Whataburger Suing Debt Collection Company For Harassing Its Employee At Work

It's a $1,000 per violation for violating the FDCA.

... a misconception shared by many who have not read the Act. See § 813 (a)(2)(A)

http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fdcpa/fdcpact.shtm#813

It's $1K maximum, not a flat fee, per action, meaning per lawsuit. With no minimum, in theory a judge could award five cents. This is why I have said before that the FDCPA is trapped in a late 1970s time warp with respect to statutory damages. This is also why it's imperative for litigants to look for actual damages and any separate state law violations, as I'd suggested three days ago.

} I answered the phone every time to explain my situation.

Not to buttinski, but you of all people need to stop explaining and start disputing. It should be clear by now those thugs on the phone don't want your stories, they want your money. I talked about this problem here five months ago.

https://800notes.com/forum/ta-20d8b040155b1d1 ... 822544638051187

Hopefully in case of litigation you have something in print documenting all those refusals of service. It's unfair to bill you for what you never got, and any collection agency insisting you did run up those charges is misrepresenting the character of the debt, one of many available violations of the FDCPA you can hurl back like a brick. Giving you crap about how you pay for rent and phone use counts, too.

The below official-type links will get you started on federal law homework. Credit InfoCenter and DebtorBoards are both tremendous online resources for those like you who lack funding for help in a pinstripe suit. I suspect, however, there will be circumstances in your stories enabling the fee-shifting provision of FDCPA if you do someday fight in a courtroom.

http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fdcpajump.shtm
http://www.consumerfinance.gov/guidance/supervision/manual/fdcpa-narrative/

Whenever I am in Houston (TX), I always live off of What-A-Burgers. Their Employees always seem to treat you like family and that's pleasant feeling. Maybe that's a "Trickle-Down-Effect" from Corporate Brass but what ever it is, I always keep spreading my money around at their restaurants - they put out great tasting burgers & fries.   ...... AND there is a way to make each instance of contact a separate violation, PLUS, even though NCO hides under the Rules of Corporation - there are ways to pierce the corporate veil to pursue individuals in their own personal capacity. Sink your teeth into just one of them and many others will jump ship - I see it happen all the time!  To break-up NCO, pierce the veil, then divide and conquer. But it should NOT end there. Their Rank & File needs to be followed up on when their go their separate ways because they will always try to setup shop under another name and re-group again. Past NCO Agents do eventually go to prison. How do I know? My profession involves transporting convicted felons to hospitals and I hear lots of confessions.

Your point is valid. Claiming responsibilty for your own debts is the correct "adult" thing to do and should be handled directly through the Original Creditor ONLY. Use the law to have the Collection Agency return the purported debt back to the Original Creditor because only YOU have the authority to do so. No explaining is ever needed to issue the demand by law AND command that the Collection Agengy remove any remarks made by them in your Credit Reports - or you will use the law to collect for damages.

The main issue with the primary post is that NCO may be operating OUTSIDE of the law, the individuals committing these acts are doing so with malice, and a restaurant corporation taking action to protect their hands-on operations at the Employee to Customer Contact level. The Restaurant Unit operations are being unduly interrupted by actions from another corporation (NCO) and the Restaurant (itself) has put their foot down to say: "stop treaspassing - you have no rights here."

Collection Agencies can be a necessary evil however, a leash is necessary to maintain proper procedures and control. If a Guard Dog is not properly managed and attacks someone without a command to do so, that dog is considered vicious and is destroyed. When cops use excessive force beyond what is called for, they are pulled in off the streets for either retraining or dismissal. We need cops just as we need guard dogs (too), but training on a consistant basis is required to maintain proper control.

I work in a prison where I control and direct the activities of inmates on a daily basis and I am thankful for the continued training I receive to maintain my job. From my decades of experience, I do NOT have or ever have had any inmates incarcerated for owing a money debt or for bad debts. I do have some inmates who used to be (by their own admissions) Collections Agents. And in case a Collection Agent is reading this, these individuals are all separated from the main line prison population for their own protection. (Hint, hint!)

Don't. Mess. With. Texas.

Most collection agencies are out of control, many are blatant scammers who totally disregard the law.

As such, I have a firm standing policy ---   once any company makes the fatal mistake of sending anything to collections, I send the company a bill exceeding the collections amount for my time wasted itemized with charges also for every call attempt (surprisingly many pay the bill) and then setup a number of campaigns in key areas to do the most widely scoped damage to their business often costing them in the hundreds of thousands to millions.    In one specific case, a well known company lost upwards 50 million and agreed to stop attempting to bother me and make everything "disappear" if I'd do the same for them.
I agreed to put a stop in that instance but not until after the company had already lost millions of dollars.

As for collection companies though, kind of a moot issue anyway since I don't exist and have any social security number, no address, no actual identity of my own, phone does background checks of all callers in real time and only those with the proper security clearance can get through, likewise my paper mail is pre-screened by several agencies before it ever gets forwarded to me so other than the itemized security reports, I never see any actually calls or letters from collection agencies but I definitely know how to hurt them back though in ways they never see coming.

Maybe if Whataburger would provide descent health coverage for their employees collections calls to their restaurants wouldn't be an issue.

james k - I'd love to know more info on how you do that.  Sally - I pay my bills and have always worked hard for my money.  I work from home and a dozen or more calls a day is a complete waste of my time and resources.  The calls I get are for a young man who once rented property from me.  He is long gone now and I had only his mother's number which is also now disconnected.  The thing is that these ruthless call centers don't bother with silly things like the truth.  They don't care who answers the phone.  They are rude and are looking for a fight.  I'm sure people lie to them all of the time but if calling me 12-20 times a day hasn't done them any good in a year then I don't understand why they continue to do it.  But they do.  They won't believe that this man (who is 20 years my junior) is not my lover, son, brother,  etc. Also, because I am not the person they are interested in, They refuse to give me any details other than a name.  I cannot find out who the original creditor is to contact them.   They say it is a private matter yet they will call me, give me his name, and state that he owes money.  I can look up the caller's number here to see that it is NCO or Portfolio Recovery but I have no proof as the name does not appear on caller ID.  My local police station has advised me that there is nothing that I can do about it.  I have tried to reason with these people with no success and I have tried simply not answering the phone.  However, when I am expecting business calls, I must jump at every ring and carefully screen so that I do not miss anything that is actually relevant to my lively hood..  As a business owner, changing the number (that I have had for 13 years) is out of the question.  Almost every call originates from a new number so blocking is no help either.  So no this is not a matter of pay your bills and everything will be just fine.  The system doesn't work that way at all and harrassment laws need to be made stricter or at least enforced.  But if you would like to test your theory of just talking to them to resolve issues then please give me your number and I will pass it on to them.

Sally is one of their propaganda trolls.  When I was 18 I had to have emergency surgery.  I paid my bills religiously as they came in.  I used every extra dime that I had going without things that I needed because I was young and scared.  The bills kept coming, collection agencies reported them against my credit even though I was paying on them, and when I finally asked my mother for help is when we both got screwed.  When she went to my original creditor to pay on the balance, they told her that I owed several more and she paid them as well.  These were bills that I had already paid.  Some of  them I had even paid twice.  So several of the bills were paid as many as 3 times.  Luckily my insurance company went to bat for me.  They faxed a detailed list of my portion of the medical bills to me, the hospital, and the collection agency.  I cross referenced every payment I had made by check to the appropriate bill and sent them in as well.  I had to acquire statements from my bank as proof.  I asked for a refund on the bills that had been overpaid.  This process took months and finally they stopped calling, mailing bills to me, or stopping me at the doctor's office to ask me to pay on the bill.  Funny though I never received any refund for my overpayment which ended up being +/- $750.  If only I had the kind of time to harrass them the same way they did me.  Or if I could contact their mother to take advantage of her the way they did mine.  In short, keep all statements from insurance agencies, staple it to your bill along with your cancelled check.  Some of those bills did not even show until almost a year after the procedure.  So keep these documents FOREVER.  Never pay a collection agency, only your original creditor.  And dispute things reported to your credit file.  One of those bills paid 3 times ended up costing me thousands on my home loan because it had hurt my score.  I was treated like a criminal and it nearly ruined my reputation and almost costed home ownership.

I wonder if Rachel from Credit Card Services is behind this, lol Send Bevo to Nco and stomp out all the scumbags in that building!

Too funny:)

Another reason to give Whataburger my business!!!

Wrong.  The law says the fine is $1,000 per incident.  I know, I've collected.

Please cite "the law" supporting your assertion.

With FDCPA you could stack up stat fines only if you had multiple defendants, or had managed to get away with serial suit filing, or found an uncommonly stupid judge. This burger chain case appears to have one plaintiff, one defendant, one complaint in state court, and one FDCPA statute among its possible causes of action. AGAIN, the max federal stat award is $1K. It's not even clear the fast food chain can be considered a "consumer" per FDCPA definition, and thus risks losing that claim.

But a lousy grand is nothing compared to the fanny paddling a corporate plaintiff can bring. Whataburger will never be *awarded* $1K per call, but it should have little trouble collecting an equivalent in settlement.