problem with a collector - do i have a case?

[ne1helpme?]

What is the name of your state? PA

hello, i have an interesting one here. i had a autoloan that i had missed some payments on. after receiving a call from a collection agency called harrison, ross and byck (i will refer to them as HRB), i agreed to make a payment of 1620.43 - the original debt was 2620.43 - a 1000.00 discount from what was owed. i figured not a bad deal. well, about 6 months later, i still did not receive the title for the vehicle. after doing some serious research, i had found that my original loan was "sold" to a collection agency, that was sold to another agency and then finally to HRB. i had contacted HRB and the representative that i had delt with told me that the title must have been lost in the mail. he told me that i needed to do a "lost title search" and retrieve it this way. now that i am trying to get a home equity loan, i find that the original loan is still showing up on my credit report and i called the original company that the auto loan was set with and they said that they never released the title due to that fact that they were never informed that the loan had been satisfied. i call HRB over and over, record all times and dates that i call. no replies as of yet. my question is do i have a case to go after them in a lawsuit? is there anything under the fair credit act that i can go after them with? it has now been almost a year, i am out the money, my credit report still shows that i am seriously delinquent with this payment (even though it is settled) and i still have no title. does anyone have any clue where i can go with this and how i can get them to finally do something about this? please, any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

sincerely,

desperate.

 

[Debt Guy]

Was your settlment agreement with the collection agency in writing?

Do you have a copy of cancelled check that showed you paid the debt?

I'm confused exactly who owns the debt. You said the debt had been sold to the collection agency. You also said you called the original creditor who said they never released the title because they were not paid.

If the collection agency was acting as a 3rd party agency for the original creditor, and the collection agency took money from you and failed to remit to the original creditor, then there are all sorts of civil problems between the agency and the creditor.

If the collection agency took your money and failed to perform as they agreed, then there are likewise civil problems between you and the agency (and perhaps the original creditor if the agency was acting as a agent).

Also, you might even be able to convice the local district attorney to go after these guys for fraud -- that would be a criminal action which only the district attorney can bring.

I think your approach will depend a lot on what kind of documentation you have.