“Dear Steve,
I too, like many others, feel as if I’ve been taken advantage of by GHS Solutions & was wondering if you could provide me with feedback in regard to the relevance of my complaint.
In October of 2009, I had signed a contract with Global Client Solutions, GHS Solutions & Rocky Mountain Bank & Trust. Since that time, they have routinely extracted a total of $9,630.80 from my personal checking account which has gone towards set-up fees, retainer fees & monthly fees, while a significantly smaller portion had been set aside so that it could be utilized for the purposes of actual debt settlement ($2,483.08). As I understood it, their fees would be collected prior to contacting any of my creditors so this, in & of itself, is not the issue.
Because I hadn’t accumulated enough of funds for GHS to contact any of my creditors in order to negotiate a settlement, I had been sued by a collection agency/law firm in the interim. I had contacted GHS to inform them of the suit on 2/8/11. After forwarding to them the litigation documents that they had requested, I contacted them again on 2/10/11 to ensure receipt in its entirety & to inquire about how I was to proceed. I was told that since this had now become a legal matter, that they had assigned an Arbitrator to my case & that she would be contacting me shortly. Over a week had passed & I had heard nothing. As a result of several calls (& emails) placed into GHS, I was finally patched through to Jada, my Arbitrator, who was unapologetic about her avoidance of me but had assured me that she would contact the collection agency/law firm to begin the negotiation process immediately, having been in possession of the documents & funds necessary to proceed. I contacted her on 2/25/11 & again on 3/1/11 to receive a status but had not heard back from her until 3/3/11, at which time she had informed me that she required additional documents from me (my university transcripts of all things) which I promptly accommodated her with.
To synopsize: GHS is in possession of $9,630.80 of my funds & has yet to begin the negotiation process with the party that has issued suit against me. Despite the fact that it’s now approaching 1 month since they have been notified of said suit, what I found most infuriating is Jada’s negligence in this matter. That said, I started scouring the internet for information in regard to any complaints that had been issued against GHS in reference to their practices & procedures & stumbled upon more than I had bargained for.
When I had initially signed a contract with GHS, I was technically a Florida resident but had notified them that by week’s end, I had intended on relocating to New Jersey. While my contract bears my Florida address, all correspondences after the initial one had come to my New Jersey address (since I had known where I was moving to, I had notified them of where they could reach me). In reading forum after forum, I’ve come to understand that it’s illegal for GHS to be doing business with me, seeing as how New Jersey strictly prohibits for profit debt settlement firms from entering into agreements with & negotiating on behalf of New Jersey residents, such as myself.
Long story even longer, this is my question: I would love nothing more than to have GHS refund my money in full but understand that because I had signed a contract with them which states that if I cancel my account with them, they are entitled to keep any fees that they had collected up until the time of cancellation, that they may not honor my request. But… because I feel as if they’ve breached their portion of the contract that we had entered into by not providing me with the service they had agreed to, in addition to unlawfully doing business with an individual entity in New Jersey, do you feel as if I have the right to request that our contract become null & void on the basis of it being (at least) misleading & (at most) illegal & ask that they refund my money (at least in part)?
Any feedback you could provide me with would be helpful & I’m so incredibly grateful for your assistance in advance!
Lauren”
Dear Lauren,
I was a bit surprised that when you notified them you were being sued they did not jump on it faster. I suspect that nothing has been done about this and I’m worried your court date may have already passed. If so, you may have already lost by default and a future judgment may be issued and even a wage garnishment.
I’m not quite sure if the arbitrator was to arbitrate with you or the creditor. It seems like the person you mentioned was giving you are hard time as you tried to negotiate for some action.
I would suggest you follow two courses of action.
- Follow the refund process if you wish to terminate services and get money back.
- You might want to contact the following attorney that recently filed a class action case against some of the players in your situation. They might be interested in what you have to share.
Joseph M. Pinto, Esquire,
Polino and Pinto, P.C.,
720 East Main Street,
Moorestown, NJ 08057;
phone 856-727-1777;
fax 856-727-1546;
email jfpolinoatprodigydotnet
Please post your responses and follow-up messages to me on this in the comments section below.
You are not alone. I'm here to help. There is no need to suffer in silence. We can get through this. Tomorrow can be better than today. Don't give up.
Do you have a question you'd like to ask me for free? Go ahead and click here.
- Plastic Pandemic: US Credit Card Debt Surges Nearly 20% in Q1 2021! - May 12, 2023
- The IRS Resumes Collections Notices: What You Need to Know Before It’s Too Late - May 12, 2023
- How Can I Deal With Payday Loan Debt? - May 12, 2023
I am completely disgusted with GHS.
They lure you in with promises and then fail to deliver. I
followed their instructions to the letter and got nowhere. I
received a subpoena for court after they failed to communicate with
one of my creditors and upon calling, I was told the legal department
would respond and handle the response to the court for me. I
was very skeptical as they had not taken care of their job to that
point so I called on day 15 of the 20 I had to reply to the court and
low and behold; nothing had happened. I then took swift action as I
was scared to death and negotiated a settlement of 40% on my own and
within 5 days I was paid off on my major creditor. After
negotiating my own settlement for one of my two accounts, I then
turned my attention to my remaining debt. GHS transferred with
my consent an additional sum which they were certain was enough to
pay my remaining creditor. I was told they would be settled
within 10 days. Now here I am one full month later, 25 phone
calls, 10 disconnects (that’s what they say), and 2 hang ups by
supervisor (Jason, who is located in Costa Rica along with their call
center) with nothing. The phone reps can only assure me they
are working on it and give me grief over demanding a supervisor.
After speaking with a supervisor he tells me the collection agency
was let go by my creditor and a new third party was not yet
assigned. I asked why nobody else could tell me that as I spoke
with 6 people since the debt recall had taken place. Of course
Jason had no answer for my question and let me know all the reps are
very well trained. I asked Jason to own my issue since they
have the money to settle and could get rid of me forever, however
Jason refused to do so as this would make him too busy. His
exact words were, “imagine if all our clients asked me to do
this.” What a joke! 25 calls and nobody wants
to get this settled and done; then I realized I’m coming up on
another monthly payment due. In order to avoid another payment,
I called my credit card myself to negotiate as I knew they would
certainly do whatever they could to get their money. I was
promptly transferred to another area which ended up being the new
debt collector. Here is where it gets really good! The
new debt collector (ESA Processing) is actually a larger portion of
the company which owns GHS! The debt which was to be settled
was being managed in house with GHS!!! The kicker to all of
this is the merger of GHS took place in August 2011 and here we are
in November and GHS people (again in Costa Rica) had no idea!
How could they even begin to help if they don’t even realize their
parent company owns the debt! So after talking with ESA, I was
ensured my account would be settled in 24 hours. I immediately
received and offer via email and I called GHS back as the ESA rep
stated I had to work through them. After 2 more phone cutoffs,
I finally get a rep and state I have an offer and I would like to
accept the settlement and have them paid within 4 days. The
offer was $189.95 more than what I had saved with GHS, which the rep
was quick to let me know about. After confirming (for the
second time as I let her know immediately upon answering) I wanted to
have her draft the money out of my account and pay the creditor; I
was placed on hold. Guess who answered? Jason, my
supervisor who hung up on me just an hour earlier. I managed to
do in 1 hour what they couldn’t do in a month. Jason informed
me I didn’t have enough money and so for the 3rd time I once again
explained what needed to happen (funny when I transferred a lump sum
of 1000.00, I had no trouble). Jason asked to record the
conversation, which is standard and I agreed. Jason agreed to
take money from my account (his math was 60.00 off to the low side so
we still wouldn’t be able to settle) and then they would settle by
November 18 (which is the day after another payment would be drafted
from me!). I let Jason know first his math was wrong and second
the account needs to be settled in 4 days (in order to have enough
time to cancel my direct draft they would take, which would leave me
fighting them for 300.00 later). Jason got an immediate
attitude and said he would take the money and process the payment.
When I asked how much he was going to be drafted since his math was
wrong I was given the response of, “Why don’t you tell me!”.
As you can imagine, I was shocked as a company was going to take
money and couldn’t / wouldn’t tell me how much. After demanding
to know how much would be taken Jason told me he could do the math
and then hung up on me! I know from experience by the
previously mentioned draft of 1000.00, 24 hours could not happen as
the promise of my money being taken in 24 hours is incorrect because
it takes 48 hours to process (apparently he didn’t know or didn’t
care as he assured me the money would be gone). So now I will
have to follow up with 3 or 4 calls tomorrow to confirm amount and
date for withdraw and when my settlement will be mailed. So to
sum this up; I’ve paid GHS over 1000.00 in fees and they’ve done
absolutely nothing! I almost went to court, I settled both
debts myself (for the same % as they promise, and I may lose a very
good job opportunity as I have this lingering debt which should be
gone as of 2 weeks ago. To say I’m very unhappy is a severe
understatement and I am now know all they desire is to get rich off
of hurting people. The underlying question is why are we
calling Costa Rica when Americans need jobs, but again we know it’s
all about the mighty dollar!
I am completely disgusted with GHS.
They lure you in with promises and then fail to deliver. I
followed their instructions to the letter and got nowhere. I
received a subpoena for court after they failed to communicate with
one of my creditors and upon calling, I was told the legal department
would respond and handle the response to the court for me. I
was very skeptical as they had not taken care of their job to that
point so I called on day 15 of the 20 I had to reply to the court and
low and behold; nothing had happened. I then took swift action as I
was scared to death and negotiated a settlement of 40% on my own and
within 5 days I was paid off on my major creditor. After
negotiating my own settlement for one of my two accounts, I then
turned my attention to my remaining debt. GHS transferred with
my consent an additional sum which they were certain was enough to
pay my remaining creditor. I was told they would be settled
within 10 days. Now here I am one full month later, 25 phone
calls, 10 disconnects (that’s what they say), and 2 hang ups by
supervisor (Jason, who is located in Costa Rica along with their call
center) with nothing. The phone reps can only assure me they
are working on it and give me grief over demanding a supervisor.
After speaking with a supervisor he tells me the collection agency
was let go by my creditor and a new third party was not yet
assigned. I asked why nobody else could tell me that as I spoke
with 6 people since the debt recall had taken place. Of course
Jason had no answer for my question and let me know all the reps are
very well trained. I asked Jason to own my issue since they
have the money to settle and could get rid of me forever, however
Jason refused to do so as this would make him too busy. His
exact words were, “imagine if all our clients asked me to do
this.” What a joke! 25 calls and nobody wants
to get this settled and done; then I realized I’m coming up on
another monthly payment due. In order to avoid another payment,
I called my credit card myself to negotiate as I knew they would
certainly do whatever they could to get their money. I was
promptly transferred to another area which ended up being the new
debt collector. Here is where it gets really good! The
new debt collector (ESA Processing) is actually a larger portion of
the company which owns GHS! The debt which was to be settled
was being managed in house with GHS!!! The kicker to all of
this is the merger of GHS took place in August 2011 and here we are
in November and GHS people (again in Costa Rica) had no idea!
How could they even begin to help if they don’t even realize their
parent company owns the debt! So after talking with ESA, I was
ensured my account would be settled in 24 hours. I immediately
received and offer via email and I called GHS back as the ESA rep
stated I had to work through them. After 2 more phone cutoffs,
I finally get a rep and state I have an offer and I would like to
accept the settlement and have them paid within 4 days. The
offer was $189.95 more than what I had saved with GHS, which the rep
was quick to let me know about. After confirming (for the
second time as I let her know immediately upon answering) I wanted to
have her draft the money out of my account and pay the creditor; I
was placed on hold. Guess who answered? Jason, my
supervisor who hung up on me just an hour earlier. I managed to
do in 1 hour what they couldn’t do in a month. Jason informed
me I didn’t have enough money and so for the 3rd time I once again
explained what needed to happen (funny when I transferred a lump sum
of 1000.00, I had no trouble). Jason asked to record the
conversation, which is standard and I agreed. Jason agreed to
take money from my account (his math was 60.00 off to the low side so
we still wouldn’t be able to settle) and then they would settle by
November 18 (which is the day after another payment would be drafted
from me!). I let Jason know first his math was wrong and second
the account needs to be settled in 4 days (in order to have enough
time to cancel my direct draft they would take, which would leave me
fighting them for 300.00 later). Jason got an immediate
attitude and said he would take the money and process the payment.
When I asked how much he was going to be drafted since his math was
wrong I was given the response of, “Why don’t you tell me!”.
As you can imagine, I was shocked as a company was going to take
money and couldn’t / wouldn’t tell me how much. After demanding
to know how much would be taken Jason told me he could do the math
and then hung up on me! I know from experience by the
previously mentioned draft of 1000.00, 24 hours could not happen as
the promise of my money being taken in 24 hours is incorrect because
it takes 48 hours to process (apparently he didn’t know or didn’t
care as he assured me the money would be gone). So now I will
have to follow up with 3 or 4 calls tomorrow to confirm amount and
date for withdraw and when my settlement will be mailed. So to
sum this up; I’ve paid GHS over 1000.00 in fees and they’ve done
absolutely nothing! I almost went to court, I settled both
debts myself (for the same % as they promise, and I may lose a very
good job opportunity as I have this lingering debt which should be
gone as of 2 weeks ago. To say I’m very unhappy is a severe
understatement and I am now know all they desire is to get rich off
of hurting people. The underlying question is why are we
calling Costa Rica when Americans need jobs, but again we know it’s
all about the mighty dollar!