 Summons without previous collection attempts?
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? KY
I am going to admit up front, that this is all my fault... and now I'm wondering if it is too late to fix it. I apologize for the length in advance.
I am a single mother of 2 and I was struggling to make ends meet , and my electricity was about to be turned off. I had no other means to borrow money and my daughters father was deployed, so even if I asked him, it would have taken over a wk to get me any money. So, I took out a dreaded payday loan. I had to go out of town for a medical emergency with my sister, and stopped payment on the check until I could get back to handle it. In that time they discovered I had stopped payment and started calling my cell phone (which I had left with my son- 13- so he could call me on my sister's cell) leaving very detailed messages about who they were and the stop payment and threatening court action. He listened to that messages and was afraid I was going to jail and then let my mother listen to the messages... I was completely embarrassed for them to know I had done a payday loan.
The first business day that I returned home, I called them to explain what had happened and was greeted VERY rudely by the manager... even though I was trying to make arrangements for payment. I then also, very calmly mentioned that they should be more cautious in leaving such detailed msgs on voicemail as that was a breach of my privacy .. which angered her even more, I assured her I wasn't interested in taking court action I just didn't appreciate my son hearing that info. She said she would contact her regional manager and see if they would accept my payment arrangement. She later called back and said since I had stopped payment on the check they would not, they needed it in full. Which I explained I couldn't do. In the mean time I'm contacted by them at work, I asked them 3 times to not call me at work as it jeapordized my job, before they stopped. This 3rd call though was a very nice lady from their inhouse collections at the corporate office who made a payment arrangement with me. On my scheduled date I take my 1st payment into the local office to pay it and the manager again, became extremely rude and hateful with me, using fowl language and insulting me... embarrassing me in front of another customer...and refused to take my payment, even though it had been scheduled by her corporate office. So I took my payment and left the office in hysterical tears. In this state I called corporate headquarters and left the lady I had made the arrangement thru a voicemail (as they were closed) as to what had happened, including the fact that I thought I had unintentionally set this manager off when I requested she not leave messages in such detail for my child to hear. The next Monday I got a call from the Vice President of their collections dept. he was very apologetic, but his line of questioning kept going back to the voicemails... I continued to tell him, that I was not interested in taking any action against them for that, it would just bring more embarrassment to my family..I just wanted to make my payments, without being verbally attacked or demeaned. He asked me to check with my cellphone company to see if the msgs could be retrieved for him to hear, so that he could hear what was said as she should have known better. I called AT&T and was told after 14 days all msgs are wiped off and recorded over, there is no way to retrieve them, even if you had them saved. I called and left him a voicemail with this information, and again stressed all I was interested in was taking care of the payments and if he could just give me an address where I could send a cashiers check or money order, I would find a way to send payment in full so it would just be over with, but I would NOT return to that office. He never returned the call. I called another time and left another message for him for an address, and again he never called back. I'm guessing he wanted to be sure I couldn't sue them, and that was all he was concerned with. So (here is where it becomes completely my fault) I took on the attitude - fine, they don't want my money, since they won't bother to tell me where to pay it.
This was Nov of 2007... Tuesday, the sheriff delivered a civil summons to my home from a collection agency, and gave it to my son. (which again scared him to death). I immediately call the corp headquarters and I'm told since it was sent to an outside collection agency I have to call them. I do so, their response is I can set it up on payments or pay in full but it will still be entered as a judgement. I don't want this in paper and on my credit. Attached to the summons is the original application dated 12/06 (I had used them once before the year prior, with no incidence) and a copy of the check, but no copy of the actual signed contract. Finally... here are my questions:
1) Can the collection agency take me to court without having ever contacted me to attempt collections? (now it is possible that letters were mailed to my old address, as I did move last year, but I don't know that.. but my phone number remained the same).
2) How do I answer the summons? I have 20 days from when it was delivered. From some things I've read this seems to be my best answer- Defendant is without sufficient information. And possibly this as my affirmative defense - bad faith acts of omissions and/or negligence? Or am is it just a losing battle that I'll end up wasting more money on and lose anyway? After all this is over a check for $294 (now plus court costs).
Thanks for any advice you can offer.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? | 
07-25-2008, 10:46 AM
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