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i have received no more calls from the supposed debt collector after answering and hanging up so i'm suspecting it was just a scam/fishing expedition and i'll keep an eye on my credit report and see if i get anything in the mail.
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Dec 17, 2023 23:02
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BIG FLUFFY DOG fucked around with this message at 16:46 on Dec 29, 2023 |
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Dec 29, 2023 08:07
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Repost from legal thread in A/T:quote:I got a letter/invoice in the mail from a private parking lot company with a photo of my car entering their lot and then exiting 20 minutes later, asking for $87 for not paying posted parking fees. A couple months later I received a letter from a law firm trying to collect on the debt, with instructions how to dispute the debt, else they will assume their information is correct and continue trying to collect. Everything I have found online says since it's a private business, not a government entity, it's not a parking citation or fine, it is a "breach of contract" and so like a thing for my credit report. Everything I've found in anecdotes (a bunch of stuff on reddit but no sources) says to ignore it. Like, not a single poster says they've ever had something bad happen to them not paying it. But legal thread on SA says to just pay it. I probably will call, ask for forgiveness that it was 20 minutes and the car was idling trying to figure out directions downtown, and to please just allow me to pay the normal parking rate. If they say no, I'll probably just pay the $87. At this point I'm mostly just curious how this is interpreted in the context of debt collection, if I were stubborn. Could I dispute it and could they truly validate it if I didn't sign poo poo? I currently don't see it on my credit report. Also, my credit is frozen with all 3 - is it even possible for it to get added to my credit report? Damn Bananas fucked around with this message at 16:34 on Jan 11, 2024 |
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Jan 11, 2024 16:31
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drat Bananas posted:I probably will call, ask for forgiveness that it was 20 minutes and the car was idling trying to figure out directions downtown, and to please just allow me to pay the normal parking rate. If they say no, I'll probably just pay the $87. I would probably ignore it until it was on my credit report because it's not real until then. It is correct that things like this are often unenforceable, so a judgement wouldn't be sought nor would it be reported if ignored. To not ignore I would follow standard debt validation practices with the person trying to collect, which absolutely would never include apologizing because that admits culpability. Then they send what they think is validation or the leave you alone. If they do send something you then reply (all communication via certified mail return receipt requested btw) disputing what they sent and why. Further collection activity without validation can be a FDCP violation. A security freeze on your reports limits who can access your reports to look at them to offer you credit, it doesn't stop your credit report from existing and receiving information about your reported debts, and that includes debt collectors reporting.
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Jan 11, 2024 18:04
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Thank you! I'll write a letter disputing it, and see what happens. "Dear Mr. Assbutt, I was not driving my car on that day but the person who was says they did not park in your lot. They may have passed through it while recalculating directions to your mom's house on their navigation app but the car did not park." Or maybe just the first part.
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Jan 11, 2024 19:13
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Yeah don't give them anything.
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Jan 11, 2024 20:32
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If you are planning to contest it, don't give them any information at all. Just say you have received their letter and that you require documentation to verify the debt. There is no benefit at all to saying 'well maybe my car was in your garage', make them demonstrate that. Maybe this will be enough to get them to go away, maybe they'll send you timestamped photos of the car entering/etc. You don't need to sign something to be considered liable for a fee - they would argue that by entering the lot the driver agreed to the implicit contract of the posted rates, in the same way that sitting down at a restaurant and ordering off the menu means you are then expected to pay for the food. You can argue that the driver is responsible (if you want to give them up) but they could also argue that by lending someone your car you accepted limited liability for the risks of normal use. Are you prepared to throw the driver under the bus and tell the parking company who to pursue? You could possibly give them your friend's information and have them hound that person instead, though. If not, saying someone else was driving doesn't really help. Your car was in their lot, they want to be paid. Arguments that someone else was driving or that they weren't there long enough to warrant a fee only matter if you think the parking company will be reasonable and drop it (why would they) or you are presenting them as arguments to an arbitrator (like if they sue you). The law thread is telling you to pay it because lawyers value everything against the cost of pursuing it. How much work is it going to take you to make them drop it? How much is your time worth to you? $87 is at best half an hour of a mediocre lawyer's time, which means that paying it is far more efficient then spending the time to fight it. There's nothing for you to recover here, so all the time you spend is weighed against that fee. Even if you are 100% right, if you spend ages to solve it you're coming out at a loss. At best you take five minutes to call the lawyer and see if they'll take $50 instead to settle it, and then tell your friend to pay you back (or not).
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Jan 12, 2024 15:23
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Just ignore it. Nothing is going to happen.
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Jan 12, 2024 19:52
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Ashcans posted:maybe they'll send you timestamped photos of the car entering/etc. Mentioned it in my first sentence, but they already did that in the first letter. I’m not sure what other kind of validation I’d be asking for to be honest. I’m mostly just salty because of the 20 short minutes, idling in an empty lot with people inside the vehicle who were trying to figure out where they were going. Like, people idle in front of stores to pick up a friend but if someone comes by saying hey you can’t park here, they just drive away and no money is exchange. That’s what this situation feels like, so it feels salty. I honestly personally don’t consider that “parking” either, to me parking is leaving your vehicle somewhere while you go patronize a business nearby, but I guess it is.
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Jan 13, 2024 01:18
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drat Bananas posted:Mentioned it in my first sentence, but they already did that in the first letter. I’m not sure what other kind of validation I’d be asking for to be honest. I’m mostly just salty because of the 20 short minutes, idling in an empty lot with people inside the vehicle who were trying to figure out where they were going. Like, people idle in front of stores to pick up a friend but if someone comes by saying hey you can’t park here, they just drive away and no money is exchange. That’s what this situation feels like, so it feels salty. I honestly personally don’t consider that “parking” either, to me parking is leaving your vehicle somewhere while you go patronize a business nearby, but I guess it is. It's probably an automated camera that captures entrances and exits with an ANPR and compares that to a record of payments made at the kiosk or app. They likely have a 5 minute grace period so they don't get send notices to attempted customers who pull in, find that the lot is full, and leave without paying but I have to admit, 20 minutes is a long drat time to punch an address into a smartphone map app and likely exceeded any freebie time programmed into the system.
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Jan 13, 2024 01:36
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Ham Equity posted:Washington state if it matters. I'm suing my landlord over a deposit, I've informed them I'm suing them, I've filed the suit, and I'm just waiting for a court date before I serve them. They sold my debt to a debt collector, I'm guessing I can't sue under the FDCPA? How do I go about finding an attorney for this in the state of Washington? Is the bar referral service my best bet?
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Feb 24, 2024 01:16
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Southern Cassowary posted:i have received no more calls from the supposed debt collector after answering and hanging up so i'm suspecting it was just a scam/fishing expedition and i'll keep an eye on my credit report and see if i get anything in the mail. alright got an update on this as they started texting me and the text includes searchable info the debtor is my old ISP in an apartment i lived in from 2018 to 2020. when covid hit and work went to remote i went to a place in a more rural area pretty quickly but i kept my apartment for a few months before the least ended. i dealt with the landlord's property manager as my point of contact for all of that stuff and he handled all the transition poo poo on his end remotely, but apparently he never sent the router back to the isp. internet was provided in the building by the condo association but each unit had its own router, so like, i never paid a dime and had an account as a technicality. it is insanely weird that i never got an email, phone call, or mail from the isp about this as it was happening. i called the isp and they're mentioning late payments from 2022 wrt the router and i said "no, i haven't lived in this place since 2020" and they're launching an investigation into the status of the missing router. i'm fully expecting them to come back and say router's gone, tough poo poo. the isp also gave me the contact info for the debt collector who's been contacting me and it matches the agency that's been calling me. it's a very even number (250$) so i believe it's just the lost router fee. where do i go from here? paying 250 bucks isn't the end of the world but i want to handle this in the way that screws me the least. Southern Cassowary fucked around with this message at 18:29 on Apr 10, 2024 |
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Apr 10, 2024 18:26
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new update: isp has cleared the charge after the investigation. lmfao, naturally. i got an email from them saying the charge has been cleared, but now how do I handle the debt collectors?
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Apr 11, 2024 17:06
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