Hi
I took out a payday loan in November from the Cash Store. It was for $200. I paid an extra $6 for loan insurance in case I lost my job (volatile job market). Well about a week later i did lose my job.
I called the cash store and told them what happened. They asked for my Record of Employment. I scanned it and emailed it in to them. I got an email back from the manager saying she received the ROE.
About 3 weeks later, they called me again. Said they had more paperwork I needed to fill out. I asked them to email it to me, which they did. I could not open the file. I went into the store FOUR times asking for the actual paperwork. The woman working told me she did not have access to my file at that time and to try back when the manager was in.
I went back a few times, and the manager was never there. Once they asked me to wait for her. I waited for an HOUR (with a 9 month old baby in December) for her but she didn’t come back to work.
I didn’t hear anything from them for several months. However, in that time, they had tried to take the loan amount out of my bank account 4 times (I never used that account, so it had no funds in it). I got charged $47 each time for non sufficent funds. EACH time it tried to come out I called the store and asked them to stop trying to remove it from my bank, as I had submitted my ROE and had paid for loan insurance. The woman at the store told me that the old manager in charge of my file had been fired. She would “See what she could do” for me. also during this week, someone from head office of the Cash Store had called me to inform me that I had an outstanding loan. I explained everything that had happened, and he apologized and said he would call me back later that day to tell me if he could find anything out. He never called back.
Then Friday I went back into the store to ask about the status of the loan and my loan insurance. The new manager said the store no longer had the file as it had been sent to collections, so she could not tell me anything about it. I asked why I had not been informed it had been sent to collections, and she told me they had sent a letter stating it had been written off in their office and sent to a collections agency. I NEVER received a letter. Our neighbor delivers the mail and I asked her if she ever saw anything and she said no.
Yesterday (monday) I went back into the store to complain about how this was being handled. The new manager actually SHRUGGED her shoulders at me, telling me she didn’t know what was going on. I asked her for the paperwork to fill out AGAIN and she said she no longer had my file, and “reminded” me she had told me that 3 days ago.
Yesterday evening, head office called me THREE times, hassling me about this. They said they had the paperwork, and needed it filled out AGAIN. I said I should not have to waste SO much of my time figuring this out and that I had paid more in bank fees than the loan was actually FOR. He said I didn’t need to yella t him, he didn’t need my attitude, and hung up on me. I called back and he answered. I asked to speak to his supervisor. HE put me on hold for 45 minutes. I finally got his supervisor, who told me I didn’t need to “cop an attitude” with her workers. She also told me that “this is how we do our collections- you’re the one in trouble here, not me!”
I finally got SO mad I screamed at her never to call my home again, that if they did I was going to press harassment charges. I hung up. 5 minutes later they called back and said they had emailed me the paperowkr, Ic oudl fill it in, and fax it back. They had found my ROE that I had submitted.
This morning, the guy called AGAIN. He told me he reviewed my file and denied my claim for loan insurance due to the fact I hadn’t filed the paperwork in time. ?!?!?! I asked him what the hell he meant, and he said I would have needed to fill out the paperwork the week I took the loan- before it had come due to be paid. I lost my job like 2 days before it was due to be paid. HE told me it was past their deadline for insurance and the loan was due in full immediately or they would take me to court. I told him he could do that if he wanted to I would get a lawyer and fight it. He told me “Ha yeah right lady, I hear that ALLLLL the time! ”
He told me to just pay it because I would spend more in lawyer fees than it was worth. I told him to NEVER call here again and hung up before I totally freaked out.
I am STEAMING mad about this. I didn’t hear from them for MONTHS so I assumed it had been handled. Then they start calling several times a day threatening me and laughing at me and telling me to (oh this made me SO mad) “shut up and listen”.
Is there ANY legal recourse I can take to fight them, or to press charges for harassment? I know I took out the loan in the first place, but I paid for loan insurance in case of job loss (w
