Literally today, I got a full refund after working with SDS for the past 17 months. In 17 months, they settled 0/3 accounts. One was less than $1000. In addition, I was also sued in small claims court and the order was granted. I asked SDS several times in the preceding months if there was a law suit out there, and if they had spoken to the lawyer from whom I received paperwork. I had faxed them several times documentation from the law firm that was representing my creditor. The customer service rep I worked with told me she couldn't find any record of a current or past suit, and their own lawyer couldn't find anything either. She even said they couldn't find the judge who the hearing was scheduled with. Once I realized how incompetent they were, I finally checked myself and it took me less than 5 minutes to find the case. I just wish I had done this before, but I had been reassured several times that I was ok and that it was just a scare tactic.
I also switched customer service reps earlier this spring when my old one managed to lose a fax I sent him with a new bank account to draft money out of. He didn't change the account info even though I asked him to and spoke to him about it, and my old account (which was all but closed) was overdrawn because of it. They had to write me a check and mail it to me to pay me for the fees I incurred. A funny thing that happened along with this is when I got the check, I also got a note to pick up a certified letter/check. It was addressed to a man, but with my address. Another check to a client for some reason was sent to the wrong person! Obviously, I couldn't pick it up and didn't because it was certified and I was not the recipient, but it just shows you how incompetent they are.
I tried to give SDS several chances to fix things. I switched reps, spoke to managers, and more, but despite all this, absolutely NOTHING was accomplished with my $10,000 in debt and now it is much greater because of their neglect. I would not recommend working with them, although I'm sure some people have had good experiences, I would hate for anyone to run into the same situation I did.