Valentine & Kebartas Collections - Has anybody dealt with them?

I received several calls from Valentine & Kebartas asking for someone who does not live here. I have told them each time that this person does not live at this #. The last time they called I hit 9 on the telephone to speak with them and AGAIN I told them that they had the wrong #. The very unplesant, unprofessional woman at the other end said... "Well, get this, the last time we called him he gave us a check by phone". I just laughed and said good for you but it it didn't come from this # or this address, so stop calling. She then abruptly hugn up on me in the middle of my sentence. I called her back and said "you hung up on me before I was finished". She then said, "and I'm doingit agiain"... CLICK.... How rude can some people be??? You try to help them by telling them that they have the wrong # and they treat you like crap and insist thatyou are lying. Guess it's time to make an official report!! JB from Florida

dont pay. They are bad people

Hi, my business had a 11.5K debt sent from Dell to these guys. Dell still owned the account, these scumbags are hired (3rd party) to collect. My business was bought out, and the new owners paid Dell direct the full amount. (because they felt that you should always pay your bills, even if they are 29.9% APR !!! lol Valentine was still trying to collect the debt, they told me they would settle for $7,600. I told them to fax in writing. They did!

Once we recived the fax, we then sent a demand to Dell for the difference of the amount + filing fees. Dell said no. Went to court, Dell paid the diff. which came to $4300.00 within one month!

This only worked, because they said they were "autherized agents" by dell to collect. So, any deals they made, were legally binding.

This story doesn't help you guys much, just keep in mind that these people are not nice and I would not say they play fair. Just can't prove it. Good luck, and this Debtconsoldationcare.com site is by far one of the best for credit research problems.

-Shaun

Quite frankly I dont believe the about story. Once the debt was paid in full, dell would have removed the authorization to sue because the debt no longer existed. V&K may be authorized agents but DELL can still accept payments.

Quote:

Dell Financial is a huge ripoff... Charged 23%. Did a loan on a pc with them in 2002. First of all, they never sent me a bill!!! I had to end up calling them because I did not receive the bill. They were going to charge me a late fee and I was like.. I never received a bill to begin with. Anyway I paid the loan off way ahead of schedule. At the end, there was 35 cents on the balance and I called then to write it off and they agreed! No way was I sending 35 cents!

Quote:

WOW guest....you have too much time and money on your hands.

You dont know the laws....they most certain CAN call you at work...the FDCPA states that if you tell them you cannot receive calls at work, they then must stop. The onus is on the consumer to excercise their rights.

Quote:

I told them to send all bills to the White House for payment

You have rights under the Fair Debt Collection Pratices Act and should review the document on-line so that you know your rights. I am a Collections Manager and know the laws. Any company attempting to collect a debt must follow these guidelines so you are protected from certain types of behaviors from third party collection agencies. An example is a cease and desist order which means if you send them a letter in writing to stop calling you and they do not then they are not in compliance with the laws of FDCPA. You can press charges against them for infractions under this act. Sometimes just the mention that you know what the laws are through FDCPA may change their attitude with the way they treat you. Read up and be prepared for the next time they call harassing you. They give people that do collections for a living a bad name even though some of us are actually law abiding professionals that truly want to help people pay their bills by putting them on an affordable payment plan. Nobody wants to be behind on their bills and if they are there is a reason for it. A true collections professional finds out the reason and finds a solution both parties satisfied with. There is no need to intimidate or humiliate someone because they are behind on their payments. If people are treated fairly and with dignity they will work something out if they are able to and if they can't then when they are able they will call whoever it was that treated them the best. Hopefully this will help someone out there.

Here is the link for the FDCPA information:
FDCPA - [URL="http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fdcpa/fdcpact.htm"]http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fdcpa/fdcpact.htm[/URL]

God Bless you for this respoonse... They have recently contacted me and harrassing me as well not even stating that they are a collection company only sying that a complaint has been filed against me ... I was like HUH? I am a good persoan and have no people thinking of placing any kinds of complaints.. it was just an odd call and very uncomfrotable I have it recorded on VM and will nto take calls from anyone like that.. THANK YOU again and God Bless you... & re: to our financial troubles. This too shall pass...

They have been calling me at work at least 10 times per day and if they continue, I will lose my job and they will not get anything from me. I have explained to them what I can do and they keep asking for the impossible (basically ignoring everything I say) and ask the same question over and over. They have now been harassing my family that live in another state. What should I do?

[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana][COLOR=black]One of the first things a creditor will inform a debtor is that their call is being recorded for accuracy and training purposes. However, when I reply that I am more than willing to make payment arrangements and that I too am recording the conversation for accuracy, I am told that I cannot record the conversation and I am hung up on. I have several tapes where this has been a consent occurrence. Therefore, whenever a judgment is issued, I will gladly appear in court and present my tapes as evidence of my total willingness to cooperate and I will prevail. I suggest that everyone who is becoming a victim, head to Target, buy a $7.00 tape recorder and then go to the dollar store and buy yourselves some Maxell UR tapes and starting fighting back. Please believe the creditors' and their bad ass, foul talking collection agency will refuse to have the conversations taped and you will have proof of your intent to cooperate. [/COLOR]

[/FONT][/COLOR]

You may go through the laws regarding recording phone calls in your state before recording any conversation.. You surely don't want to end up in the wrong side when it comes to present your evidences before court.

One of the representatives called me today , the worst conversation i ever had,this people took my business so personally that it is seems to be abnormal,i am contacting my attorney in this matter , people on the phone are trained to get on your nerves ,state where i live has a low that forbids discrimination people like that,especially debt collectors.i am not going to let it go.

or,
PO Box 325
Lawrence, MA 01840

My mother-in-law who is 87 years old fell last August and broke her hip and then had a surgery performed incorrectly and is crippled in a nursing home for life. Her Daughter and I are handling her affairs and got her qualified for medicaid, to cover her matters in the nursing home. Medicaid leaves her $37.00 per month for any pleasures she can enjoy. Sears turned her account over to Valentine & Kebartus even after I explained to Sears she would not be able to pay anything on this account. They were supposed to place into a "hardship" case and close it out. I demanded V&B to cease calling my mother in law at the nursing home and if they wanted to correspond with anyone it would be me or my wife. They actually had the nerve to TELL me to pay it. I asked them if they were acting, or are they really that stupid. I am ready to go to the states attorney general in Ohio as I live in Michigan. I have now learned truly what the word scum and lowlife really mean both for the thugs at V&K, and also Sears.

Are you holding power of attorney? Without a POA, you have no authority to tell them anything other than calling you.

You cannot "tell" a CA not to call....you must do a cease and desist IN WRITING.

this company has been calling us too. They threatened my husband today with a lawsuit if he didn't pay them a huge amount of money RIGHT NOW. well, being a paralegal in a collection firm for several years i took the phone from my husband and told them they will hear from us tomorrow. Now i have all the Fair Debt Collection practices all printed out and in front of me for when they call tomorrow. I do believe i'll tally up all the violations they have too. Also, i'm going to call Chase. i Have a sneaking suspicion that they may not actually own this debt and if so, i'll deal with chase.

After working in this industry for so long i'm just floored by their treatment of people. Here's hoping that things get better for all of us

Valentine and Kebartas I believe work chase accounts 3rd party...and more than likely chase will not talk to you because of the assignment.

Actually when a collection agency is assigned an account, they are expected to demand balance in full today. They however cannot threaten legal action or even suggest it if they have no intent on following thru.

About 5 years ago, I heard about a person that was selling forms to get you out of just about any kind of debt that there is. I also got out of a traffic ticket with the forms. I purchased the complete set of forms. I had about 80k in credit card debt that I didn't want to pay. I used the forms as per the instructions and have eliminated probably 90% of the debt and all of the phone calls. Last fall I stopped paying on the last 2 credit cards and am in the process of shutting down the 2 debt collectors. One of them is Valentine and Kebartas. Yes soaplady, the last 2 are Chase credit cards. Isn't America great!! It's nice to be able to get back at the companies that are trying to scew you over. Most of you may or may not know that the whole finance system is rigged in the lender's favor. It costs a bank $0 to give you a loan or a credit card, so they have $0 at risk and con us into making payments every month plus interest on money that they never lent in the first place. I'll be glad to discuss this further if anyone is interested.

Quote:

Sorry Reasonable, but there is no such thing as a partial cease and desist....you cannot request mail only per the fdcpa. The account will more than likely be closed and sent to another CA.

And to anonymous....traffic tickets cannot be taken care of by any form. You have to pay them....they are city/state/federal debt. I dont believe any of his debt was eliminated....it is still there.

I sued them and won $2500
look up Krohn & Moss LTD. no money down.
they are the best!!!!!!

Do NOT pay these people, there is really NOTHING they can do. Oh sure they will promise to take you to court, they will continue to call etc.... Just hang up on them.
If you do not have the money and you honestly can not afford to pay. DO NOT PAY THEM!
DO NOT make payment arrangements unless they send you written confirmation that they agreed to such FIRST. Make sure you get it in writting first!! No agreement in writting NO Pay!
This group is of the lowest form of collection companies

You will NOT go to jail, you do not need to worry.

These are the rudest people I have ever had dealings with, this man made big time threats. I have never been talked to like that by anyone. Call a family member and called them a lie.

Say that you are sick of dealing with them and will either settle for another 700, OR NOTHING AT ALL. ;)

I am not surprised reading this post about VKI... I ran into them many years ago and had just as bad an experience as you can get. They rely on FEAR, therefore the legal threats, etc. I had a VKI phone caller, Mark, who jumped so far outside all collection boundaries. I would answer, it wasn't like I avoided him. I even had friends gather around at night to hear my rampages. Best to say I am not working with you, have a nice day.

I just received a call from vk. My balnce was over $3000 and they cut it down to $1800. I told them my work sitution and they told me to barrow money from some one. They were rude. They told me they needed to spreak to my lawyer, cause some one filed a claim. Haa haa really?