Please share your experience with this debt relief company and provide your review and feedback, in the comments section below.
The goal of this page is to allow people to share information that may be important to help others to make a more informed decision regarding their experience with this debt relief company. Here are some potential questions you might be able to provide feedback about.
- How did you feel about the customer service experience you received?
- Was the company easy to communicate with before or after you became a client?
- Did the company respond to your communications promptly?
- What were the fees charged for the services you received?
- Did the company give you the terms and conditions for the program you were interested in before you gave them any personal information?
- Was the program successful for you and accomplish the goals you had when you entered the program?
- Did you have a really good experience you can share?
- Did you have a bad experience you want to share?
- Is there any other information you’d like people to know that might be considering the services of this company?
It is important to understand when reading comments below that they are the opinions of the individual posters and may not be representative of the overall impression of all consumers that may have or have not used the debt relief services of this company. But everyone does deserve to have an opportunity to express their opinion, even the debt relief company itself, be it good, bad, or indifferent.
I am a Financial Counsellor and just met with a couple who have paid this company $500 a month for 12 months and The Cortex Group has not paid one cent to their creditors. In addition, they will not provide them with a statement and will not give them any money back. This company should be avoided at all cost!!
Vortex debt group is a scam. They’re targeting Canadians and cannot help them in any way shape or form. They charge your credit card for “their services” upfront without you knowing and then pass you onto another company. I work in the debt consolidation field in Canada and we know this company. STAY AWAY from vortex debt group.
Vortex debt group is a scam. They’re targeting Canadians and cannot help them in any way shape or form. They charge your credit card for “their services” upfront without you knowing and then pass you onto another company. I work in the debt consolidation field in Canada and we know this company. STAY AWAY from vortex debt group.
I’m screwed!! Vortex debt groupe agreed to give me back my money 6 months ago!!! I’m still calling that Debbie girl and getting the same answer, we’re just waiting for your check to be processed, it takes ten business days they said. I’ve been waiting for six months. I’m a single mom making less than 12 000 a year and they took ruffly 900$$ from me. It may not be alot to most people, but we won’t have a christmas without that money!! I’m very upset! 🙁
Angieseger: I will help you. Christmas will come for you! It doesn’t matter if people don’t think that’s a lot of money; your family will have Christmas if we have anything to say about it. We don’t charge you a penny out of pocket: if we get your money back for you, we typically get a % of the refund amount. In your situation, we will make sure the refund amount provides enough for Christmas before we worry about our charge. If we can’t get your money back, we get nothing. It costs you nothing out of pocket to have us fight for you. Give it a shot. We know how to fight with these scumbags!
Consumer Mediation Services is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal services. We fight fraud with leverage and publicity. Hopefully we can disrupt their scam long enough to get your money back.
Su*****@***********************es.com
I got burned to the tune of $8900.00 by FDRS Federal debt relief system, they had all their ducks in a row, sent me info on how to act in court, sent legal president to file with the court. Once I made the final payment for their services they were gone. These bastards prey on the ignorance of hard working Americans, I think they’re operating under a different name now. As far as I’m concerned they owe me 5000, courts won’t do anything
I just got laid off from Americorp. I will not give my name because I don’t want it coming up anywhere. The way AmeriCorp and Allegro Law operated was that the retainer was anywhere between 16-18% of the debt load, payable in the first 18 months of the program. So, if a client had a debt load of $18,000, the retainer was $7,200 (at 18%) payable in amount of $416.67/month for the first 18 months. If the client opted for a 48 month program, they would pay as follows for the first 18 months:
416.67 – Retainer/Settlement Fee
400.00 – 50% of the debt divided by 48 months
59.00 – Monthly Fee
875.00
After the retainer/settlement fee is paid off, the monthly payments remain at $875, but the monies going into the trust/escrow account increases to 816.67. This might work to settle smaller accounts. When negotiating settlement we were scripted to say that we typically negotiate settlements at 45-50% of the debt load. The client usually assumes that it is 45-50% of the debt load at the time they sign up because that’s what the sales people tell them in order to sign up the client.
Aside from Allegro Law, AmeriCorp was also the processing center for debt settlement companies like Capital Debt Relief (http://www.capitaldebtrelief.net/) and Vortex Debt Group (http://vortexdebtgroup.com/) . On the debt management side of the business, we operated the processing center for ElimiDebt, Hess-Kennedy, The Achievable, and IntelliDebt among others.
Here’s the “Educating a New Client” script that we followed for debt settlement (we were expected to adhere to this script 100% and all calls WERE recorded and graded):
• Introduction Letter (Welcome Package)
o Review it thoroughly as it contains important information about your account
o Please send copies of your most recent statements to ensure that we have the correct account numbers and creditor information.
• We are working for you
o If a non-attorney private label model: advise that a Power of Attorney (POA) is needed – 1 –
o If Attorney/Law Firm Model: advise that a Letter of Representation (LOR) is needed.
§ If generated: advise that they have been sent to each creditor letting them know you are now being represented by us.
§ If not generated, advise that they will be sent upon their first payment posting to their account
• For both models advise:
o A negotiator will monitor your account and as your escrow/trust builds they will be in contact with your creditors – 2 –
o We will be calling you once a month for the first six months to see if you have any questions. – 3 –
• Settlement is an accrual process
o Time is needed to accrue sufficient funds in order to negotiate settlement and will vary depending on your monthly payment and account balances (we usually start with the smaller accounts and work our way up to show progress in the settlements)
o We cannot finalize settlement without sufficient funds in your account.
o We will notify you each time we negotiate an acceptable and affordable settlement offer. – 4 –
o Please keep in mind that we DO NOT send any monthly payments to your creditors.
• Judgments/Summons
o Are any of the accounts enrolled in the program in a Judgment status or have you received a summons to appear in court?
o It is possible that a creditor may take legal action against you. You could be notified by the receipt of a 30-day notice/validation letter from a law firm, or you may receive a summons, or arbitration paperwork.
o It is crucial that you contact us if you become aware of any legal action pending against you. There are time limits placed on your responses to these claims.
• If Non-Attorney Private Label Model advise the following:
o As part of your program we will refer you to Legal Club of America for assistance. – 5 –
• If Attorney/Law Firm Model advise the following:
o Although the law firm was not hired for litigation purposes the firm will be able to provide you with advice should one of these situations arise.
• Collection Letters and Calls
o Advise your creditors to contact us directly to confirm that you are on the program, phone _____________ – 6 –
o Do NOT share any information with your creditors or collectors
o It is imperative to send us any collection letters or legal paperwork that you receive.
• Offer monthly electronic withdrawals (if applicable)
o A convenient service at no charge
NOTES:
1. Many times, the Power of Attorney letters were only sent to creditors if a client called requesting it or if a customer service agent became aware of it while speaking to the client and set up a request for the correspondence department to send them out. It was not unusual for a client to call up after 12-18 months saying that they are canceling from the program because none of their creditors had been advised that they were being represented by us.
2. It was seldom that a negotiator monitored anyone’s account. There were only three negotiators, the negotiations team manager and an assistant to handle the thousands of accounts.
3. AmeriCorp finally started contacting clients in the first three months of the program beginning in January 2010 with their own private label, Vortex Debt Group. That did not happen with Allegro Law or Capital Debt Relief.
4. Client might have been notified by mail AFTER the settlement completed. They were not notified ahead of time and there were occasions when a client wanted an account settled, but there was no money available in the trust account because the negotiations team had negotiated on another account without advising the client.
5. Regarding Legal Club of America: They would not have anything to do with Allegro or Capital Debt Relief clients. We were told to advise the clients to seek the assistance of their family attorney or find out for the court if there was a court-appointed attorney to assist them.
6. When creditors called to settle on accounts we would ONLY transfer to the negotiations team if the offer was at 50% or less AND there was enough money in the trust account. Otherwise, we would tell them “I’m sorry we are not able to accept your offer today. Please call back in 30-90 days.”
I was a former employee of Americorp and If I knew what I was getting myself into before I got hired, I honestly dont know if I would have accepted the job. Well first of all I was recently let go from Americorp on March 30th, along with an entire new training class which only worked about two days along and also about 7 other employees that started around the same time that I did. The reason for the layoff is that we got a message from Mr. “nine lives” himself Tim Mccallan that the receiver for Allegro filed for bankruptcy which halted all processing for Allegro. This news was given to us on a Tuesday afternoon, and Wednesday morning when I went to work I was let go. The told us that they have to regroup and they had to let us go. I knew once we got the news on Tuesday I knew that was going to happen but I didn’t think that they were going to be any layoffs anytime soon. I really wasn’t upset that they let me go cause I knew it was going to happen sooner or later but what did bother me was the new hiring class that started that week were all were all let go. The looks on there faces literally bothered me. Here you have about 15 people who were probably looking for a job for months finally able to have a breath of fresh air and were let go. In this area of Brevard county there isnt many jobs available and unfortunately for this area the Americorp was decent. As far as I know there were a couple more people who were let go after me but they did keep a handful to take the little bit of calls that were coming in.
Next door on the Vortex side (Both companies are neighboors to each other) was said to let go of some of the sales people as well. My issue right now with the company is that I have accumulated vacation time which is not going to be paid to me by the company. I’ve been working there and according to the employee handbook no vacation time is going to be awarded. I don’t recall seeing this in the handbook which I am trying to get a hold of to confirm. Its not like I quit, I was laid off and they didnt give me any notice!
Basically Steve the company sold me a lie when I got hired saying that they help people get out of debt when in actuality they charge the hell out of clients in fees and a lot of times nothing gets done and the client gets sued. Dont get me wrong they settle accounts but it depends on the balance owed and how much a client can afford for a monthly payment. In this company nothing ever gets done, work gets passed on from one person to another person and falls thru the cracks until a client calls in irrate cause they received a judgement. Corresopondence is slow like molasses, and it takes days to send out paperwork and weeks for any type of negotiations to take place and settle accounts. Im upset that I had to work for such a company with no integrity, got rid of good people, didnt give any notice when they laid us off, and now wont pay my vacation time. I really thinking about taking this to a news station or something and shut them down. All I have to say is what goes around comes around and karma is a bitch.