Professional Placement Services

This company has no respect for the individuals that they're calling. The supervisor [redacted] was very unprofessional they would not let me ask questions and their employees all have very poor attitude. This place should not be in business until they know how to conduct business.

They CONTINUE to call my place of employment which has now put me at risk for my job. Is it their goal to get me fired?

My 2013 tax refund was intercepted by PPS. For the city of Milwaukee parking tickets. When I received notification that they were intercepted I contacted professional placement services to inform them that these tickets where are ready paid in full. I was instructed to fax over my receipt showing I paid the tickets that were in collections with w cover letter with my full name and driver license #. I was then told I would receive a check for the amount that was intercepted within a few weeks. The lady even verified my mailing address. The fax # I was given was 414-220-4102. Now after over a month goes by I Dont hear from PPS nor do I ever recieve a check. I decided to contact PPS once again and I was instructed that a supervisor would be giving me a call within 48 hours. I never received a call, so I decided to call again a week later. When I called I was pretty upset and asked to speak directly to a supervisor. A lady by the name of [redacted] asked what it was regarding so I explained to her the issue at hand. She gathered all of my information and looked into my account. After being on hold for 2 minutes while she spoke with her supervisor she informed me that I needed to call the city of Milwaukee since they were just a collection agency and since they received the money they send the money to the city business owed. The next day I called the number which was 414-344-0840 and it was for parking citations. After pressing the appropriate extensions I was then sent back to PPS's line. I then spoke to a [redacted] who was a little impatient with me since I didn't know my account #. ( which I was never told nor was it on any of the interceptors documents.) After giving him my social secuirty, address and birth date he told me that they didn't have any faxes on file and when I told him I spoke with a woman named [redacted] the previous day he informed me there is no one that works there by that name. He then gave me a different fax # to send my proof of payment to 414-847-6715 which isnt on the website nor on documents.
I am so fed up with this company and their lack of knowledge of the people they are taking money from. They lack communication between them and the city of Milwaukee obviously since there wasnt an update that my debts were paid in full 2 years prior. I just want my money that is owed to me without the run around. I just had a new baby one month ago and the money is well needed. I've decided to go directly to the office Monday morning to resolve the issue. If this issue isn't resolved I will have my lawyer take over the case. I cant even imagine how many people each year get ripped off by this company. Especially people who Dont save receipts from years ago. Its a good thing I saved mine because I would just be another hard working individual being scammed by the system.

Review: They called the business I work for, saying that they were with the City of [redacted], and that I needed to tell my boss to call them back. They are most definitely not with the City of [redacted].

They never once identified as a collection agency, and when I asked what the call was in reference to, they just said "The City of [redacted]"

They never stated that they were attempting to collect a debt.

From what I know, ALL collection agencies must state who they are, and what the nature of the call is.

They were saying that they were a government agency, which was a complete and total lie.

Business

Response:

We believe Mr. [redacted] to be confused about who may be contacting him. The number provided in the complaint (###-###-####) does not tie to any account in our system. We did have an account for a Mr. [redacted] owed to the City of [redacted] that has been closed since 2013. The last phone call we ever attempted on that account was in 2009 and it was determined that the number we had at that time was a wrong number.

Review: I had my taxes intercepted from this company back in 2012. They said it was due to a County hospital bill (which I had never seen)...In spite of this, I decided to get a set up on payment plan to make good on what was owed. I was told by the representative that as long as I was honoring my monthly payments ( I went on auto-debit with them to make certain I didn't miss one payment!), there would be no future interception of my taxes. In 2014 I learned they went ahead and intercepted my taxes again. When I called to speak with someone about this, the lady whom worked my account for the past few years completely denied the fact that she told me no interception would take place as long as I did not miss any monthly payments. She even went as far as to say all calls are recorded. I said that's great, I'd like a supervisor to listen to our first, recorded call to prove that is what was said. She took down my name and number and said he would get back to me. Hours go by and no phone call so I call again and a gentleman claiming to be the [redacted] answered. He was extremely rude and unprofessional, stating there are no notes indicating I was ever told interception wouldn't happen with a payment plan in place and since the phone call occurred two years ago, the recording was no longer available (how convenient). He said the only way to avoid interception is to pay your balance in full. Again, it would have been nice if I was originally told this, WHICH I WAS NOT!!!! When I asked to be removed from auto-debit, he threatened to sue me. I asked for what reason would he do that? He said failure to pay. I advised that I never said I would not pay the balance. He continued to threaten me with suit and I explained the reason for my auto-debit removal is because I don't trust this company nor do I find it credible enough to have my bank information. He proceeded to threaten me a few more times with suit and I assured him all future payments would be mailed. He gave me the address and the call abruptly ended. I have to say, this is the most unprofessional behavior I have ever dealt with from any company. Sadly, I've always thought in the past I had a good relationship with them and the woman I worked with was easy to deal with and always cordial. I'm not sure exactly what went wrong here and why their attitudes suddenly changed towards me even though I never once stopped paying them. I simply wanted some honest answers as to why they went back on their word and reassurance it would not happen again. Instead I got attitude and repeated threats from, a [redacted], no less. This is not a way to conduct a business.Desired Settlement: I'd like more professionalism from this company. Please properly train your employees to be honest with customers and to enter all of the conversation they have with them in the notes for accurate records . I think you can avoid misunderstandings such as this one going forward. I also understand [redacted]s can be a stressful job ( I was once a collector) but to treat me like I'm some deadbeat trying to dodge my bills is uncalled for and unfair. An apology along with acknowledgement of their wrong-doings would be greatly appreciated.

Business

Response:

I have reviewed Ms. [redacted]' complaint. I have also had opportunity to review phone calls on this account. The supervisor she spoke with was correct in that we only keep recordings on file for a period of time, however, we did have these available still. We recently changed our dialer so recordings are stored differently and he didn't have access to them at the time of the call. I have been able to listen to them as I stated previously. There were two calls in question: 4/16/2012 and 4/24/2012. I listened to both calls thoroughly and there was never any mention, or promise, that if an account was set up on payment arrangements that an intercept wouldn't take place in the future. I understand she feels differently, however I went through them carefully to be sure this was not promised and it wasn't. the first call was mostly information gathering by Ms. [redacted]; verifying what we were collecting on, etc. She was surprised we had gotten anything due to other IRS funds she thought would get intercepted in front of us. She called back for the second call and asked to set up arrangements. We went ahead and set them up for her with no discussion at all about removing the account from the tax intercept program.

Review: After exhausting other options, I'm trying to get this resolved with the Revdex.com. I've sent letters to Professional Placement and have not had my issue resolved. A couple years ago I noticed 3 different things on my credit report popping up from them, the only 3 derogatory remarks on my report. I have no idea what they are for and never received any correspondence of what they are, I think they filed under the wrong person as I've lived in Arizona since early 2009. Either way, they are now a couple years old and just updated recently. I would liked these removed immediately from all 3 bureaus, it is significantly affecting my score. There are 2 for $272 and 1 for $323.Desired Settlement: Want them completely removed from my credit report.

Business

Response:

Mr. [redacted] has disputed prior debts that we believe to be his. These 3 debts are from the Jefferson County Clerk of Courts office for tickets in 2010. Living in AZ does not preclude someone from obtaining tickets in WI. However, we are in process of closing accounts for this client so I have closed these accounts. The account will remove from the credit bureau at our next update.

Consumer

Response:

I will monitor my file within the new couple months and make sure they are removed. If they aren't I'll reopen this. Thanks for taking care of it quickly.

Regards,

Review: There is an entry on my credit report from this company for a balance that is unknown to me. When I originally contacted them to have this removed I was informed that it was due to a speeding ticket issued in the state of Wisconsin. They were unwilling to provide any additional information or show me verification of the supposed validity of this debt. I have never received a speeding ticket in Wisconsin and had not even visited the state any time close to the alleged violation.Desired Settlement: I would like this entry to be removed from my credit report and no further collection attempts made.

Business

Response:

We received an account for collection for [redacted] County Clerk of Courts on 6-14-2010. We have never spoken with [redacted], and did issue a collection letter to him that he did not respond to, and also do not show a dispute on file with us or with the credit reporting agencies. At this time we can not remove from his credit report as we believe to be a valid account. Please have [redacted] contact one of our Collection Managers, [redacted] at ###-###-####, and we will be happy to provide additional information, resolve account, and upon resolution of account we will be happy to update his credit report.

Review: I had a [redacted] card that I rarely used, normally I would use it to save something like 20% then pay off right then and there at the store. I purchase something around $56.00 and forgot to pay right away. I recently moved so had the address changed (however, [redacted] has my email address that I receive their advertising every single day, they also had my phone number which they never called to inform me of the late payments). I ended up with the Professional placement services collection agency. I have called [redacted] customer service and try to resolve the issue but they said they can't do anything about it since its in the collection agency. I called the collection agency and try to resolve the issue with them. Called several times and talked to several person, they said they called me 39 times which is not true at all. I'm currently working as a real estate agent, I have my phone with me 24/7. They did not call me 1 time. I told them I take the responsibility of not paying it on time and willing to pay 2 late payments (my current balance is up to $260 and I owed them $56). I told them [redacted] and themselves need to take some responsibilities as well because they never contacted me and leave my balance like that so it keeps on increasing with late fees and interest. [redacted] refuse to talk to me, PPS told me they can reduce it a bit and would contact [redacted] to see if they can reduce more. Then they told me that [redacted] wouldn't do anything about it and I have to pay to amount they told me to pay which is about $170. I don't think this is an ethical business. PPS didn't call me to collect the money (or lied that they did), leave my balance to increase, they tell me to pay what they want me to pay. I can't contact any other person to resolve the issue, Kohls pushed off their hands and not willing to resolve the problem.

PPS did call me back today and when I was talking to them, they did not disclose their identity, did not tell me what's regarding to and ask me for my personal information such as social security number and date of birth. I refused to give to them because I didn't know who they were and they said "okay if you don't to tell us your info then we'll call back again tomorrow". I called back several times and to the number that I recognize, talked to a guy name [redacted] (their supervisor). He hung up in the middle of conversation twice and I keep on calling back to talk to him. I believe their business practice is very unethical, avoiding to resolve problems with customers and they leave their balance to increase with interest and fees. Please help me resolve this as I don't know who I can talk to now. I just feel like I'm being push around between [redacted] and PPS for their advantage. I really don't know what else to do or who else to contact since they will not give me any other person I can talk to (according to them, they can't give out internal information, really? I need to talk to someone and you said you can't give out internal information???)

Please contact me if you have any question

Thank you!Desired Settlement: I'm willing to pay pay balance + 2 months late fee.

Thank you!

Business

Response:

Ms. [redacted] admits in her narrative that she "forgot to pay right away" and that she moved. She claims that she "had her address changed and that [redacted] had her telephone number."

Review: Kept noticing caller ID showing up from ###-###-####, never left a message on my home phone answering machine...I was always at work. Took the day off, enjoying my morning, when I received a call a little after 11am from this phone number. Answered it and went to a recording looking for my ex-mother-in-law at my home phone number.

Background story: I have been divorced for over ** years, she has never lived with me at my home address or home phone number, and my ex-spouse has never lived with me at this house or at this home phone number. Yet this company is calling me?). I waited for the representative to answer, it was with "Professional Placement Services." I explained I am not my ex-mother-in-law, she has never lived at my home, she has never had this phone number and I've been divorced for over ** years...the [redacted] "lady" was rude to me for even explaining why I didn't want the company calling my house and why were they wanting my ex-mother-in-law...she said she can't give out my ex-mother-in-law's information (Note: their is an option # 3 on the company's recording at the initial call asking if you are not [redacted] and could take a message. So now she can't give me any information? Hmmm.)

Explained I'm on the do-not-call-list and she was so sarcastic, really made me mad to have some company invade my privacy on MY day off in MY home and treat me poorly over the phone. She hung up on me. My ex-spouse is a felon and dangerous, hence the reason for a divorce over a decade ago, so these representatives should be understanding as to why I would be so upset and distraught over how they have my home phone information attached to my ex-spouse's family. I do not want him to know my whereabouts or how to contact me so I'm now stressed when I should never have to be this date.

Since the first representative would not state her name when she answered the phone and hung up on me. I called the company back, spoke with a different representative, "[redacted]" (if that was her real name) said the other lady removed my phone number already? But when "[redacted]" answered the phone she asked if I was [redacted] (my ex-mother-in-law) so how could they have removed my phone number if they still have that wrong information attached to my phone number (and they have caller ID I suppose).

Still no apology from these people! I asked to speak to her supervisor, she sais his name is "[redacted]," if that is really a person, but sent me straight to his voicemail. I left my complaint, explained the same as I told the first representative who hung up on me, and no apology from either of his representatives of his company! I demanded a call back and an apology.

I'm also contacting my [redacted] State Attorney General's office today as I've had all of our phone numbers (home and cell phone numbers) on the do-not-call-list for many years and each year I continue to register our numbers for just in case our numbers are kicked off the do-not-call-list. I want something done.

This [redacted] company, "Professional Placement Services," at ###-###-#### and their representatives need to stop harassing innocent people at home who have nothing to do with anyone else's debts! That is an invasion and we as Americans, those without debts with debt collectors, should never have to deal with calls such as these or to be treated with disrespect on our own home phone. My suggestion is if this situation is similar to your's, please contact your State Attorney General's Office and the [redacted]'s State Attorney General's Office to file your complaint against this company. This and any other company like this should be sued by our State Attorney Generals' offices. Thank you for hearing my complaint.Desired Settlement: I prefer the company, Professional Placement Services LLC, in Milwaukee, WI, to never call me again, remove me entirely from their computer system. I want a sincere apology from their Collection's Supervisor...I do not want another person from this company to be rude to me or any other person and to understand when you are contacting an individual's home, an individual who has nothing to do with another person's debt like in my situation where my ex-mother-in-law of over sixteen years, do not harass the individual...when the individual complains have your collections' representative to be professional and understanding. My ex-spouse is a serious felon who served years in prison, I do not want this family to know where I live or have contact me, so understand why I 'm severely upset and stressed that my home phone number is connected to my ex-mother-in-law. I expect a hand written apology to my home within the week; that is not unreasonable. Thank you for your time.

Business

Response:

PPS received Ms. [redacted]'s number in error via standard skip tracing processes. The contact with her on 10/4/13 was our first contact. Our representative asked for the name on the account and immediately Ms. [redacted] began to state that she is not her, why are we calling, ex mother in law, etc. Our representative barely had the ability to speak, but was able to get out at the end of the 28 second call that she would remove the number. The call ended abruptly, not sure which party hung up but the call disconnected. In listening to the call I believe our rep did the best she could under the circumstances; I don't believe she was rude, but a bit frustrated as was not able to advise that we would remove her number immediately. Due to the circumstances explained in Ms. [redacted]'s complaint, we fully understand her being upset about being called. However, it was a wrong number and the representative did place a bad number flag on the number so no further calls would go to that number. (Management took a further step by adding the number to our 'never call' list so it would not be possible to make a call to that number.) When she called back in a few minutes later, the second representative did advise that the prior rep had flagged the number as bad. She then transferred the call to the collection manager's voice mail.

Review: This company harasses me daily with phone calls, and mostly all their incoming calls are handled by a robot, I have requested them to stop calling me several times and they keep saying my wife [redacted] owes some parking ticket, when she checked into this last year it was a different [redacted] or possibly someone this company made up. I pay any and all our household bills and I have never received a bill for a traffic fine or violation for [redacted], as my [redacted] ( her name not being [redacted]) rarely drives but maybe once a month and than it is only to her sisters house which is located in [redacted] or [redacted], not the city of chicago! when I did finally get somebody on the phone they stated to me they will keep calling because they are a collection agency and they are within their rights and the law is on their side. well what about when you have the wrong person? who side is the law on than? I dont need this kind of intimidation and harassment, I am ** years old and have high blood pressure. why cant they find the right [redacted] and bother the real perpetrator or is this the new trend in america? the guilty go free and you can bother me!? thank you for your time:)Desired Settlement: I would like them to STOP calling me and if they have placed a derogatory statement in our credit files that they please remove it. thank you very much for any and all assistance in this matter.

Business

Response:

Good morning,

Review: This company has been leaving messages about debt collection on my answering for several months. They never identify who they are trying to contact, who the debt is with, or how much the debt is for.Desired Settlement: I just want them to stop calling.

Business

Response:

This appears to be a wrong number as we are trying to contact another party. I will flag the number as bad right away to ensure no further calls are made to Mr. [redacted].

Review: I don't know what this business is calling me about. I do not answer the phone if I don't know the number. They ask for me only by first name. My name is very common. I don't know what these calls are regarding at all, so I will absolutely not call back.Desired Settlement: Do not call me again. The voicemails are vague and do not give me any information. I don't give out my number unless I want someone to contact me.

Business

Response:

PPS has been attempting to reach Ms. [redacted] on behalf of our client for about 3 years. Address and phone number that we have on file were received from our client, [redacted]. I have flagged the account as a cease and desist and have blocked the phone number from being called. If she has questions and/or would like to resolve her debt, she is free to contact our [redacted] at ###-###-####.Thank you,

This company keeps calling me with phone number [redacted], AT MY PLACE OF EMPLOYMENT. When I returned the call a girl asked for my social security number and when I said no she hung up. The following day I received the same call and when I called back they asked for my social and dba. I said no, they hung up. I called back was asked again when I said No DONT HANG UP. I was routed to a supervisor who said it was against the law not to give them my social. I gave her my address. She then gave me someone else's social and dba and said she was with a store I had never ever even been in. When I stated this and gave her my dba she said fine we will just keep calling you. I have verified I am not even the person they are calling for and she demanded that I had to give her my social repeatedly saying it was the law that I give it to her. When I asked for her name so I could lodge a complaint she hung up.
This company is either a fraud or is hiring fraud workers. I now have someone else's name, dba, and social #. If I had the phone number to this person I would be able to call them and let them know this company is giving out their information.
When this persons identity gets stolen at least we know who is to blame.

Review: The Professional Placement Services, LLC (PPS) took over in collecting a medical bill that I had with Aurora. I have disputed this bill for some time, I have disputed with Aurora as well as explained my dispute with The Professional Placement Services, LLC (PPS). Aurora incorrectly billed my insurance which caused it to be denied, which then when they tried to re-bill my insurance correctly they already exceeded the 3 month time limit my insurance allows for back dating insurance claim. So Yes, I have had this bill on my record for a long time. It is up until recently that I gave up my fight in disputing this bill and paid it in full. When I spoke to the lady on the phone I told her Im paying in full, I contacted them. I stated I just wanted to pay it off and have it off my report. Now, I'm being told Even though it shows paid, that they are denying my request of it being removed from my credit report. That I never asked for removal. I may not have worded myself to a "T" exactly how they must expect it to be requested, but when a person states"I just want this paid in full and removed from my credit report", how can that not be a request to have it removed?? This is unfair and I feel I have had this burden marked on my credit report long enough. I gave up disputing the bill and just paid it in full to be done with it. Now I'm being punished even further. Punished for being low income and the Aurora billing department billing my insurance incorrectly, then a complete domino effect from that point forward.Desired Settlement: For it to be removed fully from my credit report, it is a satisfied paid in full, collections account. This is not too much to ask for. My credit report has already been damaged long enough.

Business

Response:

I have reviewed the account and listened to the recording of the most recent call in question. While there was no mention, whatsoever, of removing the account from the credit bureau, and we have reporting requirements to uphold with TU/Experian/Equifax in that we cannot just delete an account from the bureau because someone pays off or asks us to, I will have this account deleted due to the dispute involved with our client. I have notified my admin staff to complete this today. Please allow a week or so for this to work through the system.If there are any further questions, please contact our collection manager, Dave Hansen, at ###-###-####, or [redacted]

Review: I have tried reaching out to Professional Placement Services, LLC on numerous occasions to no avail. Professional Placement is reporting account number [redacted] as a Paid Collection to Equifax, Experian and TransUnion on my behalf. Professional Placement has listed address [redacted] on my most recent credit reports. The letter was returned as Undeliverable by the United States Post Office. I then disputed this paid collection with the three major credit bureaus and Professional Placement verified this false information. Their verification of the accounts as a Paid Collection is a violation of the FDCPA and FCRA. Specifically, FDCPA violations; 15 USC 1692e(8) providing false information to credit reporting agencies and FCRA violations, 15 U.S.C. § 1681i duties of furnishers to provide accurate information and 15 U.S.C. § 1681s-2 - failure to provide accurate information, failure to correct reporting.

This account has been paid to Guaranty Bank and I have proof on letterhead from Guaranty Bank proving that the account have been paid in full. Collection accounts that are closed and returned to the original creditors are to be deleted from the Credit reporting agencies, as these accounts are no longer in collection. Furthermore, if the accounts were paid to the Original creditor, the collection agency cannot report this as Paid collection, as no payments were processed or paid to Professional Placement Services.

I am a reasonable consumer and this damaging information has caused me to be denied a line of credit and will prevent me from qualifying for the best interest rates as a first time home buyer. Professional Placement’s silence is unacceptable. I ask that Professional Placement remove this erroneous tradeline from my Equifax, Experian and TransUnion credit reports immediately. Thank you.Desired Settlement: I ask that Professional Placement remove this erroneous tradeline from my Equifax, Experian and TransUnion credit reports immediately. Thank you.

Business

Response:

Ms. [redacted]'s account was received in our office on January 20, 2012. She paid her account off, with our office, via two credit card payments. These payments were made to us directly, not to the bank. The account was open in our office at the time and had been reported to the credit bureau. Our requirement is to report that actual status of the account. The account is a paid collection account from Guaranty Bank. There is technically no legal reason to remove it from the credit bureaus and reporting it is not in violation of the statutes claimed. Had we closed the account because of our client requested it back it would need to be removed in the event another agency was hired to collect; you wouldn't want the same debt listed twice.

I own a business in Stockbridge Ga and we get calls several times a week from this company asking us to call. We called back and they said it was a fine from 2012 with the sanitation department with Stockbridge. We called Stockbridge, and there was no report of such a debt. I believe we would have been contacted by the city if we owed them money, and they would have sent us a few nastey-grams. When I did I told her the same thing, and asked her to stop calling us and that I did see several more complaints on this company with the Revdex.com, and she told me that "maybe you should pay your debts and we wouldn't be calling you". For a company with "professional" in their name, they are quite the opposite.

Review: On Wednesday, February 13, 2014, recieved a call from this company looking for my downstairs neighbor. When I inquired as to how they came to have my number associated with someone who does not live at this phone number, I was laughed at.

The only way they could have associated my number with the downstairs neighbor is by doing a internet search for the address, which will return my name and phone number. Because this comapny had the address for the downstairs neighbor, except for the (-A) portion, the assumption I am sure was that they had located the correct phone number even though the name was not of the person they were attempting to contact.

The downstairs neighbor does not have a land line (wired phone) thus, will not show up on any internet searches.

When I asked how they came to associate my number with the person they were attempting to laocate, I was told it was the number that was given to them. Not possible as the downstairs neighbor does not know my number or my last name for that matter.Desired Settlement: I want written full disclosure as to how they came to associate my phone number to the party they are attempting to reach as well as a written apology along with my phone number permanently removed from their database(s).

Business

Response:

The phone number in question was obtained during a routine skip tracing process, as is done in our industry, in April 2013. I can't say exactly how the vendor we obtained the number from came up with the number. Further, we don't always know that the numbers we receive are any good until we call. Once we call, if we learn it is a wrong number we are happy to remove the number from our system; it does us no good to call a number we know to be bad as it is a waste of our time and resources. I listened to the first call; the collector asked for the person we are attempting to contact. The person on the call asked how we obtained the number. The collector advised if it is the wrong number we will remove it. He pressed on how we obtained it. The collector cut off the call; this was inappropriate and will be addressed internally. Our reps have no knowledge of how the phone numbers get in front of them and wouldn't be in a position to answer that question. It appears Mr. [redacted] called back and spoke with another rep. That call was not recorded so I have no knowledge of how that call went. In either case, PPS apologized for calling the wrong number. It has been removed from the account and pools as well as entered into the 'never call' function of our dialer to ensure that if the number were ever obtained again it couldn't be dialed.

Good luck with these hacks. I called on Monday to satisfy a debt. They told me everything would be taken care of by Thursday. Today is Friday, and there hasn't even been a transfer of funds.
I have until this Tuesday to have my debt satisfied or I may be out of a job. I stated this fact quite clearly; to no avail.
Wish me luck.