Asset Acceptance/Fulton Friedman & Gullace

I was wondering if anyone here had much experience in dealing with Fulton, Friedman &Gullace, LLP. From what I've read up about them, they were involved in a class action suit also involving Midland and Encore. They've recently been retained by Asset Acceptance to do collections for them.

I had no idea that I had received a letter from FF&G until I was searching through all of my mail to work out my debt list. I had already worked out a payment play with Asset Acceptance over my judgment I had with them and have already paid them $1000 as of now. I never once talked to anyone from FF&G and all of my dealings were with AA debt collectors.

Now I'm looking at two letters sitting in front of me...one from FF&G and one from AA. Both were sent on February 20th. Each letter has their own company letterhead on it, both addresses are P.O. Boxes in Warren, MI. Both letters are from a debt collector named Sophia Gonzalez...one saying she's a debt collector for Asset Acceptance and one says she's a member of the Collections Team (Non-Attorney) for Fulton, Friedman & Gullace, LLP. Both letters contain the same phone number and the same extension.

Well, I ran into a little trouble with my rent due to work flat out dying off for a couple weeks and my boss surprising me with a bunch of extra manager shifts during our busy month which cost me a few hundred dollars easy. I wanted to contact AA to see if I could postpone my next payment for a couple weeks so I could catch up on my rent quicker. I figured they'd be easy to work with considering the letter from AA reads, "If for any reason you are unable to make your payment or have any questions regarding your Current Balance, please contact me at the phone number listed below."

I took my most recent letter from them...one that's come in the past week...and dialed the number that was on it. This is a very current letter mind you. I was informed by a recording that the number was no longer in use and to contact Fulton, Friedman & Gullace at the number provided. So I called FF&G to try and work something out. Like I said before, I've never talked to anyone from FF&G, all of my dealings were through AA.

I mentioned what the letter said and that I needed to see about postponing my next payment so I could...you know...keep a roof over my families head. I was told by the FF&G debt collector that it was policy that I was not allowed to skip any payments and that once...and only once...I could make a half payment but I had to make up for it on next months payment. I had to take the deal because it was better than nothing and I had to catch up as quick as possible. $125 was better than nothing. The thing is, they transferred me to another person to verify my information again...just like AA did. It just seems to me that AA is doing their own collections under the FF&G banner which seems dishonest to me.

Anyone had dealings with these guys? I'm in Florida if anyone needs that info for a response. Considering I haven't missed a payment since working out a deal with AA, this just seems shady to me.