Consumer Advantage Group
Complaint 171317 Details

This agency did not follow through on correspondence with my creditors. They took their fees, took additional fees for the agency that "handled" my transactions, and then had "personnel issues" that caused me to have to go to court over 2 of my creditors and refused to refund my fees. They did not do anything they promised. They advised me to ignore correspondences with my creditors because they would "handle it", but then they did the same. They ignored correspondences with me and did not contact my creditors until it was too late. STAY AWAY FROM THEM AND CARE ONE!!! THEY ARE CROOKS!!!!!!!!
I have documented emails telling me that this agency had "personnel issues" and did not contact my creditor until too late. The creditor said with only 2 days to the court date they would not negotiate. I did not provide this creditor with any additional credit information, in fact, they would not even speak to me because of my relationship with Consumer Advantage Group. This company knows that people don't have much money, yet they insist on working with another "clearing company" that charges $5-10 per transaction for taking the money from my checking account to sending out payments and then CAG takes their fees off the top. This company did NOTHING to prevent my court proceeding with the creditor, even when I sent them court information 2 weeks prior to even being served with any papers from the court. I was doing what they told me to do and they did not do what their contract said they would do. "Our" Client Service Agreement stated some things CAG was supposed to do as well as my portion. Here are the sections they did not comply with, which is why I want a refund:
Best Efforts: Provider agrees to use its best professional efforts, time, and resources to work with the Client in order to negotiate a DSP beneficial to Client and administer the DSP until all identified accounts are settled or the Agreement is otherwise cancelled or terminated.

Creditor Contact: Provider agrees to contact each of the identified creditors and advise of Client's desire to settle their debt. Provider will communicate with Client's creditors upon request and make every effort to secure creditors cooperation with the DSP.
CAG did not do their job so CAG did not earn any of my money. CAG took $3,474.24 from my checking account, settled NOTHING, and when my "trust account" was returned I received $981.24 (which was $10 less than the balance in my account because SAS - the clearing company that CAG uses charged a fee to process the closure of the account). This is not good business practice! I want at least a portion of my fees back as stated in their correspondences for the large bank loan accounts (total of $12,580.72) that was taken out of the program after the initial fees were established and the fees calculated for working with the other creditor mentioned above (total of $2,591), for which both accounts they did NOTHING and actually damaged any possible future settlements options with these creditors. Additionally, when I spoke to CAG's representative regarding the judgment payments for GE Money Bank coming from my "trust" account and the fact that with the additional fees being deducted there would actually be a negative affect on my current "trust" account and possible future settlements I was ignored or told it will all work out. This is my life. CAG is continuing to ignore my requests, just like they ignored my creditors. I should not have to pay for them to just ignore people. I could have done that myself. Now 18 months (of my full 36 month agreement) after starting the program with CAG I have lost over $2,000 dollars to CAG and SAS "fees", I have two judgments against me, and I still have no settlement agreements. THIS IS NOT GOOD BUSINESS PRACTICE!