al v. The Northland Group, Inc. et al Case No. 6:2007cv01186
Winkelman v. Northland Group, Inc. Case No. 2:2007cv01365 (Job Discrimination)
Hill-Krotz v. Northland Group Inc Case No. 2:2007cv00522
Williams v. Equifax Information Services, L.L.C., Northland Group, Inc. et al Case No.1:2007cv21353
Cisneros v. Northland Group, Inc. Case No. 2:2007at10419
Zausmer et al v. Fondren International, Inc. et al Case No. 2:2007cv00476
Wright v. Capital One, Northland Group, Inc. et al Case No. 5:2007cv00320
Jeri Schwebs v. Northland Group Inc et al Case No. 8:2007cv00338
Dunkelberger et al v. Northland Group, Inc. Case No. 1:2006cv00838
Haarsma et al v. Northland Group, Inc. Case No. 1:2006cv00686
Price v. Northland Group Inc Case No. 2:2006cv00940
GREGORY v. NORTHLAND GROUP, INC. Case No. 2:2006cv03918
Harding v. Northland Group, Inc. Case No. 1:2006cv04613
WOLF v. NORTHLAND GROUP, INC. Case No. 1:2006cv00437
Bridgeo v. Northland Group, Inc et al Case No. 1:2006cv00139
Connell et al v. Northland Group,Inc. Case No. 2:2006cv00332
Shepley v. Northland Group, Inc. Case No. 1:2006cv00224
Guy et al v. Northland Group, Inc. Case No. 1:2006cv00043
McClain et al v. Northland Group Inc Case No. 2:2005cv01313
Nichols v. Northland Group, Inc. Case No. 1:2005cv05523
Stover v. Northland Group, Inc. Case No. 1:2005cv00476
Glover v. Northland Group, Inc. Case No. 1:2005cv02701
Nichols v. Northland Group, Inc. Case No. 1:2005cv00906
Mitchell-Peterson et al v. Northland Group, Inc., Et al Case No. 0:2004cv05105 (Other Fraud)
STINES et al v. NORTHLAND GROUP, INC. Case No. 1:2004cv00772
REDMOND v. NORTHLAND GROUP, INC. Case No. 2:2004cv01440
CURRY v. NORTHLAND GROUP, INC. Case No. 2:2004cv01288
I personally hate collection agency scum.
I do not and have never worked for a collection agency.
However, I do want to tell you___
just because an account is out of the statute of limitations for you state does not make it go away.
It only means they can not take you to court to collect it. The CAN still attempt to collect the debt
by other means.
Also understand, if a person owes a debt that is over the statute of limitations / time barred, if some attorney
sues you, you better answer the suit and show up in court to answer the suit.
If you are sued on a time barred / over statute limitations debt and you dont show up in court.
The collection agency / collector will win and a judgement against you will be entered.
EVEN THOUGH THE DEBT WAS TIME BARRED/ OUT OF STATUTE LIMITATIONS YOU HAVE THE
LEGAL RESPONSIBILITY TO ANSWER THE COURT SUMMONS AND GO TO COURT.
YOU WILL/SHOULD WIN IF THE DEBT IS OUT OF STATUTE LIMITATIONS / TIME BARRED.
So be careful and answer any summons for court.
Last, best thing is --->> NEVER talk to a collection agency on the telephone !!!
It will come back to bite you later !
If you do talk by phone, always refer to the debt as THE ALLEGED DEBT ! Never admit it's yours !
NEVER agree to make a payment on a time barred debt !
Once you agree the debt is yours or pay one penny on it___ the statute of limitations starts back to day one as though it is a fresh new debt.
I AM NOT AN ATTORNEY !!
I have learned a lot on my own from dealing with collectors who were trying to collect on someone else with a name similar as mine.
Good Luck
The only way to deal with these companies is to ignore them. I never return a call if I do not know who is calling and what it is about. Of course, I have to be interested in the subject. Most calls come when I’m out, but if I happen to be home when the phone rings, I glance at my caller ID and if I recognize it as a friend, I pick up the phone. I have no problems at all.
Northland Group and AACC (I think it stands for Assets Acceptance Collection Corporation) are both debt collection companies. As such they are exempt from any no call rules
I ASSURE THEY ARE NOT EXEMPT FROM CALLING RULES !
GOOGLE----->> FAIR DEBT COLLECTION PRACTICES ACT
Read the part about sending a letter to the collection agency telling them to stop all telephone calls to your home or work.
Look it up !
They are not exempt from the law. They are not exempt from calling people once their told to stop calling.
You need to download a copy of the Federal - Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
Here is part of the F.D.C.P.A.__
Continue collection attempts after receiving a cease communication notice....
If you make a written request for the collector to cease communication, it can only contact you one more time, via mail to let you know one of the following: that further efforts to collect the debt are terminated, that certain actions may be taken by the collector, or that the collector is definitely going to take certain actions. [15 USC 1692c] § 805(c)
To make sure you have absolute proof you told the collection agency to stop calling, contacting you.
SEND THEM A LETTER BY U.S. POST OFFICE, CERTIFIED MAIL, RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED.
Keeping a copy of the letter you sent them, attaching the mailing receipt, and the return receipt green post card to the copy of the letter you sent.
If the letter comes back _ marked _ return refused delivery__ do not open the letter. keep it sealed for the judge to open, it's only evidence if it's sealed.
Also, your wrong about the $ 1,000.00 cap on damages. Cap means limit.
The $ 1,000.00 is set by statute as the MINIMUM.
More can be awarded by the judge for actual damages.
Each separate violation is another $ 1,000.00 minimum. Each call / or other violation adds $ 1,000.00
to your lawsuit award.
Only after they sign for your certified letter or it comes back ' refused delivery" does the violations
begine to add up for legal damages.
If a collection agency tried to sue you or sues you for a debt that is beyond the statute of limitations / out of date according to your states laws. ( each state has different time limit for out of statute ) that is a $ 1,000.00 violation for each time that happens.
Collection agency's can also be made to pay your attorney's fee's as well.
Please , in the future give accurate info.
Look up the---- , F.D.C.P.A.
As far as AACC and NGI, yeah, their management is terrible, so nothing ever really gets resolved.
look, you act like an ass when you pick up the phone and start yelling, we might move on to the next call without marking your number as bad and such.
We get tons of lies, the person that answers yelling and hangs up goes under our Hung up call dispo, and we just move on.
Anyway, im not gonna keep defending my point, im just saying what i've learned since working for those companies
all of you have a happy new year
I will call your office Wed. 1-2-08 and call until I get tired of it and Ryan gets tired of it too.
I mean no disrespect to you personally but if you are as intelligent as you seem from your posts then do some research on your industry. Learn about the consumer rights acts that were passed to protect US from the common abusive practices of collection agencys such as yourself and about the explosive growth of your industry. They are growing so large and proftable because the technology they use makes it easy to collect whether or not they have the right information. Forinstance they now have companies specializing in collecting debt that is worthless. They try to intimidate people to pay debt that was DISCHARGED or wiped clean in a bankruptcy. The audacity and gall is neverending they do it because it makes money. They do it because we are uninformed. They can go on to the next chump by pushing f2 on their keyboard like you said.
The deck is stacked against the consumer who gets a call out of the blue from a collection agency. Like you said you have their information in front of you their social sec # their reportedly accurate address and balance. We have no clue usually why you are calling I would be an idiot to disclose any personal info to a person initating a call with me. I wouldnt give my last 4 digits if i received a spam email asking for it or if a guy came up to me on the street you are nuts. IF you have my number and address then send me a letter for gods sake. They use the phone as a weapon to force people to pay.
Oh and NEVER PAY OVER THE PHONE uneless you have a written explanation/comtract from the creditor that they will at best delete the negative information from the Credit reporting agencies or if you are desperate to settle indicate paid in full , and that they will not sell the remaining debt to anyone else, and will take the settlement amt as payment in full for the amount owed. Dont be surprised to get a 1099 tax form for the amount of debt forgiven to be reported as taxable income some agencies will do this.
So collectors have alot of personal info about us but what information they almost never have is what is required by law to be able to validate the debt if disputed with the credit reporting agencies.
What I think you dont anonymous is the original contract signed by the debtor setting out the terms of the credit extended to the debtor by the creditor
the complete payment history from the debtor to the creditor
the interest and fees seperated to those owed to the creditor before charge off from the fees and interest owed to the collection agency
in otherwords the validation REQUIRED BY LAW to validate the debt and therby put a bad mark on someones credit report and cost them money, time and heartache. Because that is what the industry does is use bad credit reporing as a weapon to make people pay whether or not they owe but to just go away and make the pain stop. The pain of paying a higher loan rate, the pain of not getting a loan for the house you otherwise be able to get. The pain of losing a job offer etc. all for a debt they might not even owe or have already paid off or satisfied.
You say they are always valid debts but if they are past the SOL then so what. They have a statute of limitations in all states. owing a debt they cant afford to pay back doesnt make someone a moral outcast and worthy to be hounded harrassed and kicked while down.
If anything its immoral to harrass these people for debts they legally have no obligation to pay by reaging their account or talking them into paying it to clear their credit report etc.
it can then stick on there for 7 years even if it was past sol before payment. If the credit reporting agency were more fair and didnt PENALIZE people for paying their past debts past SOL then maybe somepeople would do so for a clear conscience.
there my daily rant is done
I hope you find a new job soon anonymous
Ever thought about a career in consumer advocacy or law?
:)
FYI, I tried the # posted and asked for you, no one could find you! Nonetheless, I did speak with "Jason" and was advise that my # would be posted on the 'bad # list'. I do understand your job as I also work in Customer Service, but honestly there is not excuse for rude and harassing behavoir. Hopefully now I will stop receiving calls looking for someone else. There are some people who do care.
Have a good year and good luck with school.
Woo hoo, got a new job. now i do technical support for dsl modems. Call center sure, but it's just waiting for inbound calls, and actually helping people with problems they have.
Of course, if you were asking me if i WANTED a career in consumer advocacy in law and you had a good paying position, i'd be interested.
Now, last time, this is what it is, and I, no longer, a debt collector.
IF someone throws the last 4 of your social out on the phone and its, right, they're probably looking at a legitimate file, or legitimate info, regarding you. The last four is no big deal. You're still missing the first 5 lol.
Due to 3rd party disclosure laws, if somebody calls you up and verifies your social or address, it's to ensure that they got the right person to confirm that they are the 1st party, so that the agency can't be sued in the court of law. If your neighbor got a call, well, 90$ of america is in debt. :-)
The management is terrible, the people do the minimum work required, they are usually lazy and do drugs. These debt collectors don't care, because the job is so crappy to do. Mark your number as bad? That's gonna increase their update time, and those few seconds count against them.
The stats the managers use are poorly assessed, and not only is Lance Black a complete idiot, but since he makes the decisions for northland, everyone there has to succumb to the idiocy.
IF YOU CALL UP, OR START YELLING. WHat the heck you think we're gonna do? WE're people to. (well again, i dont gotta worry about collections anymore WOOHOO)
Most likely, we say or think, "What a B|tch, we'll call them for the heck of it now, rude person, thats not how you get a number marked as bad"
THERE ARE LEGITIMATE DEBTS IN THE AGENCY.
IT's amusing....some of you i can guarantee are still lying to everyone, denying you owe the bill....because thats 2000 dollars you dont wanna pay. If it's really owed, it's gonna keep coming back to you. If it wasnt yours, there will be proof somewhere down the road.
Check over the phone is the easiest way, and asking for a letter in the mail is not only a classic stall tactic, but it's a big F-U to the collector. THey're there for the money, now, because our managers our breathing down our necks every 30 minutes.
Got any checks? GOt any money? Sit down and make calls. God i hated that.
Sure there's lawsuits, but thats because the whole USA hates being in debt, so they hate debt collectors, so they are automatically hostile.
THere are very few cases that are legitimate, because, we are so heavily monitored, most abuse is stopped or countered.
Northland doesnt owe debts, they dont report or delete credit (DELETING ANYTHING FROM YOUR CREDIT IS DIFFICULT) credit means nothing there, we dont worry about that.
It all comes down to...you owe it, you know it. YOu dont, then dont worry about it. Say wrong number. Mail it in writing via delivery confirmation.
I was done before, but you all seemed to seek my reply, so here's another, i am no longer a debt collector, but i have knowledge if you have questions.
"
Check over the phone is the easiest way, and asking for a letter in the mail is not only a classic stall tactic, but it's a big F-U to the collector. THey're there for the ""
I hate to tell you but your a freak___
Federal Law says individuals have the right to demand the debt to be validated [ your so called letter by mail ]
It's the law and everyone should demand debt validation from a creditor before even considering paying the alleged debt.
So you might look at it like a letter to stall. It's Federal Law designed to protect innocent citizens from paying a debt they actually do not owe !
So take your stall letter coment and shove it !!!!!!!!!!!!
Here is a quote from your posting-
" It all comes down to...you owe it, you know it. YOu dont, then dont worry about it. Say wrong number. Mail it in writing via delivery confirmation "
WHY WOULD YOU THINK IT SHOULD COST ME MONEY TO SEND A LETTER WITH DELIVERY CONFIRMATION / RETURN RECEIPT ? FOR A DEBT SOMEONE DON'T OWE AND NEVER OWED.
You sound like a stupid idiot making that comment about sending a letter with deliver confirmation.
Why would someone have to pay to send a criminal collection agency a letter that cost money to send and cost to get delivery confirmation.
Get real you fool