Two Collection Agencies Resign from Buffalo BBB

Two collection agencies in the Buffalo, N.Y. area resigned from a regional Better Business Bureau before they could be expelled, the bureau announced yesterday.

The Better Business Bureau of Upstate New York said it had already suspended Capital Management Services and National Action Financial Services (NAFS) because each had more than 500 complaints against them.

David Polino, the bureau’s president, told The Buffalo News newspaper that the bureau oversees 50 counties and counts more than 7,000 members and that 70 percent of the members have never received a single complaint. Polino told the paper that there are about 200 other collection agencies in its region but none had anywhere near 500 complaints against them.  

“They obviously both do a huge volume of business and they’re in a difficult industry, but these complaint levels are out of line and not in keeping with the bureau’s standards,” Polino told The News.

Neither Williamsville, N.Y.-based NAFS nor Capital Management returned calls by insideARM.com’s deadline.

Buffalo-based Capital Management reports on its Web site it has managed 1st Party, Pre-Charge off, Primary, Mid-Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, Quaternary, Quints portfolios for Bankcards, Retail Charge Cards, Signature and Personal Cards, lines of Credit, Bankruptcy Dismissals, Purchased Debt Referrals, Overdraft Checking, Auto Loans & Deficiencies and Telecommunication Delinquencies.

An Internet search didn’t turn up a publicly available Web site for NAFS. According to an SEC filing, Nashville-based Sitel Corp., an international business process outsourcing company, acquired NAFS in 1996. A Sitel spokesperson didn’t return calls.

Resolving consumer complaints filed with BBBs against collection agencies has become a priority for ACA International, the trade organization with 5,500 members in the collection industry, according to a spokesperson for the group.

Some agencies contend that bureaus inquiring about complaints seek consumer information from an agency that could violate the FDCPA rules on information disclosure, the spokesperson says. “The information the agency needs to provide might represent unauthorized disclosure of information that is supposed to be disclosed only with the debtor. There’s a concern that could violate the FDCPA,” says the spokesperson.

The ACA made resolving the disagreement a priority at its convention in July and has been negotiating with the national BBB on the issue, says the spokesperson.