PLEASE STOP CALLING MY HOME.I do not respond to rude und unprofessional people.

Since I've filed suit in Virginia against BCR, here's some information anyone with a similar problem may be able to use. I invite any present or former employees of BCR to tell me if I'm wrong about any of this.

Blake Rice is the CEO and founder of Universal Recovery Systems, Inc. as well as Bureau of Collection Recovery, Inc. Joel Lewis is the president of both companies. There may be a third entity, or it may be a "dba" they're using, "UniversalSystems, Inc.". Blake Rice owns a patent applying predictive dialing technology heretofore used by telemarketers in a scheme designed to optimize the efficiency of telephone-based collections by splitting the people who talk into two groups, operators and collectors. The purpose of the operators is to verify the identity of the person called and transfer the call to a collector if one is available, and otherwise to ask the debtor to call back on a toll free number.

These companies are also doing business under the unregistered fictitious names, "BCR" and "UniversalSystems", "bureauofcollections.com", and "universalsystems.net" Universal Recovery Systems, Inc. is the registered owner of the trademark, "UniversalSystems". It appears that the company is split into two entities, where Universal develops and implements software based on Rice's patent, and Bureau uses the software to engage directly in debt-collection.

Bureau of Collection Recovery, Inc is licensed in a number of states as a debt-collector. In Minnesota, where they are principally located, both the company and the persons employed as debt collectors must be licensed. You can check at the state's website:

https://www.egov.state.mn.us/Commerce/license_lookup.do?action=lookupForm

The two companies are co-located, have the same telephone numbers, and are functioning as two divisions of the same entity. I believe they are operating as mutual partners, agents and co-conspirators, and I have sued both as such.

Aside from the primary location, they also have an installation at 1009 NE 16th St., Willmar, MN 56201. That installation probably functions as a telephone call center.

Their fax number is 952-259-1191

They are known to use the following telephone numbers in their collection efforts:
206-278-8708
206-278-8709
206-278-8723
206-278-8777
206-278-9122
888-276-8209
888-862-2385
952-674-2391
952-674-4770
952-674-4771
952-674-4772
999-999-9999

(The last one is used only to detect whether or not someone is available at the called number to pick up the telephone.)

I have been recieving harrasing phone calls from BCR. I have been contacted by them four times in a four day period. I was treatened of a lawsuit that was not accually pending. Harrased and spoken to very rudley. I am not sure if this place is even legit. I cant find a website, they would not give me their mailing address, I never recieved anything in the mail from them. I made two compaints to the supervisor. He advised me not to work with BCR, and reffered me back to verizon wireless. He did not seemed surprised in any way of the harrasment and lies told by BCR. He did not even know that the fdcpa excits, and seemed shocked that I knew of my rights as a consumer. Please file a copmlaint with the FDCPA regarding BCR. This place needs to be educated on the right way to collect a debt.

Virginia Legal, thank you for taking the time to provide valuable insight into the debt validation process and the legal mechanisms involved in debt issues. Your presence here ia most valuable and very much appreciated.

Not happy,

Try to settle the debt directly with your creditor, hope they will cooperate with you.

Also file your complaint with BBB, FTC and AG's office of your state that will take them through a legal investigation.

BTW, I agree with JJ. Virginia Legal is putting valued information here. We wish to learn more from you. Also we need more such persons in this forum, so that consumers' legal rights are protected.

It's good to see people like Virginis Legal giving some much educated advice.

BUREAU OF COLLECTION RECOVERY INC
7575 Corporate Way
Eden Prairie
Minnesota
55344
Phone 1-800-831-7311

I am currently experiencing this problem, I have a letter also. They did not report to the major credit bureaus. Now BCR tells me to contact AT&T to have them update my file. At & t says to contact BCR. I am about to get an attorney to fix this issue.

I have been a manager at bureau of collection recovery-i honestly think debtors as yourself are always looking for a place to vent with other debtors to make all of you look like your the honest bill paying do no wrong look good, when in fact i make alot of money on people that want to face the fact that they want to face up to there responsibilities. I think perhaps that everyone of you are just a portion of the american way that think that not paying your bills is the only way-way to go teach all your children to be debtors like yourself so my children can make the bucks off of you-keep up the good job and enjoy your crappy credit and i will be thinking of all of you as i am going to work behind the wheel of my paid off mercedes while on the phone planning my next vacation somewhere-thank you keep sending my paycheck......

Wow, I needed a good laugh this morning. :lol:

Quote:

It's evident from the time that message was posted that this guy doesn't sleep at night! LOL

Those were the longest run-on sentences I've ever seen![/quote]

To collection manager... You are so unbelievably obtuse in your thinking, that it defies reality. Your company harasses me 5 times a day trying to reach someone that doesn't live in the home never has, and to the best of my knowledge, doesn't even exist. For the first several weeks of the calls, I was pleasant but firm in trying to get you to stop calling, and now I've registered complaints with the FTC and am considering a lawsuit in Florida. I work from home and your harrassing calls interfere with my ability to complete my work. Perhaps you can save your company a lot of $$$ and aggravation in a lawsuit by giving me the appropriate steps to effectively end the harrassment. I know that you have the right to "encourage" true offenders to pay up, but you are calling a house with two women and a small child looking for a man. How dumb is that? I'd think all your highly compensated employees would do better calling the right people, don't you?

Also, Virginia Legal... Any advice on the above referenced item? You are AWESOME to post here and help so many people, and at the very least, make us feel so not all alone in this!!

I have a California exchange and they say they are BCR. The # is 619-374-0126 also an 888-276-8572 goes direct to them Does the VA. Attorney practice in Maryland? I ould like a contact# if you do.

First, let me start by commenting that I have never been called by BCR nor any other collection agency. I really believe that you have been paid very well for bullying and harassing people into making payments. Granted the money is owed but your tactics are low. Yes, some people do purchase things and may never have any intention of paying for them. I think the vast majority do want to pay their way but have fallen on hard times. The methods used by your company to extract payment causes many problems for some people, ranging from stress to suicide.

I am sure that you are very happy with the money you make. I am confident that you do not have any bad feelings while you are chewing on a nice steak while people you bully may not be able to eat at all.

I firmly believe that you should take some of the money from your paycheck and invest in your own education and put some aside for your children's education as well. It is clear that they will not get a good education by listening to you. Your writing and grammar usage is very poor.

Furthermore, if I were in the upper management of BCR, I would reprimand you for posting the letter. You have not done them a service but quite the opposite. If they employ people like you, it is my opinion that I would not want to do ANY business with BCR.

By the way, I am in management for a Federal Agency and my husband owns a retail business.

Wow, we all seem to be getting the same BCR call and personal probing questions concerning non existing accounts. Our Attorney General office was most interested and informed me that they are getting numerous complaints concerning this issue. Take a few minutes and contact you representatives at state and federal level. If you owe an honest bill pay it if you are being cheated, protest it. I never pay a collection company but work it out with the original creditor (if they exist) and it has never hurt our credit regardless of what these scam artists say. You have the right to reply via the credit reporting agencies and have it listed as your response.

Well yesterday we got the "Do Not Disturb" feature on our phone. After over a month of getting these calls for someone I don't even know we have had enough. I started with the *57 as advised by our phone company and even put together a log of calls. In one case after several calls I did say I was the person who they were looking for to get information for a complaint. I then went to the Frederick County Sherrifs Office and I was told by an officer that she interpreted this harassment as not being a crime. I thought only a lawyer or court could interpret the law.I was there to file a complaint so I could try to sue BCR.I then called the Maryland States Attorneys Office and told my story including the fact that they claimed to be taping all calls without my knowledge (Remember Linda Tripp)? And after another call, I just said when is the court date? And because they supplied me with what was owed I could talk about the issue without them positively knowing if I was who they were looking for. That is when they gave me the persons WHOLE social security number. Anyhow the helpfull person at the States Attorneys Office suggested I just tell them to hang on and leave the room or get a whistle and blow it over the phone. Can you believe this! God help the people of Maryland with nonsense like this.I also called Social security and they said they could find no law in regards to a company giving out a SSN # to an unverified party.Bottom line is that BCR can do anything they want to even those of us that are innocent of any wrongdoing. Today I did supply BCR with the address name and phone # of this persons mother(She had our phone # 5 years ago and has his same last name).I also intend on letting the debtor know what I know about him and how I got the information. Maybe he can sue them.

I also got a letter and several threatening phone calls about a Verizon bill that I never owed. Do not give these people your SSN!

You have no choice! If you owe them they have your SSN#. I got the # of the person they were looking for by telling them I was the person they were looking for . They buy the debt from the company and the SSN# comes with it.

BCR has been calling me here in Calif. everyday the person gets mad when i tell him I am not going to pay it and go ahead and ruin my credit don't care do not buy on credit. He then tells me to get a job!!! I laugh and tell him I do not need to i have everything I want and and he is wasting his time calling me I laugh he hangs up he does not intimidate me at all so he really gets upset makes my day!!

You sound like the equivalent of a drug dealer - making money through illegal or questionable means. You'd be better off to spend some of your money on an education instead of luxuries so you can learn a little grammar, and spelling. Get a real job. Contribute something to society instead of preying on those who have fallen on hard times.

This is the reason the fdcpa laws exist in the first place. It's collectors like these they give legitimate businesses a bad name.

I'm an attorney, once upon a time worked in credit collections and have also been receiving harassing calls from BCR about a non-existent account. I finally picked up the phone after several months of messages and talked with one of these people. They are good at giving the impression of being a legitimate collection agency but apparently are total scammers. The telltale signs: they do not know my name even though it is on my answering machine; they have not previously sent me any written correspondence; they do not provide any info on the phone of who they are collecting for (they wait for the victim to provide the information). I will be contacting my state attorney general's office and the FTC.

Well a quick overview of my situation:
I had 4 phones in my name mine, my moms, my older sister and her bofriend! Verizon told me if I made 2 seperate accounts that neither one would be intreruppted for the other accounts payment deliquency! So I made mine and my mothers on one account and made my sisters and her boyfriend on another account! Once again all in my name because my credit was phenominal and i needed no down payment what so ever! My sister was having the bill sent for their phones to her house so I never knew the trouble awaiting me when my phone gets shut off along with my mothers because about 6 months ago my sister and her boyfriend decided to run thier bill up to $800. Now I have this BCR company harrasing me everyday for money which I obviously know I owe now and now Verizon turned my phone off because of it! WHAT SHOULD I DO? If i had the $800 i would throw it in Verizon's face right now I have been a customer for 4 years and had only 1 late payment he whole time thats only because I was on vacation and forgot about it!

I dont know if your feelings towards the other posters are true or not, but I am recieving calls from BCR everyday looking for a woman that does'nt live at my address. I tell them everyday they have the wrong PH# and to take me off their calling list and the say they will but the calls keep coming! No one will give me their name or allow me to speak with a superior. Some just hang up when I ask to speak with someone who can take me off the list. Or they will give me a bogus PH# where I will talk to someone else who does'nt want to stop the calls either. I have had the same ph# for 4yrs, I decided to get on the net today to see if any info concerning this company is availible right after they called again today. They should at least have the right contact info before they start inturrupting a persons life! If anyone knows what I need to be do, please dont be bashfull!

I didnt owe T-moile 636.00 to begin with, but i payed the first collection agancy 445.00 (diverified consultants) back in aug. of 2004, then with out reason i was sent to a 2nd collection agancy I WAS PAYING ON IT!!!! (plaza associates) I then payed them the remaining balance of the "bill" (193.00)in sept of 04 yeah thats right less than 1 month after paying the 1st over half I was sent to a 2nd!!! (dont they tell you when you make a payment this will stop collections HA) now 2 years latter i was sent to a 3rd collection agency stated that I owe the entire balance of 636.00 again!!??? i dont think so!! collection companys think we are stupid!!!

For the Past 2 months these people have been calling my house about 3 or 4 times a day looking for Angela, this person owes money on a Tmobile account, somehow they have my phone # and have been calling every single day and wont stop. I dont know what to do about it. I have repeatedly told them that they have the wrong person & number, but they don't seem to care. Oh yeah, I'm only 19 and I've never had a cellphone *shocking* I know. Anyway, any help to stop them from harrasing me would be very appreciated.

I just got a call on my cellphone, it was a prerecorded message asking me to call BCR at 888/276-8209. I don't owe anybody any money... and isn't it illegal for a collector to call a cellphone? I considered calling them back until I ran a reverse search of the number and came across your site here.

bravo to va lawyer for firing up on bcr they deserve what ever comes their way. i haven't been cursed out and had the phone slammed down in my face when trying to interact with this company. a bunch of idiots behind the phone console are what they are!

1. If you do not owe a bill do not call us and yell at us. We can do absolutely nothing to help you if you claim that you do not owe thie bill. Send BCR the documentation showing that you do not owe the bill showing proof that you do not owe. I do not have, and neither does any supervisor, the power to just remove your account from collections, sorry.

2. If you think that you never had the client that the account is referring to. CALL THEM! Give the "client" their account # to verify that the account exists. Our clients do not just make up accounts and send them to collections. That is illegal.

3. Personally I believe some of the people that say they do not owe phone bills. They tell me their story and from what it looks like it some disputes are legitimate. I will believe you if you are not rude, you do not yell and swear at me, and dont hang up everytime that we call. Then one day out of the blue when you get denied for a loan b/c this is on your TRW, just call in to dispute the bill. Your dispute may be valid but you just didnt want to deal with it b/c it was a waste of your time.

4. If we are calling a wrong # just call us back, tell us your # verify who you are and if not the person listed on the account, we will remove the #, we have no reason to waste our time calling you when you do not owe us anything. You do not need to be rude when doing this either. Just be courteous and we will take your # out. Also if you are recieving calls from BCR and we refuse to tell you our business name in full, it is simple to protect the debtors privacy, we cant go out and flaunt info about people in collections, once again this is illegal.

5. The calls that are made to you are coming from an automated dialer, if you dont answer the phone you will prob get more calls later that day, if you dont want calls send in a cease & desist letter.

6. If you really just dont want to pay your bill dont call in and yell and swear at us. You may think that you are hurting are feelings when you do this, but dont think that for one second that a debtor who doesnt pay their bills is going to have any impact on my mood for the day, more often then not i am laughing at you while you are on the phone... I have a mute button so you cant here me. If you insist on yelling and swearing at me I will just hang up on you b/c I am not going to waste my time talking to you... well i guess more like listening to you yell at me when i can talk to others to help my totals for my fat comission check at the end of the month. Dont threaten to hurt me either b/c you really dont scare me one bit.

i will post more later

I am a 67 year old woman form Booneville MS. BCR has been calling and harrassing me for 2 months now about a credit card. When I first received a call from them, I had let them know that my SS# had been stolen and used to get this credit card plus two other ones. I mailed an affidavit and police report to them and they are still calling and harrassing me!This IS NOT RIGHT! I am a 67 year old woman in a wheelchair, living on a fixed income. I can barly afford my medicians and grocerys. What makes them think that I can afford a credit card payment! I am not and will not pay this debt!! It is not mine! Maybe when they were issuing the card they should have called and confermed that the person appling for the card was a 67 year old woman or not instead of issuing it to just anyone. If my dog could talk and dial the phone, they would issue it a credit card! This is outragous! I need some legal advice.

an automated call from bcr rings me twice a week trying to collect from someone who used to have my phone number. i've explained to them they have the wrong number. but i still recieve that annoying auto call at 8 am. I'm going to ghange numbers or have the numbers posted blocked.

My work hours prevent me from getting through to you.

Do not send any money to the above company. They are a fraud and should be put out of business. I knew when I wrote to them at an address in Billerica, MA. that there was no such address. Please do not send them a check for anything.

So riduculous, these people as BCR have called my home about 20 times and my office phone, now I just sit and say nothing on the phone beucase I don't owe anyone money. I have also told them they are wrong but they refuse to look into the matter. I'll fax them a C&D letter FROM A STAPLES FAX MACHINE. I do not want them having my fax number. I'm also reporting them the BBB becuase they refuse to give me their name and address and phone number.

Wow, Collection Manager is a jerk. Let's you know what types they have working for them. Let something bad happen in THAT family and see how it goes...
Thanks to Va legal for being so helpful!

I'm getting the same junk. Indian accent people calling and asking for me and then hanging up.
BCR from San Diego though.

First and foremost,i have contacted bcr for a letter i have received in the mail just recently, i told them that this cannot be a bill for me because i have been very responsible since the day i was born and i would never let a bill get past its due date, oh boy forget it, she had a freaken heart attack and could not stop bitching and bitching and bitching like the little bitch that she was, so i just hung up on her, i was very soft spoken and nice, so it was better to hang up on her than move to her level and bitch and whine, (she was really counting on that extra dollar if she got me to pay up, oups did i hit a nerve! To bad). This was a seven year old account that i had with cingular that was payed up, if you do your homework you will get to the bottom of it...good luck to everyone that has to deal with the scum that work at bureau of collection recovery. Oups did i hit a nerve again?? Tooooo bad....and that is every single one of them...

I've been getting calls from them for almost a year! I got letters but they stopped when I returned them as "REFUSED". Guess they hafta pay postage when that happens. They called 3 times a day, every day but Sunday for 6 months. Then they stopped. But only for a few weeks. Now they are back up to full steam and hitting my blocker 3 times a day again. Yeah, I broke down and paid my 100 bucks for an "Intercepter" phone blocker. Now BCR and fellow travelers can dial away until their fingers fall off. Why anybody would ever send these characters a dime I cannot imagine, yet they must make a lota money to mount such insane phone campaigns. I've never talked to them yet! I almost wonder what they want, what bogus debt they are trying so hard to collect. But not enough to turn off the blocker.

The phones were returned because I never had service in the area I was in...The phones did not work. Cincular did not have a tower in the area...I will never pay this bill....They lied to me when I bought them telling me that they would work in Murphy, N.C> They may now, but they did not when I had their phones....

1. Please give us the contact information for BCR, so that we CAN send a cease and desist letter. Thank you.

OK, I see the address, but I'd like a fax number. Thanks.

I know where the address, etc is on this site, but how about a fax number?

I average about 4 calls a day from them up until midnight. I've called the number on the called ID back and spoken with a "manager" named Eric Gustafson who said he would remove my name/number each time but it might take a day or two.

Well it's been about 4 wks and still getting calls. After the last call this evening, I called them back and informed Eric that if this does not stop immediately, I will be filing a harrasment charge. He said go ahead and have a nice evening and hung up.

So, now that I'm pissed, I called the loacl police and they called him on my behalf. Turns out they're a collection agency (surprise, surprise) and the officer gave them a verbal warning. Cop told me to call him back tomorrow if I receive just one more call and they will turn the case over to a detective and file harassment charges.

Such a waste on tax payer's money....but atleast I've never wasted it before and I'm getting my money's worth now after all those taxes! :)

So if you guys want to annoy BCR - call Eric Gustafson or Chris @ (619)374-0126 or -0127 and annoy away!!!

I used to work at BCR, sounds like they've managed to screw things up worse than they were. Part of the predictive dialing happpiness involves a two part call system which uses a call center in India to 'establish the right party contact' and then switches to the collectors after the line is picked up. They also pride themselves on being one of the largest employers of the blind in the state - they sit on computers all day playing solitaire. They couldn't hang on to management staff to save their lives so most of their floor supervisors and team leaders are snotnose kids that have managed to stick it out for longer than six months. Most of their collectors use aliases - my favorite was the young man with a heavy Hispanic accent who called himself 'Bill Tyson.' There's no training there at all, and since they hire anything off the street that's willing to give it a whirl, the
fdcpa means nothing to them.

Well, after that police call they stopped calling.........until just now. Picked up and said hello 3 times but nobody on the other end. Guess I'll just call the police back and waste taxpayer's dollars :(

So Deb - what would be your suggestion to get them to stop calling? FYI, i moved into the area in July an obviously picked up someone's old # that owed them money cause I've never heard of the person that they're looking for.

I have had the same issue recently where BCR continues to call my home even though I am not the debtor on the account. I have received phone calls repeatedly throughout the day, every day. (9/2-9/7 so far) I contact them each day, tell them the same thing, remove my number , the person is not at this number. I talked to a supervisor today and after reading this thread, I think I am sure I was told a lie. She said the woman yesterday failed to remove the right number. That being said, I am filing a complaint with the FTC. I suspect that these idiots will continue to call my home.

BTW - SICK OF BCR - BCR is in blatant violation of the fdcpa if they call your home after 9 pm in your time zone. It is also a violation that they continue to call your home, even though your are not the party for which they are looking. You should file a complaint with the FTC.

On another note: Go figure that those moron's hired some folks from India, I know that for most of them English is probably not even their 5th language.

My last words: After reading this post if any of the wonderful "Collectors" that want to tell me I am in the wrong, that they can continue to call, go right ahead. Just wait until you are on the other end of a bunch of idiots calling you :D

Those freakin people from "BCR" keep calling my house looking for my neighbor upstairs!, I keep telling them that he does not live here and that he lives upstairs, they ask for his number, i decline to give it to them. I ask them to stop calling me and that they have the wrong apartment but they continue to call every single day around noon. I am on a "do not call" list and have reported them and they still continue to call.

Iborrowed $200.00 from you you have collected this and then some please do not call my job or home again I have e-mailed you with no response so you do not want to get paid. BBB have been notified and best believe being a Deputy Sheriff makes a difference okay.You will be notified by my lawyer also.

On the other hand, CM, some people may have a good reason to not pay the company who says they owe. Such as not receiving the services contracted for, which is what happened in my case. ATT wireless sold to Cingular, and my service went down the tubes. I was lied to multiple times by Cingular reps, as my service got worse and worse. They told me that I should upgrade to a newer service, which of course required another 2 year contract. That was NOT going to happen, based on the shoddy service and treatment I got from Cingular. Once my service got so bad it was essentially an non-usable phone, I called Cingular and told them that I would no longer be paying. I disputed the bill in writing as well. Got my first BCR call today, but wasn't home when they called. At least they left a return number and extension.

If you want the f**kers off your back, do as i did, i had my lawyer send them a cease and disist order and theat of a lawsuit for harassment and mental anguish,he also sent a copy to the attorney generals office in my state and the state of minnesota (where the f**kers are from). havent recieved a phone call since. cost me 40 bucks to have the letters sent, worth every penny.
Thier address is: 7575 corperate way
edan prairy, mn.