Merchants and Professional Bureau Inc.

Our client, [redacted], has assigned two accounts owed by Ms. [redacted]. The first was assigned on December 20, 2011 and the second on February 4, 2013. We mailed our required first notice, informing her of her rights, for both accounts one day after they were assigned. Our letters were...

not returned by the Post Office as undeliverable and we did not receive a response from Ms. [redacted] on either account. We mailed several more letters with the same non results on both accounts.   On January 3, 2017, we received a letter of dispute from her on account #[redacted] and on January 4, 2017 we received a letter of dispute from her on account #[redacted]. We mailed proper validation on January 26, 2017, on both accounts. We reported both accounts to the national credit repositories as disputed accounts.   On January 23, 2017, we responded through the EOscar system to her dispute filed with Equifax.   On March 27, 2017, we received notification that Ms. [redacted] had filed a complaint against us with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). In that complaint, she stated we had “talked to a third party about my debt—3rd party has personal information regarding my health such as procedures and exams performed by my Healthcare providers. According to HIPPA this is a violation.”  We responded to the CFPB that we did not disclose any information about Ms. [redacted]’s accounts to a third party. We explained we have never spoken with anyone, a third party or Ms. [redacted], about her accounts. We stated we mailed validation of the accounts to her address only, as required by law, after receiving her dispute letters.   On April 7, 2017, we received a second dispute letter from Ms. [redacted] regarding all her accounts. We mailed her a copy of the first validation response on May 2, 2017.   On April 12, 2017, we responded through the EOscar system to her dispute filed with TransUnion on account # [redacted]   On April 13, 2017, we responded through the EOscar system to her dispute filed with Equifax on both of these accounts.   Even though both of our previous validation letters have been mailed to the same address she shows on the Revdex.com complaint, we will re-mail the paperwork to her once again.    If Ms. [redacted] would like to contact me directly, I can be reached at ###-###-####, Monday-Friday, 7:45 to 4:30 CST. I will assist her any way I can to resolve this issue.   Regards, [redacted] Chief Operating Officer

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: This is not my debt! I've never applied for, never signed for, and have never received any jewelry from Merchant & Professional nor anyone they represent it. Please provide the name of this mysterious clients with your next response so that I may dispute and file a complaint against them for this fraudulent account? 
Regards,
[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: We haven't received anything by mail. We just moved into this house on 7/1/15 and constantly check the mailbox because we are awaiting several responses from agencies such as yourself. Although I doubt this would be required by law, as a courtesy I would very much like to get a copy of the envelope that showed it was returned. We appreciate the quick response via Revdex.com. Thank you.  
Regards,
[redacted]

Merchants and Professional Bureau, Inc., dba Merchants and Professional Collection Bureau, Inc., is a third party debt collection company. Our clients assign their past due bills to our office to aid them in the collection of monies due them for services they rendered. Therefore, no, Ms....

[redacted] does not have a contract with our company and no, we did not render services to her. But, our client, [redacted] did provide services to Ms. [redacted] in May of 2013. They assigned this account to our office on January 6, 2014 because the balance on Ms. [redacted] account of $78.00 had never been paid. We mailed the first required notification on January 7, 2014 to the same address Ms. [redacted] shows on this Revdex.com complaint. Among other things, it also notified her of her right to dispute the debt. We did not get a response from Ms. [redacted]. Over the next two month period, we mailed her three more letters and did not receive a response. On May, 15, 2017, we responded to an inquiry from Equifax through the EOscar system confirming the accuracy of the data we had reported. On August 2, 2017, we again responded to an inquiry from Equifax through the EOscar system confirming the accuracy of the data we had reported. We have never received a written or verbal dispute of the debt directly from Ms. [redacted]. After receiving this Revdex.com complaint, we contacted our client for complete validation of the debt. Our client provided the required documents today. We will put our client’s validation in the mail to Ms. [redacted]. We have marked the account as a “disputed” collection account and it is being reported as such.   Tell us why here...

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.
Regards,
[redacted]

This account was assigned to us for collection on September 29, 2014. MPB received Ms. [redacted]’s letter disputing the debt on December 27, 2016. We mailed complete and proper validation as required by law on January 13, 2017. In our response we answered her questions as follows:   Who is the...

original creditor---we supplied an itemized statement from our client, [redacted] , showing their account number of [redacted]. What the original amount owed was and the payment history---the itemized statement showed the charge by our client was $144.00 and indicated the payment history of $0.00 received. Document she signed agreeing to pay someone---our client provided the admittance/financial responsibility form which had her signature.What was the original date of delinquency---the itemized statement showed procedure date of 6/2/2014.Agreement that grants authority to collect or proof of acquisition by assignment---we did not provide a copy of our client service agreement. This is not a requirement by law when validating a debt. What did you pay for this account---Our letter stated “MPB does not purchase debts. Our client has assigned the above reference account to us for the purpose of collecting on the outstanding balance due them.”   As required by law, we notified all three credit reporting repositories that the account was in dispute on our monthly update to them on January 7, 2017.   At this time, however, because of Ms. [redacted]’s continued dispute of this debt we have cancelled and returned the account back to our client. As stated earlier, the debt still belongs to our client and we have no control over how the account will be handled in the future.   We have notified all three credit repositories to delete our reporting of the account from Ms. [redacted]’s file. Tell us why here...

As I stated in our response, we were notified by the Post Office that the address we had was not a valid address. I also stated we attempted to make contact by phone but no one ever answered the phone. We are not allowed to leave a message because of the nature of the call.   If Mr. [redacted] would like to resolve this and have it removed from the credit file, he can contact our office to make payment or pay on our website ([redacted]).   Regards, [redacted] Chief Operating Officer Tell us why here...

Complaint: [redacted] The address you have is absolutely wrong. If your business checks either the USPS or google maps that would tell you right away that its not a valid address. My address is [redacted] and not "[redacted]", I had to deal with unnecessary trauma of bad credit remarks on my report and waste my time calling multiple people because of a mistake either by you or your client. Your agency should have at least tried to call me and I hope you might have my right telephone number. What is the best course of action?     
Regards,
[redacted]

The two accounts Ms. [redacted] referenced in her complaint was assigned to us by our client, [redacted].  The first account was assigned on April 10, 2013 and we mailed the required first notification letter on April 11, 2013. The second account was assigned on November 19, 2015...

and we mailed the first required notification letter on November 20, 2015.  As required by law, our first notification letter states the person’s rights and the required “Mini-Miranda”. Several more letters were mailed on each account. All letters included the required “Mini-Miranda”. None of the numerous letters we mailed were returned by the Post Office as undeliverable. Ms. [redacted] did not respond to any of our letters.   We did try several times to reach Ms. [redacted] by phone but we were unsuccessful in making contact.   On May 22, 2017, we received a dispute letter from Ms. [redacted] dated May 16, 2017, requesting validation of the two accounts.   On June 15, 2017, we mailed complete and proper validation to Ms. Shepard on both accounts. This correspondence also included the “Mini-Miranda” on our cover letter.   The law requires us to state the “Mini-Miranda” when we speak with a person over the phone or in person. It also requires us to state the “Mini-Miranda” on all letters sent to the person. All our letters are printed with the Mini-Miranda. We have only communicated with Ms. [redacted] by mail.   Merchants and Professional Bureau, Inc. does not purchase debt. Ownership of all accounts remains with the original provider of services.   We have not violated any laws.   Regards, [redacted] Chief Operating Officer Tell us why here...