Complaints

This profile includes complaints for Help Eliminate Legal Problems for Seniors & Disabled's headquarters and its corporate-owned locations. To view all corporate locations, see Find Local Branches.

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Help Eliminate Legal Problems for Seniors & Disabled has 2 locations, listed below.

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  Help Eliminate Legal Problems for Seniors & Disabled

  3995 Hagers Grove Rd SE Salem, OR 97317-6189

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  Help Eliminate Legal Problems for Seniors & Disabled

  PO Box 12647 Salem, OR 97309-0647

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:07/03/2023

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore 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.

  I asked HELPS Nonprofit Law Firm to assist me with harassment from a creditor. HELPS said they could help, and did. They asked me for a monthly donation. So, for awhile I was paying them ***** per month auto debited from my account. I am on SSI and I am financialy tight. for the last 3 mo I could no longer afford to pay the ***** a month I notified HELPS via email to not debit my account, and explained that I could not afford it. I was certain that they would stop debiting my credit card, but instead I recieved an email from ***********************. She sent me this 'Your payments to HELPS have been declining since April. Please call our office so we can discuss the missed payments. I do understand that you can not afford to make the missed payments and we can waive those fees for you, but before I can do that, you will need to call in so we can resolve the issue. '. Can a non profit do this? ****

  Business Response

  Date: 07/05/2023

  On Thursday, January 12, 2023 ****************** contacted us by email, requesting that we lower her fees.  We responded with the following, "We could lower your monthly payment to ***** a month, beginning 03/01/223 if that would be better for you? Please let me know and if you have questions, please reach out. I can be reached at ************."

  On January 24, 2023, ****************** contacted us with updated debit card information.  We agreed that the 10 dollar fee would begin debiting from her account on March 1, 2023.  The March 1, 2023 payment did process, but all subsequently scheduled payments from April 1, 2023 through July 1,  2023 did decline.  During this time, we attempted to contact ****************** after the event each subsequent decline.

  On July 1, 2023, ****************** emailed a member of our staff, asking that we not try to process her debit card.  

  The next day, July 2, 2023, our bookkeeper sent an email to ****************** stating the following:

  "Your payments to HELPS have been declining since April. Please call our office so we can discuss the missed payments. I do understand that you can not afford to make the missed payments and we can waive those fees for you, but before I can do that, you will need to call in so we can resolve the issue."

  Since ****************** contact in January 2023, we have representing ****************** for the purpose of receiving debt collection communication.  When ****************** requested we lower her fees, we did so.  When ******************' agreed upon 10 dollar monthly fee was declined, we did not terminate representation.  We continued services despite the lack of payment for our services.  When ****************** did engage with us in July, we requested contact so we establish a more fitting fee agreement for her situation.  As ****************** complaint states, we offered to waive fees.  

  Perhaps ****************** misunderstood the term fee waiver?

  HELPS is a nonprofit law firm and 501(c)(3) charitable organization. Unlike most debt settlement nonprofits, HELPS is not supported by outside donations. We know outside donors can influence the direction of a nonprofit. Instead, HELPS is almost completely funded by the small amount of fees our clients pay each month for our services.   This allows us to act zealously on our clients behalf without fearing loss of funding from outside sources. Where and when our clients are financially unable to afford our fees, we do waive fees as we offered *******************