Debt Collector Made 'Indiscriminate' Calls' to Sage Customers: Complaint
Defendant Mercantile Adjustment Bureau’s debt collection services include making “indiscriminate” phone calls “without regard as to whether the recipient of the call is in fact associated with the debt sought,” said Sage Telecom's first amended complaint Wednesday (docket 3:22-cv-02737) in…
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U.S. District Court for Northern Texas in Dallas. Plaintiff Sage, which provides discounted internet and phone service to low-income Texas consumers through state and federally funded programs (see 2212080043), alleges at least 187 subscribers to its LifeLine service received multiple telephone solicitations in the past two years from a phone number owned by Mercantile, in violation of Texas’ Business & Communications Code 302.251. The amended complaint includes screenshots of reviews of Mercantile from consumers who received the calls. One complained of repeated calls from Mercantile, including 13 in that day alone, calling it “harassment.” Another said a Mercantile debt collector asked for personal information, but refused to answer questions about the nature of Mercantile's business, including whether it was a debt collector. A third said Mercantile left a voicemail about a debt she wasn’t associated with, calling the company’s practices an “absolute scam.” Another reviewer said she made a payment through Mercantile for two bills consolidated into one and received a notice two years later that the same bill was still owed. The defendant’s business practices are unlawful under the Texas Telephone Solicitation Act (TTSA), prohibiting a service provider to any Texas resident from first obtaining a registration statement with the secretary of state, paying a filing fee and posting a $10,000 security bond, the complaint alleges. The amended complaint, coming three weeks after Mercantile filed a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, added allegations of TTSA wrongdoing that were missing from the original complaint. Mercantile’s Dec. 14 motion to dismiss called Sage’s allegations “nonsensical” because the plaintiff acknowledged Mercantile “never contacted or attempted to solicit anything” from Sage via telephone (see 2212150047). With the filing of Sage's amended complaint, Senior U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater entered an electronic order Thursday denying Mercantile's motion to dismiss as moot. Sage seeks penalties of $5,000 per violation, amounting to $935 million, plus court costs and attorneys’ fees. Mercantile didn’t comment Thursday.