Update August 28, 2019
I received the following statement to add from Davis Frank of DebtRx. He wanted people to understand this post was not about the current company DebtRx
He said, “This complaint is Not against DebtRx. It is against a different, unrelated, company which added the word USA to their name.”
DebtRx and DebtRx USA are two different and unrelated companies.
Original Post
Mr Gonzalez uploaded the following BBB complaint to me through the file upload section of the GetOutOfDebt.org site.
I have no inside knowledge of this case and the only reason I am republishing it here is because it brings up other complaints that I have heard from others regarding some common issues with unhappy consumers and some debt settlement companies.
If anyone has had any experience with Debt RX USA, please feel free to add comments and feedback in the comments section of this post. And if anyone from Debt RX USA wants to add a comment, I invite that as well.
COMPLAINT ACTIVITY REPORT Case #XXXXX Better Business Bureau of Metropolitan Dallas, Inc.
Consumer Info: Gonzalez, XXXX
Business Info: Debt RX USA
Location Involved: (Same as above)
Consumer’s Original Complaint :
This is a debt settlement company that I joined up with in June of 2008. They offered me a promise of debt settlement within 6 to 8 months. The scam is that while you are waitiing for them to negotiate your debts, they are collecting your money through Automatic Transfer Funds from your checking account, waiting for a balance to acrue in another account that they claim will be used to pay down your debt after they negotiate.
Repeated phone calls to this company go unanswered, until I threatened to close my account. NOTHING is done on your behalf until they are ready to negotiate In what was told to me would be a 6 to 8 month period.
Multiple faxes to this company were lost and others not responed to. They changed their phone number in January 2009 without ANY notification to clients. Their response was “We are growing so fast we had to move”.
When I expressed hardship in saving the requested funds, they took $100 more per month to cover their “Fees”. 9 withdrawls from my checking account were taken in a 2 day period, causing other checks to be returned for insufficent funds.
While they fixed that situation, with several “I’m Sorry” calls, once it was resoveled. This may work for some people but this company kept throwing up “red flags” to me until I felt that with a ruined credit rating, it was time to cut my losses, and do this on my own.
The original debt settelment they had enticed me with was 42% of the original balance. However my debt was only reduced by far less than that. muliple people answer the phone, and messages go unanswered.
[CA] was my original contact, and with his slick soothing, southern accent made me feel like they would take care of evertything. When I decided this was a bad decision to join this company, he made comments like “you need to do your part” and made statements that he failed to delivery upon as well as not to return phone calls.
Consumer’s Desired Resolution:
A full refund of 3648.91, to cover the costs of my debt settlement. These funds could have gone to the Credit card company initially to avoid a credit nightmare. Nothing was done on my behalf by this company to settle my debt. Phone calls, faxes, and certified mail went unanswered over the period from June 2008 to March 2009. Refunds that were promised still haven’t been received.
BBB Processing
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- 03/17/2009 web BBB Case Received by BBB
- 03/18/2009 GAP BBB Case Reviewed by BBB
- 03/18/2009 Otto EMAIL Send Acknowledgement to Consumer
- 03/18/2009 Otto MAIL Notify Business of Dispute
- 04/03/2009 OttO BBB No response to first notice to business
- 04/03/2009 OttO MAIL Reminder of Dispute to Business
- 04/13/2009 OttO BBB No Response received from Business on Reminder
- 04/14/2009 JER BBB Inform Consumer No Response from Business
- 04/14/2009 Otto EMAIL Inform Consumer – Case Closed UNANSWERED
- 04/14/2009 Otto MAIL Inform Business – Case Closed UNANSWERED
- 04/14/2009 Otto BBB Case Closed – UNANSWERED
- 04/15/2009 BBB MORE INFO RECEIVED FROM THE CONSUMER : Frankly, I’m not at all surprised that Debt RX USA failed to respond to the complaint. It goes right in line with how they responded to my complaints to them. I am still trying to get at least a sizeable refund of my “investment” in this company. To date I have been able to obtain only $217.10 from my total fees of over $3,000. Alledgedly, there is another 543.07 “in the Mail”. But it pales in light of what I have already paid into this “service”. For a company that offers to help with your financial hardships, they did a pretty good job in deepening the hardship. I don’t think it was too much to ask, that my entire fees be returned in a show of good faith.
- 04/17/2009 PAL BBB ReOpen the Complaint
- 04/17/2009 PAL BBB RECEIVE BUSINESS RESPONSE : In regards to XXXXX Gonzalez, as Mr Gonzalez stated he enrolled into the program in June of 2008. He hired us to provide a service which we did. he claims we did not do anything. We have recordings of conversations with Mr Gonzalez and his creditors. Mr Gonzalez was required to set aside a certain amount of funds each month so that we could negotiate with his creditors. He admitted he was unable to do so. Because he could not, Debt RX USA agreed to reduce its fee. In February, Debt RX USA informed Mr Gonzalez we would work for free and not deduct any more fees in order to assist him. Mr Gonzalez claims there was an issue regarding 9 drafts in july. There was a bank error and all 9 drafts were refunded and any fees incurred because of this were payed back to him. The refund he is waiting for he has already received. The full refund request of $3648.91 is greater than the amount of fees that have been received by the company. In summation, Debt RX USA worked in good faith with Mr. Gonzalez. Debt RX USA, not only reduced its fee when he could not set aside funds, they waived the fee entirely. Any other issues, i.e. banking errors etc have been refunded to him plus coverage for any additional fees charged to him were included as well. Mr Gonzalez’s own words state that he could not save the funds. Debt RX USA had 2 choices help him as we tried to do or we could have removed him from the program.We as a company made a decision to help him.
- 04/20/2009 RMS EMAIL Forward Business response to Consumer
- 04/21/2009 WEB BBB CUSTOMER DISSAT – MEMBER COMPANY – BBB REVIEW : (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I find it laughable that this company closes their response with an offer to help, that offer was only extended twice, during the initial phone call and then again ONLY when I fired this company for LACK of help.
The Fact that I was notified by the BBB that this company also FAILED to respond in a timely manner, and that BBB ws closing the case, goes right in line with the experience I have had with them. Also the fact that I was NEVER made aware that my phone calls were being taped until only after I expressed a dissatisfaction with the way my account was being handled further exhibits the unscrupulous ways these people do business.
I only agree with one of their Statements, and that is that the requested refund amount is greater than the fees received. That in part to the 217.10 already refunded, and the anticipation of more fees withdrawn from my account. At the time of the complaint NO refunds were issued and No action was taken by Debt RX to suspend transfers from my bank. As of April 17th 2009 there has been 1 refund issued and that was the March withdrawal of $217.10. Another refund of $543.03 has been promised but as of this writing (April 18, 2009) has yet to be delivered. I was advised to set aside money every month by an employee of this business, and I expressed my hardship in doing this for the first few months of the contract, but would in fact be able to catch up after the first of the year. I was told that it would take 6 – 8 months of saving to have the necessary funds to negotiate. Therefore I felt I had time on my side to raise the prescribed amount of funds in that 6 – 8 month time frame to be in line for the negotiation of the settlement of my debt.
When that time frame came to pass I had the amount of money that was needed to negotiate but I was informed by the company that the creditors would not accept that amount. They in fact wanted nearly double that to even begin to negotiate. It was this final straw that made me decide to dissolve the relationship with Debt RX USA. Also by blaming the bank for the excess withdrawls is another untrue response. The error was on the part of Debt RX USA. While the issue was resolved in 3 days, it was one of multiple “Red Flags” thrown up by them.
I question their definition of “Good Faith”. When in fact by “helping” me they failed to respond to Faxes, phone messages, and certified mail in a timely manner. These resulted in summonses to court, deteriorating credit scores, and misinformation as well as health issues, and MANY sleepless nights, that they Claim to help alleviate in their website. As far reducing my fees, That is just a flat out LIE. When I signed on with this company I was told that for the first 3 months I was to send them through automatic withdrawls $543.07 per month. After that I was to put $325.97 a month away for the negotiations. The remaining $217.10 was to be used for their service fees. When I expressed a hardship to be able to save the required negotiating fee ($325.97),over the first few months of the contract. However,I would be able to catch up over the first 3 months of 2009 to have the required funds for negotiating Debt RX USA raised it’s service by $100.00 per month.
In simpler terms, acccording to the contract, Debt RX USA was supposed to take $1846.31 during the first 4 months of the service, they in fact took $1846.27 a total savings to me of 4 cents. Over the next five months I paid them $1385.52, according to the contract the total fees for the 9 month period should have been $2931.81, in Truth, I paid Debt RX USA $3231.77, $299.81 over what the contract called for. So the assertion that I was afforded something for free or reduced rate is ludicrous. Any offer to provide me free service was made AFTER I decided that these people dealt in anything but good faith.
Again, as of April 18, 2009 of the $3231.77 I spent for this “SERVICE”, only $217.10 has been refunded. Therefore the “CLAIM” that I was given an offer of free service comes after I had been over charged by $299.96. A company that offers to help someone in a financial crisis when they in fact don’t inform you of the tax implications that you face at the end of your settlement, and offer nothing but excuses when questioned about concerns that clients like me have. I have decided as of February 2009 to close my account with Debt RX USA due to POOR customer service, and a complete failure to deliver what they claim. A refund in full is hardly alot to ask for when one faces financial collapse.
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I settled with Capital One in March 2011 and was told that Debt Rx was going to continue to take money out of my account. I have learned today that they have been taking 2 payments out of my account per month and according to Capital One once the settlement was agreed upon between them and me that Debt RX was not to be taking any money from me. I plan to call my attorney and file a complaint as well as sue them because the amount they have taken is over $1000.00 to date.
Arlene Dumais
Keep us all posted on what happens.
Debt RXUSA is not doing what is asked of them. I filed a complaint through the BBB and Debt RX USA never returned any phone calls or anything. They made promises of reducing my debt by at 60%. They never once contacted my credit card companies to negotiate on my behalf. I ruined my credit and endured a lot of stress. I ended up negotiating my own debts and wasted over $1000 to this company for absolutely no reason. They never returned my calls until I canceled with them. I would forward them information from my creditors….yet every time I would confirm to see if they received them…they never got the email or fax.
Debt RXUSA is not doing what is asked of them. I filed a complaint through the BBB and Debt RX USA never returned any phone calls or anything. They made promises of reducing my debt by at 60%. They never once contacted my credit card companies to negotiate on my behalf. I ruined my credit and endured a lot of stress. I ended up negotiating my own debts and wasted over $1000 to this company for absolutely no reason. They never returned my calls until I canceled with them. I would forward them information from my creditors….yet every time I would confirm to see if they received them…they never got the email or fax.
Thank you for this article that openned my eyes to Debt Rx USA! They have also refused to refund me my money. I told them that they breached the contract and they told me that I breached the contract when I talked to the creditor. They are refusing to refund my money and I am going to take this to the Federal Trade Commission hoping to get my money back. If yesterday had not been Martin Luther King Day with banks closed then I would not be out my money today. My bank had just sent the transaction to Debt Rx USA and would not stop it because I was fifteen minutes late calling them. I called them right when they started answering the phones. What can we do to get our money back from this company? What are our legal rights?
I had the same experience. These people will rip you off and not return calls or emails. I opted out of the program and asked for a refund and which time they told me NO, became RUDE and hung the phone up on me. I feel its only fair to get my refund because they have done nothing for me other than put me more in debt. Stay away from this company.
Debt rx usa only got me for 167.00 i am so glad that i pulled out before i continual doing business with them. only when i told them that i did not feel comfortable doing business with them is when they responded to my phone calls or emails . they had me to change my contact information on your credit card to their address and phone number, therefore I had no ideal if they were even talking to my creditors. BBB has never heard of them until April 2009, so my question is are they legit. I have no idea how they got my number. I just had a gut feeling not to do business with them. I could never verify who they are.
I had the same thing happen to me with debt settlement USA. 11 months of fees, they couldnt make calls to creditors until I had something saved to work with- less their fee of course. when i cancelled all I had was the fees I had paid to them, and an overdrafted account when ach debit came thru that wasnt supposed to. one of the credit card compamies offered to reduce the balance by 50% directly with me, and waive late fees. every creditor has told me they never received any calls from this company, and I could do the very thing they said they would for FREE.I still got Sued jsut few months after signing up with them! I asked for the refund of nearly 2000., but havent even recieved a reply yet. that was 6 months ago. so I get screwed out of what could have paid off at least one of my cards! how do I post a blog or something somewhere in big bold type- DONT USE THESE COMPANIES! I havent reported to BBB but will sned that letter out this week. probabaly will never see my refund.