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[streaker69]

Well thank you.
Short of them not sending at least an appearance lawyer , it's a lose.
I am interested in what the grand tally judgement could be.
That is the nasty unknown.
At this point all options are still open and I have time to decide anything and everything.
Just gathering what I want/need to make a decision I will be happy with.
End of the day this is minor and plenty of folks are in situations that are not at the moment as Blessed as I am.

I don't understand why you just didn't pay them when you were talking to them? You're going to lose in court and then you're going to have to pay even more. Right now, you could get off with whatever the debt currently is, plus whatever their filing fees are. You go to court and lose and you're going to be paying more.

[free]

Personally, I would offer to settle for whatever the original charge was, minus all the fees and shit. Tell them if they will accept that settlement as payment in full and send you a fax to that effect, you'll pay it when you received the fax via credit card or western union. As a collector, I would always be willing to settle on those terms.

[Bang]

I know nothing about debt collector's ways of making money, but imagine the person who was not paid hired them to get the purchase price.

I'm guessing the collection agency gets the original amount plus fees, otherwise being a collection agency would not make $en$e.

If I'm right, there is going to be a minimum they will settle for, and it has to be more than the original amount involved. And I'm guessing once the original seller hires the collection agency, he cannot accept the money without himself owing the fees to the collection agency.

[free]

I know nothing about debt collector's ways of making money, but imagine the person who was not paid hired them to get the purchase price.

I'm guessing the collection agency gets the original amount plus fees, otherwise being a collection agency would not make $en$e.

If I'm right, there is going to be a minimum they will settle for, and it has to be more than the original amount involved. And I'm guessing once the original seller hires the collection agency, he cannot accept the money without himself owing the fees to the collection agency.

It depends wildly on the situation. Some models are as as follows:

1). Agency buys the debt for a fraction of original value. It owns the debt and can settle for whatever it wants.

2). Debt is assigned on a commission basis. It can settle for whatever it wants, but only gets some percentage of what it collects. It has an incentive to settle for as much as possible.

3). Debt is assigned on a commission basis. There is a set floor that the original creditor sets. Anything over that is the agency's to keep. It can't settle for less than the floor amount. At the floor, agency gets nothing. There can still be an incentive to settle at the floor amount because agency is rated on how many accounts it collects on. Fall below performance targets and your agency gets dropped.

I'm sure there are other models, but those are the ones we used.

Some clients also have other metrics. For example, some don't want to get any complaints for debtors. Medical bills for UVA were like this, for example. They were "code 9", which meant no complaints, go easy on debtors. Others were "code 1", which meant to be as aggressive as possible. Grocery stores were usually code 1, bad check writers. Fuck them, everyone agreed.

I've settled AmEx accounts for 50% of the original balance. Other credit cards, depending on the balance, anywhere from 25% to 75%.

My best score was probably the time I got a husband to pay his new wife's old student loan debt. I put him on a payment plan of $500/month, on the condition that he send in 36 months of post dated checks for the monthly amount, as a show of good faith and intent to pay on his part. I got a cash award for that one. But I settled it for half off the balance, so it was a good deal for them.

We made a lot of money on the S&L scandal, buying RTC assets for pennies on the dollar and settling accounts for dimes or quarters on the dollar. Your tax dollars at work (:

[Manxdriver]

Debt time frame can go back 4 years and what GunLawyer wrote to you in his response is exactly what and how this is playing out as it is relating to this situation.
As to the online vendor ,it isn't a fly by nighter , it's a very well known and heard of and legit company.
I would not accuse them of running a scam in any way shape or form , the FFL on the other hand , well who knows.

Aaand, he still won’t name the bums! I’m starting to think, they aren’t the real bums in this story!

[VooDoo1VooDoo1]

I know nothing about debt collector's ways of making money, but imagine the person who was not paid hired them to get the purchase price.

I'm guessing the collection agency gets the original amount plus fees, otherwise being a collection agency would not make $en$e.

If I'm right, there is going to be a minimum they will settle for, and it has to be more than the original amount involved. And I'm guessing once the original seller hires the collection agency, he cannot accept the money without himself owing the fees to the collection agency.

Bang, Debt collection agencies purchase debts from companies that have incurred the original debt, have made their attempts to collect payment (may be as simple as sending a bill in the mail and never gotten payment or have a collection department that tries the same techniques as other debt collectors). When their attempts to collect age to the point where they write the debt off as uncollectible, they then sell that debt to a collection agency literally for pennies on the dollar. As low as 10% of the original debt, but hey, they were not able to get anything from their efforts, so 10% is at least some return more than zero.

The debt collector then has their basis on the debt, and of course they start with full value and fees, but that is really amounts that can easily be negotiated away if the debtor is willing to pay the debt to the satisfaction of the new debt collector (profitably to the debt collector). They can offer a deep discount for a full and final payment or they can offer any type of payment plan they wish, its just anything they can do to get the debt to perform, and get them more than the low percentage that they bought the debt for. The code that Free referenced has restrictions as to the limit of how long debts can stay on a debtor's credit file. If the debtor engages with the collection agent, it basically validates the debt and the clock can keep running to where they can continue to contact the debtor in an attempt to collect. Not sure of the time frame, but at some point if the debtor does not pay it will drop off of a credit report. At least this is my understanding of the process.

As I hit enter, I see Free has expounded.

[Manxdriver]

The pistol with shipping and all was under 300.
once the credit card co dispute had gone through and was over , and I did not pay , they began to add interest and fees bringing the total amount of debt to under 600.
That amount is what the debt collection bought and are seeking plus an un-named amount as the court sees fit for legal costs and anything else deemed fair by the court.
I would guess some of that would be awarded.
I do believe if you should have to sue someone and win , I feel personally , you should recoup those fees/costs.
But have no experience 1st hand on amounts or whatever it could be.

A $300 gun? Of for Pete’s sake, we have been trying to help a guy who:
1. Doesn’t want our help
2. Is being shady as hell
3. Is all butthurt over a zip-gun or a piece of plastic trash. What’s the name of the plastic trash gun manufacturer? No, not Glock, the other one. They build guns that look like a bunch of melted ball-peen hammers were used as a form and hot plastic was pored into it by a pa k of meth-heads.

[free]

What*s the name of the plastic trash gun manufacturer? No, not Glock, the other one. They build guns that look like a bunch of melted ball-peen hammers were used as a form and hot plastic was pored into it by a pa k of meth-heads.

Nerf?

[Manxdriver]

Nerf?

High Point! Hey Boondox, was it a High Point? You can tell us that much. I promise you won*t be able to hear us laughing if it was.

[KPShooting]

Given the time frame I figured it was a M&P Shield as he said there was rebate on it. Remember they were going for like $200 after all the rebates if you caught a sale?

This thread is a shit show. Why do I keep checking it?