Household HSBC Watch

Thu May 12, 2005 7:21 pm      

In 1998 I attempted to purchase a Yamaha RoyalStar motorcycle but didn't have sufficient credit to do so. My father agreed to allow me to use his social security number to open an account under his name with Retail Services, then known as HRSI, to allow me to purchase the bike. My father figured he owed me since he wasn't around for my childhood. My life has been a nightmare ever since.

About one year into the purchase of the motorcycle, I sent a payment on time but it didn't post to the account until more than 2 weeks later. After repeatedly calling and trying to straighten the error out, they stated I was late with the payment and that was that. Thereafter, they assessed one of their infamous late fees and increased the Annual Percentage Rate to 24.99%, and it has remained so ever since.
Through the years, this has happened many times with regard to my payment not being posted in a timely manner.

After sending timely payments, Retail Services people would call my house, harrassing and threatening all kinds of actions against me, either very early in the morning or very late at night (before 7:00 a.m. & past 9:00 p.m.). They would also call me at my place of employment harrassing me and causing stress between myself and my employer, who didn't appreciate the calls. I would request that they not call me at work but they ignored my pleas and would do so often.

In early March 2005 I became unemployed and fell behind on the account; certainly my fault. I recently became employed again and called them to work things out and catch up the payments. I spoke to a female representative who identified herself as Ms. Black at Retail Services and who indicated to me that they would not be willing to accept the payments I was behind due to the fact that they had recently spoke with my father and found out it was his social security number I had used and signed his name to the contract. My father is 87 years old and all he was trying to establish was that they needed to deal directly with me for payment.

Ms. Black (Yea, Right) explained to me that if I didn't pay the total amount due on the account within 1 week time they would arrest me for fraud. I went round and round with her explaining in vain that my father had authorized me to use his social and sign his name; a no brainer, since I'm a junior and we have the same name. Ms. Black then transferred my call to a man who identified himself as Mr. Weiss, Legal Counsel for Retail Services. I told Mr. Weiss that I didn't have the kind of money they required for me to payoff the account so that they wouldn't arrest me. Well, I went round and round with Mr. Weiss, with him constantly threatening to have me arrested for fraud. After some time, I finally told Mr. Weiss that I was going to speak with an attorney and no longer wished to speak with him. He then changed his tune and told me that wouldn't be necessary and that he would make me an "Offer In Compromise" and lower the total they would accept by $3000 to $4000 dollars to pay the account in full. That was last week.

This week I called Retail Services and received Ms. Black again on the other end. I told her I had the amount that Mr. Weiss had told me they would accept as an "Offer In Compromise". Ms. Black then went on to tell me that Mr. Weiss didn't have the authority to make that type of an offer. I then asked her, "Why wouldn't he, if he is a representing attorney for Retail Services?". She then told me he was not an attorney and I told her he most certainly would be if he identified himself as "Legal Counsel" and I told her I wasn't going to split hairs over whether he was or wasn't. The conversation ended with me on the losing end again and Ms. Black indicating I would be arrested within 72 hours if I didn't come up with the full amount of the account balance.

I finally had had enough and my wife decided to contact an attorney friend of hers. The attorney indicated that as long as my father authorized me to use his social, sign his name, and not be willing to press charges I could not be arrested for fraud. When I called Retail Services to inform Ms. Black that they could not arrest me, she went off like a shot...totally bullistic...screaming and yelling at me saying I was a liar...of course I told her that was like the pot calling the kettle black...funny pun, huh! All of a sudden the tables were turned and they were on the freaky end of this deal.

The problem here is that, I believe Retail Services' actions can be deemed as an act of EXTORTION. Retail Services lied about being able to arrest me for fraud, to frighten me into coming up with "X" amount of dollars to pay off the account, which is probably all interest at this point anyway, and then renegged on THEIR "Offer In Compromise" deal. If this isn't a kind of "Extortion" what is? They repeatedly threatened to arrest me for fraud leaving myself and my wife in a very stressful situation to borrow money from relatives, which we really didn't want to do and will have a difficult time paying back, and now they won't take the money.

They have told me that I now have 24 hours to pay the account in full or they will take actions against my father and myself to the full extent of the law. My whole theory on this is that, once we get into court and the judge sees the letter I'm sending them via certified return receipt, offering to pay the amount of the "Offer In Compromise" they made me, I do believe there's a chance the judge will side with me and may even put the judgement at a lesser amount then what they requested in their "Offer In Compromise" and order them to pay the court costs and my attorney's fees. So tomorrow morning, once again, I am going to give Retail Services one more shot at the "Offer In Compromise" amount they originally made me. Hopefully, they will accept THEIR OFFER and not cause my father extensive stress. My father has a weak heart and I hope these people don't cause him to become more ill, or worse, have a heart attack. We'll see.