Focus Receivables Management

It’s unsurprising that debt collection agencies have low reviews. Nobody likes debt collection agencies. It’s not as if you have a choice of which debt collection agencies you deal with. If there was a choice, I would say go elsewhere.
But this is NOT A SCAM. In my case, a company from which I buy services (Terminix) mistakenly sent my account to collections after failing to link my updated credit card information to my auto-​pay account. Terminix confirmed that Focus Receivables Management was the debt collection agency that they use.
But just because Focus Receivables Management is not a scam does not mean it is a good company — or even a professionally, well-​run debt collection agency. The first time I called them back, it went to voicemail. The second time I called, I spoke with a woman who rudely hung up on me when I did not want to give her personal identifying information. The third time I called, I spoke with someone nicer (Danielle Evans) who transferred me to the guy that originally called me (Johnny White). He informed me that they were collecting a debt from Terminix. I said that I would call Terminix. He said I could do that, but that I would still have to pay Focus Receivables Management (NOT TRUE). I reiterated that I would call Terminix, and call him back if necessary. Terminix was very helpful when I called; they acknowledged the mistake, took my payment, and cleared the whole thing up.
.

Scam ! These guys just try to get your money. Dispute this if you see it on your credit report. Challenge them at every corner.

They Don’t get a hint — I called and asked to stop being
called. Take me off the list. They call 3 – 4 times
a day. Begging me to borrow money from them .
Go away please!

One day, out of nowhere, my credit report was flagged by Focus Receivables Management for an account that was SUPPOSEDLY past due. The account in question should have existed with a cable company. I did in fact have an account with said company at some point, but when I contacted them they couldn’t find it (I was told that this is because after a number of years, fully paid accounts are deleted from their systems).
After spending HOURS talking to various departments from the cable company, and them not being able to find my account, I finally reached a supervisor who was very helpful and decided to ensure that the matter was taken care of: he put in a request to update the collection company regarding the matter. He followed up and personally called me to let me know that everything was dealt with properly.
Unable to explain how this happened, however, I suggested that they reassess their doing business with Focus Receivables Management, because it seems like something very fishy goes on there.
I also filed a BBB and a CFPB complaints. These, however, will be solved, because the Focus Receivables Management agreed to stop pursuing the issue.
Regardless, this shouldn’t have happened because the cable company didn’t even have an account in my name so it’s not clear how after five years they just decided to flag my credit report with false information. They, of course claim that the information was true and even suggested that either a) I in fact owed the company money or b) I was a victim of identity theft. However, options c) and d) exist as well: c) the cable company or Focus Receivables Management made a mistake, somehow, somewhere or d) Focus Receivables Management fabricated the overdue account and/​or its balance.
Unfortunately, the matter, as far as I’m concerned, is now resolved, and so the BBB and CFPB complaints will be considered as such. I did suggest to the cable company that they look into the issue further because this shouldn’t have happened to begin with and if they’re doing business with such a potentially shady company, they owe it to their customers, past, present and future, that they not go through what I had to go through.

Scam, Scam, Scam.
Avoid this company at all costs. This company tries to get money from bogus accounts. This company puts false collection accounts on your credit report. This is unacceptable that this is allowed and legal for company’s like these to use tacts to scare and scam people in to paying. I called and was told it was an account from 2010. I tried to explaine to the rep. i did not have an account with said company. I stated to the rep. please show proof of such debt.
I will gladly pay off with the original creditor. The rep proceeded to say I would have to live in the underground cause I would not be able to find a job or leave my house. To thIs I have not heard back from this company with proof I owe them.

So … this has to be my 2^nd or 3^rd time with identity theft happening to me. A while back some moron from Minnesota tried to use my bank information to buy things online at Best Buy … didn’t mess up my account too bad as the bank caught it quick.
Today … ahhh Mondays …
I received nonstop calls from these people today on my cell phone. Non effing stop. Really irritating. Ive had this happen before with another bogus collection agency, and it’s happening again.
Here begins my ‘letter’ to FRM:
Dear sir/​madam;
I’d like to start off first by saying that when I answered the call the 5^th time you called me today, you asked for someone named ‘Marco’. I stated that I was indeed NOT ‘Marco’ (obviously). You then asked me for my name, which I refused to give you. You asked for the number on which I was calling from. I also refused that information. You as a supposed ‘Collection Agency’ should already have my information up on your screen when your ass calls me. YOU called me remember.
After putting me on hold for maybe 5 minutes, you come back with this ridiculous notion that I owe Directv $ 500. Let me just say that I pay for my step-​moms satellite service in Florida, and I have not missed one payment. Ever. I relay that to your representative who started muttering that I needed to pay them because my account was delinquent. And if I refused to pay that I would lose my job and home. And suggested that I hide, because people would be looking for me. And that this will ruin my credit score. I don’t know if that’s viewed as a threat or not … But, let’s see you do your worst if that’s even possible.
I asked for proof of said delinquent balance. Representative stated that he was unable to do that because they are a separate company. No shizzle Sherlock. I, as I’m sure everyone else, deal with Directv personally through their on toll free number or through the chat box on their web page. Which by the way, I was chatting with a representative from Directv though said chat box while on the call. Turns out that being a valued customer of 5 years, my account is spotless. Spotless. The Directv representative said that they do not use this company for collections.
I dutifully hung up on you FRM. I wasted 7 minutes of my time … It’s funny though. As soon as I hung up on you. I received a call from (800) 816‑2305. They tried to offer me a $ 100 rebate voucher to Walmart if I paid $ 1.99 for shipping. And then was directed to call (800) 897‑8296 (which is YOUR COMPANY) for additional offers.
This company is a fraud and bogus. Do not let them bully you into paying them!!! It will never go to whatever company they claim to be collecting for. Do your homework. You as a consumer have that right. Unilocal these companies, google them! Also report the calls here:
… and place your number on the do not call list here:
…

I just got a new cell phone and a new number (and I know I don’t owe anything to anyone) so I knew something was off. They have left numerous messages and so I finally rang them and told them they had better take my number off their list. The guy (who claimed his name was Christopher Pendergass) said he had taken it off. When I then told him that if i receive anymore phone calls from them I’ll definitely take more serious actions against the company, he became rude. I hung up and 2 minutes later, I got another phone call on my cell from the company (only with a slightly different number). I called them again and the rep. («Regina Ethan) I spoke with, said she’d take it off but that it was in a computer and wouldn’t stop immediately. We’ll see, but this company is seriously off!

They have been calling my number – asking to speak to some «John Randall” – several times every day for months, each time from a different number, so I have no way of blocking them. I’ve told them they have the wrong number and have asked to be removed from their calling list over a half dozen times, each time the caller assures me that I’ll never hear from them again. Crossing my fingers they’ll go out of business soon.

Called me everyday for several months. I did not respond since I know I do not owe anyone any money. Finally I called them back. They confirmed they have the wrong number. If you get a call from them, PLEASE call back and waste their time a little. Bunch of morons.

I was looking at my credit report and found there is an attempt to collect a debt from me, I never got a call, email or any letter from them about a debt, if I hadn’t look at my credit report when will I find out? Shocking. The case was open not long ago and said it was from a XX cable company. I haven’t had service with them in over 5 years and I also called that XX cable company and they have no record of me or anything I owe for that matter. I don’t know where this company gets the debt information from but I don’t owe anything.

I have services with Comcast. When I switched from regular to business Internet, Comcast was supposed to send me a box to return their equipment. They sent the box, and I delivered their equipment IN PERSON. Next thing I know, I’m getting phone calls from this jack wagon outfit «focus recievables» because they purchased a NONEXISTENT debt from Comcast in my name for about $ 300. Comcast claims their system «automatically» did it and that there’s nothing they can do about it. Hey jerks? I’M NOT PAYING YOU BECAUSE YOU MADE A DUMB DECISION TO BUY DEBTS THAT NEVER EXISTED FROM COMCAST. Get over it. Your calls are blocked, morons.

Wow. I really wish I would have seen these before dealing with them. I had a collections with them for DirectTv in February 2014. I handled the collection by calling them in May 2014. Its May 2015 and it still shows an open account on my credit! WTF.

I am really glad that I came to Unilocal to read about this company. I received a call to my WORK PLACE from them. I was FURIOUS. The lady was very rude and I told her not to call this number again and if they wanted to speak to me to call me on my personal line. She interrupted me various times and was extremely and unfavorably rude the entire time.
I did some digging and found out that it was a debt to Directv. They were offering me a $ 200 settlement. Because of some recent issues with scamming and the fact I no longer trust anyone I decided to do some research. I am so happy that Unilocal was here. I read that some people have paid the offers in full yet the company never paid the original company that the debt was with. That is SCARY!!! I will not be paying this company a dime. I will call Directv and try to make a payment arrangement over the phone with them rather than go through this company.
I hope this review helps others from falling into this same trap. PHEW! Mahalo to all for sharing there experiences.

This company is horrible. I saw that they held a debt with my old cable company that I had forgotten from a couple years back. They never tried to contact me about it. I found it on my credit report. I called them and asked for them to mail me a statement showing what I owed and I would gladly pay it. They tried to get me to pay over the phone but I declined and said I would pay it by check once they sent me a statement. They agreed to do so and never did. Its been about 4 months and nothing. I decided to pay the bill off through the cable company directly instead.
They also have a ton of complaints on the BBB site.

These people are SCAMMERS. They called my home up to ten times a day saying we owed money to creditors — we didn’t. After MONTHS of this, we filed a complaint with
and received a reply from the company within two weeks providing a direct line to a HUMAN who said she would take me off their list immediately. I told them what they are doing is WRONG and that if anything showed up on my or my husband’s credit report because of them, I would take legal action. Hopefully this will take care of it!

go here and file a complaint if they call you… they replied within 24hrs and offered to remove my information. They asked me to call them or email them… NO DICE… just reply via the CFPA and give them your phone number they were calling and if they continue to call keep disputing… do not click «resolved» until they respond you’ve been removed from their system.

SCAM
I couldn’t rate any less than one, but would have if given the option. This company called me and left voice mails with no information besides that I apparently owed money on a debt they were collecting. Yeah, I’m 20 years old and the only debt I’ve built up is in Student loans that are not collectable while I’m still in school. SCAM! I was concerned that someone may have stolen my identity so I tried calling back to fish up some information, but only got an answering machine that said, «you’re call cannot be processed right now, try again later. Goodbye.» and the line hung up. While only two minutes later I got another cryptic voice mail from them.
I don’t know if what they’re doing is illegal, but next phone call I get, I’m giving them a piece of my mind and none of my money.

My credit protection company Lexington Law Firm alerted me that this company was trying to report a bad debt on my credit report. I had never heard of or from them before and have no bad debts to collect on so of course I was concerned. Through the law firm I challenged them and the bogus debt report was removed from my credit report. Had I not employed a credit protection firm I would not have known about this for how long? Geez.

False collections being reported on credit report. This company has posted a collection on my credit report that is not real. When I called to inquire about it, they started pressing for secure information. The first things they asked for was my social and they keep pressing. They want to know my social, date of birth, martial status, address, etc… Yet, they could not validate who they were. Also, there was no professionalism during the entire conversation. Be warned! This company is crooked. Don’t give them no information. They’ll say that they need it to find your account but don’t give it too them. You’ll be better off taking this fight to the credit bureaus.

If it looks like a scam, walks like a scam, and quacks like a scam, it’s usually a scam.
Strangely, this amateurish collection agency actually seems to not be a scam!
They robo-​called me and woke me up. I was pretty sure that I didn’t owe anyone anything, but I thought I would call them back just to be sure. The first guy I talked to was only interested in some hopeless attempt to control the tone of the conversation, apparently uninterested in actually collecting anything from me. I had to shout him down while he dared to lecture me about not using profanity. Seriously? It’s a fucking collections call! Of course I am going to fucking swear at you, you miserable shit.
At one point I pressed him: «So, you don’t want any money from me?» And he actually answered: «No, we don’t.» Obviously at this point I hung up, since our business was clearly concluded, and I became even more suspicious that it was a scam.
Collection agencies are notoriously stupid, so I figured I should at least give them a second chance, and I called back again. This time, the guy I talked to was even dumber, but more useful to me, at least. When I insisted that I was not going to disclose or even confirm any personal details, he claimed «We can’t scam you just from you telling us something over the phone», apparently laughably unaware of the entire phenomenon of identity theft. He also said twice that Focus were interested in «offering» me «services».
No, seriously. «Let me just check and see what services we were calling to offer you.» Offering me services? Are you fucking joking? This almost had me convinced it was telemarketing! I was already pulling up the 1088G!
After a couple of minutes of listening, mostly silently, to his stuttering, incompetent attempts to get me to disclose information, he eventually became desperate and mentioned the name of a business with whom I do have an account. Obviously I just hung up and went to pay that business directly. Apparently my attempts to set up electronic billing and automatic payment had failed two or three months ago — oof! I let them know that they’d hired a bumbling, amateurish collection agency that I had nearly written off as fraudsters.
If you’re thinking of hiring Focus? Don’t. You want a collection agency with at least some credibility. You want one that people will actually pay, so you can get your money. Focus seems to be a bunch of kids playing office, unable to decide whether they’re a telemarketing scam or just an ineffective debt collector.