Business violating the Telephone Protection Act

[daveringstaff]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Pennsylvania

I read the only other thread I could find about this which did not provide much help to the posted. I am hoping this will be different, please bear with me.

Since November I have received 8 phone calls from a company called "Student Debt Relief Group". Each call I informed them that I was on the national DO NOT CALL list and to please take me off of their call list and not call again.

On the 7th call, which was in April, I specifically asked them to mail me a copy of their "no call" policy which I have not received. I also filled a complaint with the FTC about the harassment.

They called me against yesterday and I have had it. So, I printed out my call logs from my NON BUSINESS CELL PHONE and hi-lited every call. So far there are 8 calls. I have the business name, address, telephone numbers, business ID number, and also the name of the "agent of service" which I assume is either an owner of the business or someone higher up the chain.

Next, I installed a phone call recording app on my phone and I called the company back. I informed them that the call was being recorded and I asked again for their "no call" policy information to be e-mailed to me.

According to the Telephone Protection Act: "In general, people who have received telemarketing calls, unsolicited faxes, prerecorded calls, or autodialed calls to cellphones, may bring suit (in your local state court, including in small claims court) against the person making those calls if they violate the TCPA. The statute provides statutory damages, generally from $500 to $1500 for each violation, which are paid to the consumer."

On each call, initially it is a pre-recorded message and then you get connected to a live person.

Right now, I have 8 calls on my call logs and 2 complaints with the FTC all documented and saved on my computer. I haven't begun to count the number of violations but it seems to be worth my time to file a suit in my local small claims court.

One last bit of information, the company is trying to help me reduce my student debt. However, I have not had student debt for over 5 years. I did not give them my number, I did not do business with them. Even if they got my number legally, I have asked them to remove me from their call list which they did not do.

I'm just looking for some guidance from anyone with experience with this sort of suit.

 

[FlyingRon]

First off, you'd do better when talking to these people if you actually sound like you know the law. There is no such thing as the Telephone Protection Act, it is the Telephone Consumer Protecxtion Act.

Document all the things you've done, which you appear to have done. If you can identify this actual entity, you can sue them under the act, as you note, in state court. You can potentially use small claims. Of course perfecting that judgement may be a bit difficult on a foreign (i.e., not based in PA) corporation.

 

[daveringstaff]

First off, you'd do better when talking to these people if you actually sound like you know the law. There is no such thing as the Telephone Protection Act, it is the Telephone Consumer Protecxtion Act.

Document all the things you've done, which you appear to have done. If you can identify this actual entity, you can sue them under the act, as you note, in state court. You can potentially use small claims. Of course perfecting that judgement may be a bit difficult on a foreign (i.e., not based in PA) corporation.

I noticed the mistake right after I posted but do not know how to change the title.

Can you go into a little more detail about foreign corporations? This one is located in California.

 

[FlyingRon]

Well you can go to court and win a judgement (possibly by default) but then what. How are you going to collect it. You'll need to file a certified copy of your judgement with the California courts and then if they contest it you'll have to appear there again to defend it. Might be easier to just sue them in California, but that's not going to be cheap for you as well.