On November 30, back in 2005, Christopher Civitello filed suit against First Credit of America, a collection agency that had originally contacted him on July 20 of that year by leaving a voicemail message telling him it was urgent that he call a toll-free number regarding his account.  When Civitello returned the call, the person who answered demanded that he pay a debt of $109 he supposedly owed to MyPerfectCredit, Inc., for personal, family, and household purposes.  The First Credit employee also cautioned him that not paying would result in a negative entry to his credit report.

That call was the first of what went on to be at least two calls a day thereafter.  Although early in August Civitello explained to First Credit that his account was current, the employee continued to call, pressuring Civitello to give him his credit card number in order to stop the calls.  His refusal to do so resulted in verbal abuse by the First Credit employee, continuing phone calls, and eventually, the loss of more than three days of work in his attempts to resolve the matter.

Civitello had never been able to obtain an invoice for the alleged debt.  When he sued, he asked for damages for intentional infliction of emotional distress resulting from First Credit’s violations of federal and California laws governing debt collection practices.

Civitello was recently awarded $3,241 in damages.  He may or may not feel that amount to be just compensation for all that he endured because of that voicemail message.  And whether he will ever be able to collect it also remains to be seen, for, according to our records, mail has been returned from the company at the address we have for them since September 2005.

First Credit of America, against whom we received 30 complaints, is F-rated by us. Interestingly, My Perfect Credit, to whom Civitello allegedly owed his debt, is a credit repair company, also F-rated, that racked up 349 complaints between 2005 and 2007 and against whom the California Attorney General took action in 2006.

What’s the moral here?

By the time Mr. Civitello received his first call from First Credit, several people had already filed complaints against the company with us, alleging harassing phone calls by someone attempting to collect nonexistent debts.  Civitello might have been spared his experience had he learned that from the Better Business Bureau’s reliability report on this company.  Don’t you make the same mistake.