Payments to law firm for collection

We're suppose to be making a lump sum payment amount to John P Frye today and then making $100 payments monthly automatically being deducted from our checking. I'm feeling very uneasy about this since we'll never get a statement of any type showing that we're actually making payments. They said to call if we want a statement, otherwise use your bank statements as proof of payment. They've said that if we don't pay then they'll send this account to a lawyer in our state to handle and we'll have to go to court to deal with it. We asked if we could set it up with a debt consolidation company and they said no they wouldn't work with them. They said they wouldn't turn the money away, but that it wouldn't stop us from being summoned to court either. I don't know what to believe at this point. I just don't want to find out that I threw my money out there and my debt never gets cleared up in a couple of years.