Inability to resolve problem
Complaint
Jonnie Keezer
Country: United States
I recently received a letter from TRS Recovery Services, Inc stating my electronic check did not go through and that I should call them with the reference # supplied to resolve the problem. First of all I tried for two days to get through on the # on the letter on thursday and Friday. All day long the message said the office was closed even though it was middle of day and during the stated business hours. I went on line and found an alternate # in the list of contact #s. I finally got through, gave the reference # and the foreign person said they could not find anything with that reference # and that I should give her the last 4 digits of the bank account #. I did that and she then wanted the whole bank account #. She still couldn't find the issue so wanted the routing # on the bank account which I gave her. Again, no resolution. Then, she asked me if I had any other accounts with my bank and I said yes and she demanded that I give her the routing and account # of all accounts. I refused. I told her the letter had given me a specific reference # and a specific Merchant and that I had the check in question in my hand and that the account it was drawn from was the only account I wanted to use. She said she couldn't help me unless I gave her all the other acct #s. I refused, as I feel your company may be illegitimate and fraudulent. I contacted the Merchant as it is a company I do wholesale business with on a frequent basis to be sure they got their money which they said they did. they indicated they had other customer complaints also and that they would look into it with their representative as perhaps they might not want to do business with Telecheck anymore. My bank indicates that the check did not process through them yet. By the way, the check was written and processed on December 28th and I just got the notification on January 27th-almost a month later which makes me even more suspicious of your business practices. I have logged in notes on the three hours that I spent either on hold for up to 1/2 hour each time, or just unable to get through at all and feel I have done due diligence to get you the money. But, due to your unprofessional call center and your erroneous phone #s I can't help with the resolution. I have all my documents ready for my attorney as I'm sure you will try to send me to collection for something that is neither the merchants fault nor mine but unable to be resolved because you have unprofessional business methods and your call center staff are either not trained properly or are asking for improper information. If you have the name of a supervisor or upper management person that I can talk to I would appreciate the information.
Comments
You don't deal with debt collectors over the phone. As you found, you will not resolve anything, particularly when you are dealing with foreign call centers to further confuse the matter, and all their errors, whether accidental or intentional, will always play out in their favor.
Apparently, they can't even find the information on the check they are alleging "bounced", so giving them more of your account numbers won't fix their problem. It will, however, allow them more accounts to charge their "collection" fee to, which is what will probably happen shortly.
They sent you a letter demanding payment on a check, falsely claiming it was refused by your bank. What you are reporting is that your merchant documents that they sent the check in, while your bank shows it hasn't even been presented for payment. This is consistent with a screwup by TRS. There was probably some account transcription error, likely even on their part, but they will claim it is a "bounced check" so they can demand a "returned check fee" for fixing their own error.
This is pretty typical of their sort of self-serving scew-ups.
Get letters from your bank documenting that the check has not been presented for payment and that the account has had balance sufficient to cover this check had it been presented, and from your merchant documenting when the check was presented for payment. Have your merchant insist that they fix their problem. It may be that the information from your check was garbled as it was scanned, or it was misentered, but you want them to correct and resubmit it for payment, instead of improperly treating it as some "bounced check", which is never was.
You may also contact your state Attorney General, to find what state agency is responsible for regulating collection agencies in your state.