Tasha’s Warning – Why you Should Stay Away from Debt Consultants: Tasha’s Story

When we left Tasha, she was feeling pretty good about her Debt Consultant – remember? It didn’t take long though for the sun to start to set on her good feeling. In Tasha’s words: “I was lied to”. Here is Part 2 of Tasha’s story (again, Tasha is NOT her real name).

THE LIE: Tasha talked to the Debt Consultant about whether or not she needed to see a Trustee in Bankruptcy – Tasha was told that Trustees in Bankruptcy really “can’t be trusted”, and “work only for creditors”, so she was better off doing a program with him. So, Tasha paid the consultant $1,200.00, and was now ready to meet with the “Court Officer”.

THE TRUTH: Remember, both the Debt Consultant and the website stated that the Debt Consulting Company was NOT a Trustee in Bankruptcy; well, that part WAS true – the consultant was not a Trustee. At at no point however, was Tasha told that a “court officer” was the same as a “Trustee in Bankruptcy”; imagine her surprise when she learned that the court officer was, in fact, a Trustee in Bankruptcy. Tasha specifically did not want to see a Trustee, and ended up feeling “conned into seeing one”. And, on top of it, paid a consultant $1,200.00 to be conned.

THE LIE: Tasha was told that the Debt Consultant would help her with a “Federal Government Program” to deal with her debts.

THE TRUTH: Guess what? The “Federal Government Program” was actually a Consumer Proposal, and consumer proposals can only be administered by a Trustee in Bankruptcy. Had she known this at the outset, she would have simply told the Debt Consultant “thanks, but no thanks”. Tasha again felt conned and misled, and was further angered by the fact that she had paid $1,200.00 in the process.

THE LIE: The Debt Consultant and his website told Tasha that “he would act solely in her interest”.

THE TRUTH: if Tasha wanted to file a consumer proposal, she could have called a Trustee in Bankruptcy herself, and attended for A FREE CONSULT. The Debt Consultant charged her $1,200.00 to essentially be referred to a Trustee; this was acting in her sole interest? Tasha doesn’t think so.

THE LIE : The Debt Consultant told Tasha that the wage garnishment would be stopped.

THE TRUTH: Yes, the wage garnishment would be stopped by the “Federal Government Program” (now known to actually be a consumer proposal), but only AFTER she had met with “Court Officer” (now known to be a Trustee in Bankruptcy) and signed the “Federal Government Program” paperwork (now known to be a consumer proposal). In order for the paperwork to be filed for the garnishee to be stopped, Tasha needed to pay the $1,200.00 fee first. The bad part in this was that Tasha was not told this right away – she was told to have all creditors call the Debt Consultant if she continued to get calls – she expected that the garnishee would stop as soon as she started paying the Debt Consultant, so when it didn’t, she did as she was advised and asked her employer call the Debt Consultant. Guess what? The Debt Consultant never returned the employer’s calls, and in fact, Tasha had to leave several messages over several days before he finally did call her back. She then learned that she had to pay the full $1,200.00 before he could help with the wage garnishee. Tasha learned the hard way that Debt Consultants have no power in their capacities as consultants to provide legal protection from her creditors.

Tasha felt conned, manipulated, and misled; in fact, Tasha never did sign the consumer proposal documents with the Debt Consultant’s “Court Officer”. Worse yet, she was not able to get her $1,200.00 back. After she realized that she had been taken advantage of by the Debt Consultant, she decided to just live with her debt problem. She had lost faith, was embarrassed and, simply did not feel that she could ever put her trust in anyone who claimed to be able to help.

In my final post in this series, Tasha shares how she managed to eventually to get over the anger and embarrassment of her experience of Debt Consultants, and learns to build trust again.