8666799649

If all you whinebags would pay your bills- then collection agencies would not be calling your houses.... derrrrrr

Get a life and instead of spending time on the computer ranting and raving about creditors that you stiffed (and don't feel like paying) maybe you could pick up a second job for some extra cash to pay off people you owe... bright idea huh?

i wish i had a dollar for every dead beat that has used the phrase "you cant get blood from a stone" or even better.. "you cant get blood from a turnip" What are you people vegetables?? make an attempt to pay some of your debts and collection agenices WOULD NOT be calling you...

If you had a dollar for everytime you heard such a thing, would you pay off those bills and judgments in Georgia?

Some of us are NOT whinebags I am a finatic about paying my bills ON TIME and I just recieved a phone call from these guys and the message said that they got my number as a refrence for someone I don't even know and that I should call them back. Well needless to say after reading that they are a collection agency I WILL NOT be returning their phone call.

per the FDCPA a collector is not permitted to divulge any information to a third party without the first parties consent.  If you happen to reside in a community property state (AZ, CA, etc.) the information is acceptable to share with the spouse; however, a reputable collection service and a veteran collector is probably not willing to risk the violation.  I would say that this is a reputable collection service.

These people have been calling my mom for about 2 years now. She also has an existing debt and she has been paying on it. It worries me that this company seems so unorganized, getting people's names wrong and stuff. They always threaten to take legal action against my mom. If I can recall correctly, they told my dad that they could take our house even though it is in his name. Also if I can recall, they have looked at my mom's credit score, which I didn't think people could do that without my mom's consent. They called her at home to start out, then they started calling her at her job, then they started calling my cell phone! I'm still not entirely sure how they got my number. It's just really scary to read all of this and to look at my mom's situation....

They have called me from 3 different numbers, here they are 603-824-9353, 866-201-0940, 866-679-9649. All with no info to why they are calling, just that they need a return call asap.

I got a call from these people as well.  I am behind 3 weeks on a car payment which will be paid on Monday.  When I called the person with whom I am dealing with at my bank (the lender), they told me that Stephens and Michaels was not supposed to be working on this case (whatever that means) and that he would call them and take care of it.
   The Stephens and Michaels collector was ABUSIVE;  he told me that they are attorneys - might be false.  He lied to me about the amount owed, called me names, tried to intimidate me, and told me to call my mortgage holder and tell them that my mortgage would be 2 weeks late so that I could Western Union my payment to him, adding on of course, his 25% take.  I feel that he tried to scare me into sending my payment to him instead of my lender so that he could make money on me, which of course is ridiculous for a payment that isn't even 30 days late. He asked me where I kept the car as he would order the repo that day (which my lender informed me that they cannot order a repo, only the lender has that ability).

 I will file a complaint with the Attorney General as I feel that his "collection strategy" was in direct violation of the "Fair Debt Collection Practices Act" (FDCPA) which states:

“The FDCPA broadly prohibits a debt collector from using ‘any false, deceptive, or misleading representation or means in connection with the collection of any debt.’ 15 U.S.C. § 1692e.”

http://64.233.169.132/search?q=cache:cSgH5CQ0 ... clnk&cd=3&gl=us

From the "Stephens and Michaels Associates" website:

"Collection Strategy"

"Our collection strategy is about tracking the best practices, so we record all of our incoming and outgoing calls. This ensures that communication with your customers is conducted with professionalism and dignity while helping us build a smarter collection program. We meet weekly to overcome bottlenecks and produce solutions for the following week's strategy. A team works on your accounts; the collection structure consists of Account Managers, Supervisors, and Collectors. This ensures everyone is held accountable to improve the collections process and resolve accounts with the best possible recovery rate".

http://www.collateralcollections.com/index.php/site/pages/C7/

Professionalism and Dignity? Yeah, Right!

For all of you "knee-jerk" reactionaries who will say "Pay your bills on time and they won't call you etc.etc." I DO pay my bills but have fallen behind a bit due to an illness in which I lost a few weeks from work.  Sometimes bad crap happens to good people.  This doesn't mean that people deserve to be harassed or abused.

The link above to FedSpending.org is outdated. Here's the new link:   http://www.fedspending.org/faads/faads.php?re ... type=T&sortby=i

Since our incorporation in 1999, Stephens & Michaels Associates has become one of the leading debt collection firms operating in the US today. Led by a dynamic management team boasting literally hundreds of years of industry experience, and staffed by a diverse and dedicated corps of debt-collection and asset-recovery specialists, we have succeeded in helping hundreds of organizations to improve their bottom line.

    Stephens & Michaels Associates, Inc.63 Range RoadWindham, NH 03087Toll Free: 888.340.1740Fax: 603.537.1747Email: info@smacollects.com

Stephens & Michaels are bottom feeders who buy outdated and old tapes with thousands of deadbeat debts. If they can trick you (and I say trick because they lie) you into paying even the smallest amount or admitting the debt then they are on you like sharks.

The process is simple.
Ignore their calls and various invented ruses.
If you actually owe money, feel free to negotiate any payment you want. Banks aren't exactly flush these days.
Banks and these parasites are simply working the margins between people who will never pay a bill and connign people into thinking they have to do anything they say.

As for any guilt for these credit agencies. Why do you think they charge 27% interest plus fees?  Why do you think these cold callers have to lie, con and decieive? because they are lowlifes who can't even get a job working a 7/11 night shift. Many of these collection skanks know exactly what its like to be hounded by random strangers.
Confessions of a Debt Collector
Fred Williams, a reporter for the Buffalo News, worked for three months at a debt-collection agency to see how one operates. Here is his report.
From Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, November 2008

"Ethel, you did this!" Joe barks into the phone, his voice booming through the divider between our desks. Joe is trying to collect a credit-card bill, but Ethel is unaware of the card's existence -- or claims to be. "Stop making excuses!" Joe tells her.

It's my first week on the job as a debt collector, and already I'm learning a lot. Or rather, unlearning a lot. Everything I know about consumer finance is wrong here.

In this upside-down world, unpaid bills are a boon, not a curse. The bigger, the better. If we collect, the agency gets a bounty of 10% to 50% from the creditor, and it gives us a cut. Top collectors are handed bonuses of $10,000 or more at a monthly assembly, while envious co-workers clap and cheer.

In this world, identity theft isn't an epidemic. It's an excuse used by weaseling debtors -- like job loss, illness or even the death of a spouse. In the notes we make after each call, these excuses are summed up with the code HLS -- hard-luck story.

Joe tells Ethel that he's looking at her credit report and it doesn't support her innocence. "This card was paid every month for two years," he says. "Identity thieves don't do that!" Maybe he's right and she's trying to skip a legitimate bill. Or maybe he's making it up.

The collection industry gets the most complaints of any industry regulated by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission -- more than 300,000 in the past five years. The trade association, ACA International, blames the griping on consumers' increasing debt burden.

But inside the large, well-established agency where I work, that's not the whole story. Motivated strictly by cash, collectors manipulate, shame and threaten people into paying, without caring whether the bill is legitimate.

"Get the money!" our team leader exhorts us in a brief morning huddle. Then we hit the phones, making 150 to 200 calls a day. Most are answered by machines or by people who say we've got a wrong number.

Debtors are cagey about picking up, so we're taught to mask the purpose of the call as long as possible. We ask for them casually by first name, like an acquaintance. Outright deception is forbidden, but sometimes my co-workers pose as paralegals or even as "fraud investigators," to imply that criminal charges are looming.

Once a debtor is on the line, we demand that they pay the overdue balance immediately. But the balance is like the sticker price on a car -- a starting point for negotiation. On some accounts, I may offer a settlement that wipes out half the bill. This helps to placate debtors. They're usually sputtering mad because their actual purchases are a pittance compared with the interest, late fees and over-limit fees they now owe.

If a debtor opts to settle, I am trained to take their application. In a bored voice I ask for their cell-phone number, their spouse's work phone and so on, as if I'm filling out a form. There's no application; we get the phone numbers to hound them if their payment falls through.

To help debtors raise money, we are trained to give them financial advice that would make their accountant blanch, if they had one. We suggest that they take money out of their IRA, drain their home equity with a second mortgage, load up a different credit card or even skip a mortgage payment.

If a debtor still won't pay, we play a version of good cop/bad cop. Two collectors will team up on one call, with one posing as a hard-hearted manager. The other listens patiently and pretends to be sympathetic. The idea is to make the debtor want to please the sympathetic collector, who closes the deal.

Even people like Ethel, who claim to be fraud victims, can be squeezed for cash. We say it was probably their child or someone else in their household who abused the card, and if they don't call the police, we will.

But Joe loses his battle of wills with Ethel for today when she simply hangs up. Calling her back immediately would violate rules against harassment. I go around the divider to commiserate, and to see whether Ethel's credit report really implicated her. But Joe has already deleted it from his screen and pulled up another account, preparing to make his next call.

Our group manager has also been listening. "You blew it," he tells Joe loudly, so the rest of the group can hear. "You should've got her to pay."

Author Fred Williams's book, Inside Debt Collection, is available at www.lulu.com.

Received email from my brother saying this number phoned him looking for me and that it was urgent that they get a hold of me.  When I phoned, I was notified by a computer operator that my call could be recorded then I was put on hold with some very nasty hold music.  When male voice came back on the line, he stated asking me to verify information such as my middle initial and the last four digits of my social security number which I of course refused to do.  He pushed on and I told him I wouldn't tell him anything without knowing who he was, who he was representing.  I did not say but continued to try to get information from me.  I told him that if he didn't tell me who he was or what this was regarding, I would end the call.  He said "that's up to you," and I hung up.

Good job on the address maybe some one will freak out and go to the offices and do them the justice they deserve,

I have been screwed by these people with fees and penalties. I only owe my auto company $282, but SMA claims I owe them over $600. I made a payment of $496 and my bank only applied $396 of it. So, what a way to shovel sh*t against the tide. I got laid off from my job a year ago and have been actively seeking employment since. They are aware of my situation, but it's not like they would give a crap. FML.

I, too, was laid off more than a year ago & have been actively seeking full-time employment--even temporary work. When my car loan went to 3 months behind in payment, this company appeared out of nowhere calling my cellphone while using the 603-824-9353, 866-201-0940 and 866-679-9649 numbers.

Initially, I got the "It's very important that you return our call" messages, but since this was the only recent outstanding bill I have (and I've kept in touch with the auto finance company), I was bewildered and never returned the calls (athough one voicemail message actually addressed me by my first name, but the person NEVER made reference to any loan number, the loan company, nor even the company that the caller represented. Subsequent messages in the last 1 1/2 weeks have finally identified themselves as being with "the firm of Stephens & Michaels").

Anyhow, my auto finance company & I worked on getting a loan modification (especially since the auto companies are now advertising "if you lose your job, we pick up the payments for X-# of months." So you might contact your auto finance company about such a program as Cap 1's just came into existance as of January (this year)--or so I was initially told.

With the economy sinking & the employment rates spiraling downwards, it's a guarantee that these parasites, their ilk, and conniving tactics will continue to increase. As the article stated, these people are out to line THEIR own pocketbook--they do not care that yours are empty.

I still have my dignity, so I definitely won't be seeking a job as a collector any time soon. But I may very well contact the Atty Gen's office to find out where I stand if the calls continue.

-- Just another Hard Luck Story (HLS) II.

It's REALLY RUDE of some commenters to assume that everyone who makes a report here is "a deadbeat who doesn't pay their bills" and that collection agencies wouldn't be calling otherwise. NOT TRUE. I have had this number for three years, and I am bombarded with collection calls from 8am to 10pm for the people who PREVIOUSLY had this number. THEY are the people who didn't pay their bills, yet I'm the person who has to deal with the endless calls. I hardly ever answer my phone anymore because of it. And no, changing my number won't help. Any number you get has previous owners.

I am receiving calls to my home daily, and have no unpaid debt.  Period.  This is a scam, and Scam artists piss me off. Though they are not hurting me and I'm not calling them back, I'd really like to know how to get them to stop calling my house.  It's just a matter of time before my stepson inadvertantly picks up the phone & gets strung on by these [***].

Called about 7pm left a number and extension. No other msg, this a collections company www.smacollects.com.  On their web site it says the following:

Collection Strategy
Our collection strategy is about tracking the best practices, so we record all of our incoming and outgoing calls.

This against NH law and is illegal wiretapping if all parties do not give consent. Fines can be 100 dollars a day per call.

WOW - this thread was so informative.....thanks everyone!  got the same kind of call that you all did.  i was like WTF?  who is this and why are they calling.  it sounded fishy so i didn't respond and then i found this link.  had no idea why they were calling.....but they keep calling.  if it is a collection agency, i have no idea why they're calling.  pay bills on time and credit is great.