Mann Bracken: Is it difficult to deal with them?

Completely untrue.

I'm the same as most of you. Have been trying to settle an account since 2007, now 2009. I called to settle and they no longer have my case, in fact, no one does. So even if I wanted to settle now I can't. They gave me a 1800 817 3214 number and they could not give me a straight answer. Anyone know's who might be handling this. I reside in FL.

I started working with them in their so called California office, Suddenly everything switched to an East coast Office, you try to return the calls and no one answers, leave a message and no one calls back. Then they keep calling you. Writing letters is also waste of time except it shows you tried to contact them. They don't reply and change names of people every other day. Watch them. Shell game is pretty much what they are. And very good at threats to you verbal. they should be put out of business in all states for their conduct.

I first got a letter via Fed Ex over a year ago from Eskanos & Adler concerning a credit card debt. I consulted this wonderful forum for help as I was terrified. They had sent the info. to the Arbitration Forum. I filled out the proper forms, sent everything to the collectors & the forum via certified, return receipt mail.(I asked for & received verification of the debt but also asked that they cease & desist further contact). I asked for a "stay" until the agency provided me with the proper paperwork that I was the owner of the debt. They sent paperwork but the middle name on the account is wrong & they refuse to provide a SS#. Don't you have to provide a SS# when you apply for a credit card? There is more than one person with my name. Since they have my middle name wrong & I don't recall the debt (I think it was 2001 or 2002) & they won't give me the SS# on the account, am I still liable? I hadn't heard from them in months & then last week I got a letter from the Arbitration Forum that I had until the NEXT day to respond to the credit collector's request to re-open the case. I immediately sent the forum (via fax due to the time restriction) a letter that I am still awaiting the requested info. from Mann & Bracken. What do you think they will do now? What should I do? I live in Fl. & they have an office in this state so they are surely licensed here. I'm not sending them a dime until I know the debt is mine. Can I wait & demand they provide the SS# the account was opened under? Why don't these agencies send info. certified mail so there is proof you received it?

How can your wages be garnished if the name on the account is wrong & they won't supply you with a SS#? These people don't have my phone #, thank God!

Twice this week I received calls from Mann Bracken. Each time I answered and said "hello...hello" and no one answered. I then hung up. Anyway to make a long story short. I've been reading all the posts here and now I'm getting a bit concenred. I've been unemployed since February and before I end up homeless, I've decided to move back to my home State of ILlinois to live with relatives. I currently live in Nevada. Because of being unemployed, I have totally fallen behind on every single bill that I have. I constantly am getting phone calls from collection agencies. I don't know if and when I will get a job and I keep telling these creditors this and that I have no money to spare. SOme are nice, others are not. I don't even know which debt this Mann Bracken is calling about. I have never even received any kind of letter from them.

I am now seriously considering filing for bankruptcy because even if I do get a job, I am so far behind, that I will never catch up. I, too, was enrolled in a debt relief program but when I lost my job, I had to terminate my enrollment in the program.


Two things concern me:

How can they freeze your bank account? They would have to have you account number, right?

Second, they can't garnish my unemployment, can they?

If someone can help me with answers to these questions, I would greatly appreciate it.

hall county has put into law what they call OPERATION CLEAN SWEEP and part of the law say`s it shall be unlawful to place abandon, leave, keep or store junk and salvage material, including non-functioning motor vehicles equipment or parts thereof, out of doors upon any public or private land . definition of an inoperable motor vehicle is one wich cannot be driven upon public streets for reasons including but not limited to being unlicensed, wrecked, abandoned in a state of disrepair, or incapable of being moved under its own power. what it boils down to is if i have an old car thats going take a while to fix they don`t want it on my property really they took away the right the 14 admemment gave us on top of that in this time when people don`t have money they wan`t to wast taxpayers money by sending county marshall to make sure you do what they tell you to like germany during ww11. whats the use of fighting for our freedom if our county commishers takes them away is there any I can fight it . i`ve email our gov , lt gov even our commishers help i don`t my rights taken away.

I owe American Express just over 13k, I was paying the minimum and trying to stay afloat when they raised my interest rate. I called and tried to reason with them and ask that they work with me so I had some hope of paying them off in a reasonable amount of time. They refused. I ended up going with a debt settlement company who told me to stop paying or they would not negotiate with me or them. It is now roughly 6 months since I started this process and now Mann Bracken has started harassing me, they call me at home, on my cell, at work and now I find out they have even contacted friends. I have no idea how these people even connected me to my friends or how they obtained their number. I have faxed and will be mailing them a letter asking them to prove to me that they are licensed and been hired by AX to collect this debt. According to my debt settlement company AX will now not work with them to negotiate a settlement so I need to handle this myself. Problem is I have no clue where to start. If I had the money I would have paid it and never gone down this path. I am trying to avoid filing bankruptcy but I really don't know what to do. I live in Florida can anyone give me some advise?

Yvonb: What exactly is your debt settlement company doing for you then?

Send Bracken a do not contact letter.

I have been dealing with these people for about 3 to 4 years - they are rude and act like it's their money you are paying them. They are "customer service" people, you don't speak to an attorney ever! They make harrassing phone calls, the have automated calls come to your home and no one ever answers when you say hello. I sent them a do no contact letter, which worked, but now i guess they are mad and they aren't sending me my payment invoices. They also refuse to send me a statement showing me where my money is being credited to and what other charges they are obviously posting to my account. They tell me that they don't have to do that.but if they are collecting for credit cards then why don't they have to. The credit card companies do it. I paid off one judgement and haven't received anything from them acknowledging that and they haven't reported the paid off judgement to the credit bureau. These people are horrible and all they do is make threats. They are merely customer service people that probably have no education and can't get a real job. The companies using them should be ashamed to have their name associated with mann bracken.

here's a larff - call them up and refer to the person you speak to as a "costumer service rep". im sure they will take issue with that since you are not in any way shape or form a "customer" of theirs. you are a debtor. but its pretty public knowledge they are scummy. as far as your paid off judgment, have they marked the judgment satisfied with the court? how was it satisfied? voluntarily or through an execution? if its the latter they probably wont send you a satisfaction letter. as far as detailed billing statements of where your money is going, most ca's and collection attorney dont do that. if they are nice they will draw something up for you, but again, you are not a customer and they dont HAVE to do that.

how about another larff.if the judgement was satisfied.the consumer is entitled to something stating that.i love how humanoids from other agencies stick up for each other in a round about way.btw it doesn't matter how a judgement was satisfied.it was that's all that matters.

youre correct. however, if it was satisfied through executions (as mine was , hence my experience in this matter) the agency will have the rit returned as satisfied and will tell you to get a copy from the court. i was told flat out that i will not be supplied with a copy from them because it wasnt paid voluntarily. i suppose i assumed this was usually the case. pardon me for invoking a little perspective for the OP.

whether from the court or the CA you should and will get something stating that.that is why they call it a judgement.sorry for the shot,but no matter what the circumstance or how you get it.you always get it.the letter that states the judgement was satisfied.

I had a lawsuit from Mann Bracken. I hired an attorney and they filed a motion of summary. Mann Bracken filed a Notice and Order of Nonsuit. Here's the problem they can refiled the suit again. I had to pay the attorney fees plus 25% of what they saved which in reality was zero. Of course the attorney stated they will not charge within a year if they re-file the suit. I know owe the attorney and have not reach any agreement with the charge off account. Be careful when you hire an attonery.

Yep, it's called a Satisfaction of Judgement, and it is necessary to have to update your credit reports to paid judgement status. It is usually recommended to download the form yourself and send it to them with your last payment because of this very thing. Here is the form for California as an example, Google it for your state.

We just found out that Mann Bracken LLC has a Lien on our home, and we knew nothing about the judgement. I am wondering how I can find out who they are debt collecting for so I can get the lien removed..I would think you would have to appear in court to have this done...so their lawyers or whoever must be able to do something..

Call your local county civil court and ask them how to file a Motion to Vacate the judgement due to Improper Service. They probably did go to court, some of these process servers are rather sloppy, and they likely got a default judgement when you didn't show up. Which apparently they do often. New York state Attorney General Cuomo is suing a whole gaggle of them for precisely this.

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Mann Bracken has been calling trying to collect a dept that i already payed off and they are trying to tell me that i never paid it. what do i do?? i sent money orders but i dont think that i have the receipts anymore because i thought that i wouldn['t need them any longer since i pyed them off.

HELP??????

that doesn't matter.they have to prove you owe it,not the other way around.send a DV letter to this bottomdwelling JDB.send it certified mail return receipt.

Hello, I've been in debt with American Express for 3 years for the amount of 21,000. I've saved, then lost my job, was forced to dig into my savings..Now Mann Bracken is sending me letters, but I was told by my consolidation company to not speak with them. I want to settle and have just about $4,000. Ive been reading alot of posts and have been noticing they settle for alot less. Is this true? I just want to get this over with and not get sued. Any advice?
thanks!!!

Since you have a DS company that you paid good money for, you should ask them.

Mann Bracken are now in Maryland. They are attempting to bug me but now I see how horific a company they are I will be very mindful how I handle them.

Mann Bracken calls me everyday but I have not spoken to them. I'm sure it is in refrence to an old debt, I haven't had any active credit cards since 2001. I had joined a debt consolidation program & paid them faithfully $300 every month for 4 years only to find they hadn't paid any of my creditors. I was not working & could not pay again & could not get the debt consolidation people to return my calls & all letters were retuned. I think they were CCOA, Credit Couns. of America. Larry Kline with Mann Bracken has never mailed me any letters regarding this, only calls. I live in Ky, what would be the best course of action to take? If they sent me a letter I planned to respond with the debt validaton.

When was the last time you made a payment on the credit cards? I know you said you where in a program, if they didn't pay your creditors you might be in luck.

The statute of limitations is 5 years in your state. If it has been more than that since a payment was made then they can not sue you by law. They can try to collect though. You will need to pull your credit report and see when the last time payments where made.

So if the SOL has passed all you need to do is send a cease and desist letter for them to not contact you anymore. If they try to sue you, you can counter-sue them if the debt is passed the SOL.

Howdy Gang, first thanks for a forum to talk about the ruse of Mann Bracken. I have a two year old judgement with them that is close to $40k between two loans. I was hit hard a few years ago by Worldcom layoffs and lost alot of savings. This is when the debt rose for me. It was originally $26k but has grown.

They took $2K from my frozen bank account then and now demand a lump sum which wont happen. I need a bank account to do my work, but am afraid to try for fear of them again.

They call at least 10-12 times a day, and I don't have any answers. Am I done for?

You have a very high judgment. When you went to court didn't the judge setup or suggest some kind of payment arrangement? You can't live your life on hold, so if I were you I would talk to a lawyer, your situation seems very serious.

I did not go to court because Wolpolf won the arbitration with the Nat'l Arbitration Forum. I thought it was an open/shut case against me, but felt (and still feel) strongly that they abused the relationship.

Before hand, I set up a pay plan only to have them want 3x as much as agreed. So I stopped talking to them and figured I was out of options.

After a judgement is there anything that can be done aside from bankruptcy?

I had an account with Chase that went to Mann Brackenn LLC in 2006. The amount owed was 8000.00. It went straight to arbitraition with Mann Brackenn and I had a court date. The day before court they offered me a payment plan. The payment was 200.00 a month, which I accepted, and then I paid on the account for 3 years. Two months ago I received my payment back in the mail with a "unable to forward" message stamped on the envelope. I tried calling Mann Bracken who forwarded my call straight to Chase's collection department. They told me that they no longer deal with Mann Bracken, and they had no idea that I was making payments through them. I was lucky enough to continue my payment plan through Chase, in exactly the same way it was made through Mann Brackenn. The person I talked with at Chase said that Mann Brackenn was a crooked company to deal with.

OK, I used to work as a paralegal for Wolpoff and Abramson, who, along with Mann Bracken, was bought out by Axiant. I've been reading some of the comments here and would like to offer some help to everyone.

First off, for people who are wondering if Mann Bracken is a real law firm or just a collection agency and whether or not they are licensed in your state, I will just say this: yes, they are a real law firm with full power of attorney, and if they are not licensed in your state, they will just hire licensed attorneys from the National Collection Attorney Network. If you think that you can get off on a technicality because you think that they are not licensed to sue you in your state, you will be sorely disappointed.

The first thing you can do to protect yourself is to send them a letter to cease and desist all communication to stop the collection calls and letters. Make sure the letter has a fake return address; you want to make it hard for them to know where you are currently residing. I suggest asking a relative if you can use their address. If they did not cease contact, keep track of all the letters they send you (through your relative's address) and record all calls made to you. Once you have collected a couple of letters, you can use it to threaten them with. Tell them to stop the litigation against you or you will counter sue them. I suggest for everyone to read the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act for more information.

Hiding your current address is very important. Suits are expensive, and the hardest part of litigation is the service. Service for a debt collection suit has only a 20% chance of success. They will want to limit the service attempts to about 2, maybe 3 times at most. After that, they will give up and send the account back to the original creditor. To beat service, if you don't mind your family or roommates knowing that you are in debt, tell them to tell the process servers or sheriff - depending on your what state you're in, service can be effectuate by a process server or sheriff - that you moved to another address but that they have no means of contacting you. That way, the process server or sheriff cannot substitute your family for service because there will be no guarantee that your family can contact you to let you know that you have been served.

If you are unfortunate enough to be served, do not disregard the service papers. It varies from state to state, but essentially, the service packet will include a summons to appear for trial, complaint, notice to defend, affidavit, and some other papers. The summons, complaint, and notice are the papers that will be most important in the packet. The summons will tell you when and where you have the hearing date is for your trial or pretrial. If you don't show up to court, you will almost always get a judgment entered against you by default. Half the battle is to simply show up. The complaint will let you know who is suing you and for how much. The notice will tell you what you can do to defend yourself; it usually involves writing an arbitrary statement to the court. Always defend yourself. As a former paralegal for this company, I can certainly tell you that a disputed case, whether or not the dispute is real, makes getting judgment twice as hard because of the obstacle of proving the debt is real and that it does belong to you. By disputing the debt and showing up to court, the attorneys will have to order documents from the original creditor to prove the debt. Half of the time, the original creditor will no longer have the necessary documents or it will take to long to get the documents and the attorney will have to dismiss that suit. So remember, always defend, always show up to court hearings, and always ask for validation of the debt with documents.

For people who are in real financial hardship but still want to pay off the debt, there are things you can do as well. If you can prove that you really are in hardship - laid off, disable, multiple debts, dependents, etc., you can request a court ordered stipulation. In some states, it is also called a consent order or a consent judgment. Essentially, it is a payment arrangement that has been filed with a court. It will typically say, "I, John Doe, as the debtor, agree to pay Mann Bracken who represents the original creditor, Whatever Co., a total of $xxxx.xx with monthly payments of $xx.xx due on the 1st of each month starting on January 1, 2010." The thing about stipulations is that they are typically set at very low monthly payments. I've personally drafted stipulations as low as $15 per month on an account with a balance of $2000. The reason that they will accept such low payments is because the stipulation will guarantee them an automatic judgment if you default, so make sure you adhere to the terms of the stipulation. Also, sometimes they will have no choice but to accept a stipulation. Sometimes, they will take a debtor to court and the debtor will prove to the judge that they are in hardship. The judge can then order Mann Bracken to accept a stipulation with very low payments on a high balance even if they do not want to.

Well, after years of experience working as a paralegal for Wolpoff and Abramson, these are the tricks that I've learned. I also know people who are still working for Mann Bracken. I've heard rumors that they have lost a lot of money and can no longer afford to pay process servers or the sheriff offices money for services anymore. Just earlier this year, they were being sued because the National Arbitration Forum is a subsidiary of Axiant, who owns WA and MB. So there were claims of a conflict of interest. Maybe if you all hold out long enough, MB will go bankrupt before they can get judgment against you. Good luck to all you out there.

I am currently in a payment plan with Mann Bracken. I've paid off half of a $10,000 debt. I need to make lower payments temporarily because money is tight and I have other debts that are suffering because of this. They refuse to do anything. Can anyone please help? Please email me at e-mail address removed for your protection - ND
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Please do not post personal info on a public forum

I am getting calls from Mann bracken they are threatening litigation and garnishment of wages seizure of assets I have sent them a cease communication form and they are still calling and claiming that they received no such letter. What should we do

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CM/RRR, explained.

Have you heard, they have declared bankruptcy? Go to nextlevelunlimited.net for details. Mann Bracken is broke. Lawsuits have been very effective.

Yup. Declaring chapter 11, to facilitate a buyout by NCO Group. This ain't over, y'all.

I am with a debt liquidation service and so far - after paying my fees up front they have already paid off two of my credit cards for about 50% less than I owed. I get lots of calls from creditors, esp this firm - I just remind them that I have a cease and decist order and am in the process of negotiation. Theyu get nasty but I've learned to live with it. I made a big mistake getting into this amount of debt so I figure them being rude and threatening is part of my learning my lesson NOT to do this again. Sigh

My husband just received a Notice of Intent To Sue from Mann Bracken LLP. It is dated November 17, 2009 but we just received it today, 12-4-09.

I was going to be contacting direct the attorney who supposedly wrote the letter (found his info on PA Supreme Court's website) but now I'm thinking I should hold off doing anything in view of the bankruptcy.

Any suggestions? Thank you.

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This is just a letter "Notice of Intent To Sue" from Mann Bracken LLP advising my husband that they have made the decision to initiate litigation against him. No dates involved other than date of actual letter which was November 17, 2009, which means it was written before they filed for bankruptcy. The letter is supposedly from an attorney but appears to be a "stamped" signature. The letter states that we can contact their office if we want to avoid the time and expense of litigation.
We do not have an attorney. I was going to contact the attorney who wrote the Mann Bracken "Notice of Intent to Sue" to see if we could settle.
However now that I've heard Mann Bracken LLP has filed bankruptcy, I'm wondering if I should proceed with this course.
Or should I just send a debt validation letter? TX

[QUOTE=Anonymous;503759]I am with a debt liquidation service and so far - after paying my fees up front they have already paid off two of my credit cards for about 50% less than I owed. I get lots of calls from creditors, esp this firm - I just remind them that I have a cease and decist order and am in the process of negotiation. Theyu get nasty but I've learned to live with it. I made a big mistake getting into this amount of debt so I figure them being rude and threatening is part of my learning my lesson NOT to do this again. Sigh[/QUOTE]


What a crock of sh*t!

You have to pay/settle/make arrangements for your debts. But you are not required to bend over for these cretins. In your place I'd sue the shorts off them for violating a cease-and-desist, harassment, and making threats, among other things.

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I did keep the envelope but it is presorted first class mail so no postmark. There is bar coding across bottom so I thought maybe the date might be part of the bar coding. In any event, I'm keeping it just in case it could be helpful.

I sent the DV letter to attorney today, CMRRR. I will send DV letter to Mann Bracken tomorrow.

Thanks, all, for your help.

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I can say that I have recently been receiving calls from them stating that they are collecting a debt. I looked up my credit report to see that they are not even listed as an agency collecting a debt on my report...

Is Mann braken going out of business... http://caveatemptorblog.com/is-mann-bracken-out-of-business/ and this article
http://www.netdocketsblog.com/2009/11/axiant-mann-bracken-affiliated.html
on line. I tried calling no answer.

Mann Bracken is CLOSED have a debt to be paid off today all numbers are disconected...

I live in Maryland. I owe a little over $1400.00 a former J C Penny Debt. Received a notice of Marland Court with a date for a judgement of January 19th. The collector is Mann Bracken, LLC inRockville, Maryland. How can I find out if they are licensed here and what is the best way to pay the least and I can not even afford court costs. Should I appear in court? I also received a letter from an attorney's office wanting to Represent me for as little as $75.00 or more. Someone help me out on what to do here. We are in a major financial bind and may even loose our home. It all started or got worse when I lost a lot of my wages be off a total of 17 weeks during last year having my knees both replaced. Can someone help me out here? Thanks!!