Colo. Man to Go to Trial in May Over $42 Girl Scout Cookie Purchase

dmcowen674

No Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
54,894
47
91
www.alienbabeltech.com
3-7-2014

http://news.yahoo.com/colo-man-trial-may-over-42-girl-scout-213852513.html?vp=1

Colo. Man to Go to Trial in May Over $42 Girl Scout Cookie Purchase



A Colorado man's purchase of $42 of Girl Scout cookies has led to a court date and more than $700 in debt for what he says was an error by a Girl Scout troop's bank.


Tad Osborn, an IT professional in Fort Collins, Colo., bought about a dozen boxes last year from a scout from his neighborhood. He wrote a check for $42 and enjoyed the cookies with his family.

Then last summer, he received a notice from a collection agency, informing him that his check had bounced and nearly doubled his bill to $82

He called the local Girl Scout troop who directed him to an office in Denver.
"When someone called me back, they said my account was marked as closed. That was the first sign that we had a problem here, because my account was not closed," he told ABCNews.com.


He explained to the Girl Scouts that his account was not closed, even asking his bank manager to send a letter that his account had remained opened.

"Like any other business, after multiple attempts to resolve, we use a professional collection agency."

"The problem is I was never notified," Osborn said, claiming he never received a phone call, letter or knock on the door notifying the check had bounced. "Because they never contacted me, I never had the chance to set this straight."

The debt collection agency, AAA Collectors Inc., sued Osborn for $739.85, the bulk of which is $450 in attorney fees, followed by court and principal costs.

Osborn had to pay $100 to file a legal response just so the agency doesn't win a judgment by default.

Today Osborn received a notice for a trial date of May 8, and he feels he will likely need to hire an attorney. He has filed a complaint with the state attorney general's office on Monday.
 

Newbian

Lifer
Aug 24, 2008
24,777
837
126
Just another reason to not trust those damn girl scout and the crack they sell.
 

Zorba

Lifer
Oct 22, 1999
14,519
9,895
136
Colorado is very pro collections, which is why there are many large collection agencies there.
 

crashtech

Lifer
Jan 4, 2013
10,523
2,111
146
This is a good reason to either not write checks, or keep enough track of your account so that you know when one is hanging out there too long. Once a couple months passes and a check is not cashed, a potential problem can be nipped in the bud with a phone call.
 

Zaap

Diamond Member
Jun 12, 2008
7,162
424
126
I was ready to sue someone today when there were no more of the thin mints left. @@##&&!!!!

Thankfully my rage was partially sated by some lemonades.
 

PokerGuy

Lifer
Jul 2, 2005
13,650
201
101
In this day and age, where lawsuits are filed at the drop of a hat for just about any reason, I think everyone would be wise to consider legal insurance. That would be perfect for a situation like this.
 

brandonb

Diamond Member
Oct 17, 2006
3,731
2
0
I work for a collection agency.

Some places are huge scams. They charge you interest (at a rate they make up) and try to bill you for it. They put it on your credit report as a way to blackmail you into paying. Funny since they never had a contract with you.

That needs to change, and it is. There has been a lot of government legislation over the last few years which indicates what agencies can/can't do. This will be fixed if it hasn't yet. They are really cracking down practices like this. I know since I have to hear about all the policies coming down. Right now they are cracking down on calling cell phones with predictive dialers, plus if someone complaints/disputes the bill. That the agency has to follow up with it (in the past, agencies would just throw the complaint/dispute into the trash bin and ignore it) Now they have to prove someone reviewed it, followed up on it, and did something with it.
 

crashtech

Lifer
Jan 4, 2013
10,523
2,111
146
I think the guy acting like he didn't realize he bounced a check is utter BS.

Writing a bad check and then either ignoring or avoiding the consequences equals stealing.

He shouldn't have to pay that much back, but he should have to spend a few days in the slammer like the crook that he is. Maybe then he'd think twice about ripping off little girls.
 

Brovane

Diamond Member
Dec 18, 2001
5,332
1,496
136
I think the guy acting like he didn't realize he bounced a check is utter BS.

Writing a bad check and then either ignoring or avoiding the consequences equals stealing.

He shouldn't have to pay that much back, but he should have to spend a few days in the slammer like the crook that he is. Maybe then he'd think twice about ripping off little girls.

You are assuming that the guy had in-sufficient funds in this checking account. It sounds like this could simply be a bank error.
 

Jimzz

Diamond Member
Oct 23, 2012
4,399
190
106
I think the guy acting like he didn't realize he bounced a check is utter BS.

Writing a bad check and then either ignoring or avoiding the consequences equals stealing.

He shouldn't have to pay that much back, but he should have to spend a few days in the slammer like the crook that he is. Maybe then he'd think twice about ripping off little girls.


Did you even read the story?

"He explained to the Girl Scouts that his account was not closed, even asking his bank manager to send a letter that his account had remained opened."

The GS's bank said the check was bad as the account was closed. He had his bank sent a letter saying it was not. Yet now it has come to a court date.
 

waggy

No Lifer
Dec 14, 2000
68,145
10
81
You are assuming that the guy had in-sufficient funds in this checking account. It sounds like this could simply be a bank error.

could be. it should have been dropped though when the bank sent a letter saying his account was not closed.

amazing t hat it has gone this far..
 

Smoblikat

Diamond Member
Nov 19, 2011
5,184
107
106
I think the guy acting like he didn't realize he bounced a check is utter BS.

Writing a bad check and then either ignoring or avoiding the consequences equals stealing.

He shouldn't have to pay that much back, but he should have to spend a few days in the slammer like the crook that he is. Maybe then he'd think twice about ripping off little girls.

Did you even bother reading the story?
 

FerrelGeek

Diamond Member
Jan 22, 2009
4,670
271
126
mreopRVpE0SGHTXRp3scJNw.jpg
 

HumblePie

Lifer
Oct 30, 2000
14,667
440
126
I am dealing with some bullshit collection as well, but not girl scout cookies. Stupid ass social security office.

Wife, before I met her, was receiving SSI for a condition she has. She was 24 at the time, and living at home. Her parents screwed her in a sense in that they sought to get her SSI and have her listed as independent adult paying for her portion of rent and bills. They listed themselves as the payee's and basically didn't give her a nickle of the money that was being given to her account in her name. So since she had no spending case, with her parents using it all, she decided she wanted to work for some money. Her parents contacted social security and asked if it was OK for her to work and what would happen to the SSI. According to her parents, and what they signed in an affidavit, the person they contacted said if she didn't make over a certain amount, that it wouldn't affect the amount she was currently receiving. So they were given an amount and told her new employer that she was incapable of being paid more than that per week. Which they maintained that value exactly. But the place she was working at was doing some shady crap on the side. While they weren't paying her more than that, they were claiming in their IRS tax stuff they were and instead were giving the extra income they claimed to pay to my wife to one of their family members.

So the social security office got the IRS tax info that said she was paid more than what she was suppose to be making under to not change the amount she received from SSI. Since the IRS report was wrong, they claimed she was overpaid by $2000. We got that notice to our new address and instruction on how to appeal. Since she had just moved, we couldn't find all her pay stubs for that year she worked and inquired if the paystubs we could find along with her W2 for the year was enough information to show that she didn't receive in pay what was claimed by that wrong IRS report. They said that would be enough and to submit the appeal. So we did.

3 months later we get a notice saying our appeal was revoked. When we inquired about it they said that we didn't have enough paystubs and we needed all of them. I was like WTF?? You said the ones we had along with the tax forms we filed to the IRS was enough. The manager I spoke with then said that unless we had submitted all the pay stubs then the appeal would be revoked, which was completely in opposite of what we were told by the employees beneath them.

So my wife got stuck paying back that $2000. She quit her job before that decision, and notified SS on that promptly. They were going to take $75 out of her SSI every month to pay back the $2000. That went on for about 8 months until we got married. We got married, and bought a house together. Less than a week after the marriage and buying the house (which was basically the same day), we went to the social security office to update them on all the status changes. Which was a change to her address, a change to her last name, and to stop her SSI payments (since I make too much to justify that). When we did that update at the office, they told us we would receive a statement to our new address on payment options for how to continue paying back that original $2000 she owed minus back what she already payed.


Months since August (when we got married and notified social security) have passed. I receive in the mail in November something from the social security office finally. It was one messed up notification. It stated that we failed to appeal in a timely manner the last notification of another overpayment since the last overpayment. The new notice said I owe another $1500 on top of the $2000. I'm like bullshit.

So I asked what is our recourse. I was told we can ask for a consideration for a re-appeal. This is because I never got the notification they supposedly sent out in September about notifying us about another overpayment somehow. This is because they sent that one to the OLD address I found out recently instead of the new one we updated them about in August. They didn't actually put our change of address through in their system until October despite being told it in August. Even though I also did a post office forwarding, and have the proof of that, I never got that notice. So I asked if that would be ground enough to consider a re-appeal and was told originally it would be. So I filled out a bunch of paperwork. We found all her old pay stubs, and I mean all them, finally in a box and also submitted those. I was hoping to get all the overpayment bullshit clear, because it was clear to me she wasn't based off their requirements of payment levels. Of which I did look up and factor in based off the information they gave me.

Figuring all this would be cleared up, I get a notification a couple of weeks ago deny our consideration for re-appeal without any reason given in the mail. I am still fuming at this point. I called and asked what the hell was it denied for. When I finally got a manager high enough (trust me it took weeks to get one to respond to me) I was told it was because I didn't submit the paperwork stating I never received the first notice sent out in September. I cried bullshit! I have a copy of that signed paperwork, which I do, in my possession. Signed also by the employee which received that. Well for some reason that paperwork was "lost" in their system and they denied my request. So I asked them to fix it. I was told they can't once a judgement is done. I asked what my recourse is since it was clearly their mistakes that led up to this. The manager agreed the whole thing was their fault but because of the bureaucracy of the system, my only recourse right now is to sue them.

So I'm now in the process of setting up litigation against the social security office. Trust me, I know the bullshit inherit in the system when it comes to collecting money like this.
 
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Anubis

No Lifer
Aug 31, 2001
78,716
417
126
tbqhwy.com
I was ready to sue someone today when there were no more of the thin mints left. @@##&&!!!!

Thankfully my rage was partially sated by some lemonades.

i somehow got 10 boxes of shitty thin mints, ill trade you for the PB ones