Encore Receivable Management

this company calls us at least 50 times a day and are a collection agency...even after we said we were both laid off and could only buy food, pay utilities and not able to make house payments...they suggested that we go to soup kitchens or places that give away food so we could send them money.

This company settle a debt or so I thought. They found a loop hole and never follow through with the settlement, But they kept the money I sent them and now I am look for an attorney to file suit. There is no reason to pay a collection agency if they are only going to rip you off. I hope I win my lawsuit

I contacted this company to get the amount I owe and try to see if they could settle my account for less b/c i wanted to pay it off (still want to!) but don't have $1000+. The man I spoke w/ offered to settle for $779.00 and I had until the end of June 2010 to pay this..about a week and a half. This was the 21st. I said I needed a couple days to talk w/ my husband to be positive we could pay this amount by the end of June. He's been working a lot and we haven't had much time to talk. I called the next day to confirm the settlement amount b/c I got two collection agency names mixed up and I wanted to be sure. He said yes it was the correct amount and asked repeatedly, "you are sure you can pay this?" i said yes (altho not 100% sure) but I couldn't do it over the phone at that moment, plz let me speak w/ my husband. Today, the 23rd, I received a call about 11am from him asking me about the payment. I said I'm sorry I still haven't talked to my husband but asked if I did still have til the end of the month (as in, why are you calling me 1,2 days later??) He said something like "so you want me to put that you refuse to pay this amount and let interest continue to accrue?" i said of course I don't WANT that, but i thought i had a few more days?? i let him know i was mad that he was harassing me 2 days later when i have 7 days left to pay the amount and asked saracastically "am I taking this out of your paycheck or something?" "why are you trying to push me and make me feel like a criminal or a liar? He accused ME of being rude and said he's just going to put that i refuse to pay, let my acct. continue to accrue interest. I started to try and calm down and ask okay can you just send me a debt validation letter and before i could say anything else he hung up on me.
I tried to call the company back by their toll free line, eventually was told Encore had sold my acct. to another company, Midland. and got the number there. I just left a voicemail w/ a man who they said is handling my acct. ??? So they just NOW sold my acct. I'm confused, irritated and angry. Its a lot of money to me, but is $1000 really that much to be worth so much trouble?