Academy Collection Agency, Philadelphia, PA

Academy Collection Agency, Philadelphia, PA

After receiving a letter from them I called and set up a payment arrangement which I would pay over the phone with my visa/debit bank card when it was do. Each month I would get a call from someone different requesting payment and I would have to set up a new arrangement with a new person. I finally started asking what happened to the person I set up the previous arrangement with and was told they are no longer with the agency. So, every time they called I had to do this.

My last payment arrangement was set up with a check by phone payment. When I did this I specifically asked do they hold your banking information on file and I was told no, that after the payment was processed your information is deleted from their system I did this because I had a feeling this was going to be a problem. Needless to say that the next month I received another phone call but it was actually the same person I previously spoke with. I was asked if I was going to make this months payment and I told the woman that I was unable to make it and that I would make it at another time due to my husband being out of work. The woman said that was okay and she would call me the following month.

I received a notice from my bank that I had numerous bounced checks and bank fees totaling $650.00. I was shocked. I went over the bounced checks and could not understand how this happened. I went on-line and checked my account and notice a check that I did not remember writing. I can view a check on-line and when I viewed this check it was written to Academy Collection Agency with a made up check number. This was done by them. I was speechless.

I called Academy and spoke with the woman that I had previously spoke with and told her what had happened. She said she didn't understand how this could have happened and put me on hold to check my file. She came back and said yes it was a mistake and should not have been taken out of your account. I asked how this was done when she had previously told me that bank account information was not kept on file. She then stated that visa/debit card information is not kept but checking account information is. They neglected to tell me that bit of information.

I asked her how they will rectify this since taking the money out of my account also caused my bounced checks and fees and was put on hold again. After leaving me on hold forever she came back said they won't give me back the money they took "mistakenly" because I owed them the money. I asked to speak with a manager. I was then transferred to the manager who I explained the entire scenario to and also made sure he knew that his agent admitted to this mistake. After I explained this his response was "I think you are lying". That was it, nothing else. He then told me he was not giving my money back and the bank fees were my problem. I told him I would be filing a complaint.

I filed a complaint with my bank and my bank did deposit the amount that Academy took out. After some discussions with various people in my bank they also refunded me the bank fees.

Yvette