Congrats, Gulfstream
Nice job!!
I, too, just prevailed over Capital One and I wanted to take a minute to thank you for your assistance and to tell the rest of the forum what I learned and how I managed to beat them.
This debt is no longer owned by Cap One. It was purchased several times over the past 3 years, most recently by a Miami firm. What they try to do is intimidate you and get you to settle, but I pushed back. The amount of the suit was in the neighborhood of $4500. Plaintiff argued that since they had a written contract, the SOL in Virginia was five years. I requested documentation. They sent a mountain of forms and records. I read everything. In doing so, I realized that most of what they sent was superfluous to the case. What I noticed was that what they sent me was not meant to enlighten but rather to conceal. What they didn't send was anything resembling a written contract. I opened this account in 1998 from a mail solicitation. In it, they provided something they called a "Guaranteed Acceptance Certificate," which I signed. On its face, it referred to "the terms on the reverse." In my mind, this document could not be complete, unless we had access to the reverse side of it. I made that point in my second hearing and the judge ordered them to produce it. What I got in the mail was a three page "Customer Agreement." I read it and realized this could not possibly be the reverse side of the aforementioned Certificate as that was only about a half page in size and if they condensed all these terms onto it, it would not be readable. Then, I noticed the clincher: on the last line, it read copyright 2002. They had attempted to represent their 2002 customer as the one that would have been applicable to my opening the account in 1998. This cut and paste job was not well-received. Case dismissed.
The lesson I learned in all of this was, if you are going to defend yourself, you must be diligent. The plaintiffs in my case alledged repeatedly that they had a signed contract. I made them prove it and they couldn't. Who knows why they didn't simply photocopy both sides of the Certificate. But, it either didn't comply with the law (which is my guess) or they continually overlooked it. In any event, I won; they lost. Victory is sweet.
Nice job!!
I, too, just prevailed over Capital One and I wanted to take a minute to thank you for your assistance and to tell the rest of the forum what I learned and how I managed to beat them.
This debt is no longer owned by Cap One. It was purchased several times over the past 3 years, most recently by a Miami firm. What they try to do is intimidate you and get you to settle, but I pushed back. The amount of the suit was in the neighborhood of $4500. Plaintiff argued that since they had a written contract, the SOL in Virginia was five years. I requested documentation. They sent a mountain of forms and records. I read everything. In doing so, I realized that most of what they sent was superfluous to the case. What I noticed was that what they sent me was not meant to enlighten but rather to conceal. What they didn't send was anything resembling a written contract. I opened this account in 1998 from a mail solicitation. In it, they provided something they called a "Guaranteed Acceptance Certificate," which I signed. On its face, it referred to "the terms on the reverse." In my mind, this document could not be complete, unless we had access to the reverse side of it. I made that point in my second hearing and the judge ordered them to produce it. What I got in the mail was a three page "Customer Agreement." I read it and realized this could not possibly be the reverse side of the aforementioned Certificate as that was only about a half page in size and if they condensed all these terms onto it, it would not be readable. Then, I noticed the clincher: on the last line, it read copyright 2002. They had attempted to represent their 2002 customer as the one that would have been applicable to my opening the account in 1998. This cut and paste job was not well-received. Case dismissed.
The lesson I learned in all of this was, if you are going to defend yourself, you must be diligent. The plaintiffs in my case alledged repeatedly that they had a signed contract. I made them prove it and they couldn't. Who knows why they didn't simply photocopy both sides of the Certificate. But, it either didn't comply with the law (which is my guess) or they continually overlooked it. In any event, I won; they lost. Victory is sweet.