Providian Collections, Benning & Smith, William Steinberg Harassing and Threatening Calls for Providian Collections! Ripoff Buffalo New York

I saw another person posting who had a similar experience to mine with the listed company. This "organization" supposedly was handling a delinquent account from an ancient Providian card that I once had in my name. I had not received ANY previous collection notices via mail or any statements with what I owed to Providian.

My first phone call from this individual "Mister William Steinberg" was left on my answering machine stating that he was an attorney and there was currently a lawsuit in Dallas County (I've never even lived there!) against me and that it was imperative I returned his call.

Subsequent phone calls from him went unanswered and messages left by himself or his firm included the aforementioned attorney with a lawsuit, a US Marshall threatening my impending arrest and finally a female whom I'm assuming was called in to play the "good cop" to his "bad cop" routine.

When I finally spoke to this person (Steinberg) on the phone, he was very snotty and intimidating. He threatened to look up my credit report and find every account I had delinquent (assuming automatically that I had any) and reporting my current phone number and information to them so that I could be arrested and "put away" because I was just a "scam artist". He also verbally harassed my husband with the same spiel. In addition, he called my husband's ex-wife who was more than willing to spill all kinds of personal information about him which he attempted to use to his advantage in his game of intimidation even going as far as to use his daughters' names and knowing their ages, I guess to let us know how much "power" he has? By the way, this is a card that I had (and closed) way before I ever even MET my husband!!!

I told him that I refused to pay him ANYTHING unless I received it in writing and that I am not in the habit of giving money over the phone. I told him until I received something in writing that he was to STOP calling me to which he informed me I would have to mail a "cease & desist" letter to him. I typed one up, mailed it via certified mail only to have it returned to me as "REFUSED" and it was unopened! I tried to leave a voicemail for them to explain that I was not about to send any money and I attempted to send a certified letter but they do not even have an answering machine! I ended up changing MY voicemail to announce to them what I needed to say because as soon as I would call them, they would call me RIGHT back (thanks to caller ID)! They have an 800# (800-562-2441) as well as a LD # (716-446-5545) but both of these block private calls.

So, to sum up: I cannot have MY say in the matter because their phone does not accept "private" phone numbers or blocked numbers and they do not have an answering machine and I'm sick and tired of this jerk interrupting me with more threats; they refused the certified letter I sent; AND, they threatened to contact the credit bureau not only for my credit report but also my husband's! This, in addition to the abusive language and numerous phone calls and impersonations of authority figures.

I wound up sending a complaint to the FTC as well as the FBI's office in Buffalo complaining about the impersonation and the threats because I was honestly afraid of what this crackpot was capable of. Since then, I have not had a single phone call from them nor letter.

I've read all of the negative comments about Providian but you would still think they could find a better caliber of collection agencies than these morons.

Anonymous
Dallas, Texas
U.S.A.

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