Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/19/2022

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Guardian Litigation Group took over for Pinnacle to negotiate settlements with creditors on my behalf (POA is attached). They are now charging fees much larger than agreed upon and have made no attempt to negotiate settlements with my two remaining credits, stating that they have no money to negotiate with. I have told them, of course, you are taking all of it as "fees." In my honest opinion, they are "stealing" money from my account. Each month I religiously pay them $424.38. They pay $131.20 to Philips and ***** and keep the rest as "fees." I have requested to speak with one person who is my account manager, but they keep switching account managers. They are anything but transparent and are very difficult to contact, keeping you on hold for up to 30 minutes. I have uploaded my POA, recent statements, and the original agreement with Pinnacle (transferred to Guardian) Please help to resolve this. All I want is to pay off my creditors in the agreed-upon time; this agreement should end in April of 2023.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 11/28/2022

  BBB,

  We are in receipt of the consumer complaint filed by ****************** and appreciate this opportunity to respond.  To date,we have settled $19,100 of her $23,219 in total debt.  ****************** has paid 25% of her enrolled debt in legal fees, which is the exact amount that she agreed to in her original agreement.  Her claims that our firm is stealing from her are simply not based in fact.  
  
  ****************** deposits $424.38 into a set aside savings account monthly; these are not payments to Guardian. This savings account can be viewed by our firm but we do not control the funds. Withdrawals must be explicitly authorized by ******************. She has provided an explicit authorization for all fees and settlement payment that have been withdrawn from her account, in accordance with her agreement.
  
  ****************** claims that we are taking it all as fees and we are happy to address this inaccuracy for her.  In order to provide better settlement results to our clients, we oftentimes defer our fees to allow for a settlement to take place. This can result in transactions that appear to show us collecting a larger fee, when in fact we are simply catching up on collecting what we are owed.For example, from August 2020 through June 2021 ******************** entire monthly deposit amount was being used to pay for settlements while we were paid $0 in fees. This enabled ****************** to settle with ************* Credit Control and *************** simultaneously. After the settlements were paid, we began assessing the fees that were owed for those settlements.
  
  To summarize, our firm is performing exactly as outlined in ******************** agreement.  Most recently, our firms supervisory personnel attempted to reach ****************** via telephone on 11/22/22 and 11/23/22. Unfortunately, she has not returned our messages.  We look forward to speaking with her as soon as possible and will continue to contact her.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 11/29/2022

  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.
  
  Regards,
  
  *************************