So, do you owe the money when.....

[txsun]

My youngest stepson has been in band for 3 years and is planning on being in band all through high school. The company my husband was renting the instrument from was closed down because they were not paying their taxes. In the local paper the company's lawyer suggested that people place stop payments on any automatic bank withdrawals and wait for the new companies to contact us with options on the instrument. So, we followed the advice and waited.

Two months later we get a call from the company that bought out the contract (a collections style company not a music company) and they say we are two months behind payment. We say, no we aren't but send us the paperwork about a new contract/bank draft authorization. Never received. Then the next month, they automatically debited out of our account. We threw a fit over it, called the company and they basically said they had our old contract with the other company, nothing you can do about it and hung up. We arranged a stop payment to them with our bank and called back and talked to someone else about returning the instrument. They were supposed to send us a prepaid shipment label within 10 days so we could send it back. Its almost 3 weeks later and we never received it and will be calling back this coming week.

So, my question is, do we owe them any money for the time between our expressed desire to return the instrument and the time between when they actually provide us the means to return it? Do we owe them at all since there is no contract between us and them, just the defunct company? There is no physical location to just drop it off at in order to return it and we have never received anything in writing from this company.

Stefanie

[Greebo]

You do owe the money. You bought the instrument. The company you bought it from went under, someone bought their debt, so you owe the buyer of the debt. The terms of the contract still hold even though the original payee went under.

You need to close this bank account, now, and open another one. They have your info and will keep using it if you don't. A stop payment will block one draw - not all of them. (MrsMacDowell - check me on this).

They don't want the instrument, they want the money. However, since they bought the debt for pennies on the dollar most likely, you can probably settle this for about half of what you owe.

[txsun]

Its a rental, not a rent to own or payment plan. Once we return the instrument our financial obligations are over. When we made the stop payment the bank told us that they wouldn't be able to access our account again without our approval.

My concern is at what point does our inability to return the instrument violate the contract? The only thing we have is a phone number and two broken promises of written contact. Their return policy is to provide a prepaid shipping label so that we can mail it back.

Stefanie

[Greebo]

Ah you're right, I misread the original post! My bad.

In that case, I wouldn't pay them a cent, and keep accurate logs of every conversation you have with them. Dates, times and promises made by them, etc.

[McD]

Greebo--you are correct. Each month you would have to do a new stop pay, with a new stop pay fee. A stop pay can be put on the system for each recurring debit, but you'd get hit with a stop payment fee everytime.

Here's some verbage that is typically found on most stop payment forms: For recurring ACH debits, this order is effective for a one-time stop payment only and is only stopping one transaction. This order will NOT stop future recurring debits.

Here's a link with the rules/regulations regarding ACH stop payments.
http://www.bankersonline.com/technol...ch110104b.html


Here is where I wanna start my public service annoucement spiel to all villagers:

Never ever ever let a company have access to your bank account.
Here's the reason. When you use online bill pay through your bank to send bills, checks, payments, etc. you are telling your bank to send your money to someone. When you let Joe Scmo Blo Co. pull money from your account, you are essentially letting them stick their hands in your bank account and fish around for your money.
Even if you have a set payment plan, there are all sorts of little nasty suprises they stick in those disclosures in tiny little letters that no one ever read.

We had a customer let her credit card default. At one point, she had authorized the credit card company to pull money from her account. Well when she defaulted, due to all those little disclaimers and disclosures, the credit card company had the ability to go in and access her account and take every bit of money she had.

Moral to this story: Don't give people access to your accounts because you are giving THEM the control of YOUR money.

[txsun]

Greebo--you are correct. Each month you would have to do a new stop pay, with a new stop pay fee. A stop pay can be put on the system for each recurring debit, but you'd get hit with a stop payment fee everytime.

Our credit union assured us that any future drafts from that company are stopped until further notice from us. With the new company they should have debited a week or so ago and so far it hasn't.

Stefanie

[Greebo]

Hope they're right. Credit unions are better to deal with about these things tho, so they prolly are.

[McD]

Our credit union assured us that any future drafts from that company are stopped until further notice from us. With the new company they should have debited a week or so ago and so far it hasn't.

Stefanie

Ahh, didn't know it was a credit union. Credit Unions and Banks are governed by different rules and regs.

[ChristopherJ]

Closing the account would stop anyone from getting their grubby little hands into your $$$.

[txsun]

Ahh, didn't know it was a credit union. Credit Unions and Banks are governed by different rules and regs.

Sorry for the confusion, I did say bank in the original post. I'm just so used to saying bank.

Stefanie