Asset Recovery Group Inc

Asset Recovery Group, Inc. (ARG) received this placement from The Oregon Clinic on October 9, 2014 and sent the required validation notice in compliance with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.  That letter was sent to the address provided by the creditor on [redacted].  We received...

an address correction to NW Cornell and resent that validation to the consumers at that address.  No further forwarded is documented.  The first verbal contact ARG had was on October 24, 2014 at which time we spoke to Ms. [redacted] discussed the account. She stated she could not pay in full the balance but was willing to set up a payment arrangement on our auto pay program. Upon a file update, a six-month pay off was offered of $174.75 per month. Ms. [redacted] stated she would need to review with her husband to confirm and would call back. She requested a call back on Monday, October 27, 2014 if she had not been back in contact by then.
 
ARG telephoned four times between October 27, 2014 and November 17, 2014 in attempt to reach Mr. and Ms. [redacted] to resolve the balance. We received no return calls or voicemails.  The account was approved for litigation and a small claims lawsuit was filed. Mr. and Ms. [redacted] were served with small claims papers on May 12, 2015 with a subsequent mailing done May 13, 2015.   Ms. [redacted] contacted our office by telephone on May 12, 2015 after being served papers. She wanted to make a payment arrangement. An arrangement was made for a down payment of $322.00 to be paid on or before May 22, 2015 with monthly payments of $225.00 thereafter. Ms. [redacted] stated she would be setting this arrangement up to come out of her bill pay at her bank.
 
Mr. [redacted] contacted our office by telephone on May 12, 2015 stating they have been making monthly payments of $45.00 for approximately 18 months and has proof of these payments. We confirmed no payments have been received by ARG. Mr. [redacted] stated he believed he had been paying Accent. We advised him Accent is a different company from ARG and would have been paying on active accounts still with the hospital.
 
The [redacted] did not file an answer or request mediation of the amount that the action had been filed for and a default judgment was entered on June 16, 2015.  A wage garnishment was prepared and issued on August 13, 2015 and served upon Ms. [redacted] place of employment on September 2, 2015.  The employer remitted withholdings for the statutory duration of the garnishment until notified of her status change effective November 2, 2015.   
 
ARG received a voicemail from Ms. [redacted] on September 18, 2015. That call was returned by a representative of ARG and a voicemail was left that to date has not had a response.
 
Despite partial payment arrangements both prior and subsequent to the small claims action, the only payments ever received in this matter were as a result of the wage garnishment.   We remain amenable to a mutually agreeable payment plan.

I would like to make initially small good faith payments until my wife begins working again, which we hope is in February. Once she begins working we can increase payments to get this taken care of.
Revdex.com:I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. Sincerely, [redacted]

[redacted] Please See Attached Documents [redacted]
Revdex.comPO Box 1000DuPont, WA 98327Response to complaint of [redacted]Our office, Asset Recovery Group, Inc. (ARG) has had four individual balances placed with our office for collection between the dates of April 22, 2013 and January 15,...

2015. Immediately upon each placement ARG sent a validation letter giving Mr. and Ms. [redacted] the opportunity to dispute the validity of the debt in a period of 30-days from the date of the letter. Each letter was addressed to the same address listed to Ms. [redacted] within this complaint. ARG did not receive a mail return, nor did we receive any disputes verbally or in writing from any of the four noticesThe first verbal contact with the [redacted]s was May 13,2013. We telephoned and spoke with Mr. [redacted] and he indicated he was working with a case worker because he was confused with all the various medical bills as a result of his surgery. He said he could work it out with the case worker and would call us back on Friday.On May 16, 2013 ARG telephoned and spoke to Ms. [redacted]. We advised her of the balances in our office and offered a payment arrangement. She told us she would advise Mr. [redacted] and let him decide and would have him call us back one he’s made a decision on what to do with their balances.ARG telephoned four additional times in the ensuing months in an attempt to reach Mr. and Ms. [redacted] with no response to our voicemails.ARG telephoned and spoke with Mr. [redacted] April 13, 2015. We notified him of the balances in our office and he requested we send him bills and indicated after he received them he would call our office back. (This is when a second validation notice was sent on each of the four bills)Between the dates of April 23, 2015 and June 15, 2015 ARG unsuccessfully attempted to reach Mr. and Ms.  [redacted] by phone. At this point the account deemed uncollectable and was referred to another department for review of our options.The account was approved for litigation and a small claims lawsuit was filed. Mr. and Ms. [redacted] were served with legal documents November 3, 2015 and a secondary copy was mailed November 4, 2015. Ms. [redacted] contacted our office by phone November 13, 2015 and asked what it would take to resolve the balance. We told her as the papers served to her explained, the balance in full must be paid in order to dismiss the case. Ms. [redacted] provided a credit card to pay the balance listed on the claim served to her.ARG made every reasonable attempt to resolve the balance pre-litigation including over 20 phone calls and 9 letters with little to no response to any of our efforts. This was not the first time the [redacted]s were advised of their outstanding debt.ARG will be dismissing the case against the [redacted]s December 18, 2015 providing ample time for the payment transaction to clear.