Snow & Sauerteig, LLP

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 5, 2016/08/01) */ We received payment on 6/29/and reported payment in full to TransUnion on 7/14/pursuant to our reporting schedule of 1X per monthWe cannot control when TransUnion updates their recordsOn this date we also manually updated the file in case TransUnion still has not processed our July report as an added courtesy to complaining partyWe have no further information or documentation that we can provide to complaining party or to TransUnion Initial Consumer Rebuttal / [redacted] (2000, 7, 2016/08/02) */ (The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.) followed up as asked and sounds as Snow & Suerteig's did as they should have

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 6, 2015/09/23) */ This will confirm receipt of your letter of September 10, concerning the above-referenced matter With regard to the consumer's complaint, I will attempt to respond as best I can as his complaint is somewhat unclearThe circumstances of this account were as followsFollowing services rendered by Lutheran Hospital, a statement for said services was sent to the patientThereafter, the patient sent a check with certain conditions on the reverse, which were not noted with the provider's electronic processing of the checkThe patient tried to set a payment plan on his own terms and also included a condition about any credit bureau entries being removed Our office received this account on November 24, 2014, a demand was sent on December 16, and no response was received from Mr [redacted] It is customary in our demand letter to a debtor that we state if do not hear from the debtor within forty-five (45) days from the date of the letter, a credit bureau entry will be posted concerning the accountOur paperless file reflects that a direct payment made to the Hospital (as described above) was reported to our office on May 1, and accordingly our office reported the account as paid in full to the credit bureau on May 19, The provider did not agree to accept the terms as set out on the reverse of the check by Mr [redacted] On August 3, 2015, Mr [redacted] sent a dispute to Transunion indicating that he has a copy of a check sent to the provider, and that on the reverse of the check there was a written condition that all derogatory information submitted to the credit bureau will be removedWe were unaware of this information when we received the account from the provider and still not advised when we were notified by the provider of the direct payment made on this accountAs soon as we were made aware of the dispute with Transunion on August 21, 2015, we requested that the account be deleted by Transunion, and a copy of the report confirming the account was deleted is attached hereto I believe I have responded to everything in Mr [redacted] 's complaint and be advised we weren't aware of the written terms and conditions on the reverse of the check until we received a copy of that check with the report of dispute from Transunion upon our inquiry on August 21, I would note that Mr [redacted] contacted our office on August 27, where he advises that he would be filing a complaint with you by September 1, if the credit bureau post was not deleted by TransunionHis communication was in the form of an email and as referenced, we had requested the account be deleted from the credit bureau on August 21, 2015, six (6) days prior to his email I hope I have answered your questions satisfactorily Initial Consumer Rebuttal / [redacted] (2000, 9, 2015/09/28) */ (The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2018/01/22) */
We have two accounts placed with us for collection against consumer.He sent us a dispute letter on 12/7/for both accountsValidation of the *** account was sent to him on 12/8/to the address on his dispute which was
*** OH XXXXXValidation of the *** account was sent to him on 12/14/to that same addressTransunion, the only credit reporting agency we report to, was notified of both disputes on 12/19/Prior to his letters of dispute he never responded to any of our collection efforts
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2018/01/22) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
There was no validation, letter, or anything sent to the addressThey are in violation of the fair credit reporting actThere was no validation to provide a signature of where they provided proof that the debt belongs to meTherefore the debts need to be removed from all three reporting agencies and the account needs to be closed and no more collection proceedings
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2018/01/24) */
Please let this letter serve as a response to the consumer's recent rebuttal regarding the complaint filed by *** ***, CASE XXXXXXXX
In response to the consumer's recent rebuttal, we would advise of the following:
Our office received a dispute letter on December 7, for both accounts and a validation of those accounts was sent the next day to the address referenced on consumer's dispute in Milford, OhioOur office promptly notified TransUnion on December 19, that the consumer is disputing the accounts that were credit postedThe credit posts were effected because a demand letter was originally to the consumer on September 3, to his Milford, Ohio address and that letter advised the consumer that there would be a credit post days from the date of the letter if the consumer did not contact our officeThe consumer did not contact our office and the letter sent to the consumer was not returned undeliveredThe consumer also complains that there is no signature providing proof that the debt is owed by the consumer and we would note that the one claim was for an ambulance ride and the second claim was for hospital servicesThe consumer reported his date of birth and SSN of xxx-xx-upon his admission to the hospital and we have not heard from the consumer that this information is not accurateIf the consumer has evidence that the services provided and the SSN provided at the time of admission to not accurately identify him, then we would welcome this information as that would require us to advise the provider of potential identity theft questions
Please advise if I can be of further assistance

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/08/01) */
We received payment on 6/29/2016 and reported payment in full to TransUnion on 7/14/2016 pursuant to our normal reporting schedule of 1X per month. We cannot control when TransUnion updates their records. On this date we also manually updated...

the file in case TransUnion still has not processed our July report as an added courtesy to complaining party. We have no further information or documentation that we can provide to complaining party or to TransUnion.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (2000, 7, 2016/08/02) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
followed up as asked and sounds as Snow & Suerteig's did as they should have.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 6, 2015/09/23) */

This will confirm receipt of your letter of September 10, 2015 concerning the above-referenced matter.
With regard to the consumer's complaint, I will attempt to respond as best I can as his complaint is somewhat unclear. The circumstances...

of this account were as follows. Following services rendered by Lutheran Hospital, a statement for said services was sent to the patient. Thereafter, the patient sent a check with certain conditions on the reverse, which were not noted with the provider's electronic processing of the check. The patient tried to set a payment plan on his own terms and also included a condition about any credit bureau entries being removed.
Our office received this account on November 24, 2014, a demand was sent on December 16, 2014 and no response was received from Mr. [redacted]. It is customary in our demand letter to a debtor that we state if do not hear from the debtor within forty-five (45) days from the date of the letter, a credit bureau entry will be posted concerning the account. Our paperless file reflects that a direct payment made to the Hospital (as described above) was reported to our office on May 1, 2015 and accordingly our office reported the account as paid in full to the credit bureau on May 19, 2015. The provider did not agree to accept the terms as set out on the reverse of the check by Mr. [redacted]. On August 3, 2015, Mr. [redacted] sent a dispute to Transunion indicating that he has a copy of a check sent to the provider, and that on the reverse of the check there was a written condition that all derogatory information submitted to the credit bureau will be removed. We were unaware of this information when we received the account from the provider and still not advised when we were notified by the provider of the direct payment made on this account. As soon as we were made aware of the dispute with Transunion on August 21, 2015, we requested that the account be deleted by Transunion, and a copy of the report confirming the account was deleted is attached hereto.
I believe I have responded to everything in Mr. [redacted]'s complaint and be advised we weren't aware of the written terms and conditions on the reverse of the check until we received a copy of that check with the report of dispute from Transunion upon our inquiry on August 21, 2015. I would note that Mr. [redacted] contacted our office on August 27, 2015 where he advises that he would be filing a complaint with you by September 1, 2015 if the credit bureau post was not deleted by Transunion. His communication was in the form of an email and as referenced, we had requested the account be deleted from the credit bureau on August 21, 2015, six (6) days prior to his email.
I hope I have answered your questions satisfactorily.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (2000, 9, 2015/09/28) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2017/06/23) */
Re: Cause # [redacted] Dear Ms. [redacted]
Thank you for your letter dated June 12, 2017 concerning the above referenced matter. This is the second time Ms. [redacted] has made a similar complaint concerning our collection activity...

and I will be happy to respond to your office's inquiry as well.
When an account was turned to our office for collection against Ms. [redacted], by Porter Regional Hospital, we sent a standard FDCA compliant letter advising Ms. [redacted] that we were representing a creditor for a specific claim. We also advise a debtor that our office will report an unresolved claim to credit reporting agencies.
Thereafter, Ms. [redacted] asked for validation of the debt and we promptly responded to her and provided her with a statement that the provider had given us.
The statement does contain a generalization of services and charges, but our office receives no medical records, only a billing statement. Further, as we have advised Ms. [redacted], our office obtains a Business Associate Agreement, which is required under HIPPA, which allows us to receive some protected health information in order to collect a provider's debt. We have advised Ms. [redacted] that the fact that the provider had sent our office, as a debt collector, a billing statement, is not a HIPPA violation, when there is a Business Associate Agreement in effect.
Ms. [redacted] has disputed the claim and we have advised the credit reporting agency that she has disputed the claim.
The credit reporting agencies do not allow us to remove the post on Ms. [redacted]'s credit report unless it was mistakenly or inaccurately reported. We have updated her credit report to show that she has disputed the debt, but we are not able to remove it just because she has requested it and filed a complaint with your office. Ms. [redacted] has not disputed that she received appropriate medical care, nor has she disputed the charges by the provider. A credit post that is supplemented as disputed should not affect her credit.

I hope this information is helpful to you and please let me know if I could be of further assistance.
Very truly yours,

Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 11, 2017/07/10) */
I filed a complaint to have this account removed from my credit report it was removed and then placed back on a couple days later
I disputed this account it was removed and placed back on a few days later I want this account permanently removed off my credit report
Permanent deletion off credit report
Final Business Response /* (4000, 17, 2017/07/24) */
Please let this letter serve as a response to the complaint filed by [redacted] Powell ([redacted]).
The consumer’s rebuttal of July 10, 2017 does not add any new information to her original complaint. It is also important to note that some of her comments are factually inaccurate. We recognize a complaint was filed to have her account removed from her credit report but we are only able to show the account as “disputed” on her credit report and it can only be removed if it was originally placed by mistake. We have not placed the account back on her credit report subsequently, but only continue to show it as “disputed”. The disputed account was never removed but only the account status change from the original report of a claim being made to subsequently being reported as disputed. Note that the consumer is not suggesting that she does not owe the balance but only dislikes the manner in which communications were handled.
I hope this information is helpful to you.
It is our position that our communications with Ms. [redacted] do not constitute violations of the FDCPA or HIPAA.
Please advise if I can be of further assistance.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2017/07/26) */
Please let this letter serve as a response to the complaint filed by [redacted] Case#XXXXXXXX
Snow & Sauerteig LLP is a law firm that has a specialty in medical collections. We are NOT a debt buyer. Our clients assign accounts to our...

office as a secondary placement agency. Our office strictly adheres to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and Fair Credit Reporting Act and ensures that our written and telephonic correspondence complies with all provisions of these regulations. A history of the consumer's account with our office is set out below.
Our office received an account from St. Joseph Hospital on September 4, 2013 and on 9/11/2013 provided a standard, FDCPA-compliant notice and demand to the patient. In our letter we advised that if there is no dispute or communication within 45 days that the account will be credit reported. On 9/16/2013, we received an email from the consumer stating that she was disputing the debt because St. Joseph Hospital staff advised that she didn't owe anything.
We sent consumer our standard dispute letter validating the debt on 9/23/2013.
Subsequently, consumer telephoned our office on 10/14/2013 asking for settlement of the account for [redacted] because that it was "the other place" had offered. We advised we would settle the [redacted] account for [redacted] Consumer advised she would mail [redacted] payment, await a receipt and then mail the remaining payment in full.
Since consumer called to make payment arrangements, we took the account out of disputed status which then allowed the account to be credit reported, which was initially reported on 12/10/2013, and each month thereafter as per our standard policy, which complies with the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
Consumer failed to mail the [redacted] payment as promised, so we attempted to contact her by telephone on 1/21/14 and were advised we had reached a wrong number. We sent a letter on 1/22/14 requesting that the consumer contact us or make payment as promised. We received a letter on 2/17/14 from consumer advising that she believed it was unethical for the hospital to sell her debt while she was making payments and said she contests balance. Since we had already sent validation of debt and since consumer admitted to making payments on debt, we deemed this a valid account. We sent consumer a pre-suit letter on 11/12/2014 advising that the account may be litigated if not paid. Consumer telephoned our office on 11/14/14 and was hostile and advising she believed it was illegal for us to buy a debt she was making payments on and said we hadn't contacted her 2 years. We advised that that we had in fact been in routine contact with her (as set out above) and she hung up after advising she didn't want to deal with our office and was going to make payment directly to hospital. Our staff said that would be fine as the hospital would report any direct payments to our office since they had placed the account with us.
On 11/24/14, consumer mailed a [redacted] check to our office, which was promptly posted. She included a letter with the payment setting out her same complaints delivered in her phone call. Consumer also wrote the hospital advising that she would pay in full in Jan 2015. We hadn't received any payments in our office or any reported payments from the hospital, so we sent consumer a late payment letter on 3/5/15.
The only activity on this account since that time had been the monthly credit reporting update through 6/1/16. Pursuant to our policy, this account was moved to closed/inactive status on 6/6/2016.
We hadn't had any contact with consumer until 7/11/17 when consumer telephoned our office because she was buying a house and wanted the account removed from her credit report and reasserted her complaints. Our staff advised we would update account to a "paid in full" status on her credit report if she was able to make payment. She advised that it wasn't worth it and would maybe try again in 6 months.
We received the Revdex.com complaint on July 21, 2017 and noted in our system. Consumer offered to settle for [redacted] to have this deleted from her credit report. We have consumer's account noted to report to credit bureau as "disputed" in light of her filing her complaint with your office.
Pursuant to office policy and regulations with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, we can only delete an account from a consumer's credit report if it was placed on the report in error. We deem this a valid account and therefore are not required to delete it from consumer's credit report.
Upon payment of the remaining [redacted] due on this account, we will update the credit report to a "paid in full" status.
All of this information is included in our office's computerized record of this account.
Please advise if I can be of further assistance.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2017/07/26) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I have counted several fallacies in their rebuttal, along with incorrect dates in their timeline. I am not willing to get into a he said-she said debate with charlatans. Nor should I have to! The most egregious,and the most recent, lie is the one stating that if I paid the remaining $100, they would credit the account. The person who I spoke with blatantly told me that even if I paid the account in full, they would NOT update the account on my credit report and would allow it to remain there for many more years. The woman I spoke to, named Holly, was quite smug and hostile in telling me the debt would remain "forever" even if I paid it off. I do not accept their response as they are untruthful and unethical. With that being said, I am working in other avenues to resolve this issue and am still disputing the amount on the account as it was in the process of being paid off, but I will not be dealing with Snow & Sauertig at all. From what I can see, their company is full of hostile and rude employees who are willing to deceive, threaten, spin the truth, and flat out lie.
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 11, 2017/08/01) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
There was no resolution in this second document, therefor, there is nothing to accept. They did not resolve to do anything but tell me I didn't understand that law and that their staff is never hostile.
They have not attempted to resolve anything, but to continue in their falsehoods, which as I stated before, I am not interested in pursuing any communications with them.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2017/08/01) */
See attached

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/09/14) */
Thank for your correspondence of September 3, 2015 and inquiry regarding the above-referenced matter and I am glad that you recognize that there are two (2) sides to every story.
The facts concerning this account, as referenced in our...

paperless file in our database, indicate that an account was received on 10/30/2012. Our office had made various attempts to contact Ms. [redacted] by correspondence and telephone and we did receive a telephone call from Ms. [redacted] on 02/26/2015. Ms. [redacted] asked us to verify the accounts that we had in our office allegedly owed by her and she then requested an appointment to talk to someone about these accounts. Approximately one-half (1/2) hour later, she came to our office and made a lump-sum settlement offer for an amount less than the total amount owing for three (3) accounts. Shortly thereafter, and in an effort to obtain basic credit information so that her proposal could be evaluated, a credit bureau report was obtained. We subsequently contacted Ms. [redacted] and advised her that her proposal was acceptable if paid the following day.
The file notes then indicate that Ms. [redacted] called and was upset that we pulled her credit report since it was not authorized by her. We explained to her that evaluating a debtor's settlement proposal by reviewing a credit report is customary, especially to verify assets and liabilities. Thereafter, Ms. [redacted] was unhappy with the explanation and said that she was not going to honor the settlement proposal that she had made and asked if we would accept $10.00 payments per month. We then contacted Ms. [redacted] and explained that our office is authorized to run credit bureau reports on accounts and Ms. [redacted] requested a settlement of fifty (50%) percent of the amounts due and then decided that she would not be able to fund a settlement in full and then indicated that she would pay $25.00 per month toward the balances.
She contacted us on 08/20/2015 asking our office to delete the credit report entry and if we did do, she would pay one (1) of the three (3) accounts that we were collecting. We advised her that we were unable to do that but would be happy to report a zero balance if she paid an account in full. There are rules as required by the Fair Credit Reporting Act
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/09/15) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I have never made any credit agreements with this company ever. I did enter the office in February 2015 to settle some other accounts there(Which have been paid in full). These accounts are from 2012 and in all those years no one has ever pulled my credit report! Now that I entered the office one time to pay some items I had in collection they have decided to routinely check my credit. This was never authorized and I never authorized them to check my credit to assess payment options and needless to say this office never accepts offers per the person in debt. This letter indicates they pulled my credit to better serve me. I have not received any services from them besides a headache. Not once has this office called not have I ever received any thing in writing regarding my debts. Now 3 years later after I reached out to them, they decide they need to check my credit to bring my score down for their own humor. If they are checking my report to " assess" assets and etc, why wasn't I notified and why haven't no reasonable resolution been offered to me? No one has called the only way I found out they ran my report was through credit Karma. I would appreciate if they stay off my credit report as to they aren't authorized and they aren't doing anything to help resolve the debt when they do! As stated this bill has been with this office since 2012, it is now 2015 and NEVER have they pulled my report 2012, 2013, 2014 ; never have they had my authorization to pull my reports, never have I had a credit agreement in any monthly payment amount, and NEVER have I heard of a company just pulling your credit report at their leisure just for their own personal. This company is shady!
Final Business Response /* (4000, 10, 2015/09/30) */
n summary, we acted within our legal rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act in pulling her credit report without her permission, and did so initially to determine if she was eligible for a settlement offer. Based on that information, we did get authorization from our clients to offer Ms. [redacted] a substantial discount to settle her claims placed with our office. She accepted the discount and paid off 2 accounts, but did not take advantage of that offer on her other accounts, nor honor her payment arrangement. Hopefully this further explanation allows you to close your claim as resolved. Thank you.
Dear Ms. [redacted]
Thank for your correspondence dated September 16, 2015 and we would provide the following response.
I will try to provide some additional clarification to our prior response and hope that this explains why the subject accounts were credit reported. Once again, I would like to clarify for Ms. [redacted] that it is not necessary for us to receive her authorization to pull a credit report if done in the attempt to collect a debt. This seems to be a point of contention for her and again I would repeat, the Fair Credit Reporting Act does not require that we receive Ms. [redacted]'s permission before we make a credit inquiry.
Further,. we had received accounts from various providers and on October 26, 2011, December 15, 2015 and November 8, 2012 correspondence was sent to Ms. [redacted] at her last known address with the information that we were collecting a debt and the opportunity for her to dispute the debt and ask for validation of the debt, There was also information provided indicating that if no reply was received, we would credit report this account 45 days from the date of the letter. No information or contact was received from Ms. [redacted] thereafter.
On May 23, 2013, we attempted to reach Ms, [redacted] by telephone unsuccessfully. We did not have any employment information on the account information forwarded from our clients,
Finally, on February 26, 2015, Ms. [redacted] called to see what accounts were placed with our office and she came in the office later that day. She was offered a settlement proposal and Ms. [redacted] did pay in full on 2 accounts. On that same day in response to our very generous settlement proposal (nearly 50%), Ms. [redacted] asked for a better rate. In order for us to extend a request for such a large discount to our client, we check credit reports to see if there is employment information or the basic credit-worthiness of the debtor and 1 believe this is the point of Ms. [redacted]'s contention,

She was unhappy that we pulled the credit report and advised that she was going to pay $10.00 per month instead of pursuing a settlement where there would be payment in full of a lesser amount than what was owing,
We didn't pull another credit report until August 20, 2015, when Ms. [redacted] contacted our office to complain about our previous credit inquiry.
In summary, we notified Ms. [redacted] in our original, mitten communications to her that we would credit report if we didn't hear any response from her and no response was received. That credit positing was the reason she contacted our office some 3 years later with a general inquiry.
I hope this provides an explanation for Ms. [redacted]'s additional questions and concerns,

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/09/14) */
Thank for your correspondence of September 4, 2015 and we appreciate the opportunity to respond.
Our office did have an account for Mr. [redacted]s, Forwarder File No. 254465 and she has reported accurately concerning the payments that she has...

made. With regard to a $50.00 payment, Check No. [redacted] posted on 01/10/2014, this payment was made but was unfortunately posted to our Forwarder File No. 254465-8.
As Ms. [redacted]s' complaint alleges, it is not our office policy to send correspondence when a claim is paid in full. However with regard to her statement that we kept posting checks once we knew an account was paid, is not accurate. As I mentioned, the reason we did not realize that her account was paid in full is due to the fact that the last payment was posted to an account number very similar to Mr. [redacted]s' account number.
This correspondence will confirm that Ms. [redacted]s' account is paid in full and we are providing her with a copy of this letter and a refund check in the amount of $65.77 representing the principal amount of $50.00 plus refunded interest of $15.77.
I would also extend an apology to her if she perceived our staffs comments as sarcastic, although knowing that the payment was posted to an account number similar to Ms. [redacted]s', I hope she would not perceive our staffs comment in such a light.
I hope this satisfactorily resolves this matter and thank you for bringing it to our attention.
Snow & Sauerteig LLP
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/09/22) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I don't agree with their letter to me. It stated that my 1/14 payment was accidently credited to a different account - which I agree but they also stated that my 8/15 payment was also credited to a different account which is a lie. I was told on the phone that they received the August 2015 payment. I accept the refund check but I ask that this complaint stay on your website so other people that have dealings with these folks will be aaware. I am satisfied and will consider this case closed and thank you for your help.